My silver remote stopped working. totaly kaputz. I took it down to comcast and got a new remote, except this one is black and has all the keys in different places :(

I try programmin in the 30 second skip and the cable light doesnt blick twice, it sits steady for about a second then goes off and the operation didnt work.

Can anyone help me please?

You are talking about this instruction (http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/How_to_use_a_Motorola_DVR/Programming_the_Remote#Add_30-Second_Skip) for adding 30-sec skip, right? That command for the skip is cable box based and programming the Atlas should be the same as the silver remote. Maybe the remote is an older version and uses the 3 digit code. Try the command code without the two zeros in the front (173).

thanks, i never thought to try it with the two leading zeroes after reading instructions that said dont use the two leading zeroes :!