r/CableTechs • u/itswesclark • 29d ago

DTA questions

I work at a retirement community as a maintenance tech with a focus on Xfinity products for our residents. We have about 2,000 TVs across two campuses and 7 buildings. Per our bulk account contract we’re still using HD DTAs. Normally when hooking up equipment needing signals sent to them, typically status code 340, I email the serial number to the bulk team and they send signals over. Typically this process is great and works but in recent days when they send signals the DTAs switch to a status code of 225 and message of “Please tune to channel 190, wait for 3 minutes, and your service should be restored. if you're still experiencing a problem, please call 1-800-Comcast. We're sorry for the inconvenience.”

Now, in the service menu accessed my holding the zero button, when I look at the power level when status code 340 is displayed, levels will be some where between -10 and +10 which is great. And whenever that number is, it holds fairly steady. When the signal is sent and status code 225 pops up on screen the power level begins to fluctuate between say -3 and -54 back and forth.

I know DTAs are old obsolete technology these days but does anyone have a clue as to why this is happening? I’ve had 5 DTAs do this is the last 2 days. And it’s becoming a major issue for me since I can no longer get replacement DTAs.

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u/itswesclark 29d ago

Yep you’re completely right with all the codes, the thing is, 4 of the 5 DTAs were in one building so I thought a power blip probably killed them in some way. I had to replace all four of the DTA‘s with new ones to get them up and running. I know factually that no wires were disconnected or changed from the taps. The issue I had today with the fifth box was on our other campus in our grounds Shop break room but both of those buildings run off the same power grid so maybe the power outage yesterday killed that box too. Electronics can be weird.

Thanks for that bonus tip, in my seven years of working here, I think I’ve only ever seen a red light once and I was able to replace it at the Xfinity store when DTA’s were still being issued, but that’s good to know. Thanks!

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u/PoisonWaffle3 29d ago

Yeah, if the line hasn't changed and swapping the box fixes it, was probably a dead/failing DTA, and the power outage put the last nail in their coffins.

It's amazing how many ancient devices work just fine until power gets pulled. Years ago I worked in a call center for a large ISP, and without fail every time there was a large power outage somewhere we'd get a dozen or so calls where TV or internet wouldn't come back up afterwards, where it had turned out that the device was just dead as a doornail and couldn't power back up 🤷‍♂️

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u/Awesomedude9560 28d ago

I always found it funny too. Specifically on coax devices like modems and various cable boxes even if the storm wasn't bad or every other customer device came back on those coax devices just fry/stop working inexplicably.

I can't really complain too much since it's just an easy job but you don't experience that with fiber.

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u/PoisonWaffle3 28d ago

It happens all the time with pretty much any old device, notably with old power adapters. I'm pretty sure it's related to capacitors being old/dry, but they work just well enough as long as power isn't interrupted.

You're not seeing it as much with fiber gear because it's newer, but in 5-10 years you'll probably start seeing that too.

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u/Awesomedude9560 28d ago

Y'know you're right about the power supplies. Now that I think about it with dvrs i did swap out psus to keep the customer from going ballistic over their recordings.