[JB in TV]

We have had our Comcast Motorola HD DVR Cable box for a year, and recently started noticing a strange smell in the living room that we finally tracked down to coming from the Cable box/DVR! Confirmed by removing the box to the garage, and smell is gone. Went to the Comcast office on 441, and they happily exchanged it for a different one. Amazingly this one also smells! Saturday, while listening to music from one of their music channels, the music stopped, picture went away, and TV said something like "source not found". Noticed the cable box had shut down totally, no clock display, no channel number...Unpluging and replugging in the box brought it back up, but all my settings and favorites, etc were lost.

Knowing how hard it is to get Comcast support on the phone I went to their website and used chat to get help. VERY quick and helpful. They are sending me a new (they claim brand new) one by UPS. Rep said he thought it was getting too hot, and this caused it to shut down, and may have been the casue of the smell. Makes sense...But two seperate devices with the same issue? Perhaps it is a defective design? They get one more try, before we switch providers.

Anyone else have a smelly Comcast Motorola HD DVR? It says RNG200N on the front.

[Jaggy]

Just be sure you don't have it on a shelf with the glass door shut.. that will make them run too hot.

[JB in TV]

Originally Posted by Jaggy

Just be sure you don't have it on a shelf with the glass door shut.. that will make them run too hot.

Thanks! No glass door! We actually briefly wished we had a glass door to block the smell! LOL The funny thing is that we don't think that smells like what an electrical device smells like when it gets hot.

[Bogie Shooter]

Maybe they should come out and check the installation.

[JB in TV]

Originally Posted by Bogie Shooter

Maybe they should come out and check the installation.

Reasonable idea...Thanks! They offered, but said it would cost me a service charge if the fault was on their end. And I don't have any more faith in their service people smelling it than I do the car dealer finding that annoying squeek or rattle in your car. They almost always say "can not duplicate". And the second (refurbished, or used) box smells the same. We have checked everything we can think of, and the smell is related to the box itself...having moved it to the garage proved this to us. We'll see if and when the supposedly NEW on arrives by UPS today or tomorrow.

[JB in TV]

UPDATE: UPS delivered the replacement HD DVR Box yesterday. It is a different model, much wider and grey/silver rather than the smaller black ones we have had. Preferred the black look, but.... The smell is gone! Hope it stays that way. Now to do the setup again.