chaddz3
join:2002-04-02
Cedar Rapids, IA
edit:
June 30th, @12:43PM
| Flooded Cable Modems
For those in the flooded area, Motorola SB5100 series cable modems CAN be recovered as LONG as the modem was not "ON" when the water hit it.
To recover a flooded modem, Follow these steps exactly..
1. Since it has already been under water, getting it wet again aint going to matter much, so clean the outside of all mud throughly, just use clean warm water at this point.
2. Once the majority of the mud is gone from the outside, remove the small torx screw and peel the sticker from the bottom of the modem so you can access the little clips on the bottom holding the modem together. You'll also have to peel the decal off the front where the LEDS are.. do this carefully with both decals so you dont "injure" them and can put them back on after it is all cleaned. Open the plastic shell and remove the circuit board. Also be careful to not lose the internet "ON/OFF" switch when separating the shell.
3.Cleaning the board.. using a small screwdriver carefully pry the lids off the two little metal boxes that are covering components on the board. they pop right off, but go slow and be careful not to bend them up or injure any exposed components near the boxes. set them aside for now. Then using warm water ONLY and Q-tips, carefully clean all the mud from the board (especially around the pins of the IC chips.) Once all the mud is gone, spray the board on both sides with Electrical parts cleaner (available at any hardware store to kill any bacteria on the board as well as drive any missed water from the board to help dry it). After the board is cleaned, set it aside and let it dry for about a day.
4. Cleaning the plastic shell. Using warm soapy water with a small amount of bleach added, throughly clean the plastic shell of any remaining mud and gunk its a good idea to let the plastic sit in the bleach soap water solution for at least 5 or 10 minutes to disinfect it... also clean the decals in this same solution, they will hold up although it might be a good idea to write down the numbers off the bottom sticker (MAC address, etc) just in case the sticker does disintegrate. set everything aside to dry completely when finished.
5. DISCLAIMER! IF YOU ARE UNCERTAIN ABOUT THE POWER SUPPLY, REPLACE IT!!
Cleaning the power supply. This power supply IS NOT sealed and a pain in the butt to get apart.. I did test the modem with anohter power supply. My suggestion, REPLACE the power supply...
TESTING THE MODEM. NOTE. Do all tests with the modem unassembled. In the event it didnt survive its best to find out now instead of after taking the time to put everything back together and finding out its dead.
Connect the ethernet cable, COAX and power supply to the modem. The LEDS should begin thier startup sequence as it always did. If it doesnt, its still wet and needs to dry longer or was damaged.
If it syncs, try to get to the diag page (»192.168.100.1) and verify the modem is communicating with the computer. If it does, see if it will communicate with mediacom, (odds are it will take you to the walledgarden page) if it gets to this point, disconnect it and reassemble the modem. Congratulations you have recovered your flooded out cable modem, and now have a spare if you have already purchased a new one.
To reattach the stickers to the front and bottom, a few drops of super glue works great for this.
I did this with my parents cable modem after it was left behind in thier house and was submerged in about 12 feet of river water mainly because I figured the modem as long as it wasnt powered up should be fine after it was cleaned up and dried and I wanted to test my theory. Since I was sucessful, I figured I would pass along the intructions to do this for others if they are interested.
Good Luck!! and anyone affected by the flooding, hang in there WE WILL GET THRU THIS!!
Chad. |
|
Anonymous
Premium
join:2004-06-01
IA | Only try this if you own you modem. |
|
burner50
Pinlifter
Premium,VIP
join:2002-06-05
Broken Rail
 ·Mediacom
 ·FrontierNet Intern..
| said by Anonymous  :Only try this if you own you modem. Cause if you screw up mediacom's modem they WILL charge you $130 for the modem. |
|
OldCableGuy
@mchsi.com
| We were helping a friend gut her house and saw her Arris cablemodem laying in a pile of 'debris' that was about to be scooped up and crushed. I ran down and pulled it out, so that she wouldn't have to pay for a lost modem (as Mediacom said that they won't charge people to replace equipment that was flooded). I wasn't so lucky with her 6412 III HD DVR DCT though, that got practically torn in half by the claw machine picking the trash up. Suffice it to say that her sentiment was 'who cares' and the nighbors I mentioned to save the equipment thought pretty much the same thing; 'not our problem, let Mediacom deal with it'. It will be interesting to see if they're willing to call it a wash if the people can't even provide the damaged equipment or if they're going to bill people who just threw all the stuff away. |
|
wth
Premium
join:2002-02-20
Iowa City, IA
·Mediacom
| said by OldCableGuy :
It will be interesting to see if they're willing to call it a wash if the people can't even provide the damaged equipment or if they're going to bill people who just threw all the stuff away.
Mediacom would have to not charge a homeowner for any equipment lost to the flood if the homeowner can provide their name/address on the cities official list of homes that can't be re-entered by the homeowner. Actually, Mediacom should get a copy of the list from the city and not force the homeowner to provide proof that their home is on the list. |
|
OldCableGuy
@mchsi.com
| These were yellow tags, which means that its up to you to clean and rebuild. The homes weren't red tagged. I am sure some people realize that the stuff isn't yours and you need to take care of it, but not everyone does / did and I wouldn't want to be Mediacom taking the hit, they're going to have bad press either way. |
|
