SingTel mioTV Gives A Black Screen? Here Is How To Hard Reset Your Setup Box

Update: SingTel called me to propose waiving one month mio Home subscription fees as a token of compensation.  I think it is reasonable and fair.  And he mentioned that I have been a loyal customer for many years, which is true.  Let’s hope that the mio service will get improved.

10 pm, it was the official kick-off 2010 World Cup.  I switched on the free-to-air Channel 5 HD channel on StarHub TV.  No problem.  The image looked beautiful.  Out of curiosity, I switched on SingTel mioTV at the same time.  Black screen, no signal.  Strange.  I have installed the box 2 days ago and it has been working fine, so far.  During half time, I played around a bit more with mioTV and realized that all the channels – live or on demand – were blacked out.  I couldn’t even select an on demand channel.  The menu said that the service was not available because I belonged to a business user group.  Business?!  I am pretty sure I am a regular consumer who wanted to watch World Cup live, free.  Even for that only one match.

To cut a long story short, if you too have experienced the same issue, you need to hard reset your mioTV setup box.  Press OK button, the down arrow, and the power button on your setup box at the same time.  You should see all three indicators (green, blue, and red) on the front panel light up.  Then release the power button and keep the other two pressed.  Once you see the flashing of the indicators, release the OK button and down arrow.  Your setup box should now be reset and it will take 30 to 40 minutes to boot up.

In another word, if you Google the answer to the problem, you would probably only miss 45 minutes of the match.  If you wait for SingTel to pick up the call (like me), you would miss an extra 45 minutes of the match.

I am quite mad at SingTel.  The helpful service consultant told me the network server was down during such an important live event.  When I enquired if SingTel is going to compensate us for not being to view the live broadcast (that is the whole point of paying for cable TV, yes?), she told me that her supervisors were busy.  They will get back to me tomorrow instead.  I am a patience man.  I am eager to hear what they have got to say.

PS. Once you hard reset your setup box, the default resolution is 564i.  You can choose your optimal resolution by pressing the menu button.  Go to settings, channel guide, screen settings, and there you go.  Good as new.

PS. For those of you who have paid close to S$100 in order to watch World Cup on mioTV, well, good luck to you.  If I have to subscribe, I would subscribe the channels on StarHub TV instead.  I am starting to worry about the F1 broadcast now that SingTel has taken over the right of ESPN.

20 thoughts on “SingTel mioTV Gives A Black Screen? Here Is How To Hard Reset Your Setup Box

  1. Ed

    F1? Singtel is the sponsor so don’t worry about it. They will MAKE SURE it works so everybody can see the SINGTEL hanging over the race track. HAHA!

    1. wilfrid Post author

      Ed – I won’t bet my money on that bro. World Cup 1st match and mioTV went down due to network error. That doesn’t really give me much confidence that SingTel has the right infrastructure and or capability to deliver, lol.

  2. Walter

    Golly, it looks like Singtel continues to amaze and astound with their levels of ‘service’. I suppose this is one reason why we don’t have a television at home (amongst other reasons of course).

    1. wilfrid Post author

      Walter – How do you manage to convince your family not to have a TV at home?! You know, when I live alone – in Singapore or aboard, I did not have a TV at all. More free time that way I think.

  3. alfonso

    yes i do agree since we are the paying customer for a service so provider company must deliver its company expactations.

    hope the establishment take action if not it wont last long as they want it to be.

    1. wilfrid Post author

      Alfonso – I am hoping that the regulator can take some actions. I read that if the MRT train stops working, the company gets fined. I wonder if SingTel would get fined for not able to deliver television broadcast due to network error while StarHub has no problem with that.

      1. alfonso

        yes i agree with you wilfrid you know why we customers have all the rights to demand for the service i hope the singtel management don;t sit on it for a long time unless they want to fined you said in the previuos mail sent.

    1. wilfrid Post author

      K – Thanks for the comment and glad to hear that this entry has solved your issue! Don’t forget to set the resolution (to 1080i if you have a HD TV) via the menu item after the reset 🙂

    1. wilfrid Post author

      Stephanie – Normally, a hard reset like the one I have outlined here should work. The entire process takes about 30 to 40 minutes. You have to wait till it finishes. During the reboot process, you will see some on-screen messages and then more black screen.

      There is a soft reset to, like holding the power button for a few seconds during the start up of the mioTV. You may wish to try too.

      To be honest, I really don’t think watching TV should be that tedious. Have you tried to call the SingTel 24 hours hotline? I heard that they have a team deployed to do house visit if the problem persists. Do insist on that if possible.

      Also, ask for compensation! Best of luck.

  4. Keith Ching

    wilfrid,

    ur post has given me some inspiration for my miotv problem,,

    i have rebooted by holding down the button on the stb for a few seconds and turning it on again…the sequence of the pages shown is as follows…

    1) 3 dots on a black screen
    2) some gears and a message that says do not restart as the system is rebooting
    3) the word “miotv” on a purple screen

    and thats it..its stuck there for now…

    guess i will wait 30-40 minutes like what u mentioned and see what happens..

    thanks ya

    1. Wilfrid Post author

      Saffie730 – Looks like you have a hardware issue. I am pretty sure SingTel would come to your house and get it fixed. Meanwhile, ask for compensation! Maybe you’d get a month free.

  5. saffie730

    My 2nd Mio TV Box has been rebooting continuously and Blank Screen Problem.

    1st thing is 2nd Set-Top Box Auto Restarted 3 times
    2nd thing is 2nd Box went Recovery Mode with “Gear” icon.
    3rd thing is Watching Astro Prima or Ria or CNA,images will went off with a black screen.
    4th thing is Changing channels will Super lag.

  6. Acton555

    Hi my singtel set top box is new(the cisco one) and doesnt have the okay and down button, only has the power button. What should i do to hard reset it?

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