your tv receiver is temporarily unable to connect to the u-verse service

Let's help with your U-verse TV connection, @wesher!

Thanks to @JefferMC for their helpful questions and suggestions!

A red X on your TV screen caused by the U-verse receiver represents a boot failure, possible network issue, or hardware problem. It is recommended to check connections and attempt to power cycle the receiver by unplugging the power cord and plugging back in after 10 seconds.

We also suggest plugging our devices directly into the wall. If you must use a power strip, use the surge protectors that are designed for high-powered electronics. Not doing this may result in:

• Receiver resets
• Loss of recordings
• Pixilation
• Freezing

Make sure all connections (wall to receiver, receiver to TV) are placed firmly into the device.

If this is unsuccessful, perform a disaster recovery by following the steps below. If this is a DVR, these steps will cause the receiver to lose all pre-existing data such as recordings, parental control settings, and aspect ratio settings.

Hold down the down arrow key and OK key, press the Power key to powercycle the receiver.

• Wait until a gear appears on the screen before releasing the down and OK keys.

• A gear appears on the screen with a status bar at the bottom.
  • If the Disaster Recovery screen does not appear, repeat the disaster recovery process.
  • If the Disaster Recovery screen appears, wait until completion

Let us know if this helps!

Lacey, AT&T Community Specialist 

• Is this a new TV Receiver, or an existing one?
• Did anything unusual happen before it stopped working?
• Is this TV Receiver wired or Wireless?
• Have you tried unplugging it and plugging it back in?
• If so, and that didn't work, have you tried unplugging all of your U-verse TV equipment (including the Gateway) then plugging it back in, starting with the Gateway, DVR and WAP (if you have one), and allowing each to completely start up before continuing to the next?

Getting the red X 13 now. Tried all the above several times. But thanks anyway for your response.

I actually had a new dvr from a previous time when it looked like my old dvr was failing and ATT sent a replacement. I wound up not replacing it because the old one started working again for some reason and it had all of our recordings on it. I called tech support and arranged for a tech to come out on Monday (10/3). I then tried replacing the old dvr with the new one I had and got the same red X message. I started getting messages from ATT that said they had fixed the problem on their end and did I still need the tech appointment? I told them about the second dvr not working either and they said they would send out another dvr, but I had to cancel the tech appointment in order to do that. I got the new (3rd) dvr and after some time it started working. Still don't know why that 2nd dvr wouldn't work. Both 1st and 2nd dvrs were model VIP2250 and the one I have now that is working is a VIP 2262 V2. 

Thank you for the update, @wesher!

We're glad to hear that the new receiver is working as it should!

Don't hesitate to reach back out if you ever need our assistance again in the future. Thank you for visiting the AT&T Community Forums!

CalebP, AT&T Community Specialist