# Roamio Reboots all the time



## hooper (Sep 22, 2007)

I just wanted to get folks opinions on what I should do. I bought my Roamio Plus in November and used it without any issues at all on Verizon until May. We moved in May and the box went into storage (in the original packaging) until the beginning of August. I just set it up here on Comcast and it seems to be rebooting every 15-20 minutes or so. I am assuming it is a hard drive issue. Any other thoughts? Any way to troubleshoot further? I am assuming there are no more cable card reboots still happening these days?

If it is the hard drive, do I send it back to Tivo and pay $49 or do I just take the $49 that I will sink into fixing the tivo and buy a new drive?


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## HarperVision (May 14, 2007)

hooper said:


> I just wanted to get folks opinions on what I should do. I bought my Roamio Plus in November and used it without any issues at all on Verizon until May. We moved in May and the box went into storage (in the original packaging) until the beginning of August. I just set it up here on Comcast and it seems to be rebooting every 15-20 minutes or so. I am assuming it is a hard drive issue. Any other thoughts? Any way to troubleshoot further? I am assuming there are no more cable card reboots still happening these days? If it is the hard drive, do I send it back to Tivo and pay $49 or do I just take the $49 that I will sink into fixing the tivo and buy a new drive?


Did your unit update itself to the new Summer 2014 Update when you put it back into service?


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## hooper (Sep 22, 2007)

It did update itself.


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## trip1eX (Apr 2, 2005)

do you have a pc tower that you can pop the drive into and test its integrity?

Or do you have any sort of spare hd laying around that you can pop into the Tivo for testing purposes? If it worked then you could say the old hd is bad. If it didn't work than something else is probably wrong.


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## hooper (Sep 22, 2007)

I do have an external USB SATA dock that I could put the drive in. Is there is process written up somewhere on how to do this?

One other thing to note. I pulled the cable card out and the box hasn't rebooted in over an hour now. Not sure that proves anything??


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## hooper (Sep 22, 2007)

Going on multiple hours without reboot without cable card. I thought we were past this crap with the Series 3 boxes.


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## hooper (Sep 22, 2007)

So after a few hours it just went into a reboot loop and wouldn't boot. Assuming the hard drive was the culprit. Popped in a drive I had lying around and everything seems ok. Unfortunately the cable card needs to be repaired? Ugh Comcast..

I am going to try and RMA the WD drive.


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## hooper (Sep 22, 2007)

Scratch that. Roamio is rebooting again even with a new drive. Will try a new cable card I guess.


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## hooper (Sep 22, 2007)

This is going to sound crazy but I noticed the TiVo only rebooted when I wasnt watching it. The HDMI cable I was using was run in the wall by the previous owner. So I disconnected the HDMI cable and the reboots stopped. Bizarre.


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## hooper (Sep 22, 2007)

I give up. New HDMI cable, new cable card, new hard drive and reboots continue. 

What's left ground issues on cable or power? Or bad TiVo?


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## hooper (Sep 22, 2007)

Tried a different power outlet even though the one being used was installed as a dedicated circuit for entrainment center. Reboot. Put a ground loop isolater on cable feed. Reboot. 

Guess I will send the TiVo back.


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## HarperVision (May 14, 2007)

hooper said:


> It did update itself.


Maybe it didn't load properly and you have a corrupt software update?



hooper said:


> This is going to sound crazy but I noticed the TiVo only rebooted when I wasnt watching it. The HDMI cable I was using was run in the wall by the previous owner. So I disconnected the HDMI cable and the reboots stopped. Bizarre.


It may not be the HDMI cable, rather the connector itself. Have you tried using component cables instead, or on a different HDMI input of that TV or another one altogether?


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## s10023 (Nov 12, 2013)

what router are you using?


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## trip1eX (Apr 2, 2005)

hooper said:


> Tried a different power outlet even though the one being used was installed as a dedicated circuit for entrainment center. Reboot. Put a ground loop isolater on cable feed. Reboot.
> 
> Guess I will send the TiVo back.


yeah only other thing to look at is power supply but way easier, a sure thing and probably cheaper to just send it back.


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## hooper (Sep 22, 2007)

I am using am Asus rt 68u. Tried both Ethernet and WiFi. 

Going to do an advanced replacement RMA so I can see if the issue persists on the refurbished box they send.


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## s10023 (Nov 12, 2013)

hooper said:


> I am using am Asus rt 68u. Tried both Ethernet and WiFi.
> 
> Going to do an advanced replacement RMA so I can see if the issue persists on the refurbished box they send.


before you do this upgrade the firmware on your router and your problem will likely be solved. i also had an asus router and my tivo was rebooting all the time. turns out that some older versions of the asus firmware causes the router to reboot regularly (you may not notice it). you can google this-- it's a fairly common problem that people have with asus routers-- the firmware update solves it. it seems that the tivo is unstable with such an unstable network connection (both wifi and ethernet would be affected by a router reboot). after updating firmware my tivo stopped rebooting.

you say you switched from verizon to comcast. on verizon it was working. on comcast it wasn't. my guess is that you were using the verizon router with verizon and just started using the asus on comcast, right?


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## trip1eX (Apr 2, 2005)

s10023 said:


> before you do this upgrade the firmware on your router and your problem will likely be solved. i also had an asus router and my tivo was rebooting all the time. turns out that some older versions of the asus firmware causes the router to reboot regularly (you may not notice it). you can google this-- it's a fairly common problem that people have with asus routers-- the firmware update solves it. it seems that the tivo is unstable with such an unstable network connection (both wifi and ethernet would be affected by a router reboot). after updating firmware my tivo stopped rebooting.
> 
> you say you switched from verizon to comcast. on verizon it was working. on comcast it wasn't. my guess is that you were using the verizon router with verizon and just started using the asus on comcast, right?


Interesting. Simple test there would be just disconnect from router/turn off wireless on Roamio.

Never thought a router would cause a device to reboot. But with any troubleshooting always try and eliminate anything not necessary to core operation. And note any variables that changed.


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## hooper (Sep 22, 2007)

Correct on Fios I was using the Actiontec. I bought the Asus when we moved. The first thing I did was update the router's firmware when I hooked it up. So it should be running the latest version....

I don't think I ever tried unplugging the ethernet cable. I was using ping to see when the box would reboot. If the new box arrives and I am still having issues, I will try connecting the old Linksys I have.


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## s10023 (Nov 12, 2013)

well it's not just unplugging it one time and plugging it back in. it's constant router reboots (50+ per day) that i think is causing instability with the tivo.

you can check to see if your router has rebooted recently by looking at some of the router logs. i don't remember exactly where but it should say somewhere the last time it was rebooted.


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## hooper (Sep 22, 2007)

So I got the refurb Roamio from Tivo. Guess what? It works fine and doesn't reboot. Before I chalk this up to bad hardware however, there is something else interesting that I also need to investigate. 

I had a switch that was plugged into a GFCI outlet (temporary thing while I get my system setup). That switch carried Ethernet to the Tivo and was about 6 feet from the Tivo itself. That circuit went kaput. I think there is a grounding issue as it services outside. The GFCI outlet is completely dead, meaning the reset button doesn't do anything and the light is off on the GFCI outlet. This wasn't always the case. As I was testing the original box with Ethernet that outlet was active. I haven't had a chance to get that outlet back on with the refurb box.

I will say though that the original Tivo was even rebooting on Wifi only and no Ethernet cable plugged in. Also the Tivo is plugged into a dedicated 20 amp circuit. So this may be a far fetch that the two are related. However I am sure crazier things have happened.

It has been an abnormally wet month here in Colorado with almost 2 inches of rain total!!


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## nooneuknow (Feb 5, 2011)

hooper said:


> So I got the refurb Roamio from Tivo. Guess what? It works fine and doesn't reboot. Before I chalk this up to bad hardware however, there is something else interesting that I also need to investigate.
> 
> I had a switch that was plugged into a GFCI outlet (temporary thing while I get my system setup). That switch carried Ethernet to the Tivo and was about 6 feet from the Tivo itself. That circuit went kaput. I think there is a grounding issue as it services outside. The GFCI outlet is completely dead, meaning the reset button doesn't do anything and the light is off on the GFCI outlet. This wasn't always the case. As I was testing the original box with Ethernet that outlet was active. I haven't had a chance to get that outlet back on with the refurb box.
> 
> ...


Switching/switch-mode type power supplies, like those in computers, as well as used for most other modern power supplies (internal and external), have always been hard for GFCI devices (including the downstream outlets that may be protected by a single GFCI outlet) to deal with, without tripping.

On top of this, many surge protection methods (and some electrical noise reduction methods), "leak" enough current (by design) to neutral and/or ground, to make the GFCI device trip, as it perfectly simulates a "current leakage to ground" fault condition.

The only time I'd ever put a TiVo, or anything other than a bathroom/kitchen (wet-area) appliance on a GFCI circuit, is if I was attempting to work on it in a way that I wanted to be protected against electrocution (like diagnosing/repairing while plugged in).


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## crxssi (Apr 5, 2010)

Always use a UPS...


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## nooneuknow (Feb 5, 2011)

crxssi said:


> Always use a UPS...


But, don't plug it into a GFCI outlet, or otherwise GFCI-protected outlet, unless you want to try make sure it trips.

If you are away, the power goes out or dips, and the UPS kicking on trips the outlet, or doesn't, but trips it when the power comes back on, the UPS will run out of battery time, and you'll still lose power to the TiVo.

Using a UPS is good advice, in general. But this person seems to have needed an outlet temporarily, and used a GFCI one. Perhaps I'm reading into the provided (but still murky) details wrong...

I can picture somebody lugging around a UPS, to "always use it"... Good for muscle building, though. 

If all you have is a GFCI outlet, it's best to replace the single electrical outlet box with a double-wide, designed for after-build installation, then wire up the non-GFCI outlet first, the GFCI second, and leave the downstream circuit protected, if needed (like if it leads outdoors, or to a wet area). Of course, if the GFCI outlet is there, due to being in a wet area, this would be a code violation.

Lots of variables at play here, and still not sure exactly how the O.P. ended up using a GFCI outlet, or if it was/is a temporary thing.


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## hooper (Sep 22, 2007)

Sorry I wasn't clear the TiVo has always been plugged into a dedicated 20 amp circuit for the entertainment center. I had an Ethernet switch that was plugged into gfci outlet temporarily. That outlet was very close to the TiVo in proximity


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## nooneuknow (Feb 5, 2011)

hooper said:


> Sorry I wasn't clear the TiVo has always been plugged into a dedicated 20 amp circuit for the entertainment center. I had an Ethernet switch that was plugged into gfci outlet temporarily. That outlet was very close to the TiVo in proximity


OK. So, does that leave you with any questions, or have your problems all been resolved?

Have you made sure you know where ALL the outlets that single GFCI might be protecting are? Those should also be avoided. It's easy enough to find those protected by it. Trip it with the test button, and see what other outlets lose power.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

nooneuknow said:


> .............
> I can picture somebody lugging around a UPS, to "always use it"... Good for muscle building, though.
> 
> ..................


That's what I do. But it is just a small one. Only enough for about 25 or 30 minutes of backup power on the TiVo. But if I take a TiVo somewhere other than my GFs or family(they all have a UPS to use) then I bring one with me.


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## nooneuknow (Feb 5, 2011)

aaronwt said:


> That's what I do. But it is just a small one. Only enough for about 25 or 30 minutes of backup power on the TiVo. But if I take a TiVo somewhere other than my GFs or family(they all have a UPS to use) then I bring one with me.


I should have know "that guy" would be you. Do you bring a travel router and extra wireless APs, too?

I'm starting to wonder what the true meaning of "Party at aaronwt's house!" would mean. Bring your own ______________ ?


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