# 6.3 a Reboots



## temp357 (Feb 18, 2004)

Are you experiencing lockups or reboots with 6.3a?

Ever since i got 6.3a i have had nothing but problems with my Tivo. Lockups and constant reboots. I have even replaced the drive thinking the drive was going bad. I can't be the only one. I was watching channel 7-1 ABC OTA today and it rebooted twice in the matter of an hour or so. It seems to be more prevalent with OTA channels or loss of signal on OTA channels more specifically.

I'm redoing my old drive with 3.1.5f until Directv can figure this [email protected] out.


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## Spiky (May 30, 2002)

I've had about 3 reboots, I think. No lockups. So not nearly as bad as you. That's 3 in a month or 2 since I got 6.3a. Tons of audio dropouts, of course.


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## sluciani (Apr 21, 2003)

Spiky said:


> I've had about 3 reboots, I think. No lockups. So not nearly as bad as you. That's 3 in a month or 2 since I got 6.3a. Tons of audio dropouts, of course.


I've got four HR-10's of varying ages, all upgraded to 6.3a. The oldest unit (from the first batch of HR-10's way back when) has a second drive installed. The only problem I've experienced on any of them since the upgrade is the occasional OTA audio dropout. No lock-ups, reboots, short recordings or FIFO deletions.

Of course, I'm sure I just jinxed myself with this post! 

/steve


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## redram38 (Apr 17, 2004)

about 3 reboots, no lockups, and some audio drops on fox ota


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## tbb1226 (Sep 16, 2004)

I'm going to guess it's not possible for the majority of HD-TiVo owners to vote in this poll, because a unit can have no reboots or lockups, but that doesn't make it "just fine."

In my experience, audio dropouts are the most prevalent and pervasive issue with this software version. I've had no problem with reboots.


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## danvines (Mar 26, 2002)

reboots AND lockups - at least one green screen (which it recovered from) - then DEATH.

And now I'm in the purgatory that is the HR20.


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## ShiningBengal (Mar 19, 2001)

You should have other choices (1) for audio dropouts and (2) short recordings. I have had no rebooting problems, or lockups, but I can't truthfully say my HR10-250 is operating "just fine." But that was the most nearly correct choice, so that's what I elected.

I'll bet a lot of others did the same.


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## kroddy (Oct 31, 2001)

I voted lockups and reboots: I did have a couple of each soon after the upgrade, but (knock on wood) no more recently, and never any short recordings.

The only ongoing issue from where I am sitting is the audio dropouts, which I have seen on Fox, CBS, NBC and PBS


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## Budget_HT (Jan 2, 2001)

I have 2 HR10-250 units. One is still running 3.1 (phone line unplugged) and stable/reliable. The other is running 6.3a and had one lockup, after which I rebooted and no more reboots or lockups. 

But we are getting plenty of audio dropouts, 6.3a-style, on mostly FOX OTA programs (a few on ABC OTA).


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## miss_my_utv (Sep 29, 2005)

Several reboots a week since the upgrade. Never while watching, but the 30 sec skip is "undone" when I go to watch something.


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## Vegas (Dec 21, 2003)

No selection for audio drop outs, so I had to vote my HR10-250 is just fine. Haven't had any lockups or reboots. I have had the audio drop outs, but only on FOX OTA. I don't watch much OTA so YMMV.


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## Budget_HT (Jan 2, 2001)

Budget_HT said:


> I have 2 HR10-250 units. One is still running 3.1 (phone line unplugged) and stable/reliable. The other is running 6.3a and had one lockup, after which I rebooted and no more reboots or lockups.
> 
> But we are getting plenty of audio dropouts, 6.3a-style, on mostly FOX OTA programs (a few on ABC OTA).


I guess I spoke too soon because there was another lockup waiting for me after work tonight. Had to power down and reboot.


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## spooniep (Jan 22, 2005)

When I first installed 6.3a, I was having about 2 lockups and 2 reboots a day. Then, for about 2 or 3 weeks, no reboots, no lockups. Now, I'm back to having at least one lockup a day.

And yeah, I'm starting to have 3 to 5 second audio dropouts at random times.

I wish there was a clear solution for this mess.


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## JimSpence (Sep 19, 2001)

No problems with my unit.


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## temp357 (Feb 18, 2004)

For those not having any problems, are you using OTA?


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## sluciani (Apr 21, 2003)

spooniep said:


> When I first installed 6.3a, I was having about 2 lockups and 2 reboots a day. Then, for about 2 or 3 weeks, no reboots, no lockups. Now, I'm back to having at least one lockup a day.
> 
> And yeah, I'm starting to have 3 to 5 second audio dropouts at random times.
> 
> I wish there was a clear solution for this mess.


Hard drive data corruption, bad blocks or extreme fragmentation may very well be the root cause of your reboots. Your system may not have written data to the bad area of the disk for 2-3 weeks, which is why you got a reprieve for awhile.

I hate to recommend this, because you'll lose all your recordings and Season's Passes, but you might want to try a "Clear & Delete All". It will reformat your drive and hopefully end your reboots once and for all. If you've never done one, a "Clear & Delete" can run for up to a day, by some reports.

Just my $.02.

/steve


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## smarsh66 (Apr 17, 2004)

i can tell you guys that after my unit went south after the 6.3a download.... i figured out my original WD drive was bad.... i replaced it with a 2 320GB Maxtors... Instant caked to 3.15.... it got the 6.3a doanload about 24-36 hours after the istant cake..... since then i have had about3 or 4 random reboots (that i know of, when watching it myself)... I can reasonably say it's not due to the drives!


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## leesweet (Mar 13, 2004)

Lots of reboots (indicated by 30 sec skip resets, of course) on both boxes, and a lot of recordings terminating early, but that has seemed to stop recently, no idea why. Neither of mine are ever full (except for suggestions on the stock one).

And, of course, I do get the Fox and other OTA audio issues, and record some shows from the NY feed to get around that. Not a great fix; hope 6.3b is really coming!


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## Ivan1670 (Mar 3, 2004)

I got my first reboot today, not using OTA.


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## henryld (Aug 16, 2005)

A half dozen reboots in the first 3 or 4 weeks after the upgrade. None in the last two or 3 weeks. In fact I seem to be experiencing fewer audio dropouts on Fox OTA than right after the upgrade.


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## BGLeduc (Aug 26, 2003)

I voted no, but my box is not just fiine. I am getting the OTA audio drop outs.

Maybe the choice could have said "No, but I am having other problems"?

BGL


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

All three of my units are fine. No reboots and no audio dropouts.


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## DennisMileHi (Apr 23, 2004)

No reboots, lots of audio dropouts (mostly on Fox OTA) and several short recordings. It is NOT fine!


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## LlamaLarry (Apr 30, 2003)

No reboots, no lockups on 3 different 6.3a boxes. I do get audio dropouts on OTA Fox only though.


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## TomF (Apr 13, 2001)

Initially I experienced several spontaneous reboots for the first week or so, but I haven't noticed anything since then. The audio dropouts also seem to be getting less frequent and shorter in duration.


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## jheiland (Nov 15, 2004)

i'm having constant, annoying audio dropouts on fox ota, but that's it. my brother's (5 houses down) spontaeously rebooted last week.


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## spooniep (Jan 22, 2005)

sluciani said:


> Hard drive data corruption, bad blocks or extreme fragmentation may very well be the root cause of your reboots. Your system may not have written data to the bad area of the disk for 2-3 weeks, which is why you got a reprieve for awhile.
> 
> I hate to recommend this, because you'll lose all your recordings and Season's Passes, but you might want to try a "Clear & Delete All". It will reformat your drive and hopefully end your reboots once and for all. If you've never done one, a "Clear & Delete" can run for up to a day, by some reports.
> 
> ...


Actually, I had done a Clear & Delete All a few weeks before the 6.3a update. Do you think it still makes sense to do another one?


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## davsherm (Feb 23, 2003)

I have 2 Hr10-250s with 6.3a and have not had any reboots or lockups, however, I only use one OTA HD channel (ABC-Boston), everything else I use the NY-HD locals.


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## amoneys2k (Nov 2, 2006)

Got my first reboot today. Doh! Been having the audio dropouts too.

BTW, the reboot happened right as it began to record Gilmore Girls in HD via OTA while we were watching a previously recorded episode of Prison Break (HD recorded OTA). Dunno if that's a coincidence or not...


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## geneb11 (Oct 21, 2002)

many reboots over night a few times and losing 30 second skip. It seems to have stopped for now. I also have to press the guide or info button a couple of times for it to stick. My audio dropouts have been from local OTA which I think is normal. I have had this happen with a direct connect to TV and no tivo. Something to do with the way it's transmitted from the tower.


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## sluciani (Apr 21, 2003)

spooniep said:


> Actually, I had done a Clear & Delete All a few weeks before the 6.3a update. Do you think it still makes sense to do another one?


If you're caught up on all your recordings and don't mind the hassle of resetting your Season's Passes, another C&D wouldn't make things worse and might actually help, IMO. /s


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## sluciani (Apr 21, 2003)

I'm not saying many aren't having serious problems, but I do want to point out that the poll #'s may not be as dramatic as they look. OTA audio issues aside and including my own 4 HR-10's, here are reports of 12 apparently well-behaved 6.3a units that can only represent a maximum of 4 votes in the poll.

Of course the opposite may be true as well, but my recollection is that I haven't seen as many folks complaining about multiple failures in the same household. I could be wrong, however. /s


aaronwt said:


> All three of my units are fine. No reboots and no audio dropouts.





LlamaLarry said:


> No reboots, no lockups on 3 different 6.3a boxes. I do get audio dropouts on OTA Fox only though.





sluciani said:


> I've got four HR-10's of varying ages, all upgraded to 6.3a. The oldest unit (from the first batch of HR-10's way back when) has a second drive installed. The only problem I've experienced on any of them since the upgrade is the occasional OTA audio dropout. No lock-ups, reboots, short recordings or FIFO deletions.





davsherm said:


> I have 2 Hr10-250s with 6.3a and have not had any reboots or lockups, however, I only use one OTA HD channel (ABC-Boston), everything else I use the NY-HD locals.


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## thebishman (Aug 20, 2005)

I can't vote in the poll as the answer is not there for me. I was experiencing spontaneous 'reboots', but they have since stopped after I did a 'Clear and Delete' on both of my HR10-250s.
Bish


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## brannicj (Nov 15, 2004)

I had reboots and lock-ups, so I did a 'clear and delete' but it didn't help. Got more lock-ups and reboots to the point that the tivo wouldn't boot. Had to reformat the drives, went back to 3.1

For all people that have lockups and reboots, I encourage everyone to call directv and complian. Reason why I say that is, I have read about people having drop outs, who have complianed and d* said tivo is working on solution but I haven't read that d* recongizes that rebooting and lockups is a problem. We need to make sure that d* / tivo is aware of these issues as they may not be related to the audio drop out problems.


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## temp357 (Feb 18, 2004)

Had another lockup. I disagree, the poll #'s speak for themselves. 

115 lockups and reboots 65%
62 without 35%


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## sluciani (Apr 21, 2003)

temp357 said:


> I disagree, the poll #'s speak for themselves.


You may be right, but can you please explain why you think I'm wrong? Thx. /s


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## temp357 (Feb 18, 2004)

Although without fully capturing the full background of the respondents, it is difficult to make a full claim to the validity of the poll results, an argument could be make the other way very easily. For example,

by having multiple units, you may not experience the problems as profoundly as someone with one unit. Your time per unit may be lower. The number of folks having problems may be under reported as their system reboots when they aren't using it and the responses are only reflective of people that are aware of their systems reseting itself. Or the system rebooted after they already responded to the poll....

Since the list of what if's can keep going...i stand by my earlier statement. The poll results speak for themselves.

my two bit


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## Lee L (Oct 1, 2003)

I have 2 HR10s. Now, as good as the TiVo SW is, it was not perfect and you could have an occaisional reboot or lockup before, but I will have to admit that I have missed more recordings and had to unplug them more since I got 6.3 than the entire time I had them up to that point. Mostly I get lockups and miss recordings, like this weekend when I was out of town, one of them locked up sometime on Saturday and I missed about 10 shows. Luckily, it was in the bedroom and I mostly missed things that air multiple times.


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## wjg (Dec 7, 2004)

I have 2 x 10-250's. One has no problems. The other has lock ups and reboots AND now will not receive 5.1 audio. Whats up with that ???

Bill


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## Tony Chick (Jun 20, 2002)

We need another option. I am not having either lockups or reboots, but I am having audio dropouts and short recordings so its not "just fine" either.


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## FlopShot (Apr 24, 2004)

Luckily I am not having reboots or audio dropouts on 6.3a, but I was having both problems on hacked 3.1.5f. Clear and Delete All solved the issue.


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## Larry Hutchinson (Dec 7, 1999)

I voted no even though my unit did a reboot or two back when it first got 6.3a. But no such problems for a long time.

Now sound cut-outs are another story.

And I am getting reboots on my brand new S3:
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=4639804&&#post4639804


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## JRAllas (Mar 26, 2006)

My HR10-250 did lock up twice since the 6.3a update. Other than that, I have no problems with it.


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## dshmel (Sep 4, 2006)

BOTH of my machines rebooted last night at almost the same time (only a minute apart.). I was watching a pre-recorded program on one machine.


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## temp357 (Feb 18, 2004)

I went back to 3.1.5f and i can see a noticeable difference. I miss the groups, but the OTA reception is back to being near perfect. I know these thigns are supposed to do hardware mpeg decoding, but i can't explain how a software change makes such a big difference in OTA reception. And best of all? No Reboots!


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## sluciani (Apr 21, 2003)

temp357 said:


> Although without fully capturing the full background of the respondents, it is difficult to make a full claim to the validity of the poll results, an argument could be make the other way very easily. For example,
> 
> by having multiple units, you may not experience the problems as profoundly as someone with one unit. Your time per unit may be lower. The number of folks having problems may be under reported as their system reboots when they aren't using it and the responses are only reflective of people that are aware of their systems reseting itself. Or the system rebooted after they already responded to the poll....
> 
> ...


True, my time per unit is less, but others in the household spend more time on each one, and no one I've asked has experienced a short recording or premature deletion. And I know they're not rebooting because the 30 second skip and folder sort order remains intact on all of them.

Unlike many others, I'm very fortunate that in my location I have a choice of OTA or D* for FOX, NBC, ABC and CBS. As I said before, one explanation that fits the facts is that I've been trouble-free because I'm not routinely tuning to an OTA HD channel on one tuner or the other. I think the HR-10 trying to recover from the audio dropouts may be the root cause of some of the other issues folks are having.

Of course, I've now just jinxed myself!

/steve


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## slydog75 (Jul 8, 2004)

As far as I know I"m not having abnormal reboots (mine reboots automatically on Sunday and Wednesday nights). I voted no lockups or reboots, but everything is not fine. I get the audio dropouts on Fox OTA HD.


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## cheddarspaz2 (Oct 24, 2006)

My HR10-250 (300 Gig - Otherwise original kernel, unmodified) has been rebooting daily, and now this morning nothing on the screen. What? No TV? I see green lights on the tivo, but appears dead. Now I'm getting annoyed. 

What was that "customer retention number?"


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## temp357 (Feb 18, 2004)

Anyone have any idea whats causing all of the reboots all of a sudden?


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## temp357 (Feb 18, 2004)

In view of the large number of posts recently about lockups and reboots...


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## bwaldron (Mar 16, 2003)

temp357 said:


> Anyone have any idea whats causing all of the reboots all of a sudden?


In one of the threads around here, someone posted about the /var partition getting full, due to funky guide data being sent right now. Affecting all 6.x DirecTivos, not just the HR10. Could be what's going on, I dunno.


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