# tivo stuck in reboot



## gregftlaud (Jun 16, 2004)

well, my hr10 restarted on it's own like 20 minutes ago and it is still sitting on the "almost there, just a few minutes more...." screen. 

any suggestions?

greg


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## jrmsp (May 20, 2004)

That happened to me today too....though it didn't reboot on it's own; it was stumbling a little from time to time and pixelating, so I did a restart. Sat there with the "almost there" for about 20 minutes. I said a prayer and pulled the plug...it came right up.


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## litzdog911 (Oct 18, 2002)

This could be the classic symptom of hard disk failure, or soon-to-be failure. Can you still get it to restart when you disconnect/reconnect AC power? If so, and you value the recordings on your Tivo, you may want to act fast to replace or upgrade that hard drive. But try these tips first:

*** Note that problems like this can also be caused by AC power spikes or fluctuations. Your Tivo is essentially a computer inside, so you should seriously consider powering it with an uninterruptable power supply (UPS). Good quality 350VA UPS's are available for well below $50 and will power your Tivo for nearly an hour, plus they provide much better powerline isolation and protection than a surge protector.

http://www.staples.com/Catalog/Browse/Sku.asp?PageType=1&Sku=474045

*** Check your Tivo's internal temperature. If it's running too hot you'll sometimes see problems like this. Look in "Messages & Setup" -> "System Information" and scroll down a couple of pages to see the internal temperature. Anything under 50-deg C is usually OK. If it's higher than that, make sure you have good airflow under and around your Tivo. It's a good idea to raise your Tivo up an inch or so for better airflow. Some folks use pop bottle caps under each corner.

*** Try re-seating your access card. Remove power, remove the access card, wait a few minutes, re-insert the access card, and reconnect power.

*** If you're comfortable opening up your Tivo (which will void your warranty if you still have one), then disconnect and reconnect all the cables leading to the hard drive(s). Sometimes connections can work loose, or tarnish, and re-seating them will help.

*** If these steps don't help, then it's likely a hard drive problem. You can try a "Clear and Delete Everything" (in the Tivo's "Messages & Setup" menu). That might help the drive repair itself, but you will lose your recordings, Season Passes, and other settings.

*** Finally, if all else fails, then you might want to try connecting your Tivo drive(s) to your PC and run the disk manufacturer's DOS-based diagnostic utilities. These are usually available for download from their web site. Unfortunately they don't always detect all of the failures that can disrupt your Tivo. Some folks have reported success using the SpinRite disk repair utility available from Gibson Research at http://www.grc.com/sr/spinrite.htm or HDD Regenerator at http://www.dposoft.net/#b_hddhid

Also check out these sources of information, much of which you'll find in the Tivo Upgrade Center forum:

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=25

http://www.weaknees.com/index.html

http://tivo.upgrade-instructions.com/

http://www.newreleasesvideo.com/hinsdale-how-to/

http://www.ptvupgrade.com/products/instantcake/

http://www.9thtee.com/


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## TivoDoc (Dec 22, 2002)

Litzdog,
My tivo is randomly rebooting withing variable numbers of seconds after power is connected. It usually dies within 10 seconds but occacionally gets to a tivo main screen. My HD is 'new' - actually a factory freebe to replace a dead 2 year old Samsung with a 3 yr warrentee (hopefully not a rebuilt). Does this sound more like a power supply issue to you?

Jeff


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## litzdog911 (Oct 18, 2002)

TivoDoc said:


> Litzdog,
> My tivo is randomly rebooting withing variable numbers of seconds after power is connected. It usually dies within 10 seconds but occacionally gets to a tivo main screen. My HD is 'new' - actually a factory freebe to replace a dead 2 year old Samsung with a 3 yr warrentee (hopefully not a rebuilt). Does this sound more like a power supply issue to you?
> 
> Jeff


Much more likely that it's a hard drive problem. But an intermittent power connection, perhaps between the power supply and motherboard, could cause these same symptoms.


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## DrBunsen (Jan 1, 2001)

I noticed a moment ago that mine was locked up (no picture, no response from any remote or attached buttons). I powered down, waited a couple minutes, powered up, and it's been at the "Almost there. Just a few minutes more..." screen for about 10 minutes or so.

I almost thought that maybe something got thrown to me overnight, which is why I hopped up here. In any case, mine seems somewhat borked, and Cowboys v. Redskins starts in 8 minutes. Sigh....


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## angel35 (Nov 5, 2004)

DrBunsen said:


> I noticed a moment ago that mine was locked up (no picture, no response from any remote or attached buttons). I powered down, waited a couple minutes, powered up, and it's been at the "Almost there. Just a few minutes more..." screen for about 10 minutes or so.
> 
> I almost thought that maybe something got thrown to me overnight, which is why I hopped up here. In any case, mine seems somewhat borked, and Cowboys v. Redskins starts in 8 minutes. Sigh....


Im having the same problem. But now it says the DVR has aproblem do not unplug or power down wait 3 hours for afix. All im getting is a white screen?? What is going on Can some one tell me ???  :down:


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## litzdog911 (Oct 18, 2002)

angel35 said:


> Im having the same problem. But now it says the DVR has aproblem do not unplug or power down wait 3 hours for afix. All im getting is a white screen?? What is going on Can some one tell me ???  :down:


Your DVR is trying to repair disk drive damage that it detected. Give it several hours. If your lucky it will reboot itself and be all better. Otherwise you'll need to plan to replace/upgrade its hard drive.


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## DoubleDown (Feb 17, 2004)

I am having serious issues with channels 701-718, except for 706 Titans- Jags game comes in fine. All the rest are pixelated and if I leave it a pixelating channel long enough it goes into reboot mode. All of my HD channels are fine. Directv kept transferring me to a specialist after 45 minutes I hung up. 
I think this new software might trigger a reboot when it does not have a strong enough signal?


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## angel35 (Nov 5, 2004)

litzdog911 said:


> Your DVR is trying to repair disk drive damage that it detected. Give it several hours. If your lucky it will reboot itself and be all better. Otherwise you'll need to plan to replace/upgrade its hard drive.


Its been over 12 hours,no reboot or restart. Looks like i have to replace or upgrade the hard drive. Thank you :down:


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## TivoDoc (Dec 22, 2002)

Actually, my problem seems to have been that 'perlex' cable from the ps to the mb. I cleaned it as described in other posts and the sucker has been great ever since.

Jeff


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## DrBunsen (Jan 1, 2001)

My issue is probably with one of the hard-drives. It stayed at the "just a few minutes more" screen for over and hour and a half before I unplugged it again. It came up OK the next time, but proceded to reboot itself 3 times in the next hour or so. I'm running Spinrite on the drives now but can see that one is having to do way more ECC corrections than usual for the 400GB Seagates that I've tested. So I'm going to copy to new drives and then thoroughly test the old ones and find out what to do with them.

Hopefully replacing the hard-drives fixes it or else the troubleshooting becomes a bit trickier. 


Bunsen


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## RavenFan (Oct 3, 2002)

I don't have a DirecTV TiVo, but the problem sounds similar to what I'm seeing.

My 140 hour unit just started a continuous reboot cycle yesterday. It begins booting, gets to the "Just a few minutes more..." screen, and then restarts the whole reboot process. It only takes a few minutes before it dies and starts again.

I'm assuming that the HD is bad, but I don't know if I will get it fixed. My oldest TiVo (Sony 30 hour) is still alive and kicking after 6 years. The other two are functioning fine as well. The one that's giving me trouble is the newest of the bunch.


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