# SA S2 Constantly rebooting



## antalo (May 9, 2001)

I'm at my wits end. I had a SA S2 TDC240040 and a TDC540080 Tivos which quit booting up, so I replaced the drives with a WD1500640EARS and a ST31500541As drives. Used WinMSF to do the upgrade. First had hard time for the BIOS to read the drives, but once it got the correct modeel and size everything went smooth. I used a Win XP home with SP3 on it. On the WD drive I ran the WDidle3.exe and it worked OK. The adapter cards seem to work fine. It's the one with the jumpers on them. Anyway, after doing a clean and erase everything on he, downloading programming, they both started to reboot constantly. They run for 10 min or so and reboot. I did the Kickstart onboth and everything looks OK. 5 and 12 VDC are going to the drive all the time, even during reboot. I read and read but can't find any answers. I hope some genious(es) will be` able to help me. I assume the images are OK, did the Sk 54 I believe which swaps the boot deal.


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## lillevig (Dec 7, 2010)

antalo said:


> I'm at my wits end. I had a SA S2 TDC240040 and a TDC540080 Tivos which quit booting up, so I replaced the drives with a WD1500640EARS and a ST31500541As drives. Used WinMSF to do the upgrade. First had hard time for the BIOS to read the drives, but once it got the correct modeel and size everything went smooth. I used a Win XP home with SP3 on it. On the WD drive I ran the WDidle3.exe and it worked OK. The adapter cards seem to work fine. It's the one with the jumpers on them. Anyway, after doing a clean and erase everything on he, downloading programming, they both started to reboot constantly. They run for 10 min or so and reboot. I did the Kickstart onboth and everything looks OK. 5 and 12 VDC are going to the drive all the time, even during reboot. I read and read but can't find any answers. I hope some genious(es) will be` able to help me. I assume the images are OK, did the Sk 54 I believe which swaps the boot deal.


Exactly which IDE/SATA adapter cards did you use? What is the name on the chip on the adapter? Tivos are very particular about these. I know from personal experience. The ones my S2 boxes like are the WOW Parts ones: http://www.wowparts.com/pata-to-sata-adapter-converter-for-2-5-3-5-hdd-dvd/


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## antalo (May 9, 2001)

lillevig said:


> Exactly which IDE/SATA adapter cards did you use? What is the name on the chip on the adapter? Tivos are very particular about these. I know from personal experience. The ones my S2 boxes like are the WOW Parts ones: http://www.wowparts.com/pata-to-sata-adapter-converter-for-2-5-3-5-hdd-dvd/


Thank you for your reply. The adapter I use has only WLXKJ--863B on it by the SATA connector. I can't read the info on the chip. It's too faint. Can't make any of it out with a magnafying glass. I just ordered 2 of those adapters you recommended. I read about them before. Just to be sure. I got these a long while ago. Has the jumper on it though  What's that 2-5-3-5-hdd-dvd mean ?


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## bshrock (Jan 6, 2012)

Where did the image you used to create the drive come from, Is it for the same model of DVR?

When I searched for WLXKJ--863B I found it at Amazon "Cyber Tech SATA to IDE Adapter / Converter" Amazon shows that I purchased it a year ago. So it is the one I am using in my old 80G Series 2 from 2002.

Scanning the reviews there are a couple that have had success making it work with A S2 TiVo. See Customer Review By unitron Mine had the 3M tape some of the reviews state that theirs did not come with the tape Also I did not have the label with the URL on it.


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## antalo (May 9, 2001)

bshrock said:


> Where did the image you used to create the drive come from, Is it for the same model of DVR?
> 
> When I searched for WLXKJ--863B I found it at Amazon "Cyber Tech SATA to IDE Adapter / Converter" Amazon shows that I purchased it a year ago. So it is the one I am using in my old 80G Series 2 from 2002.
> 
> Scanning the reviews there are a couple that have had success making it work with A S2 TiVo. See Customer Review By unitron Mine had the 3M tape some of the reviews state that theirs did not come with the tape Also I did not have the label with the URL on it.


The image came from my original drive. I used WinMSF to save a truncated copy and I used it to restore it on this drive. I know you have to use the image from the same model. It wouldn't work to begin with. I'm tthinking about redoing one of the drives, and leave it at 1 TB the size. Maybe it make a difference. Thanks for your input. I need some more


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## lillevig (Dec 7, 2010)

antalo said:


> The image came from my original drive. I used WinMSF to save a truncated copy and I used it to restore it on this drive. I know you have to use the image from the same model. It wouldn't work to begin with. I'm tthinking about redoing one of the drives, and leave it at 1 TB the size. Maybe it make a difference. Thanks for your input. I need some more


I will send you a PM to point you to images that I have used successfully.


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## lillevig (Dec 7, 2010)

antalo said:


> Thank you for your reply. The adapter I use has only WLXKJ--863B on it by the SATA connector. I can't read the info on the chip. It's too faint. Can't make any of it out with a magnafying glass. I just ordered 2 of those adapters you recommended. I read about them before. Just to be sure. I got these a long while ago. Has the jumper on it though  What's that 2-5-3-5-hdd-dvd mean ?


The 2-5 means 2 1/2 inch size drive and the 3-5 means 3 1/2 inch drive. The hdd-dvd just means that it works with hard drives or CD/DVD drives.


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## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

antalo said:


> I'm at my wits end. I had a SA S2 TDC240040 and a TDC540080 Tivos which quit booting up, so I replaced the drives with a WD1500640EARS and a ST31500541As drives. Used WinMSF to do the upgrade. First had hard time for the BIOS to read the drives, but once it got the correct modeel and size everything went smooth. I used a Win XP home with SP3 on it. On the WD drive I ran the WDidle3.exe and it worked OK. The adapter cards seem to work fine. It's the one with the jumpers on them. Anyway, after doing a clean and erase everything on he, downloading programming, they both started to reboot constantly. They run for 10 min or so and reboot. I did the Kickstart onboth and everything looks OK. 5 and 12 VDC are going to the drive all the time, even during reboot. I read and read but can't find any answers. I hope some genious(es) will be` able to help me. I assume the images are OK, did the Sk 54 I believe which swaps the boot deal.


I think you mean KS and not SK, and KickStart 54 runs the S.M.A.R.T. tests on the drive, but does not swap between regular and alternate partition sets.

Try KS 58

However, since both are doing the 10 minutes and reboot, I suspect something in common.

One thing they have in common is the person who did the drive upgrade.

Another thing they have in common is the motherboard on which they were upgraded.

A third thing they have in common is the person who did the original image making from the original factory drives.

Are you sure you put the 240 image on the drive that went into the 240, and the 540 image on the drive that went into the 540?

It sounds like you got the adapter with the JMicron chipset, which should work fine on an S2.


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## antalo (May 9, 2001)

unitron said:


> I think you mean KS and not SK, and KickStart 54 runs the S.M.A.R.T. tests on the drive, but does not swap between regular and alternate partition sets.
> 
> Try KS 58
> 
> ...


The common person is me, or I and I used the same pc way back when I originally expended both tivos to 2 drive units. They worked fine for years. I now used the same image I saved. If I put the wrong image on the wrong Tivo the system wouldn't let me do it. I'll redo one of them tonight with the image I just received . I'll be busy. Thanks for your help I realize it must be something in common. I ordered 2 adapters people on this forum say they work, so eventually I'll get these puppies to work. Right now the quesstion is; should I reformat the drives first ? Or just write over.


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## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

antalo said:


> The common person is me, or I and I used the same pc way back when I originally expended both tivos to 2 drive units. They worked fine for years. I now used the same image I saved. If I put the wrong image on the wrong Tivo the system wouldn't let me do it. I'll redo one of them tonight with the image I just received . I'll be busy. Thanks for your help I realize it must be something in common. I ordered 2 adapters people on this forum say they work, so eventually I'll get these puppies to work. Right now the quesstion is; should I reformat the drives first ? Or just write over.


It sounds like you already have the right SATA/IDE adapters.

They should either work or not work at all.

Somewhere in the image begging thread I've got an image for a 240080 and a 540040.

That Seagate drive is a 1.5TB, and I don't think the S2s will handle anything bigger than a 1TB or 1.2 Maximum.

I think you need to take another look at that WD model number. Google doesn't find anything for it except this thread.


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## antalo (May 9, 2001)

unitron said:


> It sounds like you already have the right SATA/IDE adapters.
> 
> They should either work or not work at all.
> 
> ...


I think I may have screwed up big time. In Winmfs I did a "format delete" to wipe out the previous files. I than loade everything the same way I did before, expended the drive and after installation into the Tivo it now constant reboots right after it says "Just a moment more" or something to this affect and keeps on rebooting in cycle. I may have wiped out the boot sector and I don't know where to go frome here. Things just get worse.   :down:


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## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

antalo said:


> I think I may have screwed up big time. In Winmfs I did a "format delete" to wipe out the previous files. I than loade everything the same way I did before, expended the drive and after installation into the Tivo it now constant reboots right after it says "Just a moment more" or something to this affect and keeps on rebooting in cycle. I may have wiped out the boot sector and I don't know where to go frome here. Things just get worse.   :down:


WinMFS and MFS Live both overwrite everything on a drive when you restore a truncated image, so there's no need to delete anything first.

One of those TiVos may be choking on that 1.5TB Seagate, since they're only supposed to be able to handle 1TB per drive (although since it's IDE you can have 2TB in an S2 by using a 1TB as Master and another 1TB as slave).

Since you haven't provided a valid WD drive (not box) model number, I'm not sure what's going on there.


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## antalo (May 9, 2001)

unitron said:


> WinMFS and MFS Live both overwrite everything on a drive when you restore a truncated image, so there's no need to delete anything first.
> 
> One of those TiVos may be choking on that 1.5TB Seagate, since they're only supposed to be able to handle 1TB per drive (although since it's IDE you can have 2TB in an S2 by using a 1TB as Master and another 1TB as slave).
> 
> Since you haven't provided a valid WD drive (not box) model number, I'm not sure what's going on there.


Sorry, I forgot to include the WD drive It is WD15EARS I didn't do anything with

I can't believe it ! !  The Seagate booted up ! It's at guided set up. I reloaded the image and kept the drive at 1 TB. I'm going to do that and get back to you.

The WD15EARS is in the TDC240 Tivo and I haven't messed with it since last night. While this one TDC540, is going to call in for updates, I'll redo the WD.

P.S. A few hours passed and I had to do a setup on both Tivos twice. I couldn't do a clear and delete everything until I did a setup first. Anyway, it looks like they both are going to work, but I thought that before.. I have to set them up into a normal configuration the way they will be working and than I'll find out. I'll get back to you about it. Thanks for your help.


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## lillevig (Dec 7, 2010)

antalo said:


> P.S. A few hours passed and I had to do a setup on both Tivos twice. I couldn't do a clear and delete everything until I did a setup first.


Unfortunately, that's standard procedure for most of the images offered here. I think the only ones I didn't have to do that way are an S2DT and an S3HD because both of those in my collection are factory default images.


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## antalo (May 9, 2001)

lillevig said:


> Unfortunately, that's standard procedure for most of the images offered here. I think the only ones I didn't have to do that way are an S2DT and an S3HD because both of those in my collection are factory default images.


It looks like the problem was the size of the hard drives. Since last night both work fine. I haven't recorded anything yet, but I'm sure they'll be fine. The WD15EARS has more space on it than the Seagate. The 2TB WD drive I got coming will have to go into an external drive config. The the drive in it clunked out and I couldn't save anything from it. Lots of family pix.

I do thank you very much for your assistance. The next Tivo bites the dust I'll try to put in 2 X 1 TB drives. I got 2 adapters coming. I wish there were some instructions at least about the jumpers.

Have a nice day, and again thank you very, very much ! ! !


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## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

antalo said:


> It looks like the problem was the size of the hard drives. Since last night both work fine. I haven't recorded anything yet, but I'm sure they'll be fine. The WD15EARS has more space on it than the Seagate. The 2TB WD drive I got coming will have to go into an external drive config. The the drive in it clunked out and I couldn't save anything from it. Lots of family pix.
> 
> I do thank you very much for your assistance. The next Tivo bites the dust I'll try to put in 2 X 1 TB drives. I got 2 adapters coming. I wish there were some instructions at least about the jumpers.
> 
> Have a nice day, and again thank you very, very much ! ! !


In that case maybe it's not the size of the drive as much as how much of the drive you use, which may mean it's how big the biggest partition is.

The WLXKJ--863B should be jumper on, master, jumper off slave, but I cannot guarantee that you can use two of these on the same IDE cable.

There seem to be a few different JMicron chipset based adapters that are very similar in appearance but not necessarily in jumper settings or performance.

If you don't want to roll the dice, pay the extra and buy 'em from Weaknees.

And avoid the ones that look similar but have a Sunplus chipset.

And go read the adapter thread.


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## antalo (May 9, 2001)

unitron said:


> In that case maybe it's not the size of the drive as much as how much of the drive you use, which may mean it's how big the biggest partition is.
> 
> The WLXKJ--863B should be jumper on, master, jumper off slave, but I cannot guarantee that you can use two of these on the same IDE cable.
> 
> ...


I got another adapter WLX-A2S223-1 It has 2 sets of jumpers. The chip is unreadable. I Googled it but I didn't get much info about it. I'm tempted to put it on the Seagate and see what happens. I had a date with the dentist today, so I didn't get much else done. So far both drives are hummin' along.


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## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

antalo said:


> I got another adapter WLX-A2S223-1 It has 2 sets of jumpers. The chip is unreadable. I Googled it but I didn't get much info about it. I'm tempted to put it on the Seagate and see what happens. I had a date with the dentist today, so I didn't get much else done. So far both drives are hummin' along.


There's something over in the UK called a "toppy", no idea what the real name is, but apparently it's sort of TiVo-ish, and according to a post there, the WLX-A2S223-1 has a SunPlus chipset, so the chances of it, based on my experience, working in an S2 are slim to none, and the chances of it working in a computer are kind of iffy as well.


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## antalo (May 9, 2001)

unitron said:


> There's something over in the UK called a "toppy", no idea what the real name is, but apparently it's sort of TiVo-ish, and according to a post there, the WLX-A2S223-1 has a SunPlus chipset, so the chances of it, based on my experience, working in an S2 are slim to none, and the chances of it working in a computer are kind of iffy as well.


You are right, it didn't work. I tried the jumpers every which way but the drive would not boot up. I got a couple of adapters for the junk box.

I got the two new adapters I ordered from WoW..... They are the same as the ones I got in my Tivos.

I got an other problem with another TDC 240 Tivo I have a lifetime on. Should I open a new thread, or just keep going here ? It's a good one ! !


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## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

antalo said:


> You are right, it didn't work. I tried the jumpers every which way but the drive would not boot up. I got a couple of adapters for the junk box.
> 
> I got the two new adapters I ordered from WoW..... They are the same as the ones I got in my Tivos.
> 
> I got an other problem with another TDC 240 Tivo I have a lifetime on. Should I open a new thread, or just keep going here ? It's a good one ! !


Tell me what the problem is, and we'll see if it should get its own thread.

Although if it's a strange symptom in an S2 or S3, first thing to suspect is power supply capacitors going bad.


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## antalo (May 9, 2001)

unitron said:


> Tell me what the problem is, and we'll see if it should get its own thread.
> 
> Although if it's a strange symptom in an S2 or S3, first thing to suspect is power supply capacitors going bad.


I did start a new thread. Would a PS from a TDC540 worj in the TDC240 ?


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