# TiVo Premiere Constant Crashes under 14.5



## Carl Edman (May 14, 2007)

At the beginning of the month, I bought a TiVo Premiere. The device shipped with 14.4 and initially worked fine with my Verizon FIOS service and an M-Card. Almost immediately, I installed a 2TB upgrade drive from DVRupgrade (just as I had previously done with my S3 and HD) which seemed to work fine.

However, about a week ago--around the same time the device upgraded itself to 14.5 which may or may not be a coincidence--it became extremely unstable. The symptoms are always the same: While playing a show, playback pauses unexpectedly (or there is no response to skip or other command) for about 10 to 20 seconds. After that playback resumes for another 10 or 20 seconds, but without response to any commands. Then the TiVo hard reboots.

This behavior occurs with great frequency both while watching programs (up to 3 times in an hour-long show) and--to judge by the number of partial recordings--also several times a day when the device is completely unattended.

Changing between HD and SD menus and other options had no effect. The TiVo makes no distress noises, is cool to the touch, and the exhaust air is only very slightly above the 70 degree ambient, so I do not believe this to be an overheating issue.

Any advice?


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## DonB. (Apr 4, 2010)

Pretty much the same issue here, Premiers keeps playing and won't go to Tivo central right away




Carl Edman said:


> At the beginning of the month, I bought a TiVo Premiere. The device shipped with 14.4 and initially worked fine with my Verizon FIOS service and an M-Card. Almost immediately, I installed a 2TB upgrade drive from DVRupgrade (just as I had previously done with my S3 and HD) which seemed to work fine.
> 
> However, about a week ago--around the same time the device upgraded itself to 14.5 which may or may not be a coincidence--it became extremely unstable. The symptoms are always the same: While playing a show, playback pauses unexpectedly (or there is no response to skip or other command) for about 10 to 20 seconds. After that playback resumes for another 10 or 20 seconds, but without response to any commands. Then the TiVo hard reboots.
> 
> ...


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## Carl Edman (May 14, 2007)

DonB. said:


> Pretty much the same issue here, Premiers keeps playing and won't go to Tivo central right away


Not quite. In my case, rather than commands being accepted after a long delay, the TiVo just reboots which is worse.


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## rbienstock (May 8, 2007)

Carl,

This is the reboot problem that is endemic to the Premiere. 14.5 was supposed to solve it, but it didn't. At least it now only happens every 2-3 days instead of every 2-3 hours with 14.4. There is a solution, though: don't play recorded shows. I didn't think you'd like that.


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## kturcotte (Dec 9, 2002)

rbienstock said:


> Carl,
> 
> This is the reboot problem that is endemic to the Premiere. 14.5 was supposed to solve it, but it didn't. At least it now only happens every 2-3 days instead of every 2-3 hours with 14.4. There is a solution, though: don't play recorded shows. I didn't think you'd like that.


Don't play recorded shows on my *DVR*?  lol


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## Geophory (May 8, 2010)

A sporadic network connection can cause some features on Tivo to reboot. If you're using wireless, you might try switching to wired if it's easy to do.

But not everybody experiences the reboots you are experiencing. Sounds to me like you have defective hardware. I'd suggest calling support and getting them to send you a replacement.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

Geophory said:


> A sporadic network connection can cause some features on Tivo to reboot. If you're using wireless, you might try switching to wired if it's easy to do.
> 
> But not everybody experiences the reboots you are experiencing. Sounds to me like you have defective hardware. I'd suggest calling support and getting them to send you a replacement.


yes i have no reboots on any of my Premieres. Even the ones that were sitting in 90 degree temps for three days when ServPro set up ten fans and two dehumidifers for water damage in that area. Even then they never rebooted.


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## DBLClick (Aug 20, 2007)

My premier has started the same behavior after the upgrade. It appears when it begins to download a program from the internet it goes through a frozen screen and then reboots. 

This has been a big waist of money as the older Tivo HD works well the new one is just a POS.


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## TrueTurbo (Feb 19, 2008)

I had these exact freeze, resume, reboot issues with my first Premiere XL! It worked fine for a couple of months, then these problems started happening. It was a hardware problem, not software. TiVo replaced the unit and the new Premiere XL has been trouble free for a few months now.


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## EAnglum (Nov 25, 2006)

Add me to the list. I've had mine for a few months now with really no issues other than sluggish HD menu performance. I switched to the SD menus and have not had a single problem until the 14.5 upgrade.

The other day I experienced a strange delay while watching live TV (about 5 seconds). It continued playing with no problems.

Tonight I was watching a show I recorded and about 40 minutes into the program it paused - about 15-20 seconds then started playing again for a few seconds then rebooted.

EDIT - the Tivo was downloading a show (blue light was on during the pause / reboot). Again, I've never had this issue when downloading the last few months with the older firmware. Same network as before (FiOS).

14.5 = :down:


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## orangeboy (Apr 19, 2004)

It's crazy how 14.5 can be the cause AND cure for reboot problems. Knock on wood that I haven't had reboot issues since I've owned mine. I'm OTA only, so I have a LOT less ancillary devices connected to the box, such as CableCARD or Tuning Adapter.


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## retired_guy (Aug 27, 2004)

Mine was fine for three months, then started the freeze/reboot cycle on 14.4 and has continued on with 14.5. It typically occurs when a podcast download starts while I'm watching a recording. Very frustrating.


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## innocentfreak (Aug 25, 2001)

orangeboy said:


> It's crazy how 14.5 can be the cause AND cure for reboot problems. Knock on wood that I haven't had reboot issues since I've owned mine. I'm OTA only, so I have a LOT less ancillary devices connected to the box, such as CableCARD or Tuning Adapter.


IIRC TiVo sometimes has issues from patches since the way they patch ends up revealing a hard drive issue. It has been a while but I know in the past models would usually display problems after a patch if part of the drive was bad.


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## Daniel Skeen (Aug 5, 2010)

14.5 fixed a lot of my problems with my XL however I now have problems with internet downloads...and so it goes.


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## EAnglum (Nov 25, 2006)

Daniel Skeen said:


> 14.5 fixed a lot of my problems with my XL however I now have problems with internet downloads...and so it goes.


Are you having the same issue while downloading - freeze then reboot while watching a recorded show during the download?


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## parzec (Jun 21, 2002)

rbienstock said:


> Carl,
> 
> This is the reboot problem that is endemic to the Premiere. 14.5 was supposed to solve it, but it didn't. At least it now only happens every 2-3 days instead of every 2-3 hours with 14.4. There is a solution, though: don't play recorded shows. I didn't think you'd like that.


Dang!!! When is Tivo going to fix this dog and restore their reputation? Sounds like this device doesn't even meet the Implied Warranty of Merchantability since you can't watch recorded shows....What has happened to this company???


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## DeWitt (Jun 30, 2004)

Still sounds like hardware to me.

I have a Premiere and a Premiere XL. (Fios) Prior to 14.5 I kept them in SD menus for performance and stability. Since 14.5 I have kept one in SD the other in HD and have not had a reboot or issue on either.


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## DPF (Mar 20, 2003)

So far on 14.5 I've been solid. No hangups or reboots at all. Added a 1Tb external drive yesterday without issues.

I'm much happier with how they seem to have switched up the network calls so that it doesn't hold up the menus much anymore. Much better in my opinion.


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## EAnglum (Nov 25, 2006)

It appears the possible reboot issue is now when you are doing a network download while watching a recorded program.

For those of you without issues, can you try doing the above and see what happens?


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## orangeboy (Apr 19, 2004)

EAnglum said:


> It appears the possible reboot issue is now when you are doing a network download while watching a recorded program.
> 
> For those of you without issues, can you try doing the above and see what happens?


I think that's all I do! I use kmttg to push commercial cut content back to my Premiere. I'll be watching a commercial cut program from my shows and a download will start with no issues.


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## shiffrin (Aug 23, 2000)

I have a new premiere (about 3 weeks now) which is now at software level 14.5. It has recently rebooted twice while I was accessing my network files and trying to start a download to the Tivo. My menus are set to HD, but the network list is still an SD menu.

This is not causing me any major problems at the moment, but it is annoying to have to wait 5 minutes for it to reboot and then start the download again.

I only mention my problem here in case any Tivo people are watching and keeping track of the reboot problem.


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## retired_guy (Aug 27, 2004)

By moving podcasts from my PXL (running 14.5) to my HD, the freeze/reboot problem on the PXL has disappeared. Looks like I'll have to stay this way until at least the next software release on the PXL. At least for me, there's a solution to the freeze/reboot problem.


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## shiffrin (Aug 23, 2000)

I had a freeze on my PXL today.

I use HD menus.

I turned on the TV and pressed the Tivo button. I got the circle cursor. I left it for almost a half hour and it finally switched to live TV. I pressed the Tivo button again and it froze again. I cycled the power to get it back.

When I looked at the now playing list, there was an indication that it had been downloading a CNET podcast when it froze.

So, I have now had a freeze and a reboot when accessing the network (podcast download and video transfer over local network).

I hope this provides some clues to the Tivo developers so this problem can be fixed.


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## UTA_MAVERICK (Apr 28, 2005)

I have not had any real issues with recording or playback of SD or HD recordings. 

However, if I'm attempting to stream a video or download podcasts or other live feed sources - lookout - if the network gets too slow for the Premiere or burps during a stream it seems like a 1 in 10 that TiVo will just reboot, while the other 9 times it will wait or say hit PLAY to continue in a few minutes while it tries to cue video inbound.

It is for this reason that I've started to use the Blu-Ray player to watch Netflix shows rather that risk a reboot with the TiVo while recordings are underway. 

So far the dual-tuner recording has been a real plus upgrading from an old Series 2 box that could only record one show or playback a second.

My network (DSL) is very hot and cold when it comes to speed, but then with other devices sharing the bandwidth and occasional P2P traffic, well I'm kinda doomed with TiVo being so picky. Other devices slow, but don't give up and throw in the towel like TiVo. 

TiVo had sharing issues with box to box and it seems like with the Series 4 they still don't know how to play nice in a mixed hardware environment with everyone sharing the Internet connection. So while they are adding network features and more sources, they still need to nail down and fix THEIR network performance problems FIRST.

 Grrrrr...

PS - Just Curious, how many of you with problems are running STOCK Premieres vs. ones that have had HDD upgrades. I can say that in my case it did not matter if it was the OEM or an UNEXPANDED CLONE onto a larger drive. Some of the drive addons have been questioned as to reliability due to drives used and patching employed to expand the storage. I will be trying the JAVA tool to expand my drive soon and then see if that has any effect on frequency of the problem. It to me seems ALL NETWORK RELATED.

PPS - I noted that many that commented were FIOS attached. I am strictly OTA, with network (DSL) for updates, podcasts and streaming live only.


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## shiffrin (Aug 23, 2000)

UTA_MAVERICK said:


> PS - Just Curious, how many of you with problems are running STOCK Premieres vs. ones that have had HDD upgrades. I can say that in my case it did not matter if it was the OEM or an UNEXPANDED CLONE onto a larger drive. Some of the drive addons have be questioned as to reliability due to drives used and patching employed to expand the storage. I will be trying the JAVA tool to expand my drive soon and then see if that has any effect on frequency of the problem. It to me seems ALL NETWORK RELATED.
> 
> PPS - I noted that many that commented were FIOS attached. I am strictly OTA, with network (DSL) for updates, podcasts and streaming live only.


I am Comcast cable attached with a stock Premiere XL. My problems all seem related to internet or network transfers of shows causing freezing or reboots. I haven't had a lot of problems, but they are gettingannoying.


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## cmeinck (Sep 18, 2003)

I have two brand new XL's. After a day or so, one would reboot when using the remote during playback. It would freeze, was not responsive to remote and then reboot. During first reboot, the Tivo starting up screen would come up, but after 10 minutes or so it would go to white noise. Pulling the plug and waiting another 15 minutes to reboot would bring it back. Physical network connection seemed defective, requiring I push the ethernet cable after it snaps in. 

I called TiVo and have an advanced replacement coming today. I've had one reboot on the other XL and that happened while playing a program that was transferred from the defective TiVo.

I'm ok with the slow HD menus for now, but the reboots have not gone over well with my wife. If this continues, both are going back and I'll upgrade the hard drives on my older TiVo HD's.

TiVo customer service was great, although they have to charge me $500 initially for the Advanced Replacement.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

EAnglum said:


> It appears the possible reboot issue is now when you are doing a network download while watching a recorded program.
> 
> For those of you without issues, can you try doing the above and see what happens?


That does not cause any issues for me. It never has. Five of my boxes are on FiOS(four are FiOS/OTA and one is FiOS only) and one is OTA only.


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## MoranJ2000 (Aug 7, 2007)

I am on Comcast with a stock Premiere and having the reboot problem. It happens daily, if not several times a day in some cases, and it almost always appears to coincide with an Internet download. In my case, however, it's not limited to watching recorded shows, it can happen if I'm watching live TV, whether the show is being recorded or not.

Like many of you, I am just about at the end of my rope. I'm tired of losing nearly 10 minutes of a program each time this happens during a record-in-progress, and it's to the point where my heart sinks every time I see that blue light come on. As far as I'm concerned, pre-14.5 software was bad enough, but 14.5 is pure garbage.

Bottom line-- and I'm sorry, but I need to get this off my chest-- I feel like a chump for paying $500 for this box (hardware plus lifetime transfer-- replaced an original Series 3) and like a putz for recently recommending them to my brother-in-law, sister, and mother. (four Tivos purchased between them).

What was I thinking?!?!


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## TrueTurbo (Feb 19, 2008)

MoranJ2000 said:


> I am on Comcast with a stock Premiere and having the reboot problem. It happens daily, if not several times a day in some cases, and it almost always appears to coincide with an Internet download. In my case, however, it's not limited to watching recorded shows, it can happen if I'm watching live TV, whether the show is being recorded or not.
> 
> Like many of you, I am just about at the end of my rope. I'm tired of losing nearly 10 minutes of a program each time this happens during a record-in-progress, and it's to the point where my heart sinks every time I see that blue light come on. As far as I'm concerned, pre-14.5 software was bad enough, but 14.5 is pure garbage.
> 
> ...


I'm pretty certain it's NOT 14.5 software that's causing the reboots! You have a faulty DVR. Call TiVo and get it replaced. I had exactly the same problem with my first Premiere XL. It started rebooting once my disk got to above around 80-85% full. It always seemed to happen when a new download started!

My theory is that some hard drives have borderline performance and the DVR software can't handle the longer disk seek times as the disk fills up and more demands are made of it. A download starting up is yet another stream of data to be written to the disk while it is already buffering 2 tuners and possibly playing back a 4th stream!

I've had my replacement Premiere XL up to 95% full so far with no re-occurrence of the reboot problem. I'm running 14.5 as well.


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## MoranJ2000 (Aug 7, 2007)

TrueTurbo said:


> I'm pretty certain it's NOT 14.5 software that's causing the reboots! You have a faulty DVR. Call TiVo and get it replaced. I had exactly the same problem with my first Premiere XL. It started rebooting once my disk got to above around 80-85% full. It always seemed to happen when a new download started!
> 
> My theory is that some hard drives have borderline performance and the DVR software can't handle the longer disk seek times as the disk fills up and more demands are made of it. A download starting up is yet another stream of data to be written to the disk while it is already buffering 2 tuners and possibly playing back a 4th stream!
> 
> I've had my replacement Premiere XL up to 95% full so far with no re-occurrence of the reboot problem. I'm running 14.5 as well.


Respectfully, the problem with the faulty hardware theory is that it's pretty much pure speculation. I'm sure there are a few marginal boxes out there that might be sent off the deep end by a new software update, but considering how many people seem to be having this reboot problem under similar circumstances, what are the odds that any significant number of them are having it due to a bad hard drive? If that were true, it would mean that TiVo is shipping lots of defective hardware, which is even more egregious than shipping half-baked software, because at least the latter can be updated.

As far as my specific unit is concerned, it has never been anywhere near 80% full, and when it rebooted last night it was at 37%.

Sending my unit to TiVo for exchange would involve 1) losing all of my recorded programs 2) having to recreate a lengthy season pass list, 3) paying an exchange fee--I believe it's $49-- since the 90-day labor warranty period is over 4) more than likely receiving a refurbished unit in return and oh yes, 5) needing Comcast to reauthorize my CableCard for the "new" box, for which they insist on a truck roll.

I'm not going through all that unless I KNOW my hardware is bad.


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## TrueTurbo (Feb 19, 2008)

MoranJ2000 said:


> Respectfully, the problem with the faulty hardware theory is that it's pretty much pure speculation. I'm sure there are a few marginal boxes out there that might be sent off the deep end by a new software update, but considering how many people seem to be having this reboot problem under similar circumstances, what are the odds that any significant number of them are having it due to a bad hard drive? If that were true, it would mean that TiVo is shipping lots of defective hardware, which is even more egregious than shipping half-baked software, because at least the latter can be updated.
> 
> As far as my specific unit is concerned, it has never been anywhere near 80% full, and when it rebooted last night it was at 37%.
> 
> ...


And how are you going to KNOW if your hardware is bad? Have you called TiVo support? If your hardware and my hardware are the same, why do you think 14.5 is causing you reboots while it hasn't caused a single reboot on my Premiere?

Yes, it's a pain to get a replacement Premiere from TiVo, but it's also a pain to sit there seething watching the box reboot all the time! If it's faulty hardware, it isn't going to get any better.


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## MoranJ2000 (Aug 7, 2007)

TrueTurbo said:


> And how are you going to KNOW if your hardware is bad? Have you called TiVo support? If your hardware and my hardware are the same, why do you think 14.5 is causing you reboots while it hasn't caused a single reboot on my Premiere?
> 
> Yes, it's a pain to get a replacement Premiere from TiVo, but it's also a pain to sit there seething watching the box reboot all the time! If it's faulty hardware, it isn't going to get any better.


But the thing is, if it's not faulty hardware, and I think the odds of that are remote, then I went through all of that hassle and expense for nothing.

And let me tell you a story about TiVo support-- after I bought my Premiere in April, I sold my original Series 3 on eBay. Never had a problem with it in the three years I owned it, and it was working perfectly when I did the factory reset and shipped it to its new owner. The day after it arrived at the new owner's he e-mailed me accusing me of selling him a defective TiVo. He couldn't get it to work, you see, and when he called TiVo support, they informed him that the box I sold him had a bad tuner.

That turned out to be wrong, of course, and the guy wound up apologizing profusely to me when he ultimately got the box working the next day (don't remember exactly what his issue was-- something about low signal strength due to a splitter, I think).

So no, I haven't called TiVo support, because all they're going to do is run me through a cursory support script and then play the convenient "faulty hardware" card. After all, it's not like they're able to admit that buggy software might be the cause, so they inevitably offer replacement because it closes the case and makes them fifty bucks to boot.

Here's a question. Surely the TiVo must maintain logs or do a memory dump when it crashes. Anybody here know how to access and decipher this info?


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## RAlfieri (Apr 3, 2008)

I'm having problems of a different type. The Premiere won't keep the channels locked. It will work fine for a while after reboot, but then it will hang on trying to tune one channel and then all of them are lost. It's a nightmare for the customer. Everyone knows how difficult it is to get Comcast to pair cablecards right and I have been through 6 of them trying to figure this out.

I'm going on my third Premiere and that will be the last. If it cannot hang onto its channels, then I have no choice but to abandon the product and try something else. I hate the Comcast DVR with a passion, and I'm not sold on U-Verse yet, so I feel like I'm hanging.

As an IT guy, if the 3rd Premiere has the same problem as the first, I will point to the software and/or a tuner/hardware fault. No matter, Comcast has done all they can by ensuring I have a clean strong signal. My cablecards get paired properly. Then the Tivo just starts losing its mind. Even TiVo support is puzzled and just wants to keep sending me boxes.

Something is not right. My Series 3 was a dream.

Regards,
Rob


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## cmeinck (Sep 18, 2003)

Advanced replacement is a huge hassle. As it turns out, they deactivate your defective TiVo, so no transfers after you initiate the AR. They ship it ground, so you've got one week of using a defective unit, with no ability to transfer your programs.

If I have to wait for a truck roll (FIOS) to transfer service, I'm not going to be a happy camper.

One of my XL's has been stable. If this one is defective, I'm going back to my original HD, keeping just one of the Premieres.

Both running 14.5.

My old TiVo HD's had zero problems.


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## TrueTurbo (Feb 19, 2008)

MoranJ2000 said:


> But the thing is, if it's not faulty hardware, and I think the odds of that are remote, then I went through all of that hassle and expense for nothing.
> 
> And let me tell you a story about TiVo support-- after I bought my Premiere in April, I sold my original Series 3 on eBay. Never had a problem with it in the three years I owned it, and it was working perfectly when I did the factory reset and shipped it to its new owner. The day after it arrived at the new owner's he e-mailed me accusing me of selling him a defective TiVo. He couldn't get it to work, you see, and when he called TiVo support, they informed him that the box I sold him had a bad tuner.
> 
> ...


I can understand your frustration, but you are not going to be able to fix anything yourself! Software release 14.5 is NOT a bad release. If it was, EVERYBODY would be suffering problems. As it is, it only seems a few are having problems. Maybe 14.5 has exasperated a previously unknown hardware issue with some boxes.

Sorry you're having problems but release 14.5 is working perfectly for a LOT of people. Good luck trying to diagnose why your Premiere is now having problems by yourself, but I'm pretty sure you won't find a resolution without involving TiVo Support.


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## MoranJ2000 (Aug 7, 2007)

RAlfieri said:


> I'm having problems of a different type. The Premiere won't keep the channels locked. It will work fine for a while after reboot, but then it will hang on trying to tune one channel and then all of them are lost. It's a nightmare for the customer. Everyone knows how difficult it is to get Comcast to pair cablecards right and I have been through 6 of them trying to figure this out.
> 
> I'm going on my third Premiere and that will be the last. If it cannot hang onto its channels, then I have no choice but to abandon the product and try something else. I hate the Comcast DVR with a passion, and I'm not sold on U-Verse yet, so I feel like I'm hanging.
> 
> ...


I had the same channel loss problem a number of times with the earlier 14.x builds, but not lately.

Joe


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## MoranJ2000 (Aug 7, 2007)

TrueTurbo said:


> I can understand your frustration, but you are not going to be able to fix anything yourself! Software release 14.5 is NOT a bad release. If it was, EVERYBODY would be suffering problems. As it is, it only seems a few are having problems. Maybe 14.5 has exasperated a previously unknown hardware issue with some boxes.
> 
> Sorry you're having problems but release 14.5 is working perfectly for a LOT of people. Good luck trying to diagnose why your Premiere is now having problems by yourself, but I'm pretty sure you won't find a resolution without involving TiVo Support.


The fact that the reboot problem doesn't affect everyone doesn't mean the software is not at fault. Tivo software has been plagued with lots of issues over the years, and I don't think any of them have been universal. Software is complicated and there are lots of variables, even in a closed system like the TiVo.

Every time one of these new builds come out, they fix problems for some people, but not for others, and often cause entirely new issues. I remember when the Series 3 came out, it took many revs over many months for software to finally become *relatively* stable. Same thing with the HD. So too will it be with the Premiere. The shame is that enthusiastic early adopters have to pay for the privilege of being guinea pigs while all these kinks are worked out. Lots of people may be OK with 14.5 (I seemed to be the first week or two) but lots of people aren't, as this rather lengthy thread can attest.

In any event, I think Mr. Afieri's earlier post demonstrates what you can generally expect from TiVo support-- Problem? New box. Same problem? New box. New problem? New box.

As for me, I'm content to work around this issue for now--I've already disabled Web downloads--and await the inevitable 14.6 update. It's more likely to solve my problem (and most of these other folks') than speculative box-swapping.


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## azmojo (Nov 25, 2008)

I'm having similar problems, I think, although I've only known about 3 reboots. I have PXL, wired connection to internet, no mods, old school menus, Cox M-Card. On 2 different Saturday afternoons (~5pm), one about 2 weeks ago and one a few weeks before that, the Tivo would suddenly become unresponsive, and then after about a full minute it would reboot. I wasn't transferring anything at the time but I think I was recording one thing. Since it hasn't happened too many times I don't have too much of a problem with it, but if it's going to interfere with shows I really care about I need to get this fixed. I also noticed that shows I recorded 9 days ago were intermittently pixelated and choppy with choppy audio in some places, but since then I haven't seen that problem again, so that could be unlrelated cable-company issue. 

I suppose it could be a full HD issue, is there a way to "empty the trash" without deleting every show one at a time? I don't think this is it though. 

I have to lean toward a software problem as well, as I just don't see all of these identical HW problems starting up around the same time when these machines are still just 6 months old.


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## MoranJ2000 (Aug 7, 2007)

azmojo said:


> I'm having similar problems, I think, although I've only known about 3 reboots. I have PXL, wired connection to internet, no mods, old school menus, Cox M-Card. On 2 different Saturday afternoons (~5pm), one about 2 weeks ago and one a few weeks before that, the Tivo would suddenly become unresponsive, and then after about a full minute it would reboot. I wasn't transferring anything at the time but I think I was recording one thing. Since it hasn't happened too many times I don't have too much of a problem with it, but if it's going to interfere with shows I really care about I need to get this fixed. I also noticed that shows I recorded 9 days ago were intermittently pixelated and choppy with choppy audio in some places, but since then I haven't seen that problem again, so that could be unlrelated cable-company issue.
> 
> I suppose it could be a full HD issue, is there a way to "empty the trash" without deleting every show one at a time? I don't think this is it though.
> 
> I have to lean toward a software problem as well, as I just don't see all of these identical HW problems starting up around the same time when these machines are still just 6 months old.


Hmm. 3 reboots in a month or so doesn't seem *too* bad relatively speaking, but as you pointed out, if it happens while a show is recording than one time is too many.

I seriously doubt it has anything to do with a full hard drive, even if we're defining "full" as full of both regular and deleted items. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, even if there was a problem managing disk space under such a scenario, that's still a software problem. (Alas, there is no way to deleted all in your deleted items folder in one fell swoop.)

It's interesting though-- with almost all of my reboots, my live or recorded video would freeze for several seconds and then resume as if all was normal, but then within 30 seconds or so, reboot.

Seems to me that especially with these delayed reboot scenarios like mine or yours, there would be a chance for information to be recorded in a log that would give TiVo at least some semblance of a clue as to what conditions precipitated the crash. If you do call TiVo support and they give you the new box song and dance, you should see if they can justify that with concrete info specific to your box.


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## andersea (Feb 21, 2007)

I have a problem with periodic freezes (not freezes with reboots). I switched to SD menus a couple of months back, which made the issue more infrequent. Today it happened twice in one day.

Tivo support says that my signal strength might be too high, and that I might need an attenuator. My signal strength shows 85-87 in the Diagnostics menu. According to Tivo support, 14.5 fixed all freeze issues and that any freeze is being caused by my cable signal strength being too high. 

Has anyone heard of this theory? Any validity to it?


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## curiousgeorge (Nov 28, 2002)

Just had the first SD mode hard lock in a few weeks on one of our Premieres tonight. SD is still unstable apparantly.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

andersea said:


> I have a problem with periodic freezes (not freezes with reboots). I switched to SD menus a couple of months back, which made the issue more infrequent. Today it happened twice in one day.
> 
> Tivo support says that my signal strength might be too high, and that I might need an attenuator. My signal strength shows 85-87 in the Diagnostics menu. According to Tivo support, 14.5 fixed all freeze issues and that any freeze is being caused by my cable signal strength being too high.
> 
> Has anyone heard of this theory? Any validity to it?


My cable signal strength is in the mid 90's on all my cable channels. These are all digital channels. So mid 90's signal strength and none of my TiVos have any reboots and all are running the HD menus.


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## sbq (Feb 6, 2010)

I had my first freeze with 14.5 last night, I tried to use Netflix. The program wasn't displaying, though Netflix said it was streaming and was 7 minutes in when I finally pulled the power cord to force a reboot. I've used Netflix prior to 14.5 and never had any issues with it. I also do not have the TiVo downloading anything at all, so this is the first time it's downloaded content since 14.5 got pushed to it.


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## cmeinck (Sep 18, 2003)

Replacement Premiere arrived early this week. No problems. Did a fair bit of stress testing (transfering, setting up season passes, etc.). At times it slowed down a bit, but that's just the sluggish interface. No crashes which is great. Over time, I suspect they will fix the interface. I can deal with slow. I cannot deal with constant crashes.


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## shiffrin (Aug 23, 2000)

My Tivo Premiere XL rebooted twice last night. I use HD menus. The first time I was watching live TV and the blue light was on transferring a CNET video. The picture froze for about 10 seconds and then it rebooted.

The second time I was watching a recorded show and the blue light was on - again transferring a CNET show when it froze and then rebooted.

So far,all of my reboots have happened when the blue light was on.


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## alsatia (Jul 11, 2009)

RAlfieri said:


> I'm having problems of a different type. The Premiere won't keep the channels locked. It will work fine for a while after reboot, but then it will hang on trying to tune one channel and then all of them are lost. It's a nightmare for the customer. Everyone knows how difficult it is to get Comcast to pair cablecards right and I have been through 6 of them trying to figure this out.
> 
> I'm going on my third Premiere and that will be the last. If it cannot hang onto its channels, then I have no choice but to abandon the product and try something else. I hate the Comcast DVR with a passion, and I'm not sold on U-Verse yet, so I feel like I'm hanging.
> 
> ...


Our Premiere is doing the exact same thing. It simply won't keep the channels locked. If we reboot, everything begins working again. We have one interesting wrinkle though: in addition to Comcast's SA M-card, we also have an indoor antenna connected to the TiVo to pick up a couple local access channels. When the TiVo loses the channels, we lose everything...digital channels, analog, AND the antenna channels. A reboot fixes everything for a couple of hours, tops. Then it all goes black again. I'm sad to hear how many TiVos you've been through without finding a fix for the problem. As much as I'd love to blame evil old Comcast, can't see how losing the antenna channels could even possibly be their fault...can it?.


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## ttech10 (Aug 20, 2010)

shiffrin said:


> My Tivo Premiere XL rebooted twice last night. I use HD menus. The first time I was watching live TV and the blue light was on transferring a CNET video. The picture froze for about 10 seconds and then it rebooted.
> 
> The second time I was watching a recorded show and the blue light was on - again transferring a CNET show when it froze and then rebooted.
> 
> So far,all of my reboots have happened when the blue light was on.


I have a regular Premiere and just had my first reboot. I was watching a recorded Futurama episode as well as transferring some shows to my Mac.

It's still in the process of rebooting and when it's done I'm going to pick up where it left off, let's see if it does it again. I still have about 6 shows to transfer.


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## caddyroger (Mar 15, 2005)

Mine froze up Saturday during a college football. I missed about 8 minutes of the game.


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## Carl Edman (May 14, 2007)

For what it is worth, and as the person who started this thread, let me note that I received a replacement 2 TByte hard drive (same WD brand/model) from DVRUpgrade and have not experienced any unexpected reboots in the month or so since installing it in my TiVo Premiere.


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## trip1eX (Apr 2, 2005)

Haven't had this problem. 

Netflix sure does crash though. Pretty much unusable for me.


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## teewow (Oct 7, 2010)

Silly [email protected]@b question ... I have 14.5 on my Premiere box. I see that 14.6 is the latest ... but numerous reboots and connects to Tivo does not download the latest. What gives ?


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## caddyroger (Mar 15, 2005)

teewow said:


> Silly [email protected]@b question ... I have 14.5 on my Premiere box. I see that 14.6 is the latest ... but numerous reboots and connects to Tivo does not download the latest. What gives ?


You will not get until Tivo sends it to you. It could be tomorrow or 2 weeks for now. It took me 3 weeks to get the 14.5. You not missing nothing with the 14.6. I got it and do not see anything different.


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## innocentfreak (Aug 25, 2001)

teewow said:


> Silly [email protected]@b question ... I have 14.5 on my Premiere box. I see that 14.6 is the latest ... but numerous reboots and connects to Tivo does not download the latest. What gives ?


I believe TiVo said everyone should have it by Friday.


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## dugbug (Dec 29, 2003)

Well my premier is rebooting a lot now 

It happens about every 15 minutes or so during watching a netflix stream.


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## jsjames (Sep 25, 2007)

I have 14.6 and it rebooted for the first time last night while watching a show. All the same symptoms as others. Tonight it rebooted twice. My wife has had it with Tivo and I am almost there also. I have been a Tivo users for many years, but Premiere will be the death of them.
Calling for a replacement tomorrow - then to get it activated by Comcast and figure out what to do with all the recorded shows and season passes...
My Tivo HD upstairs never has had issues.


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## shiffrin (Aug 23, 2000)

jsjames said:


> I have 14.6 and it rebooted for the first time last night while watching a show. All the same symptoms as others. Tonight it rebooted twice. My wife has had it with Tivo and I am almost there also. I have been a Tivo users for many years, but Premiere will be the death of them.
> Calling for a replacement tomorrow - then to get it activated by Comcast and figure out what to do with all the recorded shows and season passes...
> My Tivo HD upstairs never has had issues.


Do you have any CNET videos being downloaded such as 'All CNET HD Video Podcasts'? If so, cancel them and delete the ones on your Tivo and see if the reboots stop. Tivo is supposedly aware of this and is working on a fix.


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## jsjames (Sep 25, 2007)

I do not have any of those videos downloading. I ran the SMART tests (per Tivo support) last night on both the internal and external drive. It took all night, but everything passed. During a football game today, it did it again and rebooted after a few freezes. Called Tivo again and now they have me running it with it plugged directly in the wall (not in the power conditioner). I know it will do it again. But what would it be if it's not the HDD's? I'm so fed up with this experience so far. Never ever had an issue with my Tivo HD's.

Almost considering going back to Comcast DVR's but that will be very hard to do!


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## jenmac (Jan 19, 2005)

What software version are you running?


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## jsjames (Sep 25, 2007)

jenmac said:


> What software version are you running?


version 14.6


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## jenmac (Jan 19, 2005)

Try requesting that they downgrade to 14.5.


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## jsjames (Sep 25, 2007)

jenmac said:


> Try requesting that they downgrade to 14.5.


I'll try that next. Right now I am playing some shows and recording with the Ethernet cable unplugged so far so good, but I can't predict when it reboots.


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