# New (Refurb) Tivo Mini stuck at "Starting up"



## Zaphod (Feb 18, 2003)

I bought two refurbished 1st gen Tivo Mini's from Woot.com's refurb sale last week. One set up and is working perfectly. The other is not.

The broken one powers on but just sits at the "Starting up" screen forever. This is from the very initial power on. I can't even run guided setup. I do see it every now and then appear to reboot (the screen goes black) but then it just comes right back to that screen.

Is this by chance a known issue that I might be able to do something about to fix, or am I looking at trying to get Tivo to replace it under the 90 day refurb warranty?

Thanks!


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## dlfl (Jul 6, 2006)

Swap the "bad" mini in for the "good" one, keeping the same power supply, and all other connections that the good one uses. If it doesn't work, you have a bad mini and should ask for replacement ASAP. If it does work it's probably the power supply. Or much less likely, the network or TV.


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## Zaphod (Feb 18, 2003)

Ugh, what are the chances I got 2 bad refurbs back to back? Tivo swapped the one under the 90 day refurb warranty, but the replacement is doing the exact same thing.


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## dlfl (Jul 6, 2006)

See post #2


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## Zaphod (Feb 18, 2003)

You've GOT to be kidding me!!! THREE in a row?!! Tivo swapped it out again. This 3rd one at least started Guided Setup, but once it restarted to install the software update, it's just stuck at Starting Up again. It blanks out after 2 or 3 minutes for about 10 seconds, but then just returns to Starting Up.

I'm thinking there has to be something else going on, but for the life of me I can't imagine what. I've used the same power supply that came with the replacement each time, and I've used the ps from the unit that works fine on the broken units (and they're still broken). I've put all of the various ps's from the bad units on the good unit and it continues to work fine with all of them.

I'm SOOO frustrated! I'll be kind of surprised if Tivo will swap it out a 3rd time (for a 4th unit), but I guess I'm going to have to call them to find out. Otherwise I have to hope that Woot doesn't care about getting the exact same unit back for a refund.


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## dlfl (Jul 6, 2006)

Have you tried the swap I suggested in post #2 here? Are you connecting everything with hardwired ethernet? (Not WiFi, and no ethernet switches?). Or are you using MOCA?


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## Zaphod (Feb 18, 2003)

dlfl said:


> Have you tried the swap I suggested in post #2 here? Are you connecting everything with hardwired ethernet? (Not WiFi, and no ethernet switches?). Or are you using MOCA?


It is hard-wired Ethernet.

I'm an IT and general techie person myself so I'm a good troubleshooter. I can't believe I got 3 bad units in a row, but at the same time I can't imagine what else would be causing it.

Yes, I've swapped everything. Initially I just did a straight swap of the units leaving all power supplies and cables in place, but I've since also swapped the various cables (HDMI, Ethernet, power supplies) around too, even tried different TVs (even the Tivo remote though I don't know what that would possibly have to do with it). The 1 good unit ALWAYS works, and the 3 bad units ALWAYS fail, regardless of what they're connected to and with which cables.

When I called Tivo the 2nd time to get it swapped out again, the guy did have me try powering it on with ONLY the HDMI and power connected. Didn't help.

When I tried to set up the 2nd replacement (3rd unit) last night, I did power it on initially without the Ethernet connected and at least got into Guided Setup (though I have no idea if leaving the Ethernet disconnected first made any difference). I plugged in the Ethernet only when I got to the point in the guided setup that it asked me about network setup. At that point it did successfully connect to Tivo, and then said it needed to restart to apply the software update. I clicked Select on the remote, it restarted, and that's when it got stuck in the Starting Up mode again. I again tried swapping everything and nothing helps.

There couldn't be interference of some sort from the other good Mini on the network could there? I've tried totally unplugging it (power, Ethernet, HDMI, everything) while testing the bad unit, but that still makes no difference. Still, if I get Tivo to swap it yet again, I might try leaving that other working Mini completely unplugged while I try to set up the other one.

I guess one more thing I'll try is power cycling my Roamio Plus and see if then the current one works before I call Tivo again. Even if that doesn't work, I may power cycle it again when/if I get another replacement before trying to set it up.


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## Zaphod (Feb 18, 2003)

Well, just in case somebody else runs across this, yes, apparently I had 3 bad refurbished units in a row. The 4th one finally worked.

Be patient but persistent with Tivo to swap it out again.

I ended up posting on Tivo's own forums and a guy from Tivo helped me. He had me do some additional troubleshooting, nothing I hadn't done before, swapping cables, putting the broken one where the working one was, try powering on without the network cable attached, but I patiently did them again.

Finally he agreed, it had to be the unit bad again and authorized a 3rd replacement (3rd replacement, to get a 4th unit). Though I did have to call in to the phone support to actually get the replacement shipped, but they could see all the notes from the guy who helped me on the forums.

Just finished setting up the 4th unit and worked like a charm!


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## dlfl (Jul 6, 2006)

With your kind of luck I would avoid any games of chance!


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## jim1971 (Oct 11, 2015)

Zaphod said:


> Well, just in case somebody else runs across this, yes, apparently I had 3 bad refurbished units in a row. The 4th one finally worked.
> 
> Be patient but persistent with Tivo to swap it out again.
> 
> ...


 Just out of curiosity, is a factory refurb 92000 sold by a dealer 'lifetime'?


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## snerd (Jun 6, 2008)

dlfl said:


> With your kind of luck I would avoid any games of chance!


No, no, no. Go to the nearest casino, and take a friend with you. Go to a craps table and bet $1 on "pass" while your friend bets $10 on "don't pass". Increase the friend's bet size in proportion to the growing fortune. Go home rich after the casino bans you from the craps table.


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## Zaphod (Feb 18, 2003)

jim1971 said:


> Just out of curiosity, is a factory refurb 92000 sold by a dealer 'lifetime'?


It was indeed a 9200 refurb, sold by Woot.com. It did come with Lifetime service. I had bought two of them. One worked perfectly right out of the box. The other failed.

Woot offered to let me return it for a refund, but they didn't have any replacements to send me. For the price (essentially 2 for 1, at $70 each, compared to the $149 MSRP of the current model brand new), I would rather have a working unit, so I ended up calling Tivo to swap out under the 90 day Refurbished warranty.


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## jim1971 (Oct 11, 2015)

Zaphod said:


> It was indeed a 9200 refurb, sold by Woot.com. It did come with Lifetime service. I had bought two of them. One worked perfectly right out of the box. The other failed.
> 
> Woot offered to let me return it for a refund, but they didn't have any replacements to send me. For the price (essentially 2 for 1, at $70 each, compared to the $149 MSRP of the current model brand new), I would rather have a working unit, so I ended up calling Tivo to swap out under the 90 day Refurbished warranty.


Thank you. I was sorry to read about your refurb problems. I normally like to get refurbs and good quality used for many kinds of things because you can save a lot. Also very nice to hear that tivo was good to you about the refurb warranty and lifetime status. I almost got one from Woot, but was going to be out of town for several days when it was delivered, so I skipped to prevent it from sitting on my front porch for days.


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