# Stuck on "Clearing and deleting everything. This will take an hour"



## Tivo_noob (Jan 28, 2006)

Just bought a 2nd Tivo off ebay and went to delete everything almost 2.5 hrs ago and it is stuck on this mesage. i have unplugged at the mains and restarted and it just reverts to this message  

It is a bog standard 40g unmodded Tivo


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## Tivo_noob (Jan 28, 2006)

Sorry ignore, quite literally as soon as i pressed enter to start this thread it went into set up


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## Tivo_noob (Jan 28, 2006)

Ok new problem  

Set up call (Failed. Couldn't connect) message 

With my other Tivo i use network to download guide data and can't for the life of me remember the last time i had to use my modem to do a daily call, i have no call waiting either so am i right in thinking i don't need a prefix?


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## blindlemon (May 12, 2002)

No prefix, nothing - just plug it into the phone line and it should do its stuff.


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## Tivo_noob (Jan 28, 2006)

blindlemon said:


> No prefix, nothing - just plug it into the phone line and it _*should*_ do its stuff.


Hmmm i seem to remember when my other Tivo had network problems and i had to revert to dial up for a short period i had the same problem.......................the only thing is i can't remember how i solved it 

Is there anyway of testing the modem on this Tivo, in fact come to think of it it must be ok as the last successful call was made in August


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## Tivo_noob (Jan 28, 2006)

Well i've tried every combination going and still no joy  

The phone line is fine as i have checked it and even unplugged the cable from the phone (after checking) and put it stright into the Tivo but it still won't call out :down:


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## Tivo_noob (Jan 28, 2006)

When i change the "Set Dial Tone Detection to Off" i get a different message:

"Failed. Line unavailable"


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## 6022tivo (Oct 29, 2002)

I don't care what people say about cables..

The tivo phone cable is a funny one, do you have your old one from TiVo1?? Did it come with the tivo, huge long black cable?


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## RichardJH (Oct 7, 2002)

> huge long black cable?


or as with my two WHITE


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## RichardJH (Oct 7, 2002)

> Just bought a 2nd Tivo off ebay


Was it previously setup for a network connection ??


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## Tivo_noob (Jan 28, 2006)

6022tivo said:


> I don't care what people say about cables..
> 
> The tivo phone cable is a funny one, do you have your old one from TiVo1?? Did it come with the tivo, huge long black cable?


Well i was coming to that conclusion, ie the cable is the wrong one!

I don't think i have the original Tivo one, in fact i have that many cables it could have malgamated into the spaggetti junction that currently resides at the back of my TV, Tivo, xbox, Amp, Freeview, Surround Sound etc etc etc 

I must have one somewhere as i have made a daily call using dial up before but with which cable is anybodys guess!


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## Tivo_noob (Jan 28, 2006)

RichardJH said:


> Was it previously setup for a network connection ??


No because the warranty seal is still intact


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## mrtickle (Aug 26, 2001)

If you have ADSL remember that every phone, fax, modem, etc in your house must be plugged in via a filter. Only the router should be unfiltered; and so you could try unplugging all the other phones just for a while to isolate the fault.

My tivo's phone cable was white  but doesn't look "funny" otherwise? Just an RJ11 on the TiVo end (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RJ11,_RJ14,_RJ25) -ie, with the middle two wires used - and a BT431A (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BT431A) plug on the other end.


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## kitschcamp (May 18, 2001)

Tivo_noob said:


> No because the warranty seal is still intact


Ha ha! That's no guarantee. It's very easy to gently peel it off and re-apply it. My primary tivo still has its seal intact, despite having had a Turbonet card, at least 3 hard drives and a cachecard installed over the years...


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## Automan (Oct 29, 2000)

If you have a sky box it's telephone cord will work with Tivo.

Automan.


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## OzSat (Feb 15, 2001)

Make sure the phone cable is in the 'phone socket - and not the comms socket.


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## Tivo_noob (Jan 28, 2006)

Automan said:


> If you have a sky box it's telephone cord will work with Tivo.
> 
> Automan.


Sorry no i don't have Sky


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## Pete77 (Aug 1, 2006)

Tivo_noob said:


> Sorry no i don't have Sky


Any normal laptop modem cable as sole at Staples, Currys, Maplins etc will be suitable for connecting a Tivo to a BT phone socket.


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## Tivo_noob (Jan 28, 2006)

ozsat said:


> Make sure the phone cable is in the 'phone socket - and not the comms socket.


Yeah its in the phone socket, this is _really_ getting on my nerves now as i am running out of things to try and SWMBO is giving me "the look" while the room is a jumble of wires and no TV while i try and sort this other one out

OMG while i'm typing this it has bloody gone and done it, christ on a bike don't know what i have done right but it has connected, downloaded, hung up and is now importing.......................fingers toes and everything else well and truly crossed!

:up:


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## dvdfever (Jun 2, 2002)

Tivo_noob said:


> Just bought a 2nd Tivo off ebay and went to delete everything almost 2.5 hrs ago and it is stuck on this mesage. i have unplugged at the mains and restarted and it just reverts to this message
> 
> It is a bog standard 40g unmodded Tivo


Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but I've just bought a TiVo from someone on Ebay (can't remember on here if I can go into details, but it's not unmodded - and was cheaper than a new hard drive for the one it replaces) and it's been on for less than an hour, but I was a bit panicky about it giving this message after it alternates with the 'Welcome. Powering Up' screen.

I'm hoping that by posting here, it causes mine to play ball. Otherwise, I'll be seeking a refund from the guy who sold it to me.


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## Automan (Oct 29, 2000)

If it has a bigger hard drive the process takes longer...

Bigger the drive, the longer the time...

Or it could be dead Jim 

Automan.


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## dvdfever (Jun 2, 2002)

Automan said:


> If it has a bigger hard drive the process takes longer...
> 
> Bigger the drive, the longer the time...
> 
> ...


I could understand it taking long if it was stuck on the screen, but the fact it keeps going back to the Welcome screen and round and round leads me to believe it's goosed. I've also spotted that just before it resets back to the Welcome screen, one of the hard drives makes a bit of a grinding sound. Doesn't sound good.


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## healeydave (Jun 4, 2003)

Sounds like a corrupt OS, but without having another (known working HDD) to try, its hard to say. If the OS reboots prematurely, this usually causes a GSOD, so either the system is rebooting before the system is even capable of evaluating a GSOD event, or its power cycling due to a problem elsewhere. Either way, unless it was descriptively sold in this "unusable" state, you might want to consider contacting the eBayer.


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## mikerr (Jun 2, 2005)

Dual drive systems will do this when the B drive fails - it only actually looks for it after "almost there".


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## dvdfever (Jun 2, 2002)

Thanks for the replies. It was sold as working perfectly fine. I contacted the guy and he said he will refund, adding that it never did this when he last used it. He hasn't said yet whether he wants the unit back (I'm not paying return postage if that's the case as it's arrived faulty) but in the meantime I'm not going to open it up so I can't be accused of being the one who broke it.


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## Pete77 (Aug 1, 2006)

dvdfever said:


> He hasn't said yet whether he wants the unit back (I'm not paying return postage if that's the case as it's arrived faulty) but in the meantime I'm not going to open it up so I can't be accused of being the one who broke it.


When I bought a similarly broken unsubbed unit advertised as working on Ebay I ended up keeping the broken unit free of any purchase charge as it wasn't worth the while of the seller to pay for the return carriage.


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## dvdfever (Jun 2, 2002)

mikerr said:


> Dual drive systems will do this when the B drive fails - it only actually looks for it after "almost there".


I've just got round to opening it up. Although it was advertised as having twin drives, and he thought they were 150Gb each, there's actually just one single 160Gb drive 

I've unplugged and reseated the serial cables, but it's made no difference (nothing else I could really do inside it) apart from that before it resets back to "Welcome..." the hard drive no longer makes a few grinding noises.



Pete77 said:


> When I bought a similarly broken unsubbed unit advertised as working on Ebay I ended up keeping the broken unit free of any purchase charge as it wasn't worth the while of the seller to pay for the return carriage.


I eventually got a refund from the guy. Before that, he said he'd try and get someone to pick it up, but I said I wanted my money back before that otherwise I'd have no trackable method of it being returned to him. I then got the refund a couple of days later and have had no further contact. So I've basically got a massive paperweight... well, two, if you count my original dead TiVo :/


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## Pete77 (Aug 1, 2006)

dvdfever said:


> So I've basically got a massive paperweight... well, two, if you count my original dead TiVo :/


Perhaps you and I can donate our paperweights to Mike when he gets round to opening The History of Tivo Museum.:up::up::up:


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## AMc (Mar 22, 2002)

dvdfever said:


> So I've basically got a massive paperweight... well, two, if you count my original dead TiVo :/


Unless I've misread you it sounds like you need a new IDE drive and a few minutes with the AltEPG disc image and you'd have the paperweight back as a working Tivo. 
I can see that would require some expense but given you have the chassis for nothing...


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## dvdfever (Jun 2, 2002)

AMc said:


> Unless I've misread you it sounds like you need a new IDE drive and a few minutes with the AltEPG disc image and you'd have the paperweight back as a working Tivo.
> I can see that would require some expense but given you have the chassis for nothing...


Well, the intention was to buy a unit that had both the networking innards plus the hard drive, and it was priced at less than the cost of a hard drive alone, if I bought a good sized new one, ready to roll with the TiVo, from the usual places (okay, this was only 150Gb but it would've been a decent trade-off against the innards of the TiVo).

Not sure why I'd need the AltEPG disc image as I didn't with my main networked TiVo.


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## TCM2007 (Dec 25, 2006)

You'd need an image of some kind if the existing disk is broken, the AltEPG one is preconfigured.


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## AMc (Mar 22, 2002)

dvdfever said:


> Not sure why I'd need the AltEPG disc image as I didn't with my main networked TiVo.


AFAIK It comes set up ready to use the AltEPG and I believe has a few ready made enhancements that you don't need to install yourself - I think DHCP is in there which makes it simpler to network?

[edit] missed TCM2007 reply on a new page - what he said[/edit]


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## dvdfever (Jun 2, 2002)

Ah, I understand now. I remember having to telnet over to my main one to use AltEPG, a couple of months back.

I don't really need a 1Gb drive, as I saw on one particular site which I think I've bought from before (not sure if I'm allowed to name them here, but I got great service so no probs with that), as that's just over £100, hence why I was really trying to go for a cheaper all-in-one solution, which I thought I had with this unit, but obviously don't.


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## AMc (Mar 22, 2002)

If you have a CD burner and a PC with an IDE cable then it's pretty simple to set up a plain 3.5" IDE drive as a new Tivo one...
http://www.tivoland.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=626

If you want to go over 500GB you may need to buy a SATA drive and suitable SATA>IDE convertor which will be more expense.


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