# R10 randomly rebooting?



## markz (Oct 22, 2002)

I have noticed lately that my 30 second skip was not working, so I figured I was having power outages during the day. Then tonight, my R10 rebooted 4 times (so far) while watching previously recorded shows. Any idea why?


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## litzdog911 (Oct 18, 2002)

Typical symptoms of dying hard drive. Here are some resources if you want to replace/upgrade the drive yourself. Act fast if you want to preserve your current recordings.

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

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

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

http://www.mfslive.org/

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

http://www.dvrupgrade.com/dvr/stores/1/instantcake.cfm

http://www.9thtee.com/


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## markz (Oct 22, 2002)

litzdog911 said:


> Typical symptoms of dying hard drive. Here are some resources if you want to replace/upgrade the drive yourself. Act fast if you want to preserve your current recordings.
> 
> http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=25
> 
> ...


Thanks.

I just had to replace the hard drive on my GXCEBOT a couple months ago. I bought software from www.DVRUpgrade.com for that one and supplied my own drive.

Strange that I have had both these TiVos for a long time and then a month or so apart, both hard drives fail.


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## markz (Oct 22, 2002)

So, which method would allow me to backup all my recordings and restore them to the new drive? 

When my GXCEBOT, I lost everything.


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## John T Smith (Jun 17, 2004)

http://mfslive.org/winmfs/

I just replaced 5+ year old drives in 3 units

I had an extra computer where I could temp install the drives on an IDE connection, I think the software will work to clone a drive via two USB connections as well

Part of the cloning process is to expand the new drive into the available space... the drives I replaced were 80gig, the new drives are all 320Gig

I bought my 320Gig Ide drives from Newegg


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## jcf2001 (Dec 11, 2007)

markz said:


> I have noticed lately that my 30 second skip was not working, so I figured I was having power outages during the day. Then tonight, my R10 rebooted 4 times (so far) while watching previously recorded shows. Any idea why?


Mine is starting to reboot randomly again too. It was fixed with a Software upgrade last year and now it's doing it again. So, I question that it's the HD going bad as other have suggested.


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## markz (Oct 22, 2002)

My TiVo has not rebooted again since the day I started this thread. It seems as if it must have been rebooting randomly during the day when I was at work off and on before I started this thread. Then that day, it rebooted 4-5 times that night while we were watching tv. Now it has been rock solid since then.

We are at 1 week with no reboots. I wonder if it was a corrupted recording that has since been deleted, or a software glitch that has been corrected.


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## bobbarn (Nov 5, 2007)

My R10 has suddenly developed an aversion to recording.....

When I record shows now it never seems to get through the entire show without completely freezing. I either have to unplug it, or hit the reset button where the card is located.

I can watch live TV or play recorded shows all day long without issue.

Most of my recording is against local (Providence, RI) stations. 
(wife has had lockups with Ellen, American Idol, KyleXY...)

Anyone else experiencing this?


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## jcf2001 (Dec 11, 2007)

markz said:


> My TiVo has not rebooted again since the day I started this thread. It seems as if it must have been rebooting randomly during the day when I was at work off and on before I started this thread. Then that day, it rebooted 4-5 times that night while we were watching tv. Now it has been rock solid since then.
> 
> We are at 1 week with no reboots. I wonder if it was a corrupted recording that has since been deleted, or a software glitch that has been corrected.


Mine has rebooted at lest four time in the past week. The last time this evening while watching the news.

Another weird thing that has been happening on occasion is the picture will freeze and the audio keeps going on.


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## KzooPackFan (Jan 24, 2009)

I have 2 R10's and they both just started randomly booting today. Each has rebooted 4-5 times. I would suspect a software "upgrade" pushed to R10s rather than the hard drive.


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## litzdog911 (Oct 18, 2002)

KzooPackFan said:


> I have 2 R10's and they both just started randomly booting today. Each has rebooted 4-5 times. I would suspect a software "upgrade" pushed to R10s rather than the hard drive.


There haven't been any recent "software upgrade pushes".

Consider some possible causes that could affect both Tivos ....
* AC power glitches (are your Tivos powered using a UPS?)
* Overheating


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## Jumi (Sep 27, 2003)

After months of stability on my DVR80 with the latest software I have had one total black-screen freeze and one reboot while watching a recording.


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## tedy (Nov 2, 2007)

Hi, I'm also in the Providence, RI market. I've had my Samsung SIR 4040 receiver since 2004. Three years ago (before baby was born) I upgraded the drive to a 120GB. I have always had the unit on a UPS.

We started having reboot and lockup issues roughly 1 1/2 years ago. The internal temperature remained normal. Upon research I was led to believe my hard drive was bad. I changed it to a 250GB. The locking up was better but not gone. After I received the 6.4a update things seemed to get much better. Recently though, we have been experiencing more random reboots and lockups than ever before. I tried a new cooling fan, blowing out the box with air, and the various kickstart commands, all of which didn't help. I finally caved and ordered an R15-100. They sent it to me no charge in a day. It's not TIVO but it is sufficient.

For the last few days, I have left the Samsung box connected so we could watch the rest of our recordings. I haven't had a single reboot or lockup since the box was disconnected from the satellite and phone line.

Any ideas???


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## rbtravis (Aug 9, 2005)

Clean out the recently deleted and season passes folder. After cleaning restart the computer using the messages and settings folder at the bottom.


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## tedy (Nov 2, 2007)

I've tried cleaning out those folders also. I've read many posts on the subject and probably tried every "solution" on this site. Like I said, the Samsung unit is working just fine not being connected to the satellite. This tells me my hard drive and the data on it are fine.


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## KzooPackFan (Jan 24, 2009)

Update: Each of my R10s rebooted a total of about 5 times each that day. Since then we have not encountered any other reboots.


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## Jumi (Sep 27, 2003)

Update: 2 freezes and 2 reboots on Sunday (DVR80 6.4) then fine for 3 days. I agree that this doesn't sound like the standard "failing HD".


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## rbtravis (Aug 9, 2005)

Hard drives are built with error correction and spare sectors on each block. If the drive is going bad the error correction will attempt to recover the data and assign it to a spare sector. When the spares run out the drives die. What you are doing is whistling as you walk by a graveyard. Repair while you have a chance, or don't Cry later when you have lost everything. It will be your own fault. PATA drives are still available, Replace them while you still can, they may not be available later!


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## skipw (Feb 9, 2006)

I have also had problems with the receiver (R10) rebooting and freezing up for over a year now. I did replace the hard drive on one unit about a year ago. Not sure if that actually fixed anything because neither of my R10 receivers had a problem for a few weeks after that. Then the problem started again. Both receivers would freeze at the exact same time. From other forums, I found out that other people had the same problem at the same exact time. After many calls to customer service, they finally admitted that there was a problem. Most likely a conflict with the "local" feed. So the problem wasn't wide spread but did seem to be an issue in certain local markets. 
The problem seems to come and go, lately I haven't seen any reboots but it does freeze up once or twice a week. Could be a hardware issue, but both receivers seem to act up around the same time, then both will be good for a week or so. 
DTV's answer to fix the problem was to replace the receiver and sign a 2 year commitment. (Wrong answer) 
If you're going to replace the drive, consider getting a larger drive. If that doesn't fix your problem you will at least have more hours of recording space and you won't feel like you replaced it for nothing.


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## fox74 (May 10, 2007)

my R10 recently started acting up by random rebooting and sometimes losing both audio and video. I spend an hour with direct tv tech support, we tried few things, then the rep tried to sell me maintenace contract,which I refused, then I asked him is there anything to do beside buying the contract, he said we can reformat the drive. I agreed to reformat the drive and he showed me how to do it. The reformatting took 4 hours and I lost all my recording, but now the system is stable and no problem so far.


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## rbtravis (Aug 9, 2005)

Fox74
By reformat the drive do you mean you did a Clear and Delete Everything? Or did you do something else? Please Clarify.


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## fox74 (May 10, 2007)

Yes that is correct, Clear and delete everthing option. The guy at direct tv told me it will format your drive and your unit will be like brand new. It took 4 hours to do a 80g drive, i think it does a lot beside just deleting few files. I also open the box and with compressed air cleared all the dust. I live in Utah where dust is big problem and raises hell with electronics.


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## rbtravis (Aug 9, 2005)

Thanks for your reply.


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## Dad440 (Oct 9, 2007)

I went through this exact same situation almost 18 months ago, and posted about it then. This is the same behavior with spontaneous reboots that was related to software version. Once they finally released a new software version, the problems totally disappeared until about 10-15 days ago.

I'm running a 250GB HD from Weaknees on one R-10, and stock original on another R-10. Both units started doing the reboots and/or freezes requiring manual reset. Have 6.4a-01-2-521 running on both.

I know from going through this last year that it is not the hard drive. It happens when a channel is left on a local Rhode Island or Connecticut channel.

It is worthless to call Directv as they are clueless about this subject, and only know the standard answer of reformatting your HD, or buying one of their Directv recorders with their own software.


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## Jumi (Sep 27, 2003)

Dad440: Ditto here. New rash of reboots & freezes started here about 2 weeks ago. Cleveland locals. Just had another about 5 minutes ago. Getting about one incident per day. Agree that 6.4a fixed it for months. Also agree that it only happens when at least one tuner is on a local feed.


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## rbtravis (Aug 9, 2005)

Dad440 & Jumi

Have either of you tried FOX74's solution? It worked for him and is cheaper than buying another drive.


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## DreadPirateRob (Nov 12, 2002)

I'm having the random reboot problem on one of my two R-10s. Both are stock, running 6.4a, neither are connected to a phone line (no updates in the last 6 months IIRC), and the one with the problems is on a UPS. I thought it was only rebooting once per day, but now realize it's doing it multiple times daily, since it did it 3 times last night while recording a basketball game. 

So is it a hard drive problem or a power supply one? I have a ton of recordings on that drive that I'd rather not lose if at all possible, so I don't want to do a C&DE if at all possible.


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## bitmap (Feb 17, 2002)

If the only symptom is the reboots, I'd lean more toward the drive.


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