# Bolt+ how long do you need to wait after power outage to restart?



## jbs (Aug 23, 2005)

Brand new Bolt+ with 8 Minis on MoCa network. Twice now when the power got disconnected (once when moved, once when upgrading surge suppressor) it took an unusually long time before it would power up. When plugged back in I'd hear _something_ from it but no lights on the front and nothing onscreen.

Is there some minimum cool down time where the Tivo won't power back up after an outage? And do you need to disconnect the coax as well before rebooting?

Or does this sound like some hardware defect? The device is brand new so that would be pretty heartbreaking and I would not look forward to setting up this family of Minis again.

Thanks for any insights!


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## sfhub (Jan 6, 2007)

jbs said:


> Brand new Bolt+ with 8 Minis on MoCa network. Twice now when the power got disconnected (once when moved, once when upgrading surge suppressor) it took an unusually long time before it would power up. When plugged back in I'd hear _something_ from it but no lights on the front and nothing onscreen.
> 
> Is there some minimum cool down time where the Tivo won't power back up after an outage? And do you need to disconnect the coax as well before rebooting?
> 
> ...


I don't know if it is a hardware defect, but it isn't normal. My Bolt starts booting right away. Within a few seconds I see something on the screen.

It does take a couple of minutes to finish booting and become usable, that is normal. You should see something on the screen during that time though.


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## jbs (Aug 23, 2005)

Does seem like a hardware failure. No green light on the front after various intervals of waiting to reconnect power over the last several hours. Nothing on screen. There's fan noise from inside and I've bypassed the UPS and surge to make sure they're not the problem but all to no avail.

Any other suggestions other than calling Tivo for a replacement? And if I get a replacement does anyone know what the process is for getting the band back together? That is, do I just plug it in and the Tivo Minis recognize it? Or am I going to have to go through the entire setup process again to associate the Minis to the new Bolt?


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## sfhub (Jan 6, 2007)

jbs said:


> Any other suggestions other than calling Tivo for a replacement? And if I get a replacement does anyone know what the process is for getting the band back together? That is, do I just plug it in and the Tivo Minis recognize it? Or am I going to have to go through the entire setup process again to associate the Minis to the new Bolt?


Anything I would suggest would technically void the warranty. Since your Bolt is new, best to get a new replacement.

As to the Mini, the setup shouldn't be that difficult. You configure the replacement Bolt as before (MoCA bridge if that's what you set up before). On the Mini you just go into one of the menus and change the TiVo it associates with. Shouldn't be more than 30 seconds to do that.


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## jbs (Aug 23, 2005)

Thanks for the help here. Just a follow-up in case others come across the same issue. A (very long) call to Tivo tech support resulted in a replacement Bolt being readied to ship but before it shipped I had a thought and tried a compatible 12V 3A power supply with the same tip. Booted up perfectly.

Called Tivo support back and had them change the replacement Bolt to just a replacement power supply. In spite of my having saved them a few hundred dollars worth of equipment they made getting the power supply an exceedingly painful hour-long conversation, but nevertheless all's now well.

A shame that a thousand dollar purchase turned into such a negative experience because of bad QC on a $2 part.


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## sfhub (Jan 6, 2007)

jbs said:


> before it shipped I had a thought and tried a compatible 12V 3A power supply with the same tip. Booted up perfectly.


That's something new. Statistically of course it is possible, but usually those power adapters fail after some time in use, not brand new out of the box.

Good you got it diagnosed.


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## jbs (Aug 23, 2005)

It failed after a couple of weeks of use. First time powered up fine. Second time (couple of weeks later) it took some rest period. Third time it never reached whatever voltage threshhold the Tivo needs to startup.

Something similar happened to me once before with a $5000 Barracuda Firewall device. Faced with countless hours of configuration and setup I plugged in a compatible power supply (from a PC monitor) and lo and behold the firewall sprang back to life.

For the record *and I specifically don't recommend anyone try this themselves* the power supply that turned out to be identical specs was from a Seagate external hard drive. 12 volts and 3 amps, tip positive. The only catch is that the barrel is about 5 mm shorter so it has to sit just right to make the connection but it was enough to power the system until the replacement AC adapter arrived.


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## sfhub (Jan 6, 2007)

jbs said:


> Something similar happened to me once before with a $5000 Barracuda Firewall device. Faced with countless hours of configuration and setup I plugged in a compatible power supply (from a PC monitor) and lo and behold the firewall sprang back to life.


My friend used to be at HP working on the enterprise hardware and he mentioned power supplies were the least glamorous of the tasks so they always stuck the new guy out of college on it. What they were left with was million dollar equipment failing because of a $50 component.

On the PC-side, with these 80-plus platinum certified power supplies, they seem to be spending time designing them well and putting in better quality components. Hobbyists seem willing to pay for better equipment even if it is behind the scenes.


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