# Do Tivos crash frequently?



## Steve2112 (Aug 22, 2006)

I'm just curious - I currently run my own PVR via SageTV - it is Windows based, so once in a while it locks up/crashes. I also have some problems with the TV tuner cards once in a while (e.g. remote stops working, so I have to reboot).

I have no monthly fee to worry about, but perhaps the $13/mo would be worth it if there are no lockups or crashes. I know Tivo is based on Linux, so I would think it would crash less than Windows.

Has anyone here converted from a custom PVR over to a Tivo? Any former Sage users here (or BeyondTV etc....) - I would be interested in knowing your experience.

I just wish the lifetime membership option was still available - they are pretty expensive on eBay (I would want a 2 tuner setup, and someone is selling one with a lifetime sub for $999 - ouch, way too much money).

Thanks!

Steve


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## OLdDog (Dec 15, 2001)

TiVo, being Linux based, is MUCH more stable that any Windows based platform.

Also as it is tasked to basically a single function and that increases stability.

While there are hardware failures the failure rate is markedly lower than any other similar device I know of.


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## Bierboy (Jun 12, 2004)

No


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## bkdtv (Jan 9, 2003)

In four years of Tivo use, I have had exactly one crash / reboot.


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## PRMan (Jul 26, 2000)

With 450 GB (an upgrade performed by me), my HDTiVo crashed/needed a reboot about every 10 weeks. After installing the Zipper, which reboots it once a week when there are no recordings, I have not had a single issue.

My other TiVo (which also has a small drive upgrade) has only rebooted when the power went out in over 2 years.

And they NEVER lock up. If something goes wrong they immediately reboot and you lose at most 5 minutes of your show. (OK, I'm sure someone, somewhere has gotten one to lock up, but it's extremely rare.)


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## alansplace (Apr 30, 2006)

Steve2112 said:


> I'm just curious - I currently run my own PVR via SageTV - it is Windows based, so once in a while it locks up/crashes. I also have some problems with the TV tuner cards once in a while (e.g. remote stops working, so I have to reboot).


i have a Toshiba RD-XS32S DVR/DVD burner combo that backs up my two TCD540040's. i've never had to reboot the Toshiba.


Steve2112 said:


> I have no monthly fee to worry about, but perhaps the $13/mo would be worth it if there are no lockups or crashes. I know Tivo is based on Linux, so I would think it would crash less than Windows.


neither tivo (one a year old now and the other 6 months old) has ever rebooted on its own.


Steve2112 said:


> Has anyone here converted from a custom PVR over to a Tivo? Any former Sage users here (or BeyondTV etc....) - I would be interested in knowing your experience.


i just ordered from tivo this dual tuner special offer which i plan to use in place of the Toshiba.


Steve2112 said:


> I just wish the lifetime membership option was still available - they are pretty expensive on eBay (I would want a 2 tuner setup, and someone is selling one with a lifetime sub for $999 - ouch, way too much money).
> 
> Thanks!
> 
> Steve


try this special offer instead.
--
Alan


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## Glich (Feb 19, 2002)

I have had my tivo for gong on 6 years. Discounting a 1 month period where my software was dammaged (tivo did a remote reload) . I have had 1 major crash. every 6-9 months or some somthing screy happens (like a block of channels disaeparing from guide or my lights in the front turn off for no reason) that a reboot fixes but dose not really harm it use till iam ready to reboot.


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## MickeS (Dec 26, 2002)

I've had mine (a 230 model) for 4 years this christmas, and I've had it crash a couple of times, it was happening over a few days... turned out it was a HD (upgraded by me) that was going bad. Put in a new 300GB and haven't had any more problems since.

So I'd say that no, they do not crash frequently...


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## vman41 (Jun 18, 2002)

I'm sure there are some defective TiVos out there that do crash frequently with owners too conditioned by PCs and other gadgets to realize that their boxes are broken, instead of seeing zero crashes like the rest of us.


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## JYoung (Jan 16, 2002)

I've never had a TiVo crash.
I have had a couple of instances where I've had to reboot them.


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## megazone (Mar 3, 2002)

I've had TiVo for over 4.5 years and I probably had a couple of spontaneous reboots during that time, but it is certainly not something that happens so often that I notice. Since I have the 30-second skip and on-screen clock hacks on, I know when it reboots.


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## moracity (Aug 24, 2006)

My Tivo locks up/freezes several times a day. It happens during Live TV, watching recording, while recording, while on standby, or just sitting at the Tivo menu. I called and got an RMA 2 weeks ago, but still haven't received a shippng label. That's a separate issue.


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## peteypete (Feb 3, 2004)

My 3 tivos have NEVER crashed in 2.5 years of operation.


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## ZeoTiVo (Jan 2, 2004)

Steve2112 said:


> I just wish the lifetime membership option was still available - they are pretty expensive on eBay (I would want a 2 tuner setup, and someone is selling one with a lifetime sub for $999 - ouch, way too much money).
> 
> Thanks!
> 
> Steve


man that cracks me up 999$. the DT I have right now is awesome but in 3 years I am fairly certain it will not be in much use as Digital and HD really come on strong.

so then worst case of paying 100$ for the box and 899/12.95 = 5.7 years just to break even. for MSD 899/6.95 = 10.7 years.

I think the monthly payment is really not so bad as that. I doubt I would have even lifetimed this DT unit at 299$


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## TheSlyBear (Dec 26, 2002)

Not one of my 3 has ever crashed (oldest is 4 years old) that I know of.


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## tazzftw (Mar 26, 2005)

Mine has been crashing a lot lately. Usually when it changes channels automatically. I've also noticed that when the cable goes out, that's where it also happens. Sometimes it doesn't even crash, but takes a full minute before actually changing channels, losing that time. And sometimes the whole thing will freeze for 30 seconds before starting again.

I'm simply assuming that it's a worn out hard drive (492 hours). Once it no longer works at all, I'll replace it. Thankfully, the prices for HDs are dropping like crazy.


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## yukit (Jul 23, 2005)

My DT unit used to crash a lot until the 7.3.1 software upgrade.
I probably have one crash in about a month. Rarely while I am actually watching a program on Tivo, but I can tell the reboot by the 30s skip not working because of the reset.

I would say that Tivo is far more reliable than my HTPCs.
I have one PC dedicated as the main HTPC running MCE also acting as the Tivo video server.
My other PC (my fancy primary machine) is also HTPC capable. I use the HDTV card's s-video input to view the Tivo output using ATI's multimedia software.
They works well enough, but I have to constantly tweaking them to work well.


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## ADent (Jan 7, 2000)

My TiVo reboots about twice a year. One of those typ is a SW upgrade, not sure what the other one is (presumably a SW upgrade too, but usually nothing I can notice).

Those are scheduled at 2am.


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## Puppy76 (Oct 7, 2004)

I've had one crash in close to two years. And even then it reboots automatically and continues recording what it was recording (if it was recording something).

As you've probably noticed even just from this thread-Tivo's basically don't crash unless the hard drive is going bad. And even if they do crash, they recover from it gracefully, just missing a few minutes of a recording. If someone says their Tivo crashes all the time, 10 times out of 10 it's the hard drive.


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## Jonathan_S (Oct 23, 2001)

Puppy76 said:


> As you've probably noticed even just from this thread-Tivo's basically don't crash unless the hard drive is going bad. And even if they do crash, they recover from it gracefully, just missing a few minutes of a recording. If someone says their Tivo crashes all the time, 10 times out of 10 it's the hard drive.


And 1 out of 10 times its a dead fan causing the hard drive to overheat and crash. 

(Had that happen, 3 years or so after I bought my TiVo the fan died and the hard drive got unhappy even though the internal temperature didn't reach the TiVo's overheat warning threshold.)

I also had the TiVo "crash" reboot once on me when I was using it. As I recall, I'd scheduled a recording and it was checking for conflicts and taking an unusually long time. I was impatient and kept pressing the TiVo button on the remote. Eventually it just rebooted. 
(I would guess that it keeps track of the button presses, and if too many queue up without being processed it assumed the unit has gotten stuck somehow and reboots. But that is just a guess.)


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## Stormspace (Apr 13, 2004)

Steve2112 said:


> I'm just curious - I currently run my own PVR via SageTV - it is Windows based, so once in a while it locks up/crashes. I also have some problems with the TV tuner cards once in a while (e.g. remote stops working, so I have to reboot).
> 
> I have no monthly fee to worry about, but perhaps the $13/mo would be worth it if there are no lockups or crashes. I know Tivo is based on Linux, so I would think it would crash less than Windows.
> 
> ...


I've had my oldest TiVo for almost three years. In that time I've had two mysterious reboots during prime time, two lock ups when hitting the thumb up button during a commercial, and several lock-ups with a third party HME application and the new Product Watch. This number is still only a small percentage compared to the issues I had with Windows and a TV Wonder card I used for a year. A TiVo on a UPS will record your show 99.9% of the time if it's getting a signal.


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## mportuesi (Nov 11, 2002)

Last week, my Tivo crashed on me while unattended for the first time in three and a half years. I turned on the TV to find the TiVo frozen and unresponsive.

I replaced the hard drive in December 2005, so it's unlikely it was due to a bad hard disk. The only other change of note was the arrival of TiVo software 7.3.1 a week before.

I haven't seen another crash, but I'm certainly hoping this is not what we can expect from Tivo in the future.


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## mattack (Apr 9, 2001)

alansplace said:


> i have a Toshiba RD-XS32S DVR/DVD burner combo that backs up my two TCD540040's. i've never had to reboot the Toshiba.


I have an XS32 too, and it's the product that I've had the most issues with that I *STILL* like the feature set of. (But I sure wish Tivo/DVD burner combinations offered the features that the XS32 does -- burn to DVD in multiple sessions, edit recordings before burning, etc)

My XS32 corrupted its hard drive (in retrospect, I think it's because of the following issue)

If you put in a DVD that it can't load while at the dubbing menu while a recording is happening, the machine will appear completely locked up. Since then I've had it happen again, and what really seems to happen is that the error dialog appears BEHIND the other dialog. When the recording finishes, then you get an error about the DVD.

I have a few recordings that lock up the machine (requiring force rebooting) if I try to dub them to DVD. (There is at least one other person who has seen this on the avsforum DVD recorder section.) This makes me wary of even deleting the recording, in case it is a bad spot on the hard drive that could possibly cause more trouble.. (and I don't want to dub from hard drive to hard drive, since if it locks up the same way, the drive would corrupt. I will eventually try a REAL time dub while not recording to the hard drive, to see if I can get at least a lower quality version dubbed.)

The DVD drive is becoming somewhat flaky (though on avsforum people have described a DVD recorder replacement, with a drive that's available on the net in the $30s.. presumably much less than what Toshiba would charge).

Yes, that's a lot of problems... and again, I sure wish I could have had the features in a Tivo recorder, which would have the increased reliability. But since tivos don't offer these features, I use this as well as my Tivos. (Right now I'm recording the Little League World Series final, so I can play back the parts that aren't actually during the main action at 1.5x with sound.)


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## GoHokies! (Sep 21, 2005)

I've had a pair of Tivos for about 2.5 years without a crash until Sunday morning. I was watching TV and the show paused, and I had to manually cut the power to force a reboot - now it just hangs on the boot screen with a clicking sound coming from the hard drive. Fortunately this is my "new" Tivo, in March I bought my sister a Tivo, kept the new one (80 hours) and sent her one of my old ones (40 hours). Since this one is only 6 months old, Tivo is shipping me a new one, then I'll ship the broken one back. Hopefully it won't take too long!!!

Or the S3 will get announced today, since I'm buying my new HDTV today!!! I asked the CSR last night about when it was coming and got referred to the website, saying he "wasn't authorized to talk about products that hadn't been released yet".


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