# InstantCake on series1 - losing recordings



## Fezmid (Dec 6, 2001)

All,
I had a failing drive in my DSR6000 (DirecTiVo) so used InstantCake to make a new one with a large drive (250G), since the old one only supported 127G drives. I baked it, reset everything, and things seemed to work fine. A couple of days later things started acting funny, so I rebooted. When it was powering up, I got a message (looked like an InstantCake type of graphic on the screen) saying that my DVR was upgrading and that I should wait. I was worried that this would kill the kernel that supported large drives, but when it finished I checked the status and it said I still had ~250 hours. Good.

Now I'm noticing that some of the old programs won't play anymore and it gives me an error on the screen that says something like, "The program did not record because there was no signal on the input." I know that's not the case, since I've seen programs work yesterday and disappear like that today.

Has anyone seen this? I'm REALLY worried now that the new seasons of TV shows are upon us -- I don't want to lose any recordings! If anyone has any ideas, let me know - this really has me worried!

Thanks.


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## Fezmid (Dec 6, 2001)

I found this on the InstantCake site:



> "Problem:
> When I go to set a season pass or record a single episode, everything seems to go fine. When the time comes for the show to record, tivo does its thing and changes to the channel, "red light" comes on and the show gets recorded. I can watch the show, fast forward, rewind everything else as the show is playing and recording "live". Here is where it gets a little weird...
> 
> When I go to watch this episode at a later time, it all looks normal (duration is correct, video quality is high, etc) as soon as I select play, it instantly goes to a screen that looks as thought I tried to delete the episode (with option for delete or don't delete). No matter which option I select, it gives me an error on the screen and says that no video was recorded.
> ...


I did do the clear and delete everything, but I wonder if I need to do it again after the mysterious "upgrade" that happened a few days later? Unfortunately I now have recordings on the TiVo, so I can't just blow it all away... Thoughts?


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## tivoupgrade (Sep 27, 2000)

It looks like you've got a complicated set of issues going on here. Let's boil it down to a few questions, that when answered, may get you on the right track.

1) how do you know it was your drive that was failing, and not your unit?

2) what version of the software was installed on your TiVo upon completion of your InstantCake installation and what version was on it when you checked again? IE. confirming that the system information screen states ~250 hours is not sufficient. If your unit updated to a later version of the software and you did not update the kernel, then that may be your problem.

3) the quote you've posted looks to be somewhat dated; where did it come from? (what link - if its on our site, or in our knowledge base, we can update it but the issue is no longer relevant as the C&D is no longer needed).

You may want to refer to this thread where the this thread , and how to manage through it, is discussed in more detail.


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## Fezmid (Dec 6, 2001)

1. I've had failing harddrives before, and the symptoms were the same as this time -- stuttered playback and a few random crashes. In addition, I wasn't even able to do a UNIX dd on the drive without getting I/O errors.

2. Good question, I'm not sure. It's currently 3.5c.

3. Here's the link:
http://www.dvrupgrade.com/dvrupgrade-support-center/index.php?x=&mod_id=2&id=47

Ok, poking around a bit more, the version I baked must've been 3.5b, since I did it back in August -- before you released 3.5c. It appears that my TiVo must've gotten the updated software afterall... The dialing prefix isn't #*, so I wonder if my wife "fixed" that. Combine that with me putting the phone line back in because I wasn't thinking, and I think that might be the problem. Crap. 

I've looked through the thread you linked to -- are you saying that a copykern should fix the problem? And will that preserve recordings? If so, it sure beats the alternative I was thinking of 

I'll beat myself with the stupid stick now. 

EDIT: Hmmm, apparently copykern might not work... I'm not sure how to tell if it will or not, but can't risk losing current recordings or my wife will kill me. Crap.  Maybe I just start recording on my other TiVo for now until I can re-bake the DSR6000 with the updated version.

So you're saying I don't need to do a "reset and clear" if I bake the 3.5c version? Just bake it and I'm done?


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## tivoupgrade (Sep 27, 2000)

Fezmid said:


> 1. I've had failing harddrives before, and the symptoms were the same as this time -- stuttered playback and a few random crashes. In addition, I wasn't even able to do a UNIX dd on the drive without getting I/O errors.
> 
> 2. Good question, I'm not sure. It's currently 3.5c.
> 
> ...


I've deleted that article. It was very poorly written, out of date and the information was not properly qualified.

As for 'what i'm saying' - given the info we have now..

1) clear and delete everything is no longer necessary; no reason why you can't do it, but its just not a factor

2) if your unit updated to 3.5c, that is likely the cause of the problem you are having

3) if you rebake with 3.5b, then use the instructions in the previously mentioned thread to update the kernel (don't forget to kill the initrd, first)

4) rebaking with 3.5c is another alternative

5) don't connect your unit to a phone line or make the call over the network after you get things running again

clear as mud?


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## Fezmid (Dec 6, 2001)

tivoupgrade said:


> I've deleted that article. It was very poorly written, out of date and the information was not properly qualified.
> 
> As for 'what i'm saying' - given the info we have now..
> 
> ...


No, it's much clearer than mud, thanks. 

I'll just start recording shows on my second TiVo until we finishish watching what's on this one (which shouldn't take long), then rebake with 3.5c (which I downloaded yesterday).

Thanks for your help!


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## Fezmid (Dec 6, 2001)

Ok, I rebuilt with InstantCake 3.5c, and it worked fine. I even ran SeaTools against the drive to make sure there were no problems with the drive (just in case - even though I was 99.9999% sure it was the TiVo upgrade to 3.5c that broke it).

However I'm finding now that it's not responding to the remote very quickly. Sometimes it takes a good 5-10 seconds. At first I thought it might be because it was busy downloading guide data or something, but it was the same way 12 hours later...  Is this normal? Should I just in install 3.5b instead?

All of the IR commands eventually go through, it's just slow, and it's not ALWAYS slow, just some time. This is on a DSR6000.

Maybe I should just buy a new one from eBay and be done with this one -- it's served me well for so long, I don't want to abandon it! 

EDIT: I power cycled the box to see if that helped, and also to try fixing some of the "program title not available" messages, and it green screened on me when it came back.  Instead of waiting, I decided I'm just going to bake 3.5b and see what happens -- I'll follow the same procedure I did before, including a "clear and reset" and hope for the best.


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## tivoupgrade (Sep 27, 2000)

Fezmid said:


> Ok, I rebuilt with InstantCake 3.5c, and it worked fine. I even ran SeaTools against the drive to make sure there were no problems with the drive (just in case - even though I was 99.9999% sure it was the TiVo upgrade to 3.5c that broke it).
> 
> However I'm finding now that it's not responding to the remote very quickly. Sometimes it takes a good 5-10 seconds. At first I thought it might be because it was busy downloading guide data or something, but it was the same way 12 hours later...  Is this normal? Should I just in install 3.5b instead?
> 
> ...


Well, remember, after you go through your guided setup, it can take *a day or two* for the database to repopulate with all that guide and programming information that is coming down from the satellite ("program title not available" is a perfect example of that task not yet being completed).

I'd let it sit (and certainly stop rebooting it, as that can tangle things up even further) for a day or two to let thing settle down before expecting everything to be 'normal' again...


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## Fezmid (Dec 6, 2001)

tivoupgrade said:


> Well, remember, after you go through your guided setup, it can take *a day or two* for the database to repopulate with all that guide and programming information that is coming down from the satellite ("program title not available" is a perfect example of that task not yet being completed).
> 
> I'd let it sit (and certainly stop rebooting it, as that can tangle things up even further) for a day or two to let thing settle down before expecting everything to be 'normal' again...


Should the remote really respond that slowly though? I understand that it takes time for the guide to populate, but I've never noticed the box taking 10-20 seconds from time to time to respond to IR commands...

I just installed 3.5b and am in the process of a clear everything (since that's what I did the first time before the accidental upgrade and things worked for me...). Fingers crossed.


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## tivoupgrade (Sep 27, 2000)

Fezmid said:


> Should the remote really respond that slowly though? I understand that it takes time for the guide to populate, but I've never noticed the box taking 10-20 seconds from time to time to respond to IR commands...
> 
> I just installed 3.5b and am in the process of a clear everything (since that's what I did the first time before the accidental upgrade and things worked for me...). Fingers crossed.


Yes, the remote will respond slowly if the unit is busy doing other things -- the 'interrupts' handled by the remote signal are given a lower priority relative to other "critical" things on the system - like attempting to record live video while guide data is being populated into the database.

The right thing to do would have been wait awhile longer; I'd recommend you go back and do that if having the latest version of 3.5 is important to you - you've essentially started over fresh with 3.5b anyway and will need to wait again.

(you might also want to double check that you did not accidentally move or block the IR sensor or a cable inside the unit, as well)


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## Fezmid (Dec 6, 2001)

tivoupgrade said:


> Yes, the remote will respond slowly if the unit is busy doing other things -- the 'interrupts' handled by the remote signal are given a lower priority relative to other "critical" things on the system - like attempting to record live video while guide data is being populated into the database.
> 
> The right thing to do would have been wait awhile longer; I'd recommend you go back and do that if having the latest version of 3.5 is important to you - you've essentially started over fresh with 3.5b anyway and will need to wait again.
> 
> (you might also want to double check that you did not accidentally move or block the IR sensor or a cable inside the unit, as well)


Well, we'll see what happens after the clear and delete -- if it's still slow, I might put 3.5c back on... Do we even know what the new software does yet...?

And I did check the IR cable -- looks fine. If there were an issue there, I would've expected to lose IR signals, not just have them delayed. So we'll see....


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## Fezmid (Dec 6, 2001)

Ok, one more update from me (this is frustrating...).

After donig the reset, I had to connect my phone line to activate DVR service. I was worried ,but did it anyway and it didn't seem to have long enough to download the software update, and I didn't see a "reboot pending" anywhere either. Nice.

The remote was very responsive, I could record, and life seemed good.

However, I power cycled it one last time (shouldn't be a problem, should it?), and I get a green screen, just like I did with 3.5c.   I'll let it sit this time to see what happens, but that's not supposed to happen, is it? I've never had a green screen before, and I know I rebooted it last time I did 3.5b.... Maybe something hardware related is going flaky? I don't know.... But this sucks. 

Here's to hoping the green screen clears.


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## Fezmid (Dec 6, 2001)

I'm sure everyone's sick of reading my saga... Sorry 

It recovered from the GSOD relatively quickly and everything seems to be working now. The remote doesn't lag, I have a lot of guide data, and I can (theoretically) record -- we'll see how that works. 

I'm afraid to unplug it again though, due to the GSOD. Maybe it's just a one time thing? Not sure... As I said, a full drive scan reported no errors...  

I'll have to unplug it to move it back into the living room at some point, but maybe I'll wait until tomorrow....


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