# Tivo keeps freezing... any suggestions? (i have logs (oo-er!))



## a_tivo_noob (Jan 2, 2004)

Our Tivo keeps freezing, and then when you try to change channel it goes black completely.

This has happened on 4 occasions that we know of in the past month:
Beginning of June - all recordings stated 'Tivo couldn't record because it's switched of or had a power failure'
Friday 4th July (10:30pm)
Friday 11th July (10:30pm)
Sunday 13th July / Monday 14th July (after 1am as I watched Pulp Fiction  )

Last nights 'crash' also went un-noticed so got home this afternoon to find a number of other programs hadn't recorded with same message as per beginning of June.

Now i have tivoweb so got access to logs, just don't know what to look for that could explain this is happening. Only fix appears to reboot the beast... it's weird that it happened exactly a week apart just before 'Big Brother' on a Friday night (a blessing in disguise i hear you cry! however the missus wasn't too pleased!)

any suggestions greatly appreciated


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## Automan (Oct 29, 2000)

> Our Tivo keeps freezing, and then when you try to change channel it goes black completely.


Is that just when watching LiveTV or after playing back a recording?

Assuming you have a Set Top Box do you get a picture if you press the AUX key on the Tivo remote?

Again if you have a set top box are all power saving / auto standby options disabled?

Automan.


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## a_tivo_noob (Jan 2, 2004)

its when watching live TV... i get the feeling you can't AUX it - any thoughts (i can check for definite if and when it happens again) 

thanks for the reply 

edit: have Sky running through it  so yeah, got a set-top box


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## TrainManG (Apr 21, 2003)

Is it possible your Sky box is automatically turning itself off?

Might be worth checking the code to ensure it gives a 'Sky' button before the channel change.

Had a similar problem when they replaced my Sky+ box. It recorded some of the programme and then froze when the box turned itself off.

Somewhere in the the Sky menus you can set it to remain on, but the code that gives the 'Sky' command first is the best option.

Geoff.


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## a_tivo_noob (Jan 2, 2004)

already disabled the Sky+ box 'turn off at 1am' option (as it kept turning off during recordings! how frustrating!) so definitely not that - plus do the 'SKY' button during the send as well 

thanks anyways... here's a quick snippet from a couple of logs from the Sunday / Monday night crash... as i say in the original post, I was up till 1am watching Pulp Fiction and it was fine, and by Monday 6'ishpm it had 'broke'

As you can see, no logs have any entries between the following times:
Jul 14 00:36:14
Jul 14 18:22:07 (which i assume is when the missus reset it)



from endpad.log said:


> Monday 00:25:03 : Suggestion quality change disabled
> Sleeping, checking every minute for kill signal.............Monday 18:22:24 :
> Monday 18:22:24 : endpad.tcl 1.4.1 log file, starting up


 anything to worry about the big distance between these times on here? (00:25 ---> 18:22... nothing in between)



from kernel.log said:


> Jul 13 23:57:56 (none) last message repeated 2 times
> Jul 13 23:58:23 (none) last message repeated 8 times
> Jul 14 00:00:06 (none) kernel: CodeFromNec(80630cf0) is meaningless
> Jul 14 00:00:33 (none) last message repeated 8 times
> ...





messages said:


> Jul 13 22:37:27 (none) syslogd 1.3-3: restart.
> Jan 1 00:03:18 (none) syslogd 1.3-3: restart.
> Jul 14 18:22:11 (none) Stats: == System startup resource statistics ==





tvlog.log said:


> Jul 14 00:34:23 (none) TmkMediaswitch::Trace[149]: Lost VBI lock
> Jul 14 00:34:54 (none) last message repeated 270 times
> Jul 14 00:35:05 (none) last message repeated 102 times
> Jul 14 00:36:09 (none) Recorder[150]: AllocateFiles for live cache
> ...


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## Ian_m (Jan 9, 2001)

Power supply ?

My Tivo had odd random reboots, nothing in the logs, but changed PSU and now runs for months between reboots.


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## a_tivo_noob (Jan 2, 2004)

cheers for the suggestion Ian - if it was rebooting i'd definitely try that, as things stand however i'm unsure.

Today, I have just turned on the TV and it has frozen again on a 'scene in a shop' (no idea what program it is so no idea what time it has frozen yet).

Tried a few things before rebooting
1) Tried to get access to tivoweb (http) - no access
2) Tried to get access via. telnet - works (well, can browse and change directories... ran out of things to do after that  )
3) Tested for responses from remote - pressed every button on the control and nothing happened - not even the front green light flashed to indicate receiving a remote signal

Doing my head in this is (well, it isn't - but the missus is losing faith in it which will ultimately end up in it doing me head in)


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## a_tivo_noob (Jan 2, 2004)

update: just did reboot command via. telnet and the machine responded and is now powering up so there is 'something' still alive there


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## TCM2007 (Dec 25, 2006)

Something catastrophic happened at 1.36am.

The lack of anything at all in the logs points to some kind of abrupt hardware failaure to me.


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## a_tivo_noob (Jan 2, 2004)

Cheers TCM2007 - my worst fears confirmed i think... any suggestions as to 'what now'? Am i best just buying a cheap box off ebay and moving everything over to it to eliminate all possibilities and weeks of possible fault-finding (though theres few components inside anyways i guess).

checked last nights TV log and have similar gaps:


> Jul 19 21:35:15 (none) TmkMediaswitch::Trace[150]: Drift = -49
> Jul 19 21:35:15 (none) TmkMediaswitch::Trace[150]: Lost VBI lock
> Jul 20 10:41:41 (none) EvtSwitcher[77]: EventSwitcher is starting up
> Jul 20 10:41:41 (none) MfsDaemon[78]: MFS Daemon started, id is 78
> Jul 20 10:41:41 (none) MfsDaemon[78]: Initializing MFS


 watched a bit of jackass : the movie last night but can't remember how much and when i stopped watching Tv.... annoying


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## TCM2007 (Dec 25, 2006)

With the prices on eBay at the moment (under &#163;25 unsubbed, under &#163;100 lifetime) that could well be worth doing.


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## Milhouse (Sep 15, 2001)

a_tivo_noob said:


> any suggestions as to 'what now'?


Might also be worth buying a replacement PSU from tivo heaven for £29...


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## TCM2007 (Dec 25, 2006)

More than the price of a whole TiVo!


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## Milhouse (Sep 15, 2001)

TCM2007 said:


> More than the price of a whole TiVo!


True, assuming the OP isn't outbid... and it means there's one more TiVo available for someone else!


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## a_tivo_noob (Jan 2, 2004)

yeah, think i'll go the ebay route as it may be worth me picking up a spares/ repair unit

i've recently had a cachecard fitted so i'm thinking maybe there could be a link with the PSU there but from reading i would've expected it to reboot.

not to worry  thanks to all


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## Automan (Oct 29, 2000)

I assume you could run the tivo with the cachecard unplugged (using phone for program guide) in case it or any memory fitted are the issue?

Or perhaps just remove the ram card (if fitted).

Automan.


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## a_tivo_noob (Jan 2, 2004)

I was running it without RAM till approx 2nd July I think, so fairly certain it wasn't that (due to problems in June) - it could be the Cachecard, but again i had it running for a good couple of months without any probs too :s

i've taken on board your suggestion and really want to do it but the fear of extracting poor tivo again from the nest of cables its buried in at the moment scares me too much  lol


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