# TiVo continuously reboots



## ejcast (Mar 4, 2011)

My TiVo Premiere began to act oddly last night. In the middle of watching a program it locked up and both red recording LEDs lit up. Afterwards the machine sat on the menu giving a green circle and did not respond to the remote. This evening I removed power to the unit hoping it would reboot. That hope has been rewarded with the unit cycling at the "Welcome. Starting up." screen. This screen displays for a short time, the system flashes all of the LEDs and reboots. So far no end has been found.

Is there anything I can do besides ship it to some service center?


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## dtrucken (Jun 15, 2011)

Mine started doing the exact same thing last night and this morning. I cannot get it out of the reboot cycle.


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## ADG (Aug 20, 2003)

There is an existing thread on this issue:
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=477833


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## beejay (Feb 3, 2001)

The other thread address occasional, rather than continuous, rebooting.

I think what is reported here is a much more serious issue.

ejcast-
Disconnect all cables to the TiVo and see if this continues. TiVo support hints that the occasional reboots may have to do with signal levels from cable or the network. That would eliminate that possibility.


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## atmuscarella (Oct 11, 2005)

If your unit is still under warranty I would call TiVo support.

Continuous rebooting can happen for a number of reasons - I would think the most common is a failed or failing hard drive.

If you are out of warranty and do not want to call TiVo support you can try running kickstart 54 on it. You can find more info about Kickstarts here:

Weaknees Kickstart Info​
You can also pull the hard drive and run Western Digital's Data Lifeguard Diagnostic on the drive to see if it is bad.

Good Luck,


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## ejcast (Mar 4, 2011)

Thanks, I tried the kickstart with no luck. It doesn't come to the blinking green and amber lights but goes straight from all 4 LEDS to just the green LED and "Welcome! Starting up..."

It now no longer cycles after I removed the expander and everything but the HDMI cable.

I bought it off eBay so I will contact the seller to see what warranty options are at my disposal. 

I may be seeking help on a hard drive replacement/upgrade is my main concern.


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## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

ejcast said:


> Thanks, I tried the kickstart with no luck. It doesn't come to the blinking green and amber lights but goes straight from all 4 LEDS to just the green LED and "Welcome! Starting up..."
> 
> It now no longer cycles after I removed the expander and everything but the HDMI cable.
> 
> ...


When you say expander you mean an external hard drive, correct?

That, or the eSATA cable connecting it to the TiVo, is likely the problem, it boots, talks to the main drive, finds out there's supposed to be an external as well, can't find it, reboots and tries again, lather, rinse, repeat.

Although you should take HDMI out of the equation during testing and troubleshooting, if not permanently.


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## dtrucken (Jun 15, 2011)

This is exactly what is happening to my premier! I can't do the kick-start because the lights never flicker back and forth. The green stays solid, the yellow flashes a bit, then the Welcome! screen comes on for a bit, then it goes black, all the lights flash and we start the cycle over again.

I also have an external drive attached. If I disconnect it, I get the screen warning me that if I continue I'll lose all my recordings. (I'd like NOT to do that if possible)

I pulled out the primary (320GB) drive, placed it in a Ubuntu machine and ran the SMART tests on it. No errors were reported. 

I've also tried removing the cablecard, the ethernet and the hdmi, but so far no change.

Dunno what to do next. Should I try to run the SMART test on the external drive?


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## jrtroo (Feb 4, 2008)

My intuition tells me you each have the 500 GB expander? For whatever reason, they don't seem to last as long as most hard discs. I cannot recollect any solution for those other than just biting the bullet and removing the device.

While we have not heard of that happening with the 1TB models, any issues seem fewer and farther between.

If these drives are done for, I recommend the internal upgrade- it is easy (if you are able to pull the drive and run a SMART test you can easily do the update) and is more reliable.


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## L David Matheny (Jan 29, 2011)

dtrucken said:


> This is exactly what is happening to my premier! I can't do the kick-start because the lights never flicker back and forth. The green stays solid, the yellow flashes a bit, then the Welcome! screen comes on for a bit, then it goes black, all the lights flash and we start the cycle over again.
> 
> I also have an external drive attached. If I disconnect it, I get the screen warning me that if I continue I'll lose all my recordings. (I'd like NOT to do that if possible)
> 
> ...


You did try a different eSATA cable, right? I've never used an external drive on a TiVo (and don't intend to), but if you're really desperate maybe you could move the actual drive into a different enclosure to rule out a failure there. Can anyone who has used externals comment on whether that would have any chance of working?


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## dtrucken (Jun 15, 2011)

I have a 1TB expander. I just tried a different cable. No difference. I'll try the SMART test later, and finally divorce... New drives are horribly expensive right now, but I will go the internal route with a new one.

I downloaded speedfan and ran the SMART Extended tests overnight. The external drive passed without any problems. So, I'm not sure where the problem might be now. Are there any codes or tests for the motherboard I can run? I've got the thing opened up, so, I'm willing to try almost anything now.

Thanks again in advance!


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## atmuscarella (Oct 11, 2005)

dtrucken said:


> I have a 1TB expander. I just tried a different cable. No difference. I'll try the SMART test later, and finally divorce... New drives are horribly expensive right now, but I will go the internal route with a new one.
> 
> I downloaded speedfan and ran the SMART Extended tests overnight. The external drive passed without any problems. So, I'm not sure where the problem might be now. Are there any codes or tests for the motherboard I can run? I've got the thing opened up, so, I'm willing to try almost anything now.
> 
> Thanks again in advance!


If your drives are passing the SMART tests I recommend you order another eSata cable before you give up on the external drive. I tried 2 cables on mine and couldn't get it to work then I ordered one of the cables specifically recommended in a thread around here somewhere, that listed eSata cables people were finding that did work. Now it works fine and I would have sworn by looking at the cable that it was the same as the one I had: The cable I ordered was:

a SIIG 3.3-Feet Serial ATA External Cable (CB-SA0111-S1)​
Good Luck,


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## dtrucken (Jun 15, 2011)

Hmm, I have tried 2 different cables on the external drive. And the SMART tests also passed using them. Is there any explanation why a cable that works for SMART tests isn't good enough for other things? The first cable worked reliably for 18 months. 

I might believe the connector on the motherboard is dead, but I'm very skeptical about mysterious selective performance by copper wires depending on brand name printed on insulation and corresponding marketing campaigns.


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## atmuscarella (Oct 11, 2005)

dtrucken said:


> Hmm, I have tried 2 different cables on the external drive. And the SMART tests also passed using them. Is there any explanation why a cable that works for SMART tests isn't good enough for other things? The first cable worked reliably for 18 months.
> 
> I might believe the connector on the motherboard is dead, but I'm very skeptical about mysterious selective performance by copper wires depending on brand name printed on insulation and corresponding marketing campaigns.


I had the same issues/concerns/suspicions you have. All I can tell you is I had an approved WD 1TB external connect to my Series 3 HD for over a year, near the end it would take 2-3 tries on a re-start for it to find the drive then it finally could not find it. I tried the cable from the approved WD 500 GB external drive that I had been using on my TiVo HD (it was working as of the day I removed the drive) and it also would not work.

I found the thread that talk about what replacement eSata cables were known to work and ordered one. I worked instantly and I really can not tell the difference from the other 2 I had.

For $5 I would give it a try. If you do post back with your results.

Good Luck,


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## L David Matheny (Jan 29, 2011)

dtrucken said:


> Hmm, I have tried 2 different cables on the external drive. And the SMART tests also passed using them. Is there any explanation why a cable that works for SMART tests isn't good enough for other things? The first cable worked reliably for 18 months.
> 
> I might believe the connector on the motherboard is dead, but I'm very skeptical about mysterious selective performance by copper wires depending on brand name printed on insulation and corresponding marketing campaigns.


Do you run the SMART test with the eSATA enclosure plugged into your computer? One possible explanation is that the eSATA connector on the TiVo is loose or out of spec somehow which causes an intermittent connection.


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## dtrucken (Jun 15, 2011)

Right. I used the eSATA cable from my DVR extender and plugged the end that used to go into Tivo into my laptop and ran the SMART tests.

I could believe that the eSATA connector in Tivo is damaged or inferior or something. Dunno how to actually test that, except perhaps buying the specific one mentioned above and waiting several days for it to arrive.

But, what I have now is a 320GB internal drive and a 1000GB external drive. Could I simply run the upgrade with JMFS from the 320 to the 1000? That way I'll have nearly the capacity I had before and NOT have any eSATA cables to haunt me. Will it work, or is this external drive somehow marked so that it won't work?

Before doing this, it appears the Kickstart instructions for Premiere are different on the official tivo site than on this site. http://support.tivo.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/308 I'll try once again to get kickstart working...


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## jrtroo (Feb 4, 2008)

If your plan is to crack open the case and use the bare drive, it should work. I believe you can verify that the drive is the same that others have purchased separately and used for this upgrade if you review the upgrade forum.


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## dtrucken (Jun 15, 2011)

Thanks.
I tried the other instructions for kickstart and they didn't work either. 
So, I tried to divorce the drives, what an ordeal. No matter what I do I can't do it.
I always end up back at the External Storage Missing screen. If I plug in the external drive, I'm back to the endless reboot loop.
Now what do I do?

Update 1: Took 320 GB drive out of Tivo, put in computer, started jmfs. It says no Tivo drives found. The drive is there but the MFS is somehow gone? Is this even possible?

Update 2: My 320 GB drive says it has 4 MFS partitions, but no Header, the 1000 GB driver says it has 2 MFS partitions, and no Header. Is there a way to add a header or obtain an image?


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## mvnuenen (Jun 1, 2007)

Last night my Premiere Xl worked fine, this morning I am having exactly the same issue: continues reboot and never passes the Welcome screen...
My first inclination was also a failed hard disk. Nevertheless, seeing that multiple people are having the same issue, could it be software related? I don't know if I got a recent firmware update or not.
I'm kind of stuck on what to do next: try to repair, call Tivo support or get a new Premiere....

Update: I don't have an extender and was able to go straight into Kickstart 54 test. So far it passed the Initial state, Short test and Conveyance test. The Extended test is running now (still 3.5 hours to go...).


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## atmuscarella (Oct 11, 2005)

mvnuenen said:


> Last night my Premiere Xl worked fine, this morning I am having exactly the same issue: continues reboot and never passes the Welcome screen...
> My first inclination was also a failed hard disk. Nevertheless, seeing that multiple people are having the same issue, could it be software related? I don't know if I got a recent firmware update or not.
> I'm kind of stuck on what to do next: try to repair, call Tivo support or get a new Premiere....


You didn't mention if you have an external hard drive attached or not.

If not it is very likely your hard drive failed. Remember all hard drives are the same they work until they don't. Any individual drive can fail at any time, averages don't really mean much when you are talking about 1 specific hard drive.

I would call TiVo Service, they can walk you through some testing. If they think it is a drive see what they will do for you.

Good Luck,


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## mvnuenen (Jun 1, 2007)

Tx. I don't have an external hard drive attached. Running the SMART tests now so hopefully that will tell me if the drive is bad (or not). Your message seems to suggest this is not so that gives me some hope (and the first couple of SMART tests passed). I will call Tivo support later and I guess I still can do Kickstart 56 (OS reinstall) if nothing else works...


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## dtrucken (Jun 15, 2011)

Mine won't even let me run the kick start. Tivo support said the only thing I could do is send it in for the $150 exchange + shipping, and then I'll need to pay the cable truck-roll to reassign the cable card. 

Don't know if it is software (really expensive plan if that is all it is), or a motherboard issue.

I was able to copy the first disk to a new disk and I get exactly the same issue with both disks [email protected]!


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## danthefan (Nov 1, 2001)

You can add me to the club. Last night my Tivo Premiere XL worked fine. This morning when I turned on the TV I didn't have a signal on any channels so I rebooted it. The TiVo will reboot, come all the way up, and let me start playing a show. 

A couple of minutes after I get the main menu the TiVo will crash and reboot. It doesn't matter if I start a show or not. I can do normal TiVo stuff, play shows, delete shows, change channels, etc. But after a couple of minutes it reboots. Unfortunately it's been in the reboot loop all day.

There are too many people experiencing a similar problem on this thread for this to be a coincidence. Has anyone determined if this could be a software bug? And if so, how to fix it?

FYI, I do not have an external drive connected. My TiVo has a cable card and tuning adapter from Time Warner Cable in Raleigh.

Thanks, Daniel


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## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

Anybody tried the kickstart that swaps boot and alternate boot partitions?

If it's hitting everybody all at once it's either a recent software change or an old Daylight Saving Time bug (okay, I'm reaching on that one).

If it's new software, then either it's got a bug (and changing back to the previous may be necessary) or the change to the alternate boot partitions with the new software got mangled somehow.


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## Soapm (May 9, 2007)

If you have another drive you can install it with a fresh image. This will tell you if the problem is hardware or software. If it is software, you may not have a choice but to remove the external drive and loose the recordings.


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## mvnuenen (Jun 1, 2007)

My continuous reboot was due to a start-up loop between my Tivo and the network. The moment I unplugged the network cable I was able to reboot normally. HOWEVER: now the Premiere XL reboots every 5 minutes..... Tivo support did confirm I received 14.9 just the night before so to me it is too much of a coincidence to be not related


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## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

dtrucken said:


> ...I'm very skeptical about mysterious selective performance by copper wires depending on brand name printed on insulation and corresponding marketing campaigns.


Some very muscular nice young men will be stopping by soon to outfit you with a snappy white sportcoat with wraparound sleeves and then they'll take you to spend the holidays at the Monster Cable re-education camp.


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## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

If these problems weren't happening on a Premiere I'd suggest, based on an actual experience of mine with an S2, checking the bootpage info with WinMFS, making sure that the main pair are still either 3 and 4 or 6 and 7, and not something screwy like 1 and 3.

That's if we weren't talking about the Premiere. Apparently just trying to look at an S4 hard drive with WinMFS mysteriously poisons it and the only cure is to dd from another Premiere drive.

So, perhaps KickStart 52, to try to force it to load the pre-update software, or KS 51 (not to be confused with error 51) to try to force it to finish making the switch.

I think I'd go with 52 to get back to the known good boot pair and then it can try to download and install the update again if TiVo hasn't decided to pull it 'til they can fix it.


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## dtrucken (Jun 15, 2011)

Hi everyone.
I did copy my 320GB image to my old external 1000GB drive, but I still had exactly the same problem. reboot loop that doesn't even let me do any kickstart, or I get to the screen asking to divorce the drives, I confirm, then I loop back to the screen asking to divorce the drives.
It could be a software problem, or, it might be something bad on the motherboard. I have no way to find out. 
Arrgh!


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## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

Since WinMFS can't be used on a Premiere because just booting Windows with the Premiere's drive attached seems to hose it, perhaps some brave soul (ideally one who has already dd'ed his Premiere drive to another drive) can try booting with the MFS Live cd and running bootpage to see if the bootpage is screwed up.

Usage: bootpage [options] <device>

options:
-p get current boot parameters
-P <params>	set current boot parameters to <params>
-b get boot partition
-B <partition>	set boot partition to <partition>
-a get alternate partition
-A <partition>	set alternate partition to <partition>
-h get hostname
-H <hostname>	set hostname to <hostname>
-i get ip address
-I <ipaddress>	set ip address to <ipaddress>
-m get MAC address
-M <macaddress>	set mac address to <macaddress
-f flip boot partitions
-W <filename>	save current bootpage to <filename>
-C write bootpage to <device>

So if you disconnect all drives except the optical boot drive and the TiVo drive

pdisk -l

should show you if the TiVo drive is /dev/sda, or sd"someotherletter" if you have it hooked to a different SATA port.

That's a lowercase L after the hyphen.

Assuming it is /dev/sda,

bootpage -b /dev/sda

should return either

3

or

6

and

bootpage -p /dev/sda

should return either

root=/dev/hda4

or

root=/dev/hda7

or maybe it'll call it /dev/sda"x"

Up through Series 3, the TiVo calls the primary drive /dev/hda, even if it's a SATA

I don't know if it still does that on the S4s or not.

If

-b

got you a

3

then

-a

should return

6

and vice versa

If

-b

got you a

3

then

-f

will change it to

6

and vice versa, but will not, repeat, will not, change the

root=/dev/hda4

to

root=/dev/hda7

or

root=/dev/hda7

to

root=/dev/hda4

What you want to do is make sure that if you have a 3, you have a 4, and if you have a 6, you have a 7.

If you run the -B option to change the 4 to a 7 or the 7 to a 4, first take note of whether the -p option returned /dev/*h*da or /dev/*s*da and write the string accordingly.

bootpage -B root=/dev/?da"x" /dev/sda

where ? = either h or s, depending and x = either 4 or 7, depending.

I ran into a situation a while back with an S2 that somehow instead of 3 and 4 had something totally wrong like 2 and 3 or 1 and 4 or something.

I fixed it using the fixboot thing in WinMFS that has option 1 (that sets it to 3 and 4 no matter what it is) and option 2 (that sets it to 6 and 7 no matter what it is), but could have done the same thing with the MFS Live cd and bootpage.

Since booting Windows is death for a Premiere drive, the cd and bootpage would seem to be the only choice for S4s.

And without a Premiere drive to experiment with, I can't absolutely guarantee its safety even then, but if the MFS Live cd was going to hose it just by looking at it, it seems the jmfs cd would as well.

I just checked the latest version of the jmfs cd and it does not have bootpage on it.

The MFS Live cd has mfsinfo on it, but the new S4 drive configuration might confuse it, and although I'm almost certain it operates "read only", probably better not to risk running it on an S4 drive.

(if it returned the "volume header corrupt" message, that might be a clue, or it might only be an artifact of not being designed to properly interpret an S4 drive)


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## danthefan (Nov 1, 2001)

I verified that my TiVo is running version 14.9.2-01-2-748.

I just finished running the Kickstart Code 54 on my hard drive. Everything passed but I gave up on the Off-line scan after it ran for 819:26 (over 13 hours)

SMART test
- Initial state: Pass
- Short test: Pass
- Conveyance test: Pass
- Extended text: Pass
- Off-line scan: dd not finish

Next I'm going to see if the TiVo will run without the network cable attached, and then call TiVo to see if they have any suggestions.

FYI, I opened an email case with TiVo and they told me to unplug it and plug it back in. Ugh.

Regards, Daniel


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## danthefan (Nov 1, 2001)

Unplugging the network cord didn't make any difference, reboots still happened.

So next I performed the Kickstart Code 52 to restore the last software update. On the screen TiVo said that it was installing a software update, but for some reason the software installed is still at 14.9.2-01-2-748.

And of course the problem isn't fixed. The box is still rebooting a few minutes after it successfully boots.

FYI, my last successful connect to the TiVo service was 11/19 at 5:00 a.m. 

I'm calling TiVo customer support now.

Regards, Daniel


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## danthefan (Nov 1, 2001)

I just opened a case with TiVo technical support. They had me unplug the cable card, tuning adapter and network cable and reboot. That stopped the continuous reboots for now, which is good and hopefully means no hard drive problem.

They asked that I wait about an hour and then plug in the cable card. If that works, wait a while and plug in the tuning adapter. Of course if either of these cause the reboots to start occuring again they want me to call Time Warner and have those components replaced. So I'll post again after these tests.

FYI, if you are experiencing this problem PLEASE report it to TiVo technical support at 877-367-8486. They need more people to call to be able to diagnose if there is a bug in the latest software install.

Thanks, Daniel


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## mvnuenen (Jun 1, 2007)

Daniel: I am 30 min from you (assumingly we both have TWC). Pulling the M-card stopped the rebooting for me as well. It's been out for half a day now. I assumed the card was fried and was going to exchange it tomorrow. Please keep me/us posted if reinstalling the same card (after >30 min) worked for you.

Update: reading your post made me put the M-card back. Unfortunately, 5 minutes later: reboot


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## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

I swear it seems like half the TiVo problems I'm seeing here on TCF lately are happening here in The Old North State (where the weak grow strong and the strong grow great), and most of those seem to be TWC victims.


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## danthefan (Nov 1, 2001)

So far the cable card is causing the problem for me. I reconnected the network and the tuning adapter, but not the cable card. The TiVo will run fine with the cable card unplugged and everything else connected. If I plug the cable card in the TiVo will crash and reboot in 3-4 minutes.

TiVo Support thinks its the cable card, but also hasn't ruled out a software problem. They want me to pick up a new cable card tomorrow. I called Time Warner and they said I can go to their office to swap out the card, which is good news that I don't have to wait for a technician. I'll do that tomorrow.

I'm not convinced this will fix the problem though since I'm not the only one having a problem. But at least it will eliminate it from the equation and give TiVo more info.

Please make sure you that you open a case with TiVo as well. They need to hear that others are having the same problem.

Thanks, Daniel


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## dtrucken (Jun 15, 2011)

I've opened a case, and am sending mine in for an exchange. I'm on Comcast, and my reboot problem happens even when everything is unplugged expect for the power supply and the composite video. I did receive an update just before this problem started. Don't know if it is related or not. Maybe if it _is_ a horrible software bug they will waive the $150 exchange fee? (Well, one can hope...)


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## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

danthefan said:


> So far the cable card is causing the problem for me. I reconnected the network and the tuning adapter, but not the cable card. The TiVo will run fine with the cable card unplugged and everything else connected. If I plug the cable card in the TiVo will crash and reboot in 3-4 minutes.
> 
> TiVo Support thinks its the cable card, but also hasn't ruled out a software problem. They want me to pick up a new cable card tomorrow. I called Time Warner and they said I can go to their office to swap out the card, which is good news that I don't have to wait for a technician. I'll do that tomorrow.
> 
> ...


I recently handheld someone with an S3 or S3 HD whose cable cards kept crashing it.

Turned out it was capacitor disease. The power supply was marginal and that little bit of extra current draw was enough to hiccup the motherboard.

Read wikipedia's article on "capacitor plague" and then go to badcaps.net to further your education on what to look for and then examine your power supply closely.

If you have a voltmeter and know how to use it, even better.


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## Soapm (May 9, 2007)

dtrucken said:


> I've opened a case, and am sending mine in for an exchange. I'm on Comcast, and my reboot problem happens even when everything is unplugged expect for the power supply and the composite video. I did receive an update just before this problem started. Don't know if it is related or not. Maybe if it _is_ a horrible software bug they will waive the $150 exchange fee? (Well, one can hope...)


I would think they could send you the previous software version or access your logs via the internet so they can determine the bug and send you a patch. This seems like a big waste for a software bug...


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## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

dtrucken said:


> ...my reboot problem happens even when everything is unplugged expect for the power supply and the composite video. ...


That still doesn't let the power supply off the hook. The harder the CPU is working, the more current it draws. If the power supply is marginal, that could be enough to drop the voltage enough to cause it to crash.


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## mvnuenen (Jun 1, 2007)

danthefan said:


> So far the cable card is causing the problem for me. I reconnected the network and the tuning adapter, but not the cable card. The TiVo will run fine with the cable card unplugged and everything else connected. If I plug the cable card in the TiVo will crash and reboot in 3-4 minutes.
> 
> TiVo Support thinks its the cable card, but also hasn't ruled out a software problem. They want me to pick up a new cable card tomorrow. I called Time Warner and they said I can go to their office to swap out the card, which is good news that I don't have to wait for a technician. I'll do that tomorrow.
> 
> ...


Well, I have 100% exactly the same issue (and have reported it to Tivo). It started the moment I received 14.9.2 so clearly Tivo cannot get off the hook here. Sure, if exchanging the M-card will solve the issue, then fine, but I suspect it is likely some combination of something and something. Anyway, before I pulled the card, and within the window of 5 minutes before the reboot, I took pictures of all my diagnostic windows. I forwarded the info to Tivo and although everything seemed ok the Tivo support rep believed the SNR (signal to noise ratio) of 38 dB was ~4 dB t00 high... Suggested I replace all my cabeling?????

I'm exchanging the M-Card too today. Hopefully the Durham office will allow me to exchange it as well.


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## danthefan (Nov 1, 2001)

I went to the TWC office in Cary today to exchange the card, and was told that they do not exchange cards, you must have a truck roll. That's what I was afraid of, I was given incorrect information by TWC technical support. So now I have an appointment for tomorrow morning for them to replace the card.

Oddly they said that you can now self-install CableCards. That wasn't an option last year when I bought the Premiere XL. That's good news since you don't have to pay their installation fee for the technician. 

FYI, the TiVo ran fine all night. I plugged the CableCard back in this morning and the box crashed and rebooted in about 4 minutes. So at least its consistent.

Regards, Daniel


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## mvnuenen (Jun 1, 2007)

Daniel: the Durham office did allow me to pick up (exchange) a new card. I am currently installing it. Will let you know how it goes....

UPDATE: Good news. Replacing the M-card did solve all issues (so far) and I even have the impression the Premiere XL is snappier. The previous -faulty- card was build in 2008. This one in 2010 (both Scientific Atlanta)


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## danthefan (Nov 1, 2001)

mvnuenen said:


> UPDATE: Good news. Replacing the M-card did solve all issues (so far) and I even have the impression the Premiere XL is snappier. The previous -faulty- card was build in 2008. This one in 2010 (both Scientific Atlanta)


That's great news! Hopefully my experience will be the same. I'll post the results tomorrow.

Hey, I forgot to ask. What did you have to do after swapping the card? I haven't done that before and am not sure of the steps. I expect the TWC tech will know what to do, but I figured I'd ask if there are any tricks.

Regards, Daniel


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## dtrucken (Jun 15, 2011)

unitron said:


> I recently handheld someone with an S3 or S3 HD whose cable cards kept crashing it.
> 
> Turned out it was capacitor disease. The power supply was marginal and that little bit of extra current draw was enough to hiccup the motherboard.
> 
> ...


I did a visual exam of all the caps, and nothing stood out. But, that is why I figured I better do the exchange instead of just getting a pre-installed drive from weaknees or something.

Thanks for everyone's help. I'll let you know when the exchange comes.


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## rainwater (Sep 21, 2004)

danthefan said:


> Hey, I forgot to ask. What did you have to do after swapping the card? I haven't done that before and am not sure of the steps. I expect the TWC tech will know what to do, but I figured I'd ask if there are any tricks.


TWC has a cablecard hotline (it's on their website if you can find it). You just call them and give them the cablecard info (serial #, cablecard id, host id, etc) and they will activate it. You should probably make sure they take the old card off of your account as well.


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## mvnuenen (Jun 1, 2007)

Yeah, it was easy. Plug card in, message (with phone #) appears automatically on TV screen (after ~ 30 secs). Call the number and provide host ID to the "cable card department" (you will find this number on the back of the card but you can find it as well in Tivo's cable card menu). They will activate your card. I powered down the tuning adapter and tivo. Wait 30 secs, power up tuning adapter. Wait 90 secs. Power up Tivo and redid the Guided Setup. Worked immediately

They gave me the "special" phone number as this was a self-install. Nevertheless, I didn't need it and threw it out but if you need it let me know. I can go through my paper recycle bin


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## mvnuenen (Jun 1, 2007)

rainwater said:


> You should probably make sure they take the old card off of your account as well.


Indeed. That's what they did when I exchanged the cards at the Northpoint Durham office


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## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

mvnuenen said:


> ...
> 
> They gave me the "special" phone number as this was a self-install. Nevertheless, I didn't need it and threw it out but if you need it let me know. I can go through my paper recycle bin


Is that an RTP area only number, NC-wide, or, like ZZ Top, nationwide?


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## danthefan (Nov 1, 2001)

Great, thanks! One question though, why did you repeat guided setup? I would think that wouldn't be required since you are winding up with the same lineup.

Regards, Daniel


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## rainwater (Sep 21, 2004)

unitron said:


> Is that an RTP area only number, NC-wide, or, like ZZ Top, nationwide?


Try 866-532-2598. I've used it before and I'm in NC.


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## mvnuenen (Jun 1, 2007)

The "secret" number is 866-606-5889

I repeated the Guided Setup just to be sure. Plus, after I had pulled the card I had repeated it as well to get rid of all the encrypted, at that moment non-working, channels. Now that I had the working card I wanted obviously the encrypted channels back


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## Soapm (May 9, 2007)

bowal40 said:


> I think I can


We think you should stop... Can you do that?


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## danthefan (Nov 1, 2001)

TWC replaced my cable card this morning and so far all is well (knock on wood). Hopefully it will keep on running.

Thanks to everyone that helped me resolve this problem. I appreciate it!

Daniel


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## mvnuenen (Jun 1, 2007)

Glad to hear it worked well for you too. So far my Premiere have been without reboot (or any other issue) and I really perceive it to be more responsive now as well.


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## Soapm (May 9, 2007)

mvnuenen said:


> Glad to hear it worked well for you too. So far my Premiere have been without reboot (or any other issue) and I really perceive it to be more responsive now as well.


Never knew the cable car would do all this so you guys taught me something... Thanks. :up:


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## danthefan (Nov 1, 2001)

Soapm said:


> Never knew the cable car would do all this so you guys taught me something... Thanks. :up:


I didn't either. TiVo support told me "Bad CableCARDs can definitely cause a box to restart itself as you've described." I guess they were right.

Regards, Daniel


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## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

Soapm said:


> Never knew the cable car would do all this so you guys taught me something... Thanks. :up:


Yeah, that's why San Fransisco kept theirs.


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## Soapm (May 9, 2007)

unitron said:


> Yeah, that's why San Fransisco kept theirs.


Me and my typo's... Oh, and the language cop...


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## mvnuenen (Jun 1, 2007)

Well, well.... Look at this: 
http://support.tivo.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/2205

Now that all is working fine again I guess this is now redundant. I do appreciate the effort though. Hopefully this new update will not break what got just fixed....


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## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

mvnuenen said:


> Well, well.... Look at this:
> http://support.tivo.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/2205
> 
> Now that all is working fine again I guess this is now redundant. I do appreciate the effort though. Hopefully this new update will not break what got just fixed....


I like where one of the parts in between the "Unplug the TiVo's power cord" and the "Plug the TiVo's power cord back in" says...

"Dont worry if your TiVo alerts you about the removal of the CableCARD or Tuning Adapter. This is normal."

If the TiVo can do that while unpowered, I wouldn't call that normal.


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## mvnuenen (Jun 1, 2007)

Funny indeed


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## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

mvnuenen said:


> Funny indeed


When I can't be informative I try at least to be amusing.


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## danthefan (Nov 1, 2001)

mvnuenen said:


> Well, well.... Look at this:
> http://support.tivo.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/2205
> 
> Now that all is working fine again I guess this is now redundant. I do appreciate the effort though. Hopefully this new update will not break what got just fixed....


I got this notice from Tivo too. Has anybody tried this yet to see what happens? Obviously now that I'm working (since I replaced the cable card) I'm not going to do it. I'm curious if it installs an updated version of 14.9.2.

PS: I had no idea I had a "large" number of channels. I certainly don't watch them all...

Regards, Daniel


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## Soapm (May 9, 2007)

danthefan said:


> I got this notice from Tivo too. Has anybody tried this yet to see what happens? Obviously now that I'm working (since I replaced the cable card) I'm not going to do it. I'm curious if it installs an updated version of 14.9.2.


Sounds like a patch to me, I can't think of another reason to connect twice to Tivo servers???

I feel bad for the one guy that had to send his back. I hope Tivo ate the cost...


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## beejay (Feb 3, 2001)

danthefan said:


> I got this notice from Tivo too. Has anybody tried this yet to see what happens?


I tried it and it seemed I got a large download on the first connection (but it doesn't make sense to get the software the first call so it was probably just the daily updates.)

The second call went very fast...nothing significant downloaded and no "pending restart". Perhaps they analyze the logs sent in the first call and decided I didn't qualify as "frequent" reboots. (I've had one in 5 days since getting 14.9.2)


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## mvnuenen (Jun 1, 2007)

danthefan said:


> I got this notice from Tivo too. Has anybody tried this yet to see what happens? Obviously now that I'm working (since I replaced the cable card) I'm not going to do it. I'm curious if it installs an updated version of 14.9.2.
> 
> PS: I had no idea I had a "large" number of channels. I certainly don't watch them all...
> 
> Regards, Daniel


Despite I run fine now I gave it a shot anyway. After connecting to the Tivo Service 5 times, and nothing got downloaded, I gave up. Then again, I did not pull the new M-card so may be this "patch" gets only triggered if the server detects Tivo boxes without an M-card


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## beejay (Feb 3, 2001)

mvnuenen said:


> I did not pull the new M-card so may be this "patch" gets only triggered if the server detects Tivo boxes without an M-card


I suspected that might be the case so I did pull my M-card (and didn't get the update). It may be a necessary condition, but it is not a sufficient condition.


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## danthefan (Nov 1, 2001)

FYI, my TiVo has updated to a new version.

- Old version 14.9.2-01-2-748 
- New version 14.9.2-RC1-01-2-748

I didn't do anything to make this happen, it just installed on its own. 

Regards, Daniel


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## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

danthefan said:


> FYI, my TiVo has updated to a new version.
> 
> - Old version 14.9.2-01-2-748
> - New version 14.9.2-RC1-01-2-748
> ...


I wonder if that RC means "request for comments" (usually seen as RCF), and if that means it's a beta, or even alpha, version, and if that makes you a guinea pig, or at least someone about to "live in interesting times".


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## danthefan (Nov 1, 2001)

unitron said:


> I wonder if that RC means "request for comments" (usually seen as RCF), and if that means it's a beta, or even alpha, version, and if that makes you a guinea pig, or at least someone about to "live in interesting times".


In software terms, RC usually means Release Candidate. Release candidates are software packages that are near final release. TiVo might also use this term to mean an update to the previous version (with bug fixes).

Regards, Daniel


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## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

danthefan said:


> In software terms, RC usually means Release Candidate. Release candidates are software packages that are near final release. TiVo might also use this term to mean an update to the previous version (with bug fixes).
> 
> Regards, Daniel


Okay, so we'll upgrade you from guinea pig to beta tester.


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## mvnuenen (Jun 1, 2007)

Despite all the issue, I so dig good ol' NC humor


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## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

mvnuenen said:


> Despite all the issue, I so dig good ol' NC humor


We TWC-NC victims gotta stick together.


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