# Video Freeze Problems with 6.3a?



## litzdog911 (Oct 18, 2002)

Not sure if this problem is related to v6.3a because I've had that release for several weeks and this problem just started yesterday. The symptoms are unlike any hard drive issues I've ever had with any of my Tivo's, though ....

Freeze #1: Came home last night and found the Tivo video was all gray. Remote and front panel were unresponive. I've seen this gray screen before when the Tivo's tuner was still on the Showcase Download channel, but never had the Tivo frozen on it before. Pulled power to reset Tivo and all seemed OK.

Freeze #2: Later that evening I was cleaning up some unwanted recordings from the "To Do List" when the Tivo suddenly froze and again didn't respond to remote or front panel commands. The Tivo/DVR background animation video was also frozen. I waited about 20-minutes just to see if some background process was moving very slow. Pulled power to reset and again all seemed OK.

Freeze #3: Seemed to work fine most all of Christmas day. But after dinner turned on the TV and the Tivo video was frozen on whatever channel had been active, almost like it was stuck on "pause". Again the remote and front panel were unresponsive. Pulled power to reset and it's been working fine the rest of the evening.

Have any of you with v6.3a on your HR10-250 had "freeze" problems like this develop suddenly, well after your Tivo updated to v6.3a? Perhaps it's related to recent Guide Data problems described here ....
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=332449

I suppose it could be an unusual hard drive issue, but the symptoms are not typical because there has been no audio/video stuttering or sudden reboots. I'm hoping I get v6.3b soon to see if switching the drive's boot parition helps any. Or I may just roll back to 3.1.5f.

Thanks for your ideas!

======================================================

Update 12/27 ....

Freeze #4: This morning DVR was again hung on "gray screen" freeze. I wonder if my nightly "phone homes" trying to download 6.3b is causing some issues?

Freeze #5: A few hours after restarting this morning my HR10 again hung with a "gray screen". It was recording a Season Pass at the time from my local Seattle NBC station (SD feed, not HiDef), and hung about 48-minutes into the one hour show.

Freeze #6: At 10:07pm, finally caught it happen while watching my HR10 .... video/audio froze for a few seconds, then screen went gray and Tivo was totally unresponsive to any remote/front panel commands.


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## RexB (Apr 25, 2004)

I've had similar probs here too litzdog911, lockups and reboots suddenly starting three days ago after one month of trouble-free 6.3a.

Reboots once a day, followed by three reboots and one 'freeze' in an hour. Unplugged, let it sit a few minutes, powerup and it's been Ok for ~12 hours.

I haven't had the guide data or empty wish list problems you linked in the other thread.

Knock On Wood.


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## jcricket (Sep 11, 2002)

I'm sure we're all having coincidentally linked hard drive failures since upgrading to 6.3, right? Isn't that DirecTV's current story? And isn't their solution to "upgrade" to the HR20?

Pathetic.

On a more constructive note - does anyone have a suggestion for why those of us that had HR10s upgraded to 6.3a (or 6.3b) that were fine for weeks or months have suddenly started having these reboots?


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## duanej (Oct 28, 2004)

I've also been having the exact same problems. The hard drive is only a few months old so I don't expect that's the problem. 6.3a ran ran fine at first, but this lock up problem has been happening a lot lately (every other day or so, sometimes back to back days).


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## RexB (Apr 25, 2004)

Grrr... additionally I now have *sporadic pixellation * in a small part of the screen lasting 1-3 seconds, in addition to the reboots, freezes, and neither the front panel nor remote controls working when it locks up.



jcricket said:


> I'm sure we're all having coincidentally linked hard drive failures since upgrading to 6.3, right? Isn't that DirecTV's current story? And isn't their solution to "upgrade" to the HR20?
> 
> Pathetic.
> 
> On a more constructive note - does anyone have a suggestion for why those of us that had HR10s upgraded to 6.3a (or 6.3b) that were fine for weeks or months have suddenly started having these reboots?


Agree, I like the 'more constructive note' and hope there is a solution. That is the code writers job at DirecTV or TiVo, I don't care which.

For the hundreds of posts in dozens of threads across three forums detailing the probs with these 6.x updates, anyone suggesting these symptoms are a sudden epidemic of hard drive problems is laughable.


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## Stobor (Dec 26, 2006)

Hi - not much to add, but I thought I'd mention that it's happening here also: small pixilization areas; gray screen, and freezing during playback. Freeze and gray screen solvable by power reboot. Had last software update a month or two ago, but problems just started showing up in the last couple of weeks.

Hope that TiVo comes up with a software patch soon...

b


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## dfioc (Sep 24, 2004)

My problems since 6.3a are pixelization and screen "freeze" on my HD channels, mostly on 83 and 81. Some times the feeze will make the entire unit unresponsive and I'll have to force a reboot; other times, I can change the channel and "unfreeze" the station.

I was not having these problems prior to 6.3a.


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## Dave47 (Jun 4, 2004)

I had a gray screen freeze yesterday. I have had them before as well. Yesterdays was the most recent. I never had these with 3.1.5f and only allowed the box to update to 6.3a 2 weeks ago. I was hoping for 6.3b but no joy. I guess I should have held out longer!  Anyway, it has frozen 3-4 times in since the upgrade.

It will be back to 3.1.5f this weekend after we watch a few more of the recordings that are on this drive.

David


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## davsherm (Feb 23, 2003)

jcricket said:


> I'm sure we're all having coincidentally linked hard drive failures since upgrading to 6.3, right? Isn't that DirecTV's current story? And isn't their solution to "upgrade" to the HR20?
> 
> Pathetic.
> 
> On a more constructive note - does anyone have a suggestion for why those of us that had HR10s upgraded to 6.3a (or 6.3b) that were fine for weeks or months have suddenly started having these reboots?


One of the things some users have noticed are log files filling up, see this post


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## notmestl (Jun 28, 2001)

hey, 
just posted to this 
Post 
with the same issue - reboots, screen locks and gray screen (forgot about the gray screen until I saw your post). My fix worked for me, give it a shot! Copied below for your convenience!

--------
OK, I had the same problem. Mine would reboot every couple of minutes! I was loosing my mind to say the least.
I tried doing a couple manual reboots - no good.
I cleared out dead season passes and wish lists - no good.

I looked at my Now Playing List and for the size of the hd it looked kinda bulky, so I deleted some of the older movies I had on there for convenience sake. Probably about 4 of them total, plus another couple shows we would never watch anyway.
Did another manual reboot. 
All was good after that. I think the hd was full and this new wonderful version of software has an issue clearing the space when it needs to sometimes (just a theory).
Hey it worked for me...


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## litzdog911 (Oct 18, 2002)

I also tried trimming my Now Playing List, but it hasn't helped. I have been making nightly "phone homes" trying to download 6.3b, and I wonder if my problems started about that time?


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## Monkeybiz (Jan 14, 2005)

I daresay we are confusing the two patches, 6a and 6b. Different fixes for different patches perhaps. I dunno but I'm cleaning my clutter before I do something drastic like order the HR20. I'm not thrilled about Directv lately and I have the 6b patch, 6a didn't cause the freez-ups like this.


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## SpankyInChicago (May 13, 2005)

Yes. I have had this happen on all three of my HR10-250s ever since they went to 6.3a. Prior to 6.3a there was never a single reboot ever on any of the units.

I think this has been pretty widely discussed here as something that is occuring to a lot of people since 6.3a came out.


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## litzdog911 (Oct 18, 2002)

SpankyInChicago said:


> Yes. I have had this happen on all three of my HR10-250s ever since they went to 6.3a. Prior to 6.3a there was never a single reboot ever on any of the units.
> 
> I think this has been pretty widely discussed here as something that is occuring to a lot of people since 6.3a came out.


I had seen those posts after 6.3a came out, but never had this problem on my HR10 until a few days ago. So it's rather puzzling that some folks got stung right away, while some of us are only now getting hit. Someone mentioned that "log files" might be filling up or overflowing. Anyway, I'm still waiting for some info from my DirecTV contacts. But I'm just about ready to roll back to 3.1.5f if something doesn't change soon.


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## bluesman64 (Jan 25, 2005)

I, too, am having the same freeze/reboot problems, which I had not had with 6.3a until the last couple of weeks. Did the old clear program info and to do list. Worked for a week or so, then started up with the 3-4 times daily reboots. Just tried the clear program info trick again (trying to avoid clear and delete everything), so we'll see.

Any idea if 6.3b will address this issue, or is it just the audio dropouts?

Am almost at my wit's end. So much so that I'm considering getting the HR20. Does anyone know the status of OTA on the HR20? Hate to bag Tivo, but this is ridiculous! Plus, I would like to get my RSN in HD on a regular basis, which means, I guess, mpeg4.


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## fertree (Mar 7, 2005)

The grey screen of death started a couple of days ago for me. Do we know for sure that 6.3b will solve the problem?


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## jediphish (Oct 13, 2006)

I have 6.3b and the reboot rate that was occuring the last few days I had 6.3a has not changed. It was really bad on Christmas day (several times), but today it hasn't frozen up once.

Some have theorized that its due to corrupt data in the guide somewhere. I did not originally have freezes/ reboots with 6.3a; it started several weeks after "a" downloaded, all of a sudden. Others have theorized its due to having too much recorded on the harddrive.


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## Monkeybiz (Jan 14, 2005)

They won't even answer the phone at D* this PM. Maybe that's a good sign that they got the message. They are so swamped with patch issues they can't staff the phones. My reboots seem less often with clearing everything except my favorite shows. I even took off Jon Stewart season pass


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## RightHere (Dec 17, 2002)

I'm having the same problems. 6.3b.

A few months ago I had to put a new HD in because I was having similar issues, though MUCH less up time. 

I've come home to the gray screen and a completely unresponsive unit. I've been watching live tv (somewhere in the 30 minute buffer, not actually live), and had alternating video/grey screen (about 10 seconds or so between each switch) before it eventually rebooted. 

Prior to that, I noticed several times a week that both tuners were set to the same channel so I assume there was a reboot (I don't think there's any other way to force both tuners to the same station).

It's happened several times within the last week, and it's getting worse. 

Hopefully @ CES they'll start shipping something new (not just another vaporware announcement) and we can all upgrade to that instead of the HR20


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## addictsw (Mar 20, 2005)

Not alot to add here other than a me too.

I have two hr10-250s.

I let one upgrade to 6.x and left the other at 3.x. The upgraded one has had audio dropouts since the first upgrade. The 3.x one still does not.

The 6.x one has had a couple of sporatic lock-ups (not reboots over the last couple of weeks and then 3-5 days ago it started locking up routinely multiple times a day. The 3.x Tivo still works fine.

Sadness,
-addictsw


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## litzdog911 (Oct 18, 2002)

addictsw said:


> Not alot to add here other than a me too.
> 
> I have two hr10-250s.
> 
> ...


Are the lockups on your 6.3a HR10 also "gray screens" lockups? And no problems with 3.1.5f, right?


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## SpankyInChicago (May 13, 2005)

I should be more specific in the "reboot" issues I am having.

1. "Gray screen" freezes as described here that require me to reboot (unplug).

2. "Video screen" freezes - same as gray screen but with video frozen on the screen. These also require me to rebbot (unplug).

3. "Self reboots" - this is where the Tivo just decides to reboot all on its own.

4. "Self reboot with 'just a few more minutes' freeze" - this is where the Tivo reboots itself and then while in the process of rebooting gets stuck on the screen with the DirecTV logo that says "Almost there . . . just a few more minutes please."

Again, these events have all occured to one degree or another on all three of my HR10-250 units. All have 6.3a (still) and none of these problems ever occured before 6.3a.


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## chuckbernard (Apr 6, 2005)

For the first 2 years my HR10-250 crashed only 1 time. After 6.3a was installed it didn't crash but had audio dropouts. A couple of weeks ago 6.3b was installed and the crashes started happening immediately. It crashes every couple of days and sometimes twice in the same day. Sometimes it reboots itself but most of the time it freezes with the solid gray screen. Unplugging it is the only way to bring it back to life again.


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## COWBELLFEVER (Dec 29, 2006)

SpankyInChicago said:


> I should be more specific in the "reboot" issues I am having.
> 
> 1. "Gray screen" freezes as described here that require me to reboot (unplug).
> 
> ...


I am having the exact same problems, but they did not begin until my Tivo upgraded to 6.3b last week. With 6.2a, I had the audio dropouts problem, and very occasionally a random reboot or system freeze up (usually only happened when I was rapidly changing between successive OTA channels). Now within the past couple of days I am suffering from the identical problems listed above on a daily basis.

The most annoying problem is not that the Tivo is randomly rebooting (because it seems to occur mostly when I am not even watching TV), but that the reboot is freezing halfway through the process. When I am away from the TV for a long time and don't catch the system freezing up, none of my shows will be recorded while the Tivo is frozen. So I now have almost no confidence that the Tivo will record anything that I program in advance.

On a positive note, the audio dropouts are completely fixed with 6.3b.


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## addictsw (Mar 20, 2005)

litzdog911 said:


> Are the lockups on your 6.3a HR10 also "gray screens" lockups? And no problems with 3.1.5f, right?


Yes & Yes.

Non-responsive front panel and a gray screen.
3.1.5f is working fine.

Another thread speculated that the number of people reporting this in the Seattle area was much higher and I am indeed in the Seattle area.

It hasn't locked up in about 30 hours or so, so it may have been a guide-data issue that was corrected? (pure speculation).

-addictsw


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## litzdog911 (Oct 18, 2002)

chuckbernard said:


> For the first 2 years my HR10-250 crashed only 1 time. After 6.3a was installed it didn't crash but had audio dropouts. A couple of weeks ago 6.3b was installed and the crashes started happening immediately. It crashes every couple of days and sometimes twice in the same day. Sometimes it reboots itself but most of the time it freezes with the solid gray screen. Unplugging it is the only way to bring it back to life again.


Exact same symptoms as many of us. But most of us still have v6.3a, so I guess the problem (whatever its root cause) was not fixed in v6.3b. I'm still waiting to hear back from technical contacts at DirecTV, many of which are out on holiday this week.

For what it's worth, mine didn't hangup at all yesterday, and so far today it's still fine. Yet two days ago it froze up three times. Crazy.


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## HoosierBBFan (Dec 16, 2002)

COWBELLFEVER said:


> I am having the exact same problems, but they did not begin until my Tivo upgraded to 6.3b last week. With 6.2a, I had the audio dropouts problem, and very occasionally a random reboot or system freeze up (usually only happened when I was rapidly changing between successive OTA channels).


I made the mistake of plugging in my phone line last week and am currently on 6.3a. After having no problems with 3.1.5f I have had 4 lockups in the past three days and as mentioned above appears to be happening on the OTA channels. The channel will keep broadcasting but the unit will not respond to any command. The only way to fix is unplug. I have not had any of the gray screen lock-ups people are mentioning.

Of course I now also have the audio dropouts and am forcing a daily call to get 6.3b but based on the feedback I may want to unplug again.


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## Leila (Apr 28, 2006)

RexB said:


> Grrr... additionally I now have *sporadic pixellation * in a small part of the screen lasting 1-3 seconds, in addition to the reboots, freezes, and neither the front panel nor remote controls working when it locks up.


My HR10 with 6.3a has frequent and [bjcomplete[/b] pixellation all over the
screen. It would stop responding, then reboot...  DOZENS OF TIMES A DAY!
(hard drive is brand new.... and judging from all the threads on this issue, it is
definitely not a hardware problem....


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## RexB (Apr 25, 2004)

Sori to hear that Leila -- saying this will probably jinx it, but my HR10-250 has been fine for four days since unplugging it (twice), wait a minute, and plug it back in. No freezes, reboots or pixellation, the guide works fine and all recordings are successful.

KOW.

I Love TiVo, and have had pretty good service with the D*TV CSR's, but those problems are enough to drive us customers Crazy.


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## rynotheman (Jun 23, 2004)

Sadly, I'll chime in to report that my HR10-250 did the unresponsive grey screen of death twice - the first time it booted back up just fine with an unplug/power cycle - the second time it was plugged back in it stuck at the very first part of the boot - the "Welcome - powering up..." screen. I've already replaced the drive in it with a new one from Weaknees to no avail - exactly the same problem remains and now I am probably out the $170 I paid for the new drive guessing that was the cause of the problem.

Any ideas or folks who can share a similar story? I to refuse to upgrade to the POS HD DVR's they are handing out now - why they ever dropped their partnership with TiVo is beyond me.

Please help! I am desperate!


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