# Tivo Beacon



## DrBlove (Aug 9, 2007)

I am oh so very frustrated...

I have had Tivo for 5 years, and being using the desktop as long as it has been around. Several days ago, after installing Desktop 2.6.1 (not immediately though), my TiVo Beacon service no longer would start up.

I am running a Quad Core, 3 GB RAM, Vista SP1. I have allowed the Firewall to pass through to the following:
Tivo Beacon Service
Tivo Curl Service
Tivo Desktop User Interface
Tivo Server Service
Tivo Transfer Service

And these are present but are not passed through (though I have turned these on and off and it makes no difference)
Tivo HME Host: Port 7288-97.

When I try to Start Tivo Server I get the following message: "Beacon service not running" I can either Retry or Cancel. I have hit Retry a million times, no good.

I have tried to start the Beacon service by right clicking on "My Computer" and selecting "Manage", "Service and Applications", "Service", "Tivo Beacon" selecting "Start" I get the following error: "Windows could not start the TiVo Beacon service on Local Computer. Error 1359: An internal error occurred" After reading the board and not really knowing anything, I then changed the Log On to Network Service, and then tried to Start and I get the following message "Windows could not start the TiVo Beacon service on Local Computer. Error 1053: The service did not respond to the start or control request in a timely fashion."

I have tried to uninstall TiVo 2.6.1, using the Tivo desktop cleaner, rebooting, installing Tivo 2.5.1, nothing. Trying the same thing but going back to Tivo 2.6.1, nothing. Manually going through the registry and cleaning out all references to Tivo, nothing.

Other people have mentioned that it is likely a firewall issue. I only (knowingly) have Windows Firewall installed with the above exceptions. I am running AVG Free Edition and Network Magic...

I desperately want to have Tivo desktop running so I can transfer shows from my Tivo to my computer to watch, and vice versa... does anyone have any ideas short of new computer and/or killing myself?

Thanks in advance!


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## Mikeyis4dcats (Oct 2, 2003)

I prefer TivoDotNet


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## dlfl (Jul 6, 2006)

You have entered you MAK in desktop, correct?

Disable Windows firewall and any other software affecting network traffic (temporarily of course) long enough to see if it now works.


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## VideoGrabber (Sep 11, 2003)

DrBLove,

you mentioned "not starting up in a timely fashion", and that you've been running the Desktop from day one. There is at least a possibility that your cache has grown so large that it can't be scanned within the timeout interval any longer.

Go to: C:\Documents and Settings\YourName\Local Settings\Application Data\TiVo Desktop\Cache

and see how many thousands of objects you have there. If it's a lot (and I suspect it is), purge the area and see if your problem remains. No guarantees, but it's worth a try.

- Tim


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## jalperin (Jul 15, 2002)

I am having the same problem on a Vista Ultimate machine. All was fine for months. Then, after a reboot yesterday, kept getting the Beacon service not running message. I was using Tivo Desktop 2.6, so I upgraded to 2.6.1 which did not help. Also uninstalled, ran Tivo Desktop Cleaner, then re-installed. No help. Turned off the Vista Firewall. No help. I do seem to have 2 instances of TivoServer.exe running in Task Manager; is that normal?


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## jalperin (Jul 15, 2002)

Uninstalling Xobni (Outlook add-in) fixed the problem for me and several others. From the Xobni website:

After installing Xobni, my Blackberry / TiVo / Smartphone stops syncing. Have I done something wrong?

Not at all. Unfortunately, there seems to be an issue between various 3rd party devices that require background services and Xobni! We are still investigating this to try and understand how were causing these services to stop functioning properly. While we have had only a few reports of these types of things, a list of devices that we know that currently have issues include:

- Blackberry w/ Blackberry Desktop Software V4.3 (earlier versions have been reported to work)

- TiVo w/ TiVo Desktop (TiVo Beacon Service is disabled)

- Sony Ericsson P1i Mobile w/ PCSuite for SmartMobiles (fails to sync, or sync is very slow)

- ActiveSync (throws an error message, but should continue to sync properly anyway)

- iPhone (the iPhone should sync fully after a complete reboot)

Our developers are currently looking into a solution for these issues, and hope to have a fix in a future version of Xobni!


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## JuryDuty (Jan 10, 2003)

I was getting the same thing, saw this thread and realized it's Xobni. Crazy.

Thank God for this forum or I wouldn't have put two-and-two together. Uninstalling Xobni, sadly.


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## gduffy (May 29, 2008)

Hi, please read the solution to this problem at:

http://community.xobni.com/showthread.php?t=153

Let us know there if it works!

Thanks,
Greg from Xobni


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## rockislandmike (Sep 20, 2005)

jalperin said:


> Uninstalling Xobni (Outlook add-in) fixed the problem for me and several others. From the Xobni website


AHA! I never put 1+1 together, but I had the same issue, installed Xobni (which is pretty kewl btw), and since then, no Tivo 2 Go. Well, that's an easy choice, isn't it - Xobni or Tivo Desktop.


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## mrjam2jab (Jul 23, 2004)

I frequently have the same issue....and to the best of my knowledge I dont have Xobni...I dont use Outlook on this machine.

I am aware of the cache...and it grows way to fast. I have a macro on work PC that "dumps dns" on every startup...is there a way to create a macro to "dump tivocache" everyday at say Noon? I dont shut my PC off very often...


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