# Help with stop at boot



## Boucher (Aug 21, 2005)

My tivo stays on the almost there page, it has a upgraded 300g from tivoland.com, but i still had the old 40g drive that was in it and fully working before, but get very similar error with the old drive in it as well, so maybe its not the h/d thats failing?I'm stumped but getting a tivo image would be a start.


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## iankb (Oct 9, 2000)

Is it displaying any lights?

Two amber lights mean that you have rogue IR; from a stuck button on a remote, etc.


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## Boucher (Aug 21, 2005)

No Ian,

Checked the remote, same thing happens,but thanks for the reply.


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## blindlemon (May 12, 2002)

Have you had any thunderstorms or power cuts recently? 

If your TiVo is plugged into the phone and the modem has been blown by a surge you can get this problem. Unfortunately the modem test program will often hang the boot sequence if the modem is blown.


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## Boucher (Aug 21, 2005)

Thanks for the replys guys, but no storms etc,but has been plugged in to a belkin surge for safe keeping as well.


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## blindlemon (May 12, 2002)

Hmm, probably a drive problem then. Do you have network access to the TiVo?


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## Boucher (Aug 21, 2005)

I had upgraded the h/d to a 300g, but didnt bother with any other tweaks, so no access to network on the tivo.

The old tivo drive was wokking fine when i removed it, and after trying the old drive and getting same errors i dont think its the h/d i think its a board error.


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## blindlemon (May 12, 2002)

If the same thing is happening with both drives then yes, it's probably a board error - most likely a blown modem. Surge protectors are not infallible and TiVo modems are very fragile.

If you have access to a PC, mount the drive in it (after disconnecting any Windows drives!) then boot from this CD and type the following commands at the bash prompt (assuming you have attached the drive as secondary master, /dev/hdc)

mount /dev/hdc4 /mnt
cd /mnt/tvbin
mv modemtest modemtest.old
sync
halt

Then put the drive back in the TiVo and see whether it boots.

(NB. If you try this on the 40gb Quantum drive you will need to unlock it first using qunlock)


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## Boucher (Aug 21, 2005)

Many thanks for that,will give it a go


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## Boucher (Aug 21, 2005)

Well after I backed up my image I played with it a little bit and now the tivo seems stuck in a boot loop?

It says almost there etc, then pink screen and the same thing happens?

Very Odd.

It does this after i applied:
mount /dev/hdc4 /mnt
cd /mnt/tvbin
mv modemtest modemtest.old
sync
halt

New Tivo is all fine and dandy(waiting to move lifetime sub over), but the old ones got my mind going blank.


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## blindlemon (May 12, 2002)

Hmm, could be MFS corruption on the drive or a problem with the PSU.


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## Boucher (Aug 21, 2005)

Dont think its the hard drive as old one does same thing etc.
I swear its the motherboard, i might swap out the psu's and see what gives.....how long do the psu's hold a charge for etc?As i have read that one can get a nasty shock from them...lol


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## Pete77 (Aug 1, 2006)

Boucher said:


> .....how long do the psu's hold a charge for etc?As i have read that one can get a nasty shock from them...lol


Weaknees in the USA says 5 minutes but I would allow an hour to be on the safe side.

His guide here below is also useful as the UK and US Tivo S1 power supplies are basically the same in terms of fitting and unfitting:-

See www.weaknees.com/tivo-power-supply.php#ps



> INSTRUCTIONS FOR REPLACING A TiVo POWER SUPPLY:
> 
> TOOLS REQUIRED:
> Torx T10 screwdriver
> ...


www.steveconrad.co.uk/tivo/upgrade2.html also shows you the position of the power supply and location before you start

www.swanstep.f2s.com/tivo//download/TiVo Upgrade Instructions.pdf from Tivoheaven is also useful.


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## Boucher (Aug 21, 2005)

Thanks Pete.
WIll have a go later today,I work on Pc's in my day job etc, so this should be ok.


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## Boucher (Aug 21, 2005)

I made a backup of the 300g image i had, and now i am trying to put it back on a new drive for the new tivo but i have come a little unstuck

When i enter the commands to restore the image i get this error:
restore failed:backup target not large enough for entire backup by itself.

What can i be doing wrong?


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## Boucher (Aug 21, 2005)

Seems my image of the 300g is currupt somehow, so got an image from our image bank man and will start afresh

My image was over 600meg and the basic images are 350ish.


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## Boucher (Aug 21, 2005)

Well after spending all day sunday on the Tivo the old one has come back to life after i got a virgin 2.55 image and a new hard drive, i am unsure why the original didint work or the 300g stopped working, but at least i learnt a few things i suppose

Now i am debating what to do with the new one i bought, its totally mint but as i had a mare on the old one i think i'll keep it as a backup.

WIll prob get tivo web and a lan card installed very soon.


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## Pete77 (Aug 1, 2006)

Boucher said:


> Now i am debating what to do with the new one i bought, its totally mint but as i had a mare on the old one i think i'll keep it as a backup.
> 
> WIll prob get tivo web and a lan card installed very soon.


I'm not quite clear which hard drive is now surplus or its size? Is it the Tivoland one?

A re-image might fix the old hard drive for a while if it was faulty and had bad sectors but then it could still have a problem again in the not too distant future if it is already on the way out. I still can't quite see why the Tivoland drive is refusing to work either.

Or did you fit the new Tivo power supply and that cured things? If so the Tivoland drive ought to now work too.


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## Boucher (Aug 21, 2005)

Sorry I meant to say i got one of my maxtor 160g from my pc and wiped it and put a fresh tivo image i got from the image bank on here.

Set It all up and its working fine and dandy

I did not actually touch the psu, simply thought I'd install on a fresh hard drive with a proper image as my image seems broken.


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## a_tivo_noob (Jan 2, 2004)

blindlemon said:


> If the same thing is happening with both drives then yes, it's probably a board error - most likely a blown modem. Surge protectors are not infallible and TiVo modems are very fragile.
> 
> If you have access to a PC, mount the drive in it (after disconnecting any Windows drives!) then boot from this CD and type the following commands at the bash prompt (assuming you have attached the drive as secondary master, /dev/hdc)
> 
> ...


this is a brilliant post!!!  shame i didn't read it about a month ago tho!


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