# Won't Power Up after software updates



## TooLittleTimeZZZ (Sep 2, 2008)

My upgraded TiVo HD box seems to consistently hang on Powering Up screen after a software update is released.

I upgraded my HD box with a WD15EADS drive October 25, 2009 and it worked flawlessly until some time in March or April (didn't note the date), when one day we found it stuck on the Powering Up screen. Tried a few power cycles, but still got stuck on Powering Up. Ran the test 54 SMART tests, that passed with flying colors, and after that the TiVo booted fine. I dismissed it as flakiness, but now think it's likely that may have been when my box got the 11g or 11f update.

My TiVo worked flawlessly from then until July 29th, again finding it stuck on the Powering Up screen. Again ran test 54 SMART tests, but this didn't help. So I ran Media File System check 57 but it stuck at powering up. Did the Emergency software reinstall 53 and got the GSOD, so let it "repair" the file system errors and after it restarted it again stuck on powering up.

At that point, I plugged the drive into my computer and ran the Western Digital SMART short then long diagnostics which it passed with flying colors. Then I used WinMFS to fix the swap, then fix bootpage 1 and then fix bootpage 2. Put the drive back in my TiVo and it started up fine again! Funny that this coincided with the 11h software update.

Again, my TiVo worked flawlessly from then until today when I again found it stuck on the Powering Up screen. I again tried test 54, then test 52, then test 57. After test 57 the power cycle gave me the GSOD so let it do its thing again (about 10 min to reboot itself), but it still suck on Powering Up! Finally, I put the drive in my computer and used WinMFS to fix the swap then fix bootpage 1 and then fix bootpage 2. AGAIN put the drive back into my TiVo and it started up fine again! This time the problem coincided with the 11j upgrade!

Is TiVo putting something in their software updates to hang upgraded boxes? Anyone have any other idea what could be going on with this problem?


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## maddhatter99 (Oct 12, 2008)

I have the exact same issue as you, but, unfortunately, have not been able to find a solution. My issue started about the same time as yours, in April. What really irks me, is that it is the one THD box I have (own 3) with Lifetime on it 

Reading around, it has been suggested that it could possibly be the power supply, not sure if you've seen that suggestion. Even though this is a lifetime box, I have hesitated to spend $100 on a PS, for a number of different reasons.

Currently, my THD will work anywhere from 2 - 3 days, then I'll get the Power Up screen again. I have toyed with the idea of putting the original 160 GB drive back in, to see if it will stay running with no issues.


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## PapaArt (May 28, 2008)

TooLittleTimeZZZ said:


> My upgraded TiVo HD box seems to consistently hang on Powering Up screen after a software update is released.
> 
> I upgraded my HD box with a WD15EADS drive October 25, 2009 and it worked flawlessly until some time in March or April (didn't note the date), when one day we found it stuck on the Powering Up screen. Tried a few power cycles, but still got stuck on Powering Up. Ran the test 54 SMART tests, that passed with flying colors, and after that the TiVo booted fine. I dismissed it as flakiness, but now think it's likely that may have been when my box got the 11g or 11f update.
> 
> ...


This sounds like the Intellipark problem where the drive does not boot correctly on a restart but will boot correctly when the power plug is removed. Look at the "Drive Expansion and Drive Upgrade FAQ" Section 5 topic 14 for the solution.

PapaArt


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## TooLittleTimeZZZ (Sep 2, 2008)

Hi PapaArt,

Sounds like a great lead, but that FAQ says that the drive will reboot after pulling the power plug. I see where the initial TiVo-induced upgrade reboot wouldn't work, but when I followed up by running a test I always restarted by pulling the power plug. For some reason those restarts didn't work either until I used WinMFS as described.

Do you know whether there's something that "sticks" in the drive, after that first reboot, that would cause later power-cycles to work until after running WinMFS? If not, is there someone who'd know (perhaps Drey, who found that fix)?


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## PapaArt (May 28, 2008)

TooLittleTimeZZZ,

It could still be the Intellipark issue. Try a restart and if it cycles then do the power cycle. It should boot correctly. The time value for Intellipark could be too low even for the power cycle. I would follow the instructions in the FAQ to set the value to 300.

When a new update is downloaded the Tivo will automatically restart at 2 AM then the Tivo will go in to the power up cycle because of Intellipark.

As long as you never made the drive visible to Windows when it is connected to your computer, WinFS should have no effect. Otherwise, WinFS is fixing the boot sectors as you discovered.

The only other possibility is the drive has flaky sectors in the bootpage areas and WinFS is somehow fixing the bootpage.

I would check the Intellipark value and change it to 300 no matter what.

PapaArt


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## TooLittleTimeZZZ (Sep 2, 2008)

Thanks. I'll give that a try. I was worried that I wouldn't know if it worked until the next update came out.


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## PapaArt (May 28, 2008)

Well... You can test by restarting your Tivo after changing the time value to 300. Make sure you follow the instructions and use uppercase for the command, it does not always work when using lowercase.

Another thread to look at is in the Premiere forum "Drive upgrades in a Premiere unit" especially the last couple of pages.

PapaArt


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## mr.unnatural (Feb 2, 2006)

Sounds like a classic case of bad clusters on the drive. You might want to try a surface repair utility like SpinRite to recover bad clusters.

The Tivo OS and kernel are installed on two pairs of partitions (3&4 and 6&7). The active OS and kernel are on one pair and the other pair remains dormant until a software update gets installed. The update is installed on the alternate partition pair which is then made active. If bad clusters are present on the inactive partitions the OS and kernel may never load properly when they're made active. If the clusters are beyond repair then the GSOD will not be able to fix the problem.

Running a utility such as SpinRite will either repair the bad clusters or map them as bad so the drive knows not to try and access them. With drive prices being so low you may want to try backing up the hard drive to a new drive. At least when it gets into the GSOD it may be able to rebuild the damaged areas and restore the OS and kernel to working condition. If still unable to recover you'll have to install a backup copy of the Tivo image to the new drive.


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