# Please Make Nosie To Direct TV About Random Reboots



## njb (Feb 5, 2004)

Please post to Direct TV about your random reboot problem"

http://forums.directv.com/pe/action/forums/defaultview?msgBoardID=10100106

Maybe they will listen if enough people make a lot of noise!


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## Dkerr24 (Oct 29, 2004)

Agreed. Complaining here about software issues will do no good unless you just want to rant. 

All we can do is offer condolences. 

Good luck with the Directv folks.


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## JimSpence (Sep 19, 2001)

I can't honestly do that. I haven't had any random reboots.


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## TonyTheTiger (Dec 22, 2006)

What random reboot problem?


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## Dkerr24 (Oct 29, 2004)

TonyTheTiger said:


> What random reboot problem?


Same here Tony. I can't complain to Directv. Both of my DTivo's are 99% flawless.

I only have to switch my time zone to Eastern for a few weeks each year if I want the time display to appear correct.


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## litzdog911 (Oct 18, 2002)

I had this problem on both my HR10-250 and R10 DirecTivo's with v6.3e, but not one reboot since they updated to 6.3f several weeks ago.


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## texasbrit (Mar 17, 2004)

I posted here and over in the DirecTV forum about this. Many of the posts about reboots of 6.3f are from people in the Raleigh-Durham DMA; the reboots are happening when they are watching either channel 5 or channel 50 SD locals. Apparently these two stations use the same equipment so it looks like a datastream issue.


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## Scott D (Jun 17, 2001)

Won't do no good to complain to DTV. They don't care as it stands. Then again, the people I talked to, mostly Sups, have no clue about their competition. DTV thinks ALL cable providers do contracts and lease equipment. 

Well, AT&T doesn't. No contracts, no rental fees either. I talked to AT&T personally and to a friend of mine who has AT&T and both said no contracts or rental fees! DTV says that they do! Yeah, right, whatever you say DTV, whatever you say! Whatever floats your boat. They also cut you off as well. They never allow you to complete a sentence either. Whatever we, as customers, say is wrong, and they are right. Always! 

Neither does Comcast. They don't do contracts. They only do contracts when they buy out other contracts but they will do rental fees. However, they won't charge you ridicules up front charges for a rental receiver either!


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## HPD (Feb 25, 2008)

TonyTheTiger said:


> What random reboot problem?


The original poster obviously has a hard drive with problems, causing corrupt data and therefore, reboots.


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## cwerdna (Feb 22, 2001)

JimSpence said:


> I can't honestly do that. I haven't had any random reboots.


Ditto. From my records (I can tell if 30 second skip gets shut back off), the only reboot that happened was on 2/20/08 when I got updated to 6.3f.


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## texasbrit (Mar 17, 2004)

njb said:


> Please post to Direct TV about your random reboot problem"
> 
> http://forums.directv.com/pe/action/forums/defaultview?msgBoardID=10100106
> 
> Maybe they will listen if enough people make a lot of noise!


Remember also that although this is a DirecTV box, the code is all written and maintained by TiVo, so all that DirecTV can do is pass the problem along. TiVo's own support policy makes it very difficult to contact them about issues like this - you can't e-mail them, and the support forums specifically exclude support of boxes manufactured by other companies so they just refer you back here. I guess you could mail them.


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## shibby191 (Dec 24, 2007)

Only time I ever had reboot problems with any of my Tivo's it was due to a hard drive slowly failing.


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## pader (Nov 26, 2007)

I have an R10 (in Raleigh, NC) that has been having this problem since about the middle of this month. My system freezes and reboots randomly about 8-10 times a day, whether watching TV or watching a recorded program. NEVER has this happened while watching or even being tuned in to Channel 5 or 50.

I have talked extensively with DirecTV and TIVO and here is what I have gleaned:

1. DirecTV says they are totally unaware of such a problem and take NO responsibility (of course). They throw the problem right to TIVO, seemingly totally unaware that the R10 is a DirecTV box with software maintained by DirecTV. I have talked to 3 tech service reps and they all maintain this ignorance. They even volunteered to send out a replacement R15 piece of junk to help me. They didn't like my response that I have a very lightly used R15 setting in my garage.

2. TIVO is highly amused by this occurrence since they say that the R10 is a DirecTV box and TIVO does not program for it. They also take NO responsibility, obviously.

I have made arrangements with a hard drive upgrade provider to change my v6.3f back to 6.2(x) which I seriously believe will stop the problem. This should happen within the next 2 weeks and I will report back and let the forum know what happened.


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## ebonovic (Jul 24, 2001)

pader said:


> 1. DirecTV says they are totally unaware of such a problem and take NO responsibility (of course). They throw the problem right to TIVO, seemingly totally unaware that the R10 is a DirecTV box with software maintained by DirecTV.......


The Software on any TiVo product, is not maintained by DirecTV... it is maintained by TiVo. (DirecTV is still responsible for getting the software to you, when it is available... but TiVo is responsible for the coding)



pader said:


> 2. TIVO is highly amused by this occurrence since they say that the R10 is a DirecTV box and TIVO does not program for it. They also take NO responsibility, obviously.


Not sure who told you that... but it is false.
DirecTV does NO programming for the TiVo... It is all done by TiVo.

IMHO... TiVo should not be "amused" at all by this... as if those customers switch else where... (even if it is to a different DirecTV product) they lose revenue.



pader said:


> I have made arrangements with a hard drive upgrade provider to change my v6.3f back to 6.2(x) which I seriously believe will stop the problem. This should happen within the next 2 weeks and I will report back and let the forum know what happened.


Good luck with that.


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## cwa126 (Mar 23, 2008)

Freezing and/or bebooting is an everyday thing on our DVR080 under 6.3f in Raleigh, starting about 6-8 weeks ago. Three calls to DTV resulted in 3 different explanations. Latest is that it's a signal interference problem meaning I need to pay for a $80 service call. I tried to get them to ship a new DVR (no more Tivo), but this last CSR refused, insisting it's a signal issue, not hard drive. I declined the service call (for now anyway). I don't think it's just channnels 5 and 50, but I'll have to test that.


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## pader (Nov 26, 2007)

ebonovic said:


> The Software on any TiVo product, is not maintained by DirecTV... it is maintained by TiVo. (DirecTV is still responsible for getting the software to you, when it is available... but TiVo is responsible for the coding)
> 
> Not sure who told you that... but it is false.
> DirecTV does NO programming for the TiVo... It is all done by TiVo.
> ...


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## TonyTheTiger (Dec 22, 2006)

Er....that's what Earl said!

The R10 BOX is made for DirecTV, the software is TiVo. It is NOT a TiVo, it's a D* receiver with TiVo software. TiVo does the coding and provides it to D*, who send it out.

You are arguing the same point!


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## pader (Nov 26, 2007)

TonyTheTiger said:


> Er....that's what Earl said!
> 
> The R10 BOX is made for DirecTV, the software is TiVo. It is NOT a TiVo, it's a D* receiver with TiVo software. TiVo does the coding and provides it to D*, who send it out.
> 
> You are arguing the same point!


Thanks to you all for the insight. My only problem with this is that I Talked to more than two tech support people from DTV and TiVO each and I am only quoting what they told me. I guess this all boils down to the TiVO people lying through their teeth???


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## dcstager (Feb 16, 2002)

You guys need a new hard drive. Bite the bullet and buy a replacement from:

http://www.dvrupgrade.com/dvr/stores/1/index_tcf.cfm


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## bbristow (Jan 15, 2003)

I live in the Raleigh-Durham DMA as well and have Hughes SD-DVR80. I can tell you....the only way to fix this reboot problem is to wipe the drive and use InstantCake to put the rock-solid 6.2a back on it. Of course, it helps if you have a different drive (so you can save and later watch your recorded shows, as I do). I have had NO reboots, freezes, pixelation, or color shifting since doing this about a month ago. I have even left the cover off the unit, so I can just undo the IDE cable and power cable, lay other drive in, replace two cables, boot up and watch old shows. Then put new on back in with 6.2a and ready to go again. InstantCake is only $19.99 and WELL worth it!!!!


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## pader (Nov 26, 2007)

I sincerely hope that this will be helpful to this forum since it has been outstandingly good to me. On the suggestion of a fellow Tivo user, just after my last post here, I went to my R10 and bit the bullet and thru the menu did a complete reformat and reset. It took a couple of hours but, believe me, it was truly worth it. Everything is back to happy userville. The unit has been performing flawlessly for almost 2 weeks now; not one single freeze-up or reset.

Since almost every complaint about this problem mentions the 'e' update as a possible culprit, I believe that update put something on the hard drive that was lingering in the 'f' update and the reformat took it off. Only a guess but it seems most likely.

If something goes wrong and the R10 acts up again, I will bounce right back here and let you folks know. This forum has been extremely useful and I probably would not have found the answer if I had not talked with all the knowledgeable people here. A big thanks to all of you who helped me through this.


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## danwenz (Feb 28, 2008)

Thanks for your input. It will be interesting to see if your problems cease totally. I did nothing (except unplugging them when they froze) to my Tivo's and I also had NO problems for a similar two week period. I was hoping I was home free but yesterday both of my units had problems. Both rebooted at least once and one froze 2-3 times during the day. 

I noticed that DirecTV 'pushed' content to my Tivo Thursday/Friday. I'm wondering if this 'pushed' programming (found in Directv Central) may be the cause of our problems. The content was a Masters preview and one about BMW autos.


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## pader (Nov 26, 2007)

danwenz said:


> I noticed that DirecTV 'pushed' content to my Tivo Thursday/Friday. I'm wondering if this 'pushed' programming (found in Directv Central) may be the cause of our problems. The content was a Masters preview and one about BMW autos.


Thanks for this addition. I forgot to add in my last post that I have left my phone line unplugged from the TiVo. This may be why I am getting no more problems. I will leave it off until I find something that encourages me to believe that the problem has been fixed with another update.


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## Duffycoug (Feb 12, 2007)

I had tons of reboots prior to 6.3f with 3 machines, now I have none, so I can no longer complain....sorry.


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## pader (Nov 26, 2007)

Well, BAM! Last night everything fell apart. Out of the blue, my R10 restarted and froze up 4 times in less than 3 hours. So much for the internal disk clean and reset.

Luckily, I had a new standby disk ready with V6.1 on it and I did an immediate and admittedly, a very angry swap. The system is up now and has been running clean since the middle of last night. I also detached the phone wire form the unit as soon as it cleared the startup dial-in. Will keep you all posted.


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## PrincetonTech (Apr 13, 2008)

TonyTheTiger said:


> What random reboot problem?


People often to fail to understand that software would cause everybody to have reboot problems and that random reboots are caused by failing sectors on the hard disk (magnetic coating peeling off) or by compromised hard drive heads that have trouble reading the disk properly.


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## PrincetonTech (Apr 13, 2008)

shibby191 said:


> Only time I ever had reboot problems with any of my Tivo's it was due to a hard drive slowly failing.


Exactly. Once the data can no longer be read properly, it is just a matter of time before it reboots. Once these people get new hard drives their machine will work like a charm.


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## chuckg (Sep 1, 2007)

PrincetonTech said:


> Exactly. Once the data can no longer be read properly, it is just a matter of time before it reboots. Once these people get new hard drives their machine will work like a charm.


That which is true *most of the time* must then be *not true some of the time.*

You need to read hundreds of posts on the various D*Tivo forums going back to early September to truly appreciate what is known about 6.3e on Series 2 DTivos.

You can tell my "Join Date" when I developed an interest (most of which I have lost by now) in this subject.


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## goony (Nov 20, 2003)

bbristow said:


> I can tell you....the only way to fix this reboot problem is to *wipe the drive* and use InstantCake to put the rock-solid 6.2a back on it.


 There are methods to leave your recordings intact... poke around in the Upgrade Forum or Underground Forum.

I'm not familiar enough with the InstantCake product to know if it will give you the option to install into "the other" partition and then boot from that one, thus saving your recordings.


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## skipw (Feb 9, 2006)

PrincetonTech said:


> Exactly. Once the data can no longer be read properly, it is just a matter of time before it reboots. Once these people get new hard drives their machine will work like a charm.


I've replaced one drive and it worked flawless for about 2 weeks. During this time, both of my R10's were working well. About 1 week after 6.3f came down, both boxes started acting up again. Tonight, both receivers have rebooted on their own and have froze up multiple times. Also, after one reset, it froze up again within 5 minutes. This happened on both boxes. My guess is that something in the "local channel" feed is messing things up. This would explain why it's not happening to everyone. (I'm in the Raleigh,NC area) On other occasions, other people have complained about reboots at the same time, during the same show, that I had problems.

Still think it's a hardware issue?

This usually happens between 8pm-11:30pm. If it was hardware, it would be a lot more random and I doubt both receivers would fail aruond the same time.


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## baileysdad (Apr 15, 2008)

I'm in the Raleigh-Durham, NC area, and I've been having the same reboot issue. I thought 6.3f would fix it, but I think it's now worse than before. The reboots went away for about 2 weeks, but now they're back. If I leave the tuners off the local CBS and Fox affiliates (5 and 50), and the reboots and lockups don't occur. Last night, I had 1 lockup while recording Bones (Fox - the other tuner was on DIY) and one reboot while recording CSI: Miami (CBS - the other tuner was on Fox).

This isn't a HDD issue. There are too many people in this area with the exact symptoms -- reboots with tuners on CBS and Fox. Besides, I've already tried replacing the drive. No change at all.


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## nc_go_blue (Apr 15, 2008)

I have 2 Hughes DirecTivo's. I'm in Apex, NC. I have freezes and lockup like mad.

Here's a brain dump of some observations and experiences ... 

As others have pointed out, there seems to be a problem in the RDU area. However, I have trouble believing that all DirectTivo users in the RDU area have this problem. Someone (many someones?) in the area must have a working system?

I'm running 6.3f. Since 6.3e, I have had color loss and video tiling. With 6.3f, I have had plenty of freezes and reboots. 

The problem seems to be synchronous because there are a handful of us who have found each other and tend to report the same problem at the same time. Yesterday (4-14-2008) was one of the worst days I have experienced, and that aligns with a few others (and the flurry of new updates to the forums here and elsewhere).

During Medium, around 10:20PM, I had back to back freezes while watching a recorded program. That was before and after other freezes and autonomous reboots throughout the day.

I have noticed other freezes occur at 9:50PM. 

The American Idol that Chikezie was voted off froze with about 10 minutes to go. Then, the problem stopped for perhaps two weeks, and has returned with a vengeance. 

It sounds like 6.2a is a possible solution.


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## skipw (Feb 9, 2006)

While 6.2 were betters times, we still pay a ton of money for the service and they should be working on fixing the problem. They blame it on hardware, want to charge us for new equipment and get us for a 2 year commitment. There seems to be pleanty of people out here willing to work with them on this, but instead they brush us off and cater to "new" customers. If they weren't trying to get rid of the Tivo receivers, you can bet this would be fixed by now. I don't pay $800+ a year and have to pull the harddrive to put back an old version of their software. I'm ready to switch to Dish Network, just a little trigger shy. But I can't take much more of this. Last night was the worse it has been in a while.


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## baileysdad (Apr 15, 2008)

Locked up again tonight at 8:42 while recording NCIS. The other tuner was on MAX. One of my reboots last night occurred at exactly the same time as nc_go_blue's 10:20 pm reboot. I guess DTV support will say that we have synchronized HDD failures!


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## chuckg (Sep 1, 2007)

baileysdad said:


> Locked up again tonight at 8:42 while recording NCIS. The other tuner was on MAX. One of my reboots last night occurred at exactly the same time as nc_go_blue's 10:20 pm reboot. I guess DTV support will say that we have *synchronized HDD failures!*


Love it! Spooky action at a distance in HDDs! Quantum entanglement writ large.


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## kingwart (Sep 30, 2002)

baileysdad said:


> I'm in the Raleigh-Durham, NC area, and I've been having the same reboot issue. I thought 6.3f would fix it, but I think it's now worse than before. The reboots went away for about 2 weeks, but now they're back. If I leave the tuners off the local CBS and Fox affiliates (5 and 50), and the reboots and lockups don't occur. Last night, I had 1 lockup while recording Bones (Fox - the other tuner was on DIY) and one reboot while recording CSI: Miami (CBS - the other tuner was on Fox).
> 
> This isn't a HDD issue. There are too many people in this area with the exact symptoms -- reboots with tuners on CBS and Fox. Besides, I've already tried replacing the drive. No change at all.


I'm in Raleigh and I've had the same experience. I set TWO DirecTV with TIVO units to record "Bones" last night to be sure and get the program and BOTH units locked up SIMULTANEOUSLY. There's no way that's a disk problem.


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## Pezhead (Apr 5, 2002)

I'm also in the Raleigh area and am having the same problems. My hang and reboot times also match up with what others have said here.

If this is isolated to WRAL and WRAZ, has anyone tried to contact them? Do we know enough to describe the cause of the problem?

Since DirecTiVos haven't been for sale in a couple of years, it's unlikely that anyone over there who is in a position to fix the problem will stumble across it. Sure would be nice if one of their transmission engineers had a DirecTiVo.

Since it seems isolated to this area, I don't hold much hope for help from DirecTV or TiVo.


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## jaydro (Oct 19, 2003)

I haven't noticed it happen on 5 or 50, but I have had lockups twice while recording WB 22 and once last night on WTVD 11 (which I think may have been a first). I think the point of commonality is DirecTV's SD local receive facility for the RDU area. (The address they give there, 14111 Capital Blvd, Wake Forest, NC, looks to be an Embarq office building.) I've thought WUNC 4 and WNCN 17 have looked like they were collected OTA, but I don't know about the other channels.


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## danwenz (Feb 28, 2008)

This is a widespread and getting worse problem. See: http://forums.directv.com/pe/action/forums/displaypost?postID=10392156


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## ericL (Jan 6, 2002)

Also in the Raleigh area...

I have one unit (Philips series 2) where this is occurring. It's not on my GXCEBOT and H10-250. Last night, it froze on channel 11 during the debate, around 9:15. I don't remember the exact details, but I'm 90% certain I've seen it freeze on non-locals, too.

I also just experienced the weird color issues mentioned a little earlier in this thread.


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## JimSpence (Sep 19, 2001)

It seems that these lockups are occurring while recording DirecTV delivered locals. Is this a good assumption?

Since, I don't have locals, I'm not seeing this problem.


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## Mark W (Dec 6, 2001)

I would say that is a good assumption. I am getting these problems again now over the past few days after them being gone for a long time. Seems to happen while on Connecticut locals for me. Same symptoms as months ago, reboots, and frozen black screens.


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## gshumaker (Feb 5, 2006)

I'm getting the same what seem like at least daily reboots and black screens now on 2 of 3 tivo dvrs. The oldest one is doing fine - the problems are with the 2 newer ones so lets see if D* wants to say it is bad hard drives this time around.

I'm in Hampton Roads area of VA and can't say for sure if it is always on locals or not but a lot of our recordings are on locals so there could be something to this local thing.


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## Mark Griswold (Apr 22, 2003)

Mark W said:


> Seems to happen while on Connecticut locals for me. Same symptoms as months ago, reboots, and frozen black screens.


Same here. Random reboots and freezes, just like before.
In fact, last time mine froze and I rebooted it, it came back up with Tuner 1 dead, and the system info screen said my DVR service was inactive and my account was closed. Had to reboot it again to get it working normally.

IMO, it's a problem with the Tivo not correctly handling some sat stream data, possibly related to the Remote Booking feature they promised a while back. Guess whatever they "fixed" in moving from 6.3e to 6.3f didn't really get fixed.


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## rawilson (Mar 25, 2008)

I also live in the Raleigh-Durham area. I was seeing this problem a few weeks ago, but things got better for about 2 weeks. In the last few days, though, my R10 is completely unusable. Won't last more than half an hour before it either locks up or reboots...just like it did a few weeks ago.

I originally thought it was a hard drive problem, but with so many others in the area reporting the exact same problem, I'm not so sure. Have called DirecTV a couple of times, both times told I would need to either reformat or "upgrade" to the crappy Direct DVR....can't stand that DVR.


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## bumeister (Mar 24, 2008)

I can't keep track of all the different threads I've posted on about this, on TivoCommunity and elsewhere, but add me to the list of those in the RDU area (Apex) who are getting increasingly angry about this. After a lull of around 2 weeks or so, the reboot/freeze problem is back, to the point where the thing is virtually unwatchable. 

It freezes on the locals (5, 50, and the ones in-between), but it freezes on national feeds as well. 

I've noticed the record light go on at strange times, and find the other tuner mysteriously tuned to channel 201. Tivo Suggestions are off, and have been off since the day I got the box (2.5 years ago).

NO WAY this is a hard drive failure. I never, ever thought anything would make me reconsider my almost-10-year affair with DirecTV, but I'm close to the end of my rope.


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## robpickles (May 19, 2005)

Just had a random reboot on my R10 with 6.3f.

6:37pm - Brooklyn, New York

The first one since the update (or that I have noticed).

Maybe an isolated incident. Maybe not. We will see.

Rob


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## Dkerr24 (Oct 29, 2004)

Maybe we just need a thread named: 'Woe is me. I left my phone line plugged in and became a Directv beta tester.'


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## saedhamad (Apr 18, 2008)

I am in Apex NC and having the same problem and I am about to lose my mind
I have 4 DTV Tivo units 
3 of them were connected to a phone and 1 was not the one that was not is fine 
its odd that there are alot of people from NC having the same problem


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## jaydro (Oct 19, 2003)

I've just been seeing hard freezes that required me to unplug the DTiVo, but tonight I saw a spontaneous reboot for the first time--at about 8:41 while recording "30 Rock" on NBC 17.... fwiw


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## saedhamad (Apr 18, 2008)

I have the following units
2- HR10-250-with 6.3f-01-2-357 --- They are freezing and locking & rebooting
1- SIR-S4040R -with 6.3f-01-2-151--- It is freezing and locking & rebooting
1- SIR 4040 -with 6.2-01-2-381 has not been connected to a phone line in 1 year and works perfectly has never seen a freeze or reboot

I think it is deliberate SABOTAGE!! just to get us to switch to their crappy new DVR's I also have one of them just for the HD purposes and I hate it but i am about at the end of my rope they might get me switched on all units if this keeps happening

WE NEED the 6.2 again on all units 
Anyone got any ideas?
AGAIN I am in APEX NC but sure if that is the issue but it is odd
HELP


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## skipw (Feb 9, 2006)

Came home and found it frozen (again) at 8:27pm.
And it just rebooted at 11:24pm while I was watching a recorded show. Instead of throwing the remote thru the TV, I called tech support. Of course she didn't show any problems in this area, and had me check signal strength and if it was plugged in firmly... I proceeded to tell her that the picture freezing on both receivers at the same exact time along with other confirmed people in the general area, pretty much points to something they are sending down to our receivers.
She was very nice and put an escalation on the trouble and said someone would call back within 72 hours. I don't expect a fix, but I would like to know if they are working on this or just hoping it goes away. We'll see.
I'll post back when I get an answer.

And to Dkerr24... disconnect the phone line... blah blah blah... we get it. But that won't fix the problem unless you have an older version and the time and/or know how to switch it back. The point is we pay a lot of hard earned money for this service year after year, and I shouldn't have to fix their problems. I'm more than willing to work with them, but I shouldn't have to buy new equipment or commit for two more years or unplug the phone line to get this resolved. When your competing for business, customer support goes a long way.


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## skipw (Feb 9, 2006)

24 hours and no call from DTV yet. But on the plus side I did not notice any problems this evening. Also found postings on the DirecTV Technical Forum site that they have acknowledged the problem and are working with some customers in the Raleigh-Durham area. This is all second hand so until I speak with someone, I'm not getting my hopes up.


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## bumeister (Mar 24, 2008)

Mine froze last night while recording House on channel 50. It's not been tuned to any local channels since, and there have been no further freezes. But that's no guarantee, as the other night neither tuner was on a local channel and the thing froze anyway.


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## lmd (Oct 5, 2007)

I think the problem has moved north. I live in southern Connecticut. I am experiencing the same issues - freeze-ups and spontaneous reboots. My TiVo was fine for a bunch of weeks after 6.3f. This stuff started happening this past week. It makes no difference what channel i am watching. It has happened on locals and cable stations (MSNBC, CNN, Comedy Central, etc). 

I also noticed that my other non-DVR receiver has been freezing occasionally. I have checked he signal strength and it appears that my dish is not misaligned. Has anyone noticed this twist? (This non-DVR receiver is a Samsung.)

I am so done with DirecTv


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## aixrocks (Apr 22, 2008)

I live in Birmingham, AL and have a RCA Series 2 DVR80. Since I also had a DirecTV branded version of the RCA DVR80 that bit the dust due to hard drive failures last year (or at least I _thought they were HD failures_), I had assumed my HD was giving me the warnings that it was near failure.

I've since found this forum and noticed that my own Tivo version is now 6.3f-01-2-121. I've had the random color shifting and reboots -- but they were not frequent enough to give me much concern. But now, after several reboots / frozen screens, etc. this past weekend, I am betting on the 6.3f update. Unfortunately, not sure when they did it or the 6.3e update for that matter.

For me, I get local channels, but did not correlate reboots / freezes to having one of the tuners on a local channel. I will look out for that with the next freeze and will likewise call and complain the next time. At least this time, I'll know to skip the lecture about HD failure and the "upgrade" to the non-Tivo DirecTV DVR.

And *if* this ever gets stable again, I am popping the phone line out. I'm not going to go through this again.


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## skipw (Feb 9, 2006)

It's been 6 days since tech support was supposed to call back within 72 hours. Still no call.
Good news is that I haven't had a freeze up or reboot (that I know of) since Friday. I think Monday night was the first time in a long while that all of my shows recorded without failure. They must have found the problem, or knew what it was, and hopefully we will be able to move forward. Lets see if we can make it a whole week!!!


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## Mark W (Dec 6, 2001)

I checked with the people I know with DirecTV Tivos here in CT, and both people reported they were getting the same problems that they were back in Sept and Oct, reboots, and frozen screens. Arrrggghhh....time to call again and have them claim they have not heard about the issue.


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## pader (Nov 26, 2007)

I promised to keep you all posted on this so here is my first installment.

It has been 12 days now since I installed v6.1 on my R10 and it has been running absolutely glitch free ever since. Will continue to enter updates every couple of weeks or so if it stays stable, earlier if not.


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## pader (Nov 26, 2007)

Can anyone please tell me how to shut off the bloody messages that your unit hasn't called in? I am keeping the phone line disconnected from my R10 to keep the bad updates from reinfecting my unit and the "you haven't called in x days" message is driving me nuts. Thanks ahead of time if anyone can help.


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## rawest50 (Apr 12, 2005)

PrincetonTech said:


> People often to fail to understand that software would cause everybody to have reboot problems and that random reboots are caused by failing sectors on the hard disk (magnetic coating peeling off) or by compromised hard drive heads that have trouble reading the disk properly.


Answer this then:

I have been in contact with DIRECTV via their message board several times and they cannot explain why both of my DVR's reboot at the same time and sometimes the pictures freezes. They do not know or it is my equipment is all they will say. Both at the same time??????????????


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## Budget_HT (Jan 2, 2001)

rawest50 said:


> Answer this then:
> 
> I have been in contact with DIRECTV via their message board several times and they cannot explain why both of my DVR's reboot at the same time and sometimes the pictures freezes. They do not know or it is my equipment is all they will say. Both at the same time??????????????


Where do you live? The pattern appears to be some local areas are the ones affected, possibly by some guide data for local channels or something in the broadcast stream for some channels that is not handled gracefully by the TiVo's.


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## edc (Mar 24, 2002)

It cannot be anything but the upgrade. Started two days ago, reboots like mad 

Houston, Texas.


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## lmd (Oct 5, 2007)

My TiVo just rebooted before my eye about 15 minutes ago. I immediately called DTV. A tech named Alex put me on hold and then told me that there was nothing they could do and that they were going to replace my unit with a DVR. I refused. He said that was all they could do. Grrrrrrrr. I was so furious that I didnt even try to escalate to a supervisor.


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## pader (Nov 26, 2007)

I promised to keep you all posted on this so here is my 2nd installment.

It has been a month now since I installed v6.1 on my R10 and it has been running absolutely glitch free ever since. Will continue to enter updates monthly if it stays stable, earlier if not.


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## pader (Nov 26, 2007)

I promised to keep you all posted on this so here is my 3rd installment.

It has been a month and a half now since I installed v6.1 on my R10 and it is still running absolutely glitch free. Will not enter further updates unless a problem occurs.


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## leighj (Apr 15, 2004)

I had my Samsung start rebooting (yeah I'm at the e version) and then started to lock up. Even after clearing it out.

I called DirecTV and they are sending out an R15 to replace it. (I have a service contract so they are not charging me I go from a 32 hour to 100 hour)

The bad thing is that I loose TiVo. 

In the long run a free upgrade from 32 to 100 hours, game channels, interactive stuff should be a good thing.

I will miss my little TiVo and will have to say DVR it instead of TiVo it. 

Maybe if they let me keep my TiVo I might try to hack it...


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## tigercat74 (Aug 7, 2004)

All three of my TIVOs rebooted yesterday during a heavy storm. They are all running 6.4a.


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## jaydro (Oct 19, 2003)

Hmmm, mine locked up during a storm, though it's possible it could have been that local channel issue I haven't seen in a few months.... It was on a local channel on one tuner, though it wasn't recording anything so I can't tell exactly when it happened....


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## wudilye (Mar 23, 2004)

I definitely think this is a satellite data stream issue. I live in Calif, and have 3 R10s. Two with 6.4 and one with 6.1 Both 6.4s have been freezing and spontaneously rebooting to the point where you can't record or watch a 1 hour program. I starting recording my must haves on my 6.1, then had a heart attack when it also started spontaneously rebooting -- not every 20 minutes like the 6.4s, but nonethe less it did it multiple times (before my eyes and several 2 hr recordings were in bits and pieces). Can't be hard drives (bad drives on 3 different, until now flawless R-10s?). Can't be a regional channel issue (I'm in Calif). Can't be 6.3/6.4 bugs (well, it could be, but I'm seeing the problem on 6.1 as well!)


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## tigercat74 (Aug 7, 2004)

2 of my three DTIVOS froze and rebooted last night during heavy storms.


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## Zephyr (Sep 16, 2005)

Here we go again... after many months of good operation, the reboots started again yesterday. And this am, 4 times during the same hour until I shut it off. Untouched, early issue R10 running newest (6.4?) with the new "recently deleted" folder installed last call. In MA without significant weather. Another R10 same age has never had any problems, and we don't make the phone call ever to mess that one up! I was never satisfied anything I did resolved the reboot problems before. I think they eventually delivered a covert fix. And, no, I doubt very much a drive issue so no new drives going in there. Will just wait and see where we're going with this.


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## Mark W (Dec 6, 2001)

I had both of my DTivos lock-up on me this morning too. Had to unplug both


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## Zephyr (Sep 16, 2005)

In less than a week, one of two of the original R10's went from no problems to terminal reboot loops. Tried to run the "delete all" but the reboots kept interupting. It's been sitting there for two full days thrashing itself to death. I'm ready to throw the towel in. Am considering sending it away for disk upgrade and checkout or call Directv and see what they can do. Looks like I'll pay $99 psh for an SD of unknown identity from them. Is the upgrade route a sound idea? Are there any pitfalls there? I have no immediate plan to go to HD. Thanks!


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## MauriAnne (Sep 21, 2002)

Zephyr said:


> Is the upgrade route a sound idea? Are there any pitfalls there? I have no immediate plan to go to HD. Thanks!


I'm curious about the same thing as I have a Series1 (Sony SAT-T60) which has started rebooting about 25% of the time when I add something to the Now Playing list. I tend to think it's my hard drive -- does that make sense?

Thanks..


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## Dad (Oct 27, 2001)

I have a RCA DVR80 in the Boston area and for the past month or so it's been locking up and it seems to be related to a lousy signal from DTV. First it would lock up recording TopGear on BBC and during play back the picture looked like it would during a heavy rain storm (no storms in the area). Now tonight while recording TopGear, sure enough it rebooted twice within 30 minutes. The signal strength on all transponders is good. I firmly believe the problems are related to 6.4 because it was fine until the upgrade. I'll call DTV support but I have general malaise about calling because I know there is nothing they can/will do. I&#8217;m going to pop open the case and poke around, check the connections as recommended in other threads.


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