# DirecTivo rebooting daily - started this week



## CTB6

Hi all. I have a Series 2 Hughes DirecTivo that had the hard drive upgraded years ago. Been working fine for many years. Starting this week, it reboots every day. I would put the unit on standby in the morning, then come home from work and turn it on. After about 3 key presses, it would lock up and then reboot. It did this 3 days in a row. Today I left it on rather than go to standby. When I got home, I mistakenly hit the standby button to turn it on out of habit, and when I did, the darn thing rebooted.

It doesn't seem like it should be a HD problem, as it won't do it again until tomorrow. Maybe I'm wrong, tho. Any ideas? I have software 6.4a-01-2-151 on the machine.

Thanks for any input - this is really getting annoying.


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## litzdog911

It's probably the hard drive.


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## AwesomeDale

My receiver is the DirecTivo Series2 model R10, and it's never been modified. I have the same software version (6.4a-01-2-521). The exact same thing has been happening to my receiver, and it just started within the last week. It seems to be resetting itself when I try to go to the main menu. It doesn't happen every time, but it's been doing it at least twice a day while I'm watching TV.

I figured it was related to a recent software update, but I talked to DirecTV tech support, and they said the last software update for this box was back in June. They did say that a low power condition could be causing the problem...like maybe when it goes to the menu, the box needs more electricity and it's not getting it. I don't know why something like that would just start happening, but I might try replacing my surge suppressor or hooking up a battery backup to make sure it's getting consistent power.


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## jaydro

I'm having the same issue, and I think it's tied to receiving messages from DirecTV. They're coming pretty often now (it seems), and it seems that either trying to read one or accessing some menu after reading one results in a spontaneous reboot. I don't think it's a failing hard drive or power supply issue, as I've gone through those scenarios before and this one seems darn peculiar. Recording programs or watching recordings is unaffected (other than if the spontaneous reboot happens to interrupt them--I don't read a new message now until it's safe to do so). Okay, so maybe there are a bunch of bad blocks on the disc where messages are stored, but I'm thinking it's not that since at least two others are experiencing spontaneous reboots, too, though maybe it's all just coincidence.


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## litzdog911

AwesomeDale said:


> ... and they said the last software update for this box was back in June. ....


It's been nearly two years since v6.4a came out. There was no new update last June.


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## CTB6

One of my reboots was most definitely when I tried to access one of the 5000000 messages that DTV has been sending out lately. Interesting to see that others are seeing this as well.


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## bearbig

ME too. My RCA DVR 80 has rebooted at least 3 times in the past week . If I remember correctly, always while watching recorded shows. I do not believe hardware is the problem.


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## Nittany Lioness

Mine is rebooting often too, several times a day sometimes.
I assumed it was a progression of my Tuner 2 pixellation/power capacitor problem,
but maybe not, eh.

Gah.

Say - I thought putting one's unit on "Standby" was for the purposes of using your TV with other inputs (like when you would like to watch old fashioned antenna TV programming),
but is it a way to ... almost turn the box OFF, thereby keeping it cool, and it works less hard?

I always wondered why the darned things don't have ON and OFF, period.


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## codespy

I always had problems in the past with 6.4a on my TiVo's when DirecTV was pushing out new SW downloads to their DirecTV branded boxes. And they just pushed another one out this week (yesterday morning).

Whether its coincidence or not, I have documented it in the past.


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## allan

jaydro said:


> I'm having the same issue, and I think it's tied to receiving messages from DirecTV. They're coming pretty often now (it seems), and it seems that either trying to read one or accessing some menu after reading one results in a spontaneous reboot. I don't think it's a failing hard drive or power supply issue, as I've gone through those scenarios before and this one seems darn peculiar. Recording programs or watching recordings is unaffected (other than if the spontaneous reboot happens to interrupt them--I don't read a new message now until it's safe to do so). Okay, so maybe there are a bunch of bad blocks on the disc where messages are stored, but I'm thinking it's not that since at least two others are experiencing spontaneous reboots, too, though maybe it's all just coincidence.


I've had the same problem. Several times, I'd try to read a message, the Tivo would freeze for a second, then reboot. Now I don't read messages while the Tivo's recording.


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## KSbugeater

My HR10 has been rebooting more than once a day lately, but I assumed it was the hard drive going bad. Now that I read about other DirecTiVos rebooting, I'm not so sure. 

I will say I haven't noticed a connection to messages. On Wednesday, it rebooted three times while I tried to watch a recording of the Wisconsin-Iowa SD ESPN game from Saturday. That's where I got the hard drive idea. We surely didn't get 3 DirecTV messages within an hour on Wed morning around 10 AM ET?


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## tigercat74

Count me in as one of my TIVOs has rebooted twice while trying to read a message.


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## litzdog911

codespy said:


> I always had problems in the past with 6.4a on my TiVo's when DirecTV was pushing out new SW downloads to their DirecTV branded boxes. And they just pushed another one out this week (yesterday morning).
> 
> Whether its coincidence or not, I have documented it in the past.


Good point. Seems that DirecTV is again streaming the v6.4a Tivo software, so this may indeed have something to do with the reboots. Of course, if the folks seeing reboots had older software, then a reboot would be expected as the Tivo updates to the v6.4a software.


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## Ballinger

My HR10-250 has been rebooting a lot lately too. Sometimes several times a day. It did it again tonight when I went to the menu. I also come home from work and the darn thing is locked up, requiring me to power down the receiver and plug it back in.


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## Ballinger

I got on here tonight looking for information to replace my hard drive, thinking this was the problem. I still may have a hard drive issue since play back of some recordings are are starting to skip and have dead spots on sound. Thoughts? Replace hard drive or not?


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## stevel

It's an easy enough thing to do - certainly more so than the alternatives.


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## CTB6

Mine was going fine today (I intentionally left it on yesterday) until I tried to examine my "to do" list. Then the pause and deadly lockup/reboot began. I'm still waiting for the *#&%^ thing to come back to life. This is really annoying.


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## CTB6

Nittany Lioness said:


> I assumed it was a progression of my Tuner 2 pixellation/power capacitor problem,
> but maybe not, eh.


Along those lines, mine is now doing that on one of the tuners on the composite output. The S-Video output became unusable a year ago, and now this one is, too.


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## ukerin

I have a Phillips series 2 DSR-708 mine has also been reebooting several time a day .Seems to be doing it more when I am recording something I thought maybe it was because my Now playing list is to full .But I have been getting a ton of messages from Tivo this week.One think I wanted to ask about would upgrading the hard drive help at all.


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## hp-1

It's definitely not hardware.

I have two DirecTivo Model R10's and one RCA DVR39, and all three will reboot if there is a message and I try to either look at the to-do list or try to read the message(s).

This started around the first of the week (last Sunday or Monday). I have the 6.4a-01-2-521 software. I don't know when it was installed.

After the reboot, there are no messages waiting and the To-Do list works normally. At some point the messages reappear and then it will do the reboot thing if I try to read them.

Gonna call DirecTV tomorrow and see what they say.


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## mrfixit454

Same here in the past week. HR10-250.. I go to look at messages and bango.. reboot city. It also does it when I go to the To Do List and maybe Find programs too.

My brother-in-law says his R10 reboots when he looks at messages too.

MrFixit


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## litzdog911

One clear theme .... Don't try to read those messages until this problem gets sorted out.


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## CTB6

Mine just did the reboot routine when I tried to go into my Deleted Items folder, so avoid that one as well.


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## lancelot

My HR10-250 is not only rebooting, it's also locking up when hitting the Tivo Central button. I wonder what is in the stream that is causing this to happen.


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## stevel

My HR10 is not having these issues (yet).


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## n9ktw

HI all:

Glad I stopped here before opening up the tool box. I have been having the "reboot problem " anytime I go to record something . I thought it was my Phillips DSR708 series 2. But I now see that this is a common problem. So I will keep my eyes open on the board for ideas, BEFORE I go digging into the electronics.

One last thing that I have noticed with DirectTV receivers, every once in a while, and sometimes several times in a row. AFTER they have sent some "datastream " update my standalone receiver will lock up and require a reset from them. A service tech in the field mentioned that this is very common on the 4 to 6 yr old receivers.( the CSR's are allegedly told not to mention this).

Could it be that the TiVo's are having the same issue?????


Howard, N9KTW


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## Cinbad98

I am having the same issue and of all these posts, you seem to diagnose it the best. I don't think it's coincidence. I'm just not reading new messages. Have you contaced DirectTV yet?


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## CTB6

It's a conspiracy to make us long-time Tivo users get so annoyed that we upgrade to new units. Ha ha, the joke's on them...I don't even own an HDTV. Er, wait...


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## ukerin

So what do we do about it


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## stevel

Having owned both DTiVos and DirecTV-Plus DVRs, the notion that it is "very common" that a datastream update will trigger reboots is nonsense. It DOES happen, maybe once a year by my recollection, and doesn't cause symptoms such as described here.

I have seen reported issues if you let lots of messages pile up, but otherwise, nothing that is frequent. However, since several of you are reporting something similar, there may be "something in the air" now. Do call DirecTV and report the problem.


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## shdigu01

Ballinger said:


> I got on here tonight looking for information to replace my hard drive, thinking this was the problem. I still may have a hard drive issue since play back of some recordings are are starting to skip and have dead spots on sound. Thoughts? Replace hard drive or not?


I am having the same problem. I do believe your problem and mine are the same due to the skipping and dead sound spots. Now mine is stuck on Powering up and I can't get it off. Can't find a button to re set.

Can anyone help with this?
Thanks


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## stevel

There is no button - you have to unplug it for a few seconds and then plug it back in. Your symptom sounds like a bad disk, though a failing power supply can also cause this.


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## codespy

stevel said:


> There is no button - you have to unplug it for a few seconds and then plug it back in. Your symptom sounds like a bad disk, though a failing power supply can also cause this.


R10 has a button (RBR), OP did not specify his model #.


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## jimf4748

Over the last two weeks my DirecTivo R10 has been rebooting almost every day. Software version is 6.4a-01-2-151. Tried to access new messages and it also rebooted again. Has anyone gotten any info from DirecTV? Seems likes it's a software problem.


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## Monduj1

This is definitely not an isolated issue. I have two DirecTV TiVo DVRs from two different manufacturers and started experiencing reboots in the last week on both units. I can confirm that my occurrences have not been related to the sudden influx of DirecTV messages or viewing of recorded shows. I typically see at least one reset per unit per day. Sometimes the reboot occurs after pressing a button on the remote, other times simply while watching live TV.

My symptoms appear to be exactly the same as those that occurred after a software update was distributed a year or so ago. I plan to check through my email archives to see if I can pin down the exact time and possible resolution, but there's no way anyone can convince me this is an issue with both of my units (as well as a number of yours) suddenly happening at the same time.

Sure hope a fix is on the way, as this is getting very annoying.


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## texasbrit

Apparently TiVo/DirecTV have started to make the software download available again and something related to that is causing the reboots. No-one knows exactly why right now.


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## n9ktw

Well, having tried all options without opening the case, I got nowhere. So having a retired unit (from my dad) I swapped out the power supple and added the "U-49 capacitor mod". It has been 2 hours so far, and I have 2 tuners working, can access the menu, and record 2 shows at once.

Hope this will help those of us with similar problems.


Howard


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## jcf2001

For what it's worth you can add one more to the list.

From my perspective it does look like the same problem with the 6a version of the software that occurred before.


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## BWS_GA

My Philips DSR704 with the 6.4a software has been rebooting daily and freezing up for the last couple of months. Just pushing a button will cause it to reboot. I was going to replace the hard drive but now will wait to see what the issue is since it looks to be widespread.


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## hp-1

Well, I spoke with DirecTV customer service. Their take is that I have a hardware issue. They wanted me to re-format my hard-drive (losing all my recordings) to see if that would fix the problem.

They seemed unfazed that I have three DirecTivo units all having the same problem. "They all three could be having hard-drive issues".

I assured him that all three units were not having the exact same issue because of hard-drives. (In fact, one of my R10's did have the hard-drive go belly up about four months ago. I replaced it with a new drive that has been working flawlessly since.)

The service rep stated that the 6.4a version of the software was pushed out between May and July of 2008 (and by inference wasn't just now pushed down).

We left the call with them wanting me to reformat my hard-drives and me telling them they need to get the problem fixed or they are going to lose a 13-year customer.

Sorry I don't have any more information to give.

MythTV is looking better and better.


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## Turtle

n9ktw said:


> Well, having tried all options without opening the case, I got nowhere. So having a retired unit (from my dad) I swapped out the power supple and added the "U-49 capacitor mod". It has been 2 hours so far, and I have 2 tuners working, can access the menu, and record 2 shows at once.
> 
> Hope this will help those of us with similar problems.
> 
> Howard


 Can you elaborate on this mod?

tks
turtle


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## kincade

Add one more person to the list... I have 2 Directv tivo series 2 units (r-10?). About 10 days ago both of them started rebooting when 'list' or 'guide' is pushed, usually about in 48 hour intervals. They both started on the same day. NO WAY this is a hardware issue.

Is it possible that Directv pushed an 'update' of some sort to render our units obsolete, thus making us upgrade to new units?


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## kincade

kincade said:


> Add one more person to the list... I have 2 Directv tivo series 2 units (r-10?). About 10 days ago both of them started rebooting when 'list' or 'guide' is pushed, usually about in 48 hour intervals. They both started on the same day. NO WAY this is a hardware issue.
> 
> Is it possible that Directv pushed an 'update' of some sort to render our units obsolete, thus making us upgrade to new units?


Also, it's not related to messages; I don't have any messages at all right now.

Another one of the same problems here:

http://forums.directv.com/pe/action/forums/displaypost?postID=10780310


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## starbuck

I have reboot problems too. My Samsung SIR-S4040R has rebooted once. My Hughes HDVR2 is rebooting about everyday. It started about a week ago. The reboots do not happen when watching live TV or when watching a recorded program; rather, the reboot seems to get triggered when I using one of the menus (like checking the To Do list, the System Information screen, something where the GUI is displayed rather than programming).

After the reboot, the unit works great and I can use all the menu functions again.

This reminds me of a bug they had once before where (I think) the guide data had an issue and TiVo started writing lots of errors messages to the system log and eventually filled up the disk and the unit had to reboot, which clears the error log and puts everything back in order, until the number of error messages fills up the disk again.

I've noticed that DTV has renamed many of the channels and started using lowercase, spaces, and up to 5 characters like in "Green" for Planet Green (in the past, only 4 were used for channel name). So my "guess" is leaning toward errors generated because the DirecTiVo software doesn't like the new channel names, or because of some bad guide data. 

It is also possible that only some people/units are seeing the problem because of a certain program or a certain channel being in the Season Pass list. Perhaps if you don't have the certain program or channel in your Season Pass, then you don't have the problem. Maybe the TiVo indexing process is generating errors as it bashes the Season Pass data against the guide data. I thought it was my unit going bad, but starting to see a pattern that many people are having this problem right now.


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## jcf2001

starbuck said:


> I have reboot problems too. My Samsung SIR-S4040R has rebooted once. My Hughes HDVR2 is rebooting about everyday. It started about a week ago. The reboots do not happen when watching live TV or when watching a recorded program; rather, the reboot seems to get triggered when I using one of the menus (like checking the To Do list, the System Information screen, something where the GUI is displayed rather than programming).


 Last night my R10 rebooted while watching live TV and it wasn't the first time either. This past weekend it rebooted in the middle of watching a recording of ZARDOZ and I don't think the floating stone head was the cause either. My bet is that you will see the same thing shortly. It's only a matter of time.


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## tivoboy

Same thing here. H10-250, just started rebooting yesterday. Thought it was a once in a few month issue, but has not been doing it every hour while watching stuff.

I have 6.3f I think, so it doesn't know we have DST yet. Things record fine since the guide is off as well so SP's work, but now things from last weekend are causing reboots all the time. So, not an ISOLATED issue.


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## codespy

Looking at all these posts...I would suspect now a guide data problem triggering this. Just a thought. It has happened before.

Hypothesis: Not a hardware problem, not a software problem. Too many wide-spread units/model #'s this is happening to. Corrupted data seems to speak loudly to me.

My .02


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## bearbig

My RCA dvr 80 has been re booting randomly for the past few weeks. There hasn't been any consistancy in the re boots. It happened last nite while watching a recorded show, all I did was adjust the volume! Something interesting was before the re boot I couldn't set up a recording via the channel guide, but could after! 
This is starting to get anoying.


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## fooz

Same thing here, at first I assumed hard drive but ran Spinrite on it and all looks good.


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## wbgolfer

I have a Hughes Series HDVR2 software ver 6.4a-01-2-151.
I use it in connection with my DirecTV service. 
I have a dual lnb with via a round 18" dish.
I have check all my connections.
I installed a new hard drive in Novemeber 2008 300mb.
The unit has worked perfectly until Sunday 10/31/2010.
Since that day it has rebooted almost evering while I am watching live TV. 
Last night it rebooted while watching a recorded program. 
One additional comment - at times when it completes the reboot - I get a message that Sat #2 has no signal. I then do a Manual Reboot (I unplug the DVR) and when it completes the Sat #2 notice is gone and all is well. 
I reversed my Sat #1 and Sat #2 connections and get the same message - when the non-requested reboot occurs. (In other words I believe my cables/connections are OK) 
Any suggestion for correcting issue would be appreciated!
-- Bill --


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## wbgolfer

My apologies to all - I posted a reply just minutes ago - but forgot to mention one other symptom regarding my reboot problem.
I noticed that while watching live TV - I then decided to check my To Do List - I press the DirecTV button whick brings uo the DirectTV Central menu - I move down to New Messages (because there's a notice) and hit right arrow - then the system reboots. (Note: it does not, repeat not do this everytime)
Hughes Series HDVR2 0 replace HD 11/2008
Soft ver #6.4a-01-2-151


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## starbuck

My Hughes HDVR2 has been re-booting more frequently (like every day) but today my Samsung SIR-S4040 rebooted again when I went to System Messages (the Samsung seems to go several days before rebooting).

Until this problem is resolved, my workaround is to manually restart the recorder about an hour before primetime programming so as to decrease the chance of a reboot during the evening programming. My observation is that the recorder works fine after a reboot, but eventually after some time will need another reboot (either a manual restart or it "crashes" and does its own reboot).


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## ST1100A

You can add my two Phillips DSR708 units to the rebooting frenzy. 

I just hope this isn't going to turn in to another time DirectTV keeps insisting that it's a hardware issue when it's software. Last time I changed the hard drives in both units because they insisted that was the cause, but surprise! - it didn't fix the issue (until they came out with a new software update). 

It's the same issue too - random reboots on both units, and they claim that the hard drives have failed in both - Bleh! :down:


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## mrpope

Here's another one. My DSR704 isn't rebooting, but it is going blank, locking up, then going again. Seems like a computer running slowly while many programs are going at the same time. 
My 704 is practically brand new. Got it many years ago as a backup. I only opened the box 2 months ago.


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## jcf2001

starbuck said:


> Until this problem is resolved, my workaround is to manually restart the recorder about an hour before primetime programming so as to decrease the chance of a reboot during the evening programming. My observation is that the recorder works fine after a reboot, but eventually after some time will need another reboot (either a manual restart or it "crashes" and does its own reboot).


I have begun doing the same thing. The question I have is how long will it stay "stable" until the reboots start reoccurring.

I reboot about 5 minutes before I plan on watching and to take care of the recording that are scheduled during the night I reboot just before going to bed.


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## acheriff

Add me to the list. I've had a spontaneous re-boot at least once daily over the last several days, usually triggered by some interaction with the menu.

I previously had no issues. I figured my drive was going, but now I suspect otherwise.

Adam


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## chrisk71

hello all new to tivo forum. i have 3 hughes dvrs all having same issues as stated previously. which i cannot believe itto be a hardware issue. they all started having problems at the same time. i will not give up hope for a fix.


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## PeggyinOregon

Thought my equip was dying as both are 5 yrs old but now with my 2 units doing same thing as all these others, it's got to be software. Since all Directv will say is that my dvr's are out-of-date & need replacing it's time to go elsewhere - I'm tired of waiting for the new Directv TIVO unit - keep hearing promises but nothing happens. I won't pay extra for the upgrade to HD since Directv doesn't provide HD locals here (& I'm too far away for OTA) - so it's time to give DISH a try - I may not love their equipment but the price is cheaper for the first yr & then same as I'm paying now for SD. Plus I'll get HD locals & a 2nd dvr is only $99. Maybe after the 2 yr committment is up Directv will have their act together, but I'm tired of paying $70 a month for SD programming & having my dvr's reboot every day with no actual help from Directv. Just lost a 15 yr customer!


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## crkeehn

I had been having freezing or reboot problems with my Samsung 4080 for a while, at least a couple of months. The unit would run for days with no problems and then I would find it frozen, the record light lit. It would also spontaneously reboot, often when only the cats were home (makes you wonder what cats watch when we're not home.) As the unit was fairly old at this point I just chose to replace the unit with an R-15.


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## jdrod

Wow! I came here hoping to get some info on what is the best source for a replacement drive for our HR-10 because, you guessed it, it's rebooting all the time. I just assumed the drive was failing. I tried the MFS check during the last 2 reboots, thinking it was a failing hard drive, only to have it continue the problem. In fact, I just made it reboot this second as hit the TIVO button on the remote and I shot craps. 

I'm not giving up on this thing because I love the Tivo compared to the crappy DTV DVR we have in the bedroom. Those things stink.


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## sulli2p

Series One DTVTiVo's appear to be unaffected by the reboot contagion.


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## stevel

My HR10 running 6.4a is also unaffected.


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## MartyList

I have two Philips DSR708 and one Samsung S4040R running 6.4a, all 3 started rebooting and locking up last week. When they freeze the remote control light on the front will change from green to yellow when buttons are pressed, but nothing else works, have to pull the power. Now the Samsung won't boot, I've unplugged it 3 times and it just sits at the grey Welcome screen for days.

I turned on the clock (Select,Play,Select,9,Select) so I will know how often they're rebooting.

I just called DirecTV, they said there are no widespread problems with Tivo units locking up, said it must be hardware and I either need to pay for a service call or the monthly protection plan. I said I'm not paying a dime to get this fixed, there's no way all 3 would go bad in the same week, too much of a coincidence. She said it could be the dish is misaligned. She offered to waive the fee this time only. I don't expect him to find anything, and I'm sure they'll want to replace the Samsung with a non-TiVo unit. 

I've had DirecTV for about 13 years, but I'm done waiting for TiVo HD. Got an offer to join the beta program last month and then was told it was full, long over due but I'm finally giving up on that. Tempted to put DirecTV on hold and try Comcast HD + TiVo for 30 days, cancel everything if I don't like it.


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## PeggyinOregon

For the first time in more than a week I had no reboots last night - watched both TV's for several hours & had no problem whatsoever. I did manually reboot the living room unit before watching, but didn't do anything to the unit in the bedroom just watched pre-recorded programs, but all worked fine. 

Hard to believe that both units just fixed themselves - seriously wondering if this is a ploy to get us to leave our TIVO's, since support keeps telling me they're out of date & I need to get new DirecTV DVR's - which of course means $$ & a new 2 yr commitment. Easier & cheaper to switch - probably won't be happy with DISH, but I'm not happy with DirectTV either at this point.

Update: started rebooting again so I must not have pushed the Menu button or whatever is causing this glitch. I am going to manually reboot before I start watching until this gets fixed - a temporary fix.


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## abredt

It's NOT Direct TV.

I'm not sure how I got to this forum. I have a TiVo-2 and a TiVo-3 and I'm with Time Warner. Same problem on both units.

Now what????

cb


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## litzdog911

abredt said:


> It's NOT Direct TV.
> 
> I'm not sure how I got to this forum. I have a TiVo-2 and a TiVo-3 and I'm with Time Warner. Same problem on both units.
> 
> Now what????
> 
> cb


That's probably a different issue. Have you posted in the appropriate forums here?


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## TedM

I have two units on 6.2A patched with pvtnet and set not to dial-in or to update. Both units have been up for over 40 days. One of them in basically inaccessible due to remodeling (and so is just sitting there recording) but the other is in constant use, recording and playback.

I don't know if it's 6.2A or the no-update that's protecting them or if it's just coincidence.


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## mbergen

Just adding a me too to the list. It's always when i first go to watch it after not watching for awhile - I press the directv button and it reboots. This is only my series 2 - no problem on the series 1. After that it seems to run fine. This has happened about every day for the last week or so.

Meg


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## Jorgasnarova

I have an R-10 that is constanting re-booting and freezing, and I also have an Huges SD-DVR40 that has spontaneously re-booted a couple of times. I had surmised this was a hardware issue. Is there any more data on the possibilitiy that this may be corrupted data from DirecTV?


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## mrfixit454

It appears checking the messages and to do list reboots are gone since I can now access these menus without reboots for about a week or so now. I think the unit still reboots on its own because we either watch in 480i or 1080i and when it reboots, it comes up in 720p, so.. if I look at the front lights in the morning and it is on 720p, I know it has rebooted over night. This is the hr10-250 and it has happened twice this week. This unit never rebooted since I had it for the past 10 months or so, maybe longer.


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## mrpope

Is anyone's just freezing? I've never had a reboot, but it just locks up. Thinking about putting a switch on the outlet to make it easier to reboot.

I was considering dumping d* and switching to echo, this may speed that decision along.


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## allan

I don't know if this is related to the reboot problem, but this weekend, I tried to record a show that was in progress, and the Tivo controls froze. The show kept going, but Tivo didn't record and none of the buttons worked. I rebooted by yanking the cord out of the wall and it worked after that, but of course that wiped out the show I was planning to record.


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## NorthOlyPen

Our two RCA Series II TiVo's and my sister-in-law's Samsung Series II are all randomly rebooting. It started a week/10 days ago. They are doing it anywhere from zero to 3 times per day. The only non-random aspect is that they only do it coincident with a command from the remote (peanut). Opening a folder, calling up the now playing list, calling up the guide, etc. We rarely read the messages so I don't know if that would provoke a reboot or not.

Any word from DIRECTV?

FWIW


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## jasbro

I have 2 R-10 direct tivos and they have been rebooting for about 2 weeks. I have noticed, as NorthOlyPen stated, that the thing that triggers a reboot is that it happens only when you do a command with the remote. In addition to what he stated about calling up the guide, now playing list, etc., both of my R-10s have also rebooted when watching a recorded program and using the remote to fast forward through commercials, but not all the time, just 2 or 3 times.


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## 230

I have 2 10-250s. Both seem to be rebooting daily. Usually when using it for the first time of the day.


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## Wadebear

We've been having the same problem for the last 3+ weeks. The symptoms are the same as a problem from a couple of years back. The receiver will spontaneously reboot regardless of what I'm doing - reading a message, watching LiveTV, watching a recording, fast forwarding, booping back... In other words: just random.

The workaround seems to be the same as with the previous problem - change channels on both tuners within a set period of time. I'm not sure about the time period, but it seems to be less than 24 hours.

We have a Samsung SIR-S4040R with an upgrade drive running 6.3e-01-2-381.

As a side note: I recently swapped out receivers due to a failing tuner. When i did I had to deal with the "First phone call" issue and had to wait several days before we could record anything. We still haven't been upgraded back up to the OS where you have a Deleted Programs folder (Irritating!).


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## MartyList

mrpope said:


> Is anyone's just freezing? I've never had a reboot, but it just locks up.


Mine are locking up and rebooting, post #63

I hope everyone is calling 1-800-DIRECTV and complaining every time it happens, that costs them money for the toll free number and the employee time, that will get their attention better than forum posts.


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## wbgolfer

Last week I posted that my Hughes DVR80 was re-booting daily - 
Well for some reason last Thursday was the last time it did this! 
Everything was just fine from Friday, through the weekend and yesterday Monday. 
This morning (Tuesday 11/09) I decided to clean up some recently deleted pgms. I press the "List" button and scrolled down to Recently Deleted -
Recently Deleted - Press select. 
Then went to the first pgm I wanted to Permanently Delete - Selected the pgm - message came up "do you want to Permanently Ddelete" I pressed Right Arrow to confirm delete and my system re-booted! 
NOTE: Just prior to the above actions - I noticed that there were "New Messages" - I did not attempt to view them. 
However, after the re-boot - there were no "New Messages" 
Also - after the re-boot went in 'List" as above and was able to Delete pgms - no problem.


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## appleye1

EJ said:


> I have 2 10-250s. Both seem to be rebooting daily. Usually when using it for the first time of the day.


+1

Add me to the list. My 2 HR10-250s have been rebooting at weird times for the past week. Usually during some random menu button press.

One of them gave up the ghost Sunday - hard drive started clicking and clacking and it got stuck on "powering up" screen. I replaced the hard drive on that one yesterday and so far it seems OK.

Then today, the other one crashed. Hard drive is dead and same symptoms. I've got a drive ordered to replace that one.

So what are the odds that the hard drives on two HR10-250s bought a year apart would die within two days of each other? Doesn't seem likely. I don't know what's going on, but it's killing hard drives and costing me money, not to mention all the video I had saved to watch later. 

EDIT: I managed to get the second one going again after power cycling 3 times. I don't trust it though, and it has already rebooted once. And what's worse, the unit I just put the new hard drive in also rebooted on me tonight when I was in the Setting menu checking to see if it had finished it's initial phone call OK. That was scary and I hope it was just a fluke. If changing the hard drive doesn't fix the rebooting problem, then I'd hate to think what the problem could be.


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## glen4cindy

Well, I came here hoping to find an answer to my problem because there usually is always an answer to many of the DirecTivo problems I have ever had here. Unfortunately, I find that all these folks are having the same problem I am having.

Yes. Add me to the list as well. I don't know my exact model numbers off hand, and www.directv.com is down right now, so I cannot look them up, but, both of my Tivo DirecTv recievers are having the same problems that everyone else here is having, that is, rebooting upon trying to select DirecTv Central, To Do List, Messages, and tonight, I was trying to delete a program that I had finished watching when it rebooted. I am getting at least one reboot per day, but, I don't recall it doing it more than that, although I only watch TV in the evenings after I get home from work.

This issue has been going on for seveal days now, but, I cannot pinpoint exactly how many days it has been. I have not yet contacted DirecTv support, but, it does seem fruitless from what I have read in these pages here, because I do not intend upon willingly saying goodbye to several hours of recordings that I have right now just to "try" something that will probably have no effect on this problem.

I thank everyone for the feedback. At least I do know that I am not the only one with this issue, and I will gladly watch this thread for developments. I do know this is the first time I can recall that this has ever happened, but, I have only been using Tivo for about 5 or 6 years now.


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## gidgey

I have an HD TIVO receiver (but I don't pay for HD.. just want the big hard drive if nothing else.. I will NOT get rid of my TIVO brand DVR!!!!!!!!!!)

Couple of weeks ago it just rebooted while accessing it via the remote.

I don;t want to call DirecTV because they are a bunch of idiot monkeys who don't know right from left.


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## bearbig

I called DTV and they wanted me to re set my power bar!!!!!
Sounds as if we are left out to dry.
Maybe it's a ploy for us to upgrade. They always mention it when I call. My answre is always the same I'm waiting for the new DTV Tivo box.
If I could "see" the Dish network's satellite I would be temted to change out of spite.


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## PhillyJimbo

I called DTV last night, and, as expected, the guy said that it was probably due to the age of my unit and that they would replace it and all I'd have to pay would be shipping costs. He was very glib and had a counter for all my arguments in favor of it being something on DTV's end. He also suggested that I unplug the thing for a couple of days.


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## ricardo_chan

I have two RCA DVR80 units that over the last three weeks have rebooted about a half dozen times each.

Usually just trying to look a the settings, messages or trying to search for a program to record will make them reboot. Not all the time but every couple of days.


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## gidgey

bearbig said:


> Maybe it's a ploy for us to upgrade. They always mention it when I call. My answre is always the same I'm waiting for the new DTV Tivo box.


THIS IS EXACTLY what I always say! And I also suspect they're downloading crap to make our DVRs to not work so that we HAVE to exchange them for non Tivo DirecTV DVRSs.


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## Zephyr

Time change??? Hey, when ours started the reboot thing, I tried to put up with it for months. Then we upgraded the drive and it's humming along without missing a beat. We have another original R10 which has never failed... knock on wood. FWIW.


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## Klobsdad

Greetings,
Add another victim to the hit list. I have 2 DTV R10's running 6.4a. 1st reboot occurence was when trying to view a new message. Had progressed to trying to view To do list, hit the DTV button on remote, delete a program, schedule a recording.

I do not believe in coincidences.


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## Draken

Add me to the list, my SD-DVR40 has been rebooting like everyone else. Almost guaranteed to reboot if I try to read the messages. *sigh*


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## allan

It happened to me again last night. That time, it wasn't a message, it was the ToDo list that caused the reboot.


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## tivoboy

Mine seems to be working fine (cross fingers) for the past three days.

I have 6.4c I think on the H10-250 HDTIVO, which does NOT have the update DST settings. Anyone think that having the clock off for a WEEK could have been the culprit?


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## cfeied

I had this simultaneous onset problem with two (but not all) of my units about a year ago -- it was clearly triggered by something that downloaded -- however, after long and arduous search, I finally determined that on the affected machines the power supplies were marginal. Problem resolved for me -- one by putting in a new HD (that I happened to have around) with lower power consumption and one by changing the power supply.


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## dfk70

Add me to the list of affected users. One of my units is exhibiting similar problems. It starts to boot but hangs on the Welcome screen. I power cycled it several times this morning with no luck. I've left it unplugged all day. I'll see what the story is when I get home.


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## kincade

Both of ours are doing the same thing still. They will be fine for a few days, and then when list / guide / tivo are pushed the units will both reboot on the same day. This simply cannot be a hardware failure. Our units were purchased about 18 months apart. To have the identical problems surface at the same time and then have both reboot on the same days does not indicate a hardware problem.

Directv tells me my hardware is old and I can always sign a new contract to upgrade my hardware to HD. <sigh>. I can tell you I won't give Directv MORE money over this.

FWIW, ours reboot fine. And work normally until the next reboot.


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## MartyList

dfk70 said:


> It starts to boot but hangs on the Welcome screen. I power cycled it several times this morning with no luck.


One of mine is doing this, if I reboot it with the satellite cable disconnected it gets past the welcome screen, then if I connect the cable before it starts looking for the satellite it works (until the next reboot or freeze).


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## dfk70

Well, I power cycled mine a few times after I got home and it finally started again. We'll see how long it lasts.


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## absd

My Series 2 R10 has been having the same rebooting problems as everyone else. I never bother to read messages so my reboot problem always occured when I tried to go to the main menu (DirecTv Central) screen or the Now Playing List. Always happened at night when I turned tv on. I never used the standby function, unit was always powered on. When rebooting sometimes I would get an error detecting tuner 2. Other times no error, just a clean reboot.
I read other posts where someone mentioned maybe there was a data stream error where the error log file may get large and cause the system to reboot. Although the daily data stream comes from directly from the satellite, I thought what would happen if I unplugged my phone connection so the unit wouldn't make a call today. I came home and turned on the tv like usual and tried pressing the buttons for the Main Menu and the Now Playing List. No problem, no reboot. I was able to go to my To Do List, and kept going in and out of screens that used to force a reboot. Does anyone think unplugging the phone connection made a difference?


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## HappyTinfoilCat

Same problem here. Two DirecTV dual tuners (different brands) both started rebooting recently. Every time so far has been when I pushed the button to bring up the stored shows. I wish TiVo would at least acknowledge this issue. I'd really miss my TiVo's if the company stays unresponsive. I certainly hope this isn't some evil plot.


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## glen4cindy

I just saw something in one of these replies that reminded me of something that I meant to include in my post.

About 50% of the time, when both of my Tivo units reboot, during the last portion when it says that it is getting information from the satellite, it will "fail" and say that it was unable to aquire all of the channel information. It offers to let me watch what's available, what is on the Now Playing list, or try again. Usually, if I try again, all is well. But, even if I don't and just go on, all my channels are available anyway, even though the unit has told me it was unable to aquire all of my channels.

I have no signal issues at all, normally, except during very heavy rains. I still have signal during even light and moderate downpour. I happen to be in a new subdivision, and have a completely unobstructed view of the sky with nothing whatsoever in the way, so there is nothing to cause any marginal signal at all except degraded fittings or a failing multiswitch. If I test my signal levels right now, all my levels are good, despite the "problems" the unit claims to have after these random reboots.I might also mention, there are no signal issues with my DTV DVR, although it does not seem to tolerate the rain as well as my D-Tivo units do. For some odd reason, the DTV DVR will show a searching for signal message during rain when the D-Tivo units are still working fine. That one, I have never been able to figure out.


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## mjwoj

I too have had this problem on my two R10's and Samsung S4080R Tivos. The units will (intermittently) reboot when using the remote if you hit the DTV button, or the back button, delete button, etc--

I called Customer Service and the girl said they were unaware of this issue!! After 12 years, I've become so frustrated that I'm looking to switch to FIOS!


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## mrpope

Mine has behaved fine the last few days. I switched the timezone settings a few days ago, and now everything is good.


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## stevel

I have seen the message for"not all channels available" on startup, but my HR10 is not rebooting on its own. (I was reconfiguring wiring and was booting it deliberately.)


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## dfk70

It didn't last. Woke up this morning and it was rebooting and hung on the Welcome screen. Tried to power cycle but no luck. Last night, I also got a message that it was over heating and that caused the shut down. What part is monitored for temperature?


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## sphanks

I've got the round dish, dual LNB setup, with two Samsung SIR-S4080R's and one RCA non-Tivo unit. One of the 4080s freezes and reboots, the other doesn't.

It's interesting to note the theory on channel changing -- the one that hangs/reboots mainly records shows for the kids, which are mainly on the same channel. I'll have to see if I can add something to the mix there to move things around a bit.

My symptoms are much like everyone else reports. I'll come in and the unit will be hung with the record light lit, or I'll try to access something on the Now Playing list, and as soon as I hit right-arrow, the unit reboots. Very random, very weird. I'm also having "dying fan" or "dying disk drive" sounds from this one so I'll be taking it down for service soon anyway, but it's really annoying. 

Since we have identical hardware on another room without these issues, I just assumed it was the unit. Glad to know that it might not be!


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## gxoverb

If you continue to have problems and you have Directv, call and let them know. They said no one else had this problem when I reported it. On 11/8/2010 they sent a tech to my home, he said it was the LNB shorting out and replaced it. The next day I still had the same problem with the box (R10 S2) rebooting. On 11/9/2010 I was on the phone with their tech department almost all day discussing this problem. I look at many complaints on the forum and came to the conclusion it had to be a software problem. On 10/29/2010 there was a software push, that's when the problem began. My guess is that the Tivo software is no longer supported by Directv. When the push was done, they did not consider the compatibility of these older boxes. Funny thing is, after talking to the tech's and presenting my theory, something got fixed, I have not had a problem sense (knock on wood). So, the jest of all of this is, if you have a problem, report it. Directv really does care about good service. 
Greg
Happy customer for 10 years..


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## fasTLane

dfk70 said:


> It didn't last. Woke up this morning and it was rebooting and hung on the Welcome screen. Tried to power cycle but no luck. Last night, I also got a message that it was over heating and that caused the shut down. What part is monitored for temperature?


I was seeing overheat messages with my Tivo along with digital audio problems. Your situation could be different.

This thread (starting around post #10) helped me to fix the power supply of my unit. Works fine now.

http://www.************.com/forum/showthread.php?t=56802

Replace **** with deal data base (no spaces)


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## Delta13

My SD-DVR120 is also a rebooting victim - it lately loves to reboot when looking at Messages. Not every time, you have to wait a few days between attempts, but when you do - bam. The funny part is that the little message flag is there to tell you there are messages, but after the reboot they are gone.

My wife's DTivo (an R10) does not appear to reboot, but then again she never reads messages. She's out this weekend, maybe I should test it.


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## absd

We called DirecTv on 11/10 to report the problem after seeing so many posts on this issue and they said that they were aware of the problem and trying to work on it. 
As posted earlier, I tried unplugged our phone connection on 11/10 in the eve so the unit could not make a service connection call to see if it would make a difference. Had no problem with reboot yesterday and today no problem as well. I will try plugging the phone line in again tonight and check it tomorrow to see if the problem re-occurs. Has anyone else tried unplugging their phone line to see what happens?


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## mrfixit454

OK. put me back on the list. Was recording one channel and while watching another, I tried to go set Charlie Brown thanksgiving to record next week. When I selected "Find Programs", bang.. reboot. When my sister called about her unit a week or so ago, DTV told her to unplug the phone line. As far as I know, it did solver her problem. I am seeing her tomorrow so I will ask again.


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## tivo4yux

Yesterday, my grandmother phoned me to report that her DSR708 has been continually rebooting. (She didn't understand what was occurring, but she described the "powering up" and "just a few minutes more" screens.) I assumed that the hard disk drive was failing and intended to arrange for my brother (who lives near her) to replace it. Now I'm inclined to believe that she's experiencing the issue discussed in this thread. I certainly hope that it's resolved soon.

Has anyone consulted WeaKnees about this? I seem to recall that they recently utilized their connections to assist in getting to the bottom of a bug preventing DirecTV TiVo units from completing their guided setup calls.


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## klyde

Yesterday I changed the HD in my DirectTV to a bigger one with a DSR704 image. The old image was a zippered one that would not take updates.
The image I put on was at 6.2, I did not write the whole sequence.
I do not have a phone connection. No wired phone. Last night I set it up to record programs all night just to check it and it rebooted 5 times in the middle of the recordings. The firmware now is 6.2.01.2.321.
What is the current firmware? Will mine update eventually without having to call in?


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## rlarsonil71

I am seeing the same issue with both a DirecTV R10 running v6.4a-01-2-521 and a Phillips DSR7000 running v6.4a-01-2-101. Reboots/frozen screens with record light on started occurring all of a sudden for both receivers around 10/28/10 with reboots/freezes now occurring 2 or 3 times a day (sometimes 3 in a hour). I haven't had a problem with either receiver in the last 2 years since the 2008 software update or the 3 years prior to that when I picked up these receivers.

I called DirecTV a week ago and decided to simply bypass level 1 support and go right to Level 2 technical support. The technical support person was unfazed by this issue after I asked him if this was a known issue with a possible root cause and solution. He wanted to reformat my hard drive but had no answer when I told him that this all occurred around 10/28 with a wide variety of standalone and DirecTV receiver types reported by other users on this forum. He told me that there was no support contract between Tivo and DirecTV and they are in negotiations to come up with an agreement (might be a reason why the new HD Tivo receiver has been delayed AGAIN - Probably money battle!) This is why that there has not been a software upgrade since the v6.4a push in 2008 when shortly after Tivo and DirecTV ceased their support agreement. Simply DirecTV can not support their product. The conversation ended with me telling him that he should read the Tivo community forum and raise this to management and that several customers will go elsewhere.

UPDATE: I will unplug the phone connection on both receivers tonight and see what happens the next couple days. I am thinking of getting a tech to the house too but am happy that at least DTV states that it is a known issue (as of 11/10) according to an earlier post.


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## mrfixit454

OK, my sis said her receiver has been unplugged for over a week. She thought the problem was gone but surprisingly hers started rebooting again yesterday and the phone is still unplugged. Mine started acting up again yesterday and I never unplugged my phone line. She claims she still gets messages even though the phone is unplugged. I guess the phone is just for pay per view?


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## klyde

I have had mine with no phone line and blocked firmware downloads for about 5 years and I always got messages. 2 days ago I put on a new image with firmware 6.2 the old firmware was 3.something. I never had any rebooting until yesterday. It rebooted about 10 times in 24 hours. However since this morning it has not rebooted. Still no phone line.


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## MartyList

This is a followup to post 63

A DirecTV tech came out Thursday and said he was told I was receiving messages about searching for satellite... which is not at all what I reported to customer service. He said he hadn't heard anything at all about this problem. He suspected bad receivers since they are so old, but I said there's no way I can accept that all 3 went bad in the same week. As a guess he replaced the multi-switch, since it was an "old model". During that outage the Samsung S4040R locked up, after pulling the power it wouldn't boot past the welcome screen.

He said since the dish is powered by the receivers, one bad unit can send too much power to the multiswitch and cause strange problems, which I've never heard of. He offered to replace it for no charge, but it wouldn't be a Tivo. I asked if this would create a commitment/extend my agreement, he said no. I asked if I could keep the TiVo, he said sure, they don't have any need for them and he never collects them.

I'm tired of waiting for TiVo HD and I've been wanting to try the latest DVRs, so now my daughter's room has a black R16. So far it seems pretty good, much better than their first generation DVRs. Not better, not worse, just different, like I thought it was missing a slow motion button but that uses the play button held down. So far the only thing I'm missing is thumbs up/down/suggestions type functionality.

Since then the other 2 Tivos have not rebooted or locked up, I have the clock turned on so I will know if they reboot.


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## Piggie

I have 2 R10 with DirecTv. About a week ago they both started resetting if I go to menu items. I can't see a pattern which menu item I choose, other than I mainly use the menu for going to see what is recorded, or set up recording.
I didn't bother to call them, as I don't want to reformat my drives which is what they always tell you. I can see by reading here reformatting doesn't fix this problem either. 
Both of mine started the problem at the same time, so I really doubt it's hardware problem. I would post my software rev, but recording and last time I checked it I lost 10 minutes of the show. 

Has anyone else had luck removing the phone line? I never watch their PPV, so really can't see why I need the phone line since they started doing menu updates via satellite?????


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## tas3086

Same problem, personally think that it is related to messages. 
This was in the kernel log file, immediately before the reboot. Any ideas?

Nov 14 15:28:01 (none) kernel: Failed to load document named "/soma_musicphoto/ui/serverList/ServerList.brf" 
Nov 14 15:28:01 (none) kernel: Error 0x70009 (0x70009) 
Nov 14 15:28:01 (none) kernel: TvUrlResource BaseUrl is "shmem://TvShmemd" 
Nov 14 15:28:01 (none) kernel: 
Nov 14 15:28:01 (none) kernel: Check to be sure: 
Nov 14 15:28:01 (none) kernel: If you're using TV_URL_RESOURCE_BASE that it points to a 
Nov 14 15:28:01 (none) kernel: valid directory 
Nov 14 15:28:01 (none) kernel: If you're on a load-all system that your document's ism is listed 
Nov 14 15:28:01 (none) kernel: in sw/data/common/gen/import-processes/import-processes.list 
Nov 14 15:28:01 (none) kernel: If you've added/changed this Document in your tree check that 
Nov 14 15:28:01 (none) kernel: your content is in your $TIVO_ROOT (ie, make linkimage) 
Nov 14 15:28:01 (none) kernel: 
Nov 14 15:28:01 (none) kernel: Illegal read at 00000070 
Nov 14 15:28:01 (none) kernel: do_page_fault #2: sending signal 11 to SiHost(316) 
I'll look again on the next reboot.


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## absd

My understanding is that the phone line is for "service" connection rather than the "data" download that is provided by the satellite connection. The Service connection dials into DirecTv not only to order PPV, but to obtain the 14-day programming guide and checks to see if your account is in good standing (i.e. paid up to date).


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## the_bhagwan

Two Series 2 Hughes DirecTivo doing this for a couple weeks. One completely stock. The other has a bigger hard drive. But I never had any problems til recently.
This is getting real annoying 

PS: Mother-in-laws Series 2 Hughes DirecTivo is also doing this. Just started recently also.


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## lvsaint

This just started happening to my R10 that I set up about 3 months ago. However, my older Hughes (series 1?) in the bedroom is working fine and it was also plugged in (yanked the phone line out just now though!)
Edit - I just tried to view messages on my 'fault free' Hughes and it rebooted. Should have left it well alone!

Symptoms started about 5 days ago. System has rebooted 3 times so far, triggered by pressing a Recording list or Tivo Central button. Doesn't happen all the time and appears to record and playback fine...so far.

Also had an issue on the last reboot where it continued recording a show after I told it to stop and I could not shut it off! Just a bunch of random crazy tweeks from the last update it appears.

Question is...should I get yet another machine from Ebay as a stop gap before the new HD boxes come out? However, surely it will incorporate the newest firmware at setup stage, thus getting me nowhere?

Time to bite the bullet and have DTV send me their regular DVR? 


By the way - there appears to be an unusual abundance of HR10-250s on Ebay? Any co-incidence?


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## dfk70

fasTLane said:


> I was seeing overheat messages with my Tivo along with digital audio problems. Your situation could be different.
> 
> This thread (starting around post #10) helped me to fix the power supply of my unit. Works fine now.
> 
> http://www.************.com/forum/showthread.php?t=56802
> 
> Replace **** with deal data base (no spaces)


Thanks for the reply. I actually replaced my power supply with one from a old DirecTivo and it seems to have fixed the problem. The only reason I did that was because when I opened the box I noticed that one of the capacitors was bulging. I think it was C15 or C17. Can't remember.

Anyway, it's been three days and I haven't seen any random reboots.


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## spamjam

I have two Philips DSR704's running 6.4a and both started rebooting recently. AFAIK they reboot only after a remote button is pushed, i.e., we haven't seen them spontaneously reboot while we're just watching something. Just before the reboot problems started I had replaced the power supply on one unit after it started having recording problems, but it seems unrelated to the reboots since both units are exhibiting the same problem. The replaced-power-supply unit has rebooted at least twice when I selected "read new messages", but other than that I haven't noticed any particular button push/sequence that triggers the reboot.


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## Eagle7

Add me to the list of victims--two Hughes DirecTV Tivo units that started randomly rebooting at the same time, around the last week of October. I don't have much new to add. The reboots are occuring with any menu command (messages, now playing, guide, etc).

The one interesting wrinkle is that last night, the unit went into reboot when we adjusted the volume on the television using the Tivo remote. Obviously, volume doesn't go through the box, but the LED indicating it was receiving a signal from the remote did light up just before the reboot.

Like others, I find it hard to believe that it would be hardware issue (power supply or otherwise) affecting so many units in so many different places at the same time.


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## the_bhagwan

Eagle7 said:


> Like others, I find it hard to believe that it would be hardware issue (power supply or otherwise) affecting so many units in so many different places at the same time.


Exactly!
It cant be coincidence that my two Directvio series 2 Hughes units started doing this almost exactly the same time my mother-in-laws Directvio series 2 Hughes unit started doing it. About two weeks ago.


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## snickerrrrs

Both my R10 and DVR40 are having reboot problems started in the last week. The R10's hard drive was replaced about a year ago, the DVR40 a couple years ago. The R10 would reboot whenever I pressed the Directv/menu button, so I'd back in through the now playing button. I've been avoiding the menu button since. The DVR40 reboots randomly on its own. They've both been on 6.4a since the drives were replaced (or since it came out).


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## litzdog911

*EDIT:*
*Thanks to everyone that provided their Tivo data for DirecTV and Tivo help them troubleshoot this problem. Tivo and DirecTV have informed me that they now have enough customers to help them troubleshoot this problem. They cut it off at ~20 folks. Hopefully they'll get this fixed soon!*
===============================================================

One of my DirecTV contacts is working with Tivo to figure out a solution to this frequent reboot problem. But they need your help. If you're willing to have your Tivo monitored remotely (via your phone connection), then please respond with a private message with the following information. Of course, your Tivo must be connected to a phone line. While I'm not a DirecTV employee, I'm a TechKnow Guide volunteer at DirecTV's support forum (http://forums.directv.com) and fellow Tivo owner, so I offered to help them collect some volunteers willing to help them solve this nagging issue. However, there's no private mail feature in their forum, so I'm requesting the information here at Tivo Community.

Cut & paste this information into your private message to me. You should be able to find the Tivo-specific information under the Tivo's setup menus .....

I, Customer Name do allow DIRECTV and TiVo to track the diagnostic information on my DIRECTV/TiVo DVR for trouble shooting purposes for a minimum of 1 month and allow DIRECTV to contact me by phone or e-mail to ask further questions and allow DIRECTV to give my name number and email address to TiVo.

Model number:
Access Card Number:
Software version: 
TiVo Service number:  
Service Connection:
Last status : 
Last Attempt: 
Last success:
Phone number of line connected to Tivo:


----------



## 72devilz

I have 3 tivo DVRs and have also been experiencing the spontaneous reboot problem for the past couple weeks and as many others on the board I get the reboots when trying to access the menu system.

Dual LNB tied through active multiswitch to the following units.

Tivo 1 R10- Stock 80GB, 6.4 software, phone  (Reboots)
Tivo 2 R10- Stock 80GB, 6.4 software, phone  (Reboots)
Tivo 3 HDVR2- Instacake, networking, 500GB, 6.2 software, phone  (Stable)

My parents also have a Stock HDVR2 80GB that also started rebooting within the past 2 weeks. I refuse to buy into DTVs new boxes and will probably (bake some cake) on at least one of my R10s and leave the software at 6.2 to see if it resolves the problem. Its no secret that DTV wants these legacy boxes out of the system so I think any possible resolution will be low on their priority list.


----------



## litzdog911

72devilz said:


> .... Its no secret that DTV wants these legacy boxes out of the system so I think any possible resolution will be low on their priority list.


That's not true. See my previous post if you want to help them fix this problem.


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## JohnDG

To help with the data, I've got:

1) HR10-250 and DTV Series 2 TiVos: with the latest software. Both are having the problem described here for the last two weeks.
2) (2) DTV Series 1 TiVos: no problems.

jdg


----------



## litzdog911

Please see my earlier post here if you want to volunteer to provide information that can help Tivo and DirecTV solve this problem .....
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=8235827#post8235827


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## Ronn

Same problem, daily reboots, when a button is used on the remote. Could be the Tivo, Select, or Fastforward. 
First noticed last weekend in Oct.
Sent info to Litzdog911 to forward on to DirectTv and Tivo.
This is clearly a problem with either downloaded software, or the daily phone call.


----------



## litzdog911

Ronn said:


> Same problem, daily reboots, when a button is used on the remote. Could be the Tivo, Select, or Fastforward.
> First noticed last weekend in Oct.
> Sent info to Litzdog911 to forward on to DirectTv and Tivo.
> This is clearly a problem with either downloaded software, or the daily phone call.


Thanks ronn. Forwarded your info. I think the working theory is it might have something to do with recent changes to the Guide Data. We've seen Tivo hiccups in the past when they've made Guide Data changes. Hopefully your info will help.


----------



## BWS_GA

spamjam said:


> I have two Philips DSR704's running 6.4a and both started rebooting recently. AFAIK they reboot only after a remote button is pushed, i.e., we haven't seen them spontaneously reboot while we're just watching something. Just before the reboot problems started I had replaced the power supply on one unit after it started having recording problems, but it seems unrelated to the reboots since both units are exhibiting the same problem. The replaced-power-supply unit has rebooted at least twice when I selected "read new messages", but other than that I haven't noticed any particular button push/sequence that triggers the reboot.


My Philips Tivo is doing the same thing - reboots after pushing a button on the remote.


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## jkb71

litzdog911 said:


> Please see my earlier post here if you want to volunteer to provide information that can help Tivo and DirecTV solve this problem .....


Hi - I'd like to send you my info but the system won't let me send an IM since I don't have five posts yet. I just registered. Can you IM me? Perhaps with an email address or some other way that I can send you my info? Maybe they'll let me reply to your IM. I can try that first.

Thanks for trying to help out with this, it's driving me nuts!


----------



## litzdog911

jkb71 said:


> Hi - I'd like to send you my info but the system won't let me send an IM since I don't have five posts yet. I just registered. Can you IM me? Perhaps with an email address or some other way that I can send you my info? Maybe they'll let me reply to your IM. I can try that first.
> 
> Thanks for trying to help out with this, it's driving me nuts!


Check your Private Messages here for my contact info.


----------



## BWS_GA

jkb71 said:


> Hi - I'd like to send you my info but the system won't let me send an IM since I don't have five posts yet. I just registered. Can you IM me? Perhaps with an email address or some other way that I can send you my info? Maybe they'll let me reply to your IM. I can try that first.
> 
> Thanks for trying to help out with this, it's driving me nuts!


 I am interested in sending my system info to Tivo as well. I tried to send a PM also but I couldn't since I don't have 5 posts yet.


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## litzdog911

BWS_GA said:


> I am interested in sending my system info to Tivo as well. I tried to send a PM also but I couldn't since I don't have 5 posts yet.


Check your Private Messages here for my contact info.


----------



## rlarsonil71

litzdog911 - I am interested in sending my system info to Tivo as well. I tried to send a PM also but I couldn't since I don't have 5 posts yet. Please send me your contact info through my PM. (Post #111)

Thanks!


----------



## Zenara25

litzdog911 - I also just registered and can't send a PM to you because of not having 5 posts yet.


----------



## fasTLane

dfk70 said:


> Thanks for the reply. I actually replaced my power supply with one from a old DirecTivo and it seems to have fixed the problem. The only reason I did that was because when I opened the box I noticed that one of the capacitors was bulging. I think it was C15 or C17. Can't remember.
> Anyway, it's been three days and I haven't seen any random reboots.


Glad to help, *dfk70*. Are you still having problems with rebooting?

My unit still reboots for no reason , like others here, but my overheating messages and audio errors are completely solved. :up:


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## mrfixit454

litzdog911 said:


> Thanks ronn. Forwarded your info. I think the working theory is it might have something to do with *recent changes to the Guide Data.* We've seen Tivo hiccups in the past when they've made Guide Data changes. Hopefully your info will help.


I am curious about the changes to guide data. I record "King of Queens" on TBS and Local 13 and the Info does not match the episodes. I have quite a few of them stored. For some strange reason, over time, I think the info for each episode gets sorted out because a show that had the wrong info before might have correct info now. I am not 100% certain on this. I would have to go back and really take a good look at it if you know what I mean.

Fixit.


----------



## KSbugeater

After crashing multiple times per day on 11/10, my HR10 has rebooted once in the past week (that's about par for the course... I think I have a bad sector). I'm thinking if it was a problem with guide data, it's gone now.


----------



## tuneten

litzdog911 said:


> Please see my earlier post here if you want to volunteer to provide information that can help Tivo and DirecTV solve this problem .....
> 
> Hi, I'm the one who started the thread on the directv forum. Thanks for linking me to this one. I've been following the responses on both. I can't IM my info to you. I've got 2 tivos. If you give me a way to contact you with it, I'd be happy to help out anyway to resolve this issue.


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## Zenara25

tuneten - Click on his name and then email litzdog911 the info.


----------



## KSbugeater

After crashing multiple times per day on 11/10, my HR10 has rebooted once in the past week (that's about par for the course... I think I have a bad sector). I'm thinking if it was a problem with guide data, it's gone now.


----------



## Choirgirl21

Just adding myself to the list. No idea what unit I have, but it's about 8 years old. No spontaneous rebooting, all surrounding my remote. Initially I think it was happening with multiple buttons, but I think I figured out that it would get hung up so I'd press the button again and that would cause it to reboot. So I am careful to only press buttons once and now the only time I have the problem is when I hit the DirecTV button. It reboots every single time I push it so now, if there's something I really don't want to risk missing, I push it purposely before primetime so it reboots and then don't touch it again.

I did notice yesterday right as it rebooted that it said I had messages and like others have reported once rebooted, there were no messages.

I read through this thread a few days ago and changed the DST option as someone recommended, no resolution. My phone line is plugged in. I guess I will try unplugging that next to see if it makes a difference.

Happy to know that it's not my unit giving out, but would really like to see this fixed asap. Don't want to give up my tivo, but if I have to, I'm switching to Fios.


----------



## stebu

I haven't crashed since Monday evening. Fingers crossed!


----------



## blake31

I have an R10 and HDVR2 that both started having this problem about a month ago. mostly happens when I am in my now playing list, deleting shows, or hit the directv (main menu) button. one rebooted tonight when I paused a recorded program, and the other when I hit the list button. sometimes after reboot, I get the message that it couldn't acquire all channels, sometimes not.
about a year ago they both started freezing, and I'd have to manually reboot them. they would do it at the same time, so I knew it wasn't equipment failure. I opened them up and cleaned the dust bunnies out, hooked them up to UPS battery back-ups, and suffered thru it. eventually it stopped happening and they've been running fine until about a month ago. this has to be something Directv is doing, and we'll have to suffer thru this too.


----------



## MartyList

Follow up to my earlier post. I thought maybe this problem was resolved, because it had been a week since either of my 2 units rebooted, but one just rebooted when trying to read messages. A week ago a DirecTV tech came out and replaced my multi-switch and one of my TiVos with a DirecTV R16. After a week I thought maybe he was on to something, but I guess not.


----------



## jwoman

Our DirecTV tivo just started rebooting in the last few days. Is there a fix yet?


----------



## Sea bass

absd said:


> My understanding is that the phone line is for "service" connection rather than the "data" download that is provided by the satellite connection. The Service connection dials into DirecTv not only to order PPV, but to obtain the 14-day programming guide and checks to see if your account is in good standing (i.e. paid up to date).


Could this be the issue? The daily dial in? My DSR704 has not connected in 83 days. Not by choice, it just won't connect, and I get the annoying make a call message daily...anyway, I haven't had any reboots as reported here, I can read messages...maybe the daily call, and whatever data has downloaded is corrupting the units?


----------



## litzdog911

Thanks to everyone that provided their Tivo data for DirecTV and Tivo help them troubleshoot this problem. Tivo and DirecTV have informed me that they now have enough customers to help them troubleshoot this problem. They cut it off at ~20 folks. Hopefully they'll get this fixed soon!


----------



## imaref

My Directivo has been rebooting each morning for the past week or so. 

Don't know if this helps, but it always seems to happen when I try to read the messages that Directv sends.


----------



## tuneten

Zenara25 said:


> tuneten - Click on his name and then email litzdog911 the info.


Tried that. Didn't work. He sent me a private msg so we're good.


----------



## imaref

It's 1:16PM here in the East and I just noticed the yellow light coming on the Directivo for a data download--seems like it's downloading some kind of update. I've never seen this during the daytime before.


----------



## Zenara25

tuneten said:


> Tried that. Didn't work. He sent me a private msg so we're good.


That's strange because that's how I contacted him. Oh well hopefully this problem will be fixed soon.


----------



## PeggyinOregon

Direct just lost a long time (more than 10yrs) customer due to this problem & lack of local channels in HD. Switched from my two 5yr old TIVO boxes to DISH HD - after all the frustration with reboots it's a pleasant surprise to watch tv in HD & have it just work. The new remote is taking a little getting used to but it's worth it.

Suggestions for what to do with the old DirecTIVO boxes?


----------



## ST1100A

litzdog911 said:


> Thanks to everyone that provided their Tivo data for DirecTV and Tivo help them troubleshoot this problem. Tivo and DirecTV have informed me that they now have enough customers to help them troubleshoot this problem. They cut it off at ~20 folks. Hopefully they'll get this fixed soon!


If they check mine, they will see it just rebooted again. I turned it on, it said there was a message, I went to read the message and..."Welcome...Powering up" came up. When it booted all the way up, I checked - now there's no messages. Surprise!!


----------



## spamjam

ST1100A said:


> I turned it on, it said there was a message, I went to read the message and..."Welcome...Powering up" came up. When it booted all the way up, I checked - now there's no messages. Surprise!!


That exact scenario has happened at least twice on my wife's TiVo.


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## litzdog911

PeggyinOregon said:


> ....
> 
> Suggestions for what to do with the old DirecTIVO boxes?


eBay.


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## Budmufin

Hello all.

I stumbled onto this forum earlier today as I was researching reasons why my TiVo has been rebooting. 

Long story, short - We had some issues with our old unit (Samsung) pixelating, stuttering, locking up and rebooting. We called DTV and they said it was most likely the unit and sent us one of their DVRs. We hated it. So much so, that we almost jumped ship and went with Comcast (!). We chickened out, and bought another TiVo unit (SD R-10) from Amazon. And had good luck until a few weeks ago when the reboots returned. 

What we find interesting is that we can make it reboot during a pre-recorded shows. We record the news every day, and today while fast forwarding through some commercials, it rebooted at the 38 minute mark. As a test we ran it up close to the mark to see if it would do it again playing at normal speed. BINGO. Reboot every time. Also repeatable on other shows, from different channels. 

Is anyone else having issues like this?


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## litzdog911

Budmufin said:


> Hello all.
> 
> ....
> Is anyone else having issues like this?


Have you read this whole thread?


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## mrfixit454

litzdog911 said:


> Thanks to everyone that provided their Tivo data for DirecTV and Tivo help them troubleshoot this problem. Tivo and DirecTV have informed me that they now have enough customers to help them troubleshoot this problem. They cut it off at ~20 folks. Hopefully they'll get this fixed soon!


Thanks Litzdog for helping us out with this. We really appreciate it!

Fixit


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## Budmufin

litzdog911 said:


> Have you read this whole thread?


I read about 2/3 of it. Apparently I missed the posts that mentioned reboots durning recorded shows.

The impression I got was that folks seemed to think this was remote related or totally random...


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## fasTLane

Has anyone had occasional reboots when trying to record an active program? 

Here is how it goes:

It starts by trying to use the record button but fails to initiate the recording. Going thru the 'Season Pass and Other Options' to record doesn't work either. 
Using 'Record this Episode With Other Options' takes you to that menu and shows the 'Alternate Audio' option which is strangely bracketed and showing no option (normally English, etc.) Going from there it reboots when you try to initiate a recording at that level.


----------



## litzdog911

Budmufin said:


> I read about 2/3 of it. Apparently I missed the posts that mentioned reboots durning recorded shows.
> 
> The impression I got was that folks seemed to think this was remote related or totally random...


It's certainly possible that your Tivo's problems are hard drive related and not being caused by this current issue.


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## BWS_GA

I don't know what the problem is today but my DVR has rebooted twice by itself (not using the remote) and locked up/froze 3 times in the last 4 hours. I may have to junk this thing before they figure out the problem.


----------



## hugo?r1

Hello, I need an image for the phillips HDR112 (series 1) with the guided setup already executed, can somebody help me please?


----------



## litzdog911

hugo?r1 said:


> Hello, I need an image for the phillips HDR112 (series 1) with the guided setup already executed, can somebody help me please?


Best to post this in the Underground Forum.

Here are some resources for Tivo image files ....

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=25

http://www.weaknees.com/index.html

http://tivo.upgrade-instructions.com/

http://www.mfslive.org/

http://www.newreleasesvideo.com/hinsdale-how-to/

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

http://www.9thtee.com/


----------



## lvsaint

fasTLane said:


> Has anyone had occasional reboots when trying to record an active program?
> 
> Here is how it goes:
> 
> It starts by trying to use the record button but fails to initiate the recording. Going thru the 'Season Pass and Other Options' to record doesn't work either.
> Using 'Record this Episode With Other Options' takes you to that menu and shows the 'Alternate Audio' option which is strangely bracketed and showing no option (normally English, etc.) Going from there it reboots when you try to initiate a recording at that level.


Yes, mine does that occasionally too. Will not record a current program.

Hope DTV fix their mess soon or they are going to have a lot less customers within the next week or so.


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## klyde

I had an image on that would not take updates and was zippered to stop the call home message. A very old image, 4 years or more. I never had a reboot problem. Since I was missing some features from later firmware and not knowing about the rebooting problem I put on a 6.2 image last week, now mine is rebooting 2-4 times a day. I understand that the current firmware is newer than 6.2, (mine has not upgraded) so I would suggest that the problem is something being sent in the firmware update area of the stream, other wise the image I had on that blocked the firmware update would have been rebooting also. I'm going to put the old image back on tomorrow.


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## appleye1

I was having reboots several times a day for more than a week on my two HR10-250 machines running 6.4. I replaced one drive (same size 250gb) and I was still having a problem with rebooting. Even though I don't think the new drive was a problem, I had been planning to drop in some larger 500gb drives on both of them anyway so I decided to go ahead and do it to see if it would help. It's been a week now since I installed the bigger drives on both and I've had no reboots. (I've been running clock on both to be sure.) 

All of the new drives were running 6.4 also, so I don't think it was a software issue. And I don't think it has anything to do with the old drives. Personally I think it was a guide issue that cleared up between the time I installed the first new drive and the time the 500gb drives were installed.


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## Aldoran

Hi All,

My 2 Directv R10's have been doing the exact same reboot thing you all are dealing with but I have also an additional problem that I cannot record anything on the fly. Meaning...my 2DVRs with 2 lines each will record anything I already had set up on a season pass, but I cannot go into the guide and record anything nor can I set up any new program either by season pass or single record by searching for the show. This is a new issue I am having that goes along with the reboots. The reboots happen either when pushing the Direct TV button or if I get passed that when I try to read a message or pick a program to record. It also happens occasionally when I press the guide button. 

I am assuming even the not being able to record is part of the same issue, again its both DVRs with the same exact issues...I doubt both units are failing at exactly the same time. 

Anybody else try to record recently and have this issue as well?


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## JTAnderson

I've been seeing the reboots on an HR10-250 for at least the last couple of weeks. I had been having some reboots and lots of pauses/picture breakups, so I replaced the hard drive a couple of weeks ago. One thing I sort of screwed up when I replaced the drive is that I set the swap space to 127MB because I remembered there was a bug in MFSTOOLS the last time I did a drive replacement that broke things if the swap space was set to >127MB. Then, after the upgrade, I read that MFSLive had that bug fixed. But I don't really want to go through the copy process again if I don't have to. (The hard drive replacement does seem to have cured the pauses/breakups.)

Is there some way to examine the log files without removing the drive and without having backdoors enabled? I knew a way to look at the logs many years ago, but have since forgotten.


----------



## jasbro

Aldoran said:


> Hi All,
> 
> My 2 Directv R10's have been doing the exact same reboot thing you all are dealing with but I have also an additional problem that I cannot record anything on the fly. Meaning...my 2DVRs with 2 lines each will record anything I already had set up on a season pass, but I cannot go into the guide and record anything nor can I set up any new program either by season pass or single record by searching for the show. This is a new issue I am having that goes along with the reboots. The reboots happen either when pushing the Direct TV button or if I get passed that when I try to read a message or pick a program to record. It also happens occasionally when I press the guide button.
> 
> I am assuming even the not being able to record is part of the same issue, again its both DVRs with the same exact issues...I doubt both units are failing at exactly the same time.
> 
> Anybody else try to record recently and have this issue as well?


I had the same issue on both of my R-10s, along with the annoying reboots. Could not record by any method, even though it rebooted. I finally unplugged the power source to cause a reboot, and then I could record again. Have not had the same "not able to record" problem again, but still have the reboots when using the remotes. This happens usually once a day, has been going on since the last week in Oct.


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## niteman

First off, Thank you to litzdog911 for trying to help and hope you can.

However, I am one of the oldest customers with Directv they have and I still have 3 HR10-250's in my home and 1 of them is like new and is very rarely ever turned off standby. Almost at the exact same week each and every unit now has random re-boots - all 3 units !!

There is no exact reason they do this, they each reboot for any number reasons when in use. Before this started - almost perfect performance. Never a problem.

Directv has been pleading with all their customers to switch out of the 10-250's for a very long time and in my humble opinion, this absolutely has to be a deliberate act on their part to make customers like me and you who have these units finally throw in the towel and switch or go elsewhere. By deliberate I mean this has been planned and the software "glitch" executed by Directv or on their behalf, it has to be. Nothing else explains it.

There are way too many people complaining all at the exact same time on various forums about this exact problem. If it walks like a duck, its a frigg'n duck.

I don't believe that this issue is going to get resolved because the company does not want it resolved. They won't ever admit that its their fault, the standard answer will be what its been all along, you need to upgrade your equipment as soon as possible and for some of us, free of charge !!

I love the Tivo "KISS" format as far as DVR guides go, so easy to use - 2 tuners easy to switch back in forth etc etc... I hate to shut all three down and go to a sub-standard DVR format (at least in my opinion) , never mind the cost I have in them and start the learning process all over again. I have already toasted (SDTV black bar screen burn in) on two beautiful Panasonic 65" plasmas and one awsome Pioneer 60" plasma tv waiting for the never to come next generation TIVO that was due in 2009 then 2010 then who the heck knows when or if ever the thing will emerge.

So sorry to rant - truly, but its like a healing process that helps when I get ready to turn off my 3 faithful and loyal 10-250's who have brought our family so much joy without any problems for so long. I would have been happier if they just exploded and that was that, not this BS.

Thanks for reading hope it helps someone else who's feeling the same way.

Dan


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## litzdog911

niteman:
I respectfully disagree. My HR10-250 still works fine, so the problem does not affect all Tivos. There's no logical reason for DirecTV to "kill" these Tivo DVRs. Sounds like you'll be happy with the new HD Tivo that should hopefully appear early next year.


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## niteman

Hi litzdog911 (TechKnow Guide)


I find ironic that the one guy on here who is the TechKnow Guide is not having any problems, but hey you seem like an honest guy trying to help out so we'll give you the benefit of the doubt.

However, with all due respect, to make the statement "There's no logical reason for DirecTV to "kill" these Tivo DVRs" is nothing short of ridiculous. Just to clarify, I never stated that they would "kill" these DVR's, just make them through the use of a deliberate software change or equivalent (A BUG) very aggravating to use so that many like me will finally throw in the towel and upgrade are systems.

WHY WOULD THEY WANT TO DO THIS ? Well if I owned a multi-billion dollar publicly traded company dependent on showing growing quarterly and year over year profit which depend solely on subscriptions to my services like; High Def. DVR programming fees, direct HD and movie purchases (DIRECTV CINEMAplus) , Pay Per View HD etc.. etc.... then I would think that there is big motivation to get the remaining people like me to finally upgrade so we can take advantage and GO BACK TO SPENDING MORE MONEY for all the HD programming and features we do not have at this point with our outdated 10-250's. HD is the draw to these Directv features not SD garbage. There is no money in people like me who canceled there HD subscriptions and now rent DVD's from others so they can see movies and programs that they like to watch in HD, like I use to with my HR10-250.

To add insult to injury, Directv spent billions OVER THEIR COMPETITION on research and development for equipment and the necessary infrastructure (ie; their new dvr's, new HD satellite's, etc..) to bring to us so many HD channels over anyone else. THESE COST HAVE TO BE OFFSET BY NEW SUBSCRIPTIONS AND PEOPLE UPGRADING from the old equipment like mine so they can take advantage of all the $$ revenue generating services they have to offer. There is no money in SD basic service to sustain a company like Directv and show a profit. 

I was not going to waste anymore time on this and instead way the pro's and con's of what to do next (Directv, Comcast, Dish etc..), but its important to call a spade a spade and allow others to get on with making a decision on what to do instead of HOPING that this all get resolved - no chance. If it does get resolved through some miracle, I will be the first to offer my sincere apology to Directv........

Also, I hope you are right that there is a new TIVO coming out soon - you know, like the ads all say "early 2011" like they been saying for two and half years now, early spring and later this fall etc..etc... You can only make and break so many promises and no one will believe you anymore like me. 

Thats all I have to say on the matter........

Dan


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## satnick

I've been having the reboot issue recently, too. I have model HR10-250 and had Weaknees replace/upgrade the hard drive last year. I also have my Tivo hooked up to a Cyberpower 450w battery backup. I figured that my hard drive was going bad, again. I called Weaknees and they said this is a known issue with DirecTv and Tivo. Weaknees advised against my replacing the hard drive because that probably won't solve the rebooting problem. Tivo, are you listening? What's going on with you and DirecTV?


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## rlarsonil71

This is good that Weaknees is telling customers that this is a known DirecTV and Tivo issue and advising customers against replacing hard drives which would make them more money. Now THAT'S good customer service!


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## stevel

I also believe that, whatever the cause is, it was not intentional. I find it puzzling that it does not affect all users - my HR10 has been fine.

I'm curious to know if there is anyone here who has "hacked" their TiVo and is experiencing the reboots. My HR10 is "hacked", and does not reboot. It is running the latest 6.4 software.


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## jaydro

Does upgrading the drives count as "hacked"?

I have three friends with SD DirecTiVo's, and I'm the only one experiencing the spontaneous reboots--mine was upgraded to dual drives, some of my friends' DTiVo's were upgraded, but some weren't. No HR10's.

FWIW, I went over a week with no reboots until about the time the test subjects were being solicited, and since then it's been every day with even two reboots yesterday. I hope they're getting good data from the test subjects.


----------



## Zenara25

I have NOT 'hacked' my R10 Tivo's or upgraded the hard drive. Maybe I should  I know how to avoid the rebooting at least on my boxes. I don't press the remote buttons too fast and don't go into settings & messages. If I want to make sure I have no rebooting at an important time 10 minutes beforehand I either reboot manually or make it reboot by the above methods. Can always make it happen 12-24hrs after the last reboot.


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## stevel

No, upgrading drives does not count. This would be modifying the kernel and installing additional software, such as network support.


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## mrfixit454

That was my curiosity too.. since Steve and Litzdog are not having problems, are their units "modified". So far we have 1 yes.

Mine is stock and thus having the problems.. however I don't have the Fast Forward reboot problem. There seems to be 2 camps on this one. 

Fixit


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## KSbugeater

Of course, I spoke too soon. My HR10-250 rebooted at least six times in 8 hours of actively viewing football yesterday. 
1. 2005 vintage
2. Added 320 GB HDD in 2006 or 7
3. Only backdoor is SPS30S and SPS9S
4. I think most times it rebooted while FFing in the buffer (none during pre-recorded shows, as happened 3 weeks ago)

I think it's a HDD problem with me. It's probably hitting a bad sector in the buffer and getting thrown for a loop. Happens more often when tuners on HD 'cause buffers cover more sectors/hr than with SD. If I were more industrious, I'd scan the HDDs for errors and fix 'em. Is there a way to do that w/o opening the box?


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## stebu

I was great for a week, and now I've had serious rebooting today.

I am really thinking of building a media center and getting a couple extenders at this rate.


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## Choirgirl21

Zenara25 said:


> I have NOT 'hacked' my R10 Tivo's or upgraded the hard drive. Maybe I should  I know how to avoid the rebooting at least on my boxes. I don't press the remote buttons too fast and don't go into settings & messages. If I want to make sure I have no rebooting at an important time 10 minutes beforehand I either reboot manually or make it reboot by the above methods. Can always make it happen 12-24hrs after the last reboot.


Well I wish you good luck.  That's what I'd been doing up until a few days ago, when I encountered a new problem, the recording issue some others have mentioned recently.

Tried to record a program I was already watching and it just got hung up. No matter what button I pressed, I got the "you can't do that" Tivo noise. Eventually just had to manually reboot and now is working fine.

I have been able to navigate through the menus a couple of times using buttons I couldn't before so I thought maybe the problem was fixed until I encountered this new issue. Came here hoping to read that the companies had made progress. Still holding out hope...


----------



## Aldoran

I am wondering if more people are having the record problem and just don't realize it. I did not realize it till I tried to record a program off the program guide rather than one of my season passes. 

Season passes are recording with no issues. I just cannot make any new season passes or record any programs that I want to record that are not on a existing season pass. 

It still keeps the last 30 minutes of live TV and I can rewind to watch but I have had to resort to HULU or another online way to watch shows that I did not preset up before this issue. 

Anyway...my last conversation with DirecTV they wanted to send out a tech to look at it--glad to know that won't help as that would have wasted vacation time to do. Hoping they fix this mess before I want to set up some additional recording--and the rebooting is getting way old with a 15 to 20 minute wait for that to finish...


----------



## NorthOlyPen

Aldoran said:


> I am wondering if more people are having the record problem and just don't realize it. I did not realize it till I tried to record a program off the program guide rather than one of my season passes.
> 
> Season passes are recording with no issues. I just cannot make any new season passes or record any programs that I want to record that are not on a existing season pass.


We're recording trouble-free off the season passes and the program guide. The "Welcome Powering Up" screen appears when we try to "open" something. Like Messages and Settings, or a folder in the Now Playing List.

Recording via Program Guide, Season Pass, Time and Channel, etc., all work fine. Playing back programs regardless of how they were recorded works fine too.

FWIW


----------



## Crashlander

kincade said:


> Add one more person to the list... I have 2 Directv tivo series 2 units (r-10?). About 10 days ago both of them started rebooting when 'list' or 'guide' is pushed, usually about in 48 hour intervals. They both started on the same day. NO WAY this is a hardware issue.
> 
> Is it possible that Directv pushed an 'update' of some sort to render our units obsolete, thus making us upgrade to new units?


I have been fighting this all month on both of my R-10s. My issue is identical to yours in all respects except one. Mine reboot every 24 hours.
I have:
Deleted the thumbs database and suggested recordings.
Deleted Guide and To Do data. (as well as the thumbs again)
Replaced Both hard drives.

No resolution. Has anybody found a solution to this yet?


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## 72devilz

stevel said:


> I'm curious to know if there is anyone here who has "hacked" their TiVo and is experiencing the reboots. My HR10 is "hacked", and does not reboot. It is running the latest 6.4 software.


I have 2 R10 units that are both stock units with 6.4 software that have been rebooting since the last week of October, however my HDVR2 hacked with networking on software 6.2 (locked) has been working flawlessly through this recent plague. Both R10 units are connected to the phone line but the HDVR2 is not.


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## jstack

My Samsung box has been rebooting as well. It used to reboot only when checking message or when choosing pick programs to record in the Tivo Central, but it just now rebooted while watching live tv.

DirecTv and TiVo really need to fix this.


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## johnfl

Add me to the list of R 10 reboots after pressing list button...Earl, little help here???


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## litzdog911

johnfl said:


> Add me to the list of R 10 reboots after pressing list button...Earl, little help here???


I don't think Earl hangs out here much anymore. Read back several posts and you'll see that DirecTV and Tivo are aware of the problem and working on a solution. About 20 folks here volunteered their Tivo information so the engineers can access their Tivos for troubleshooting information. Hopefully they'll get this fixed soon!


----------



## rcellis

Just adding my name to the list. DirecTV was polite, but not much help. Wanted me to reformat the drive, but they didn't know how for the R10


----------



## starbuck

I had been manually restarting my DirecTiVos each day, but decided to see if the problem was fixed so didn't restart for a few days. Recorders did not "crash" for several days. But a new strange problem from last night. I went to the Now Playing list to watch two shows that were supposed to record last night, but they were not there. And they were not in the Deleted folder. Went to the To Do list and checked the messages at the top and it said the programs were deleted early because more space was needed. But I've got shows in Now Playing from 6 months ago (not marked Keep Until I Delete), so recorder should delete the oldest programs from Now Playing. Don't understand why it decided to delete the programs that had just recorded last night. This happened to 2 shows from last night, both said were deleted early to make room, but should have deleted the oldest stuff first. I'll start my manual daily restarts again.


----------



## Vodo

Same problems here. Two R10's randomly rebooting, usually while maneuvering in the menus (most often in the recorded programs list). Have also experienced the problem with getting a program to record manually. 

After reading this thread and several others, I called DirecTV a week or so back and explained the problem to the CSR. She told me to format the drive. I explained to her a second time that it's happening on both of my units and apparently on hundreds of others, based on what I've found in online forums, and deleting all of my recorded content is not the solution. She researched her database and found nothing. I asked for a supervisor. The supervisor was clearly aware of the problem, so it's inexcusable that there was nothing in their databases, not even an acknowledgment of the problem. Anyhow, the supervisor indicated that it's a Tivo problem related to a software push they did when the time changed. She said that Tivo's engineers are troubleshooting the problem. When I asked if DirecTV's engineers were also involved, she said no, that they were working on a problem with their own branded receivers. Sounds like they're not treating the situation as a priority anywhere. I've been a DirecTV customer for probably a decade or more, but I have to say that Fios -- which is cheaper anyhow -- is looking better every time I have to wait 15 minutes for a reboot.


----------



## Tangent

Well, I guess I can be added to this list as well... Sometime around the first week of November my Hughes HDVR2 would occasionally reboot. Once it was on a button push, other times we had to power cycle it when we turned on the TV to find it stuck on the "Welcome" or "Almost there" screens. We just got back from a couple of weeks vacation and it now seems to be completely dead. No amount of power cycling will get it past the welcome screens. This unit isn't on the latest software; we switched from POTS to VOIP about 2.5 years ago and it hasn't been plugged in to a phone line since. Our Samsung TiVo is one update ahead of this one and is working fine. I regularly clear out the "Please call" messages so it couldn't have had more than a dozen in its inbox.

Between the ever-increasing prices and hoping that our equipment lasts long enough for DirecTV to offer real TiVos again, I think this might be the last straw that pushes us to Fios. At this point I'm just hoping that I can get this unit up long enough to copy down my season pass and wishlist information; I'm not sure I can remember all of it off the top of my head...


----------



## bearbig

I got frustrated that when I tried to access a recorded program my unit re booted. Called DTV and told them this was my third call and wanted the problem fixed. I had to re boot it for him ( procedures!!!). He put me on hold for a long time. When he came back he said they would send some new software within 72 hours. 
Hope this fixes the problem!


----------



## tuneten

bearbig said:


> I got frustrated that when I tried to access a recorded program my unit re booted. Called DTV and told them this was my third call and wanted the problem fixed. I had to re boot it for him ( procedures!!!). He put me on hold for a long time. When he came back he said they would send some new software within 72 hours.
> Hope this fixes the problem!


I can almost guarantee it won't. When I called and they wanted me to reformat and I refused (they tried telling me both units went at the same time which was highly improbable), he set it up to resend the new software. Didn't help. It's over 3 weeks later and I'm still getting the reboots.


----------



## xykotik

Philips DSR7000/R17 also having this problem in the same timeframe discussed. Ordinary non-hacked drive (increased cap, several yrs ago from DVRupgrade) with normal phone connection and updates.

Request a random function (delete, record now, list, etc.) and get a pause, then self-reboot, or just be watching something without touching the remote and get a spontaneous reboot. Sometimes notice that 30-sec-skip is gone, indicating an unattended reboot.

Since I had recently had a tuner and power supply repair by Weaknees, I thought I would try an HDD before sending it back again.

Last night, I baked a fresh drive with 6.2a (two year old image) and PTV, turning off "call" and "update." Left it disconnected from phone. It seemed to work just fine for about two hours, so I left the TV on to check it as I walked through the room occasionally. After about two hours, there was only a few minutes in the buffer (not 30) on both tuners, indicating a restart.

It seems like the only thing my (hacked with an old image and d/c from phone) unit currently has in common with the dozens here having problems at the same time is the sat data-stream. Could the SW be choking on something new in the stream, causing a reboot?


----------



## jkb71

Hello All-

I am one of those who submitted my info. I'm not sure if they've changed anything yet, but my TiVo has been OK since at least last Friday or Saturday now, and I've been using it a good bit. Previously it was rebooting at least once a day, almost always when I was navigating one of the menus. Only one of my reboots was while watching a program, and I was fast-forwarding when it happened.

Hopefully some others are seeing improvement as well? I'll post again if the problem returns.


----------



## jkb71

Forgot to mention... I've been going out of my way to read messages and navigate all over the menus, but so far it's been OK. I have an R10 - stock.


----------



## BWS_GA

jkb71 said:


> Hello All-
> 
> I am one of those who submitted my info. I'm not sure if they've changed anything yet, but my TiVo has been OK since at least last Friday or Saturday now, and I've been using it a good bit. Previously it was rebooting at least once a day, almost always when I was navigating one of the menus. Only one of my reboots was while watching a program, and I was fast-forwarding when it happened.
> 
> Hopefully some others are seeing improvement as well? I'll post again if the problem returns.


I also shared info with TiVo and was going to check my system info to see if the software had been updated since it hadn't rebooted in a couple of days and when I clicked on System Info I get the reboot.


----------



## Tangent

Mine finally successfully started today, and it's been behaving for a few hours now. When doing a search for a new program to record it was super slow: Enter a letter, wait 3 minutes, enter next letter, wait 3 minutes, etc... Since it's been off for a couple of weeks while we were on vacation I'm hoping that's just because it's still working on repopulating the guide data, which I hope also explains why every season pass showed "no upcoming episodes"...


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## litzdog911

Tivo & DirecTV are testing a fix now. I've contacted some of the folks that volunteered earlier to have Tivo remotely poll their DVRs, so let's hope they got it fixed!


----------



## Sea bass

Puzzling, my DSR 704 has not rebooted once. Only modification, was replacing the Harddrive last year. As mentioned before, my Tivo does not dial in daily...i hope we get an explanation as to why this is happening..I keep checking daily!


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## appleye1

This is really a puzzling, irritating problem. A few weeks ago I was having trouble with both my HR10-250s rebooting constantly. Figured that it was bad hard drives (although I was sort of surprised that both went bad at the same time), and as I had been planning to upgrade for a while I went ahead and took care of that to see if it would help.

Fast forward to now. One of the units has not rebooted AT ALL (I've been running the clock hack to make sure.) And one is still rebooting several times a day. What the heck? Makes no sense at all.

I hope they roll out a fix sooner rather than later!


----------



## mrfixit454

litzdog911 said:


> Tivo & DirecTV are testing a fix now. I've contacted some of the folks that volunteered earlier to have Tivo remotely poll their DVRs, so let's hope they got it fixed!


Since they are testing a fix, does your contact know what they think changed to make this happen? Throw us a bone here 

Fixit


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## litzdog911

mrfixit454 said:


> Since they are testing a fix, does your contact know what they think changed to make this happen? Throw us a bone here
> 
> Fixit


I'm trying to find out. Whatever it was, they think they can fix it without a new software update.


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## mrfixit454

litzdog911 said:


> I'm trying to find out. Whatever it was, they think they can fix it without a new software update.


OK, thanks.. had to read that twice..... "without a software fix" sounds interesting.

Thanks for the update.


----------



## 230

I have been having this problem with both of my stock 10-250's for the past month. What do you think might happen if I "reauthorize" the units via their website before I hit the sack at night? Bad idea?


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## cwerdna

mrfixit454 said:


> OK, thanks.. had to read that twice..... "without a software fix" sounds interesting.
> 
> Thanks for the update.


For all we know, it could be something wrong w/the EPG data.

(I no longer use DirecTV nor DTiVo) Many years ago (sometime between 04 and 09), there was some major problem that would repro on DirecTiVos and IIRC, it was due some guide data format switchover that really bungled things.


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## Tangent

Sometime overnight mine rebooted again and once again I'm stuck pulling and reinstalling the power plug in the hopes that it'll get past the Welcome screen. Whatever their fix is, I hope it doesn't require a daily call to get it...


----------



## litzdog911

cwerdna said:


> For all we know, it could be something wrong w/the EPG data.
> 
> (I no longer use DirecTV nor DTiVo) Many years ago (sometime between 04 and 09), there was some major problem that would repro on DirecTiVos and IIRC, it was due some guide data format switchover that really bungled things.


That's my guess, too. We've seen reboot problems like this before when changes were made to the guide data formats.


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## drmanny3

For several weeks my parents have complained about the 2 Hd Tivo 10-250units rebooting and their having to wait for the system to reset. I saw it happen several times myself. I have held off having them go to the Directv dvrs as they would have to learn a new system and at 85 and 90 that is asking a lot. They called Directv and had them come out and sure enough the fix was to replace their old Tivo units. I said no and that we would figure something out. Well a week later they called Directv again and then asked me to talk with the Directv folks. Finally I decided that we had to make the change. Who knows when Direct TV will introduce a new Tivo unit. We waited throughout 2010 and now it is sometime in 2011. So I scheduled the delivery for this Saturday. Today I thought I would take one more look at the Tivo Community Forum. Last week I had only found reference to problems back in 2008 with suggestions of the hard drive and/or power supply. So I was going to pursue that course, until my parents again called Directv. Well for some reason my search did not give me this thread. Once I saw it and read through the 8 pages I was so happy. I am going to cancel the order tomorrow with Directv and hope that the fix works. Isn't the INTERNET just great. So thanks to everyone in the community for your great efforts.
Manny


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## Budmufin

Tangent said:


> Sometime overnight mine rebooted again and once again I'm stuck pulling and reinstalling the power plug in the hopes that it'll get past the Welcome screen. Whatever their fix is, I hope it doesn't require a daily call to get it...


This sounds like what happened to mine yesterday (Thanksgiving!). Our R-10 is now stuck in a reboot loop. We never get as far as the "acquiring satellite signal" screen before it bombs.

We were able to swap out for the plain old DTV receiver from our upstairs room, of at least we had something to watch.


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## speedcouch

stevel said:


> I also believe that, whatever the cause is, it was not intentional. I find it puzzling that it does not affect all users - my HR10 has been fine.
> 
> I'm curious to know if there is anyone here who has "hacked" their TiVo and is experiencing the reboots. My HR10 is "hacked", and does not reboot. It is running the latest 6.4 software.


Mine is not hacked and it has been rebooting for about the last two weeks. Every time I go to the Tivo and push ANY button in the menu, it will reboot. What a crock! I thought my hard drive was failing until I came here last week and saw this thread.

I'll give up my Tivo is they give me an HR24 for free. I have two HR20-100s that we use for most stuff, but still use the HR10-250 for locals OTA and to feed the SD TV in the bedroom. I'd like to have the multi-room viewing, but would need something newer for that. But not at a huge cost. Especially after I paid $550 or something for the HR10-250 in 2005...and now they've made it virtually unusable.

So if they don't do something to stop the constant rebooting of my HR10-250, I may just cancel the service on it and they'll be out the $5 a month they are getting from me on it.

Cheryl


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## stevel

What I was interested in knowing is if there are any hacked units that ARE rebooting. So far, I haven't seen anyone say so. But if it is a guide data problem, as I suspect it is (since there has not been any new software for a long time), I can't see how hacked or non-hacked would make a difference. Perhaps one key is that many hacked units, including mine, do not make a daily call. I am curious what happens if you disconnect the phone line from a box that is rebooting.


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## RAD186

Hi, I have a Philips Series 2 DSR704 and it started rebooting at random, whenever I push the menu, program guide, channel select, rewind, fast forward, pause...etc, since last month Oct. As of Tuesday Nov. 24th no one had the remote in their hand and the Tivo rebooted on its own.. What the Heck is going on?


----------



## KF9WM

stevel said:


> What I was interested in knowing is if there are any hacked units that ARE rebooting. So far, I haven't seen anyone say so. But if it is a guide data problem, as I suspect it is (since there has not been any new software for a long time), I can't see how hacked or non-hacked would make a difference. Perhaps one key is that many hacked units, including mine, do not make a daily call. I am curious what happens if you disconnect the phone line from a box that is rebooting.


I have a Samsung SIR-4040 with an upgraded drive from DVR Upgrade. It runs 6.2a-01 software and never calls home (never connected to a phone line since the upgrade). It started the rebooting at around the same time as everyone else. Only the press of a button sets it off.


----------



## wbgolfer

This is an info message for STEVEL and others reading and posting regarding the re-booting issue.
I disconnected my phone line on Wednesday 11/17/2010 approx. 9AM, and did not have one single re-boot. UNTIL today 11/26/2010 approx. 3PM. However, last night at around 6Pm I re-connected my phone line. 
Additional info - did not have any problems this morning as I watched several programs. At approx. 3PM - I wanted to do a SEARCH for a program my son recommended. When I tried to enter the Menu to "SEARCH" for the program - my DVR re-booted. 
Needless to say - I have disconnected my phone line.


----------



## ST1100A

jkb71 said:


> Hello All-
> 
> I am one of those who submitted my info. I'm not sure if they've changed anything yet, but my TiVo has been OK since at least last Friday or Saturday now, and I've been using it a good bit. Previously it was rebooting at least once a day, almost always when I was navigating one of the menus. Only one of my reboots was while watching a program, and I was fast-forwarding when it happened.
> 
> Hopefully some others are seeing improvement as well? I'll post again if the problem returns.


I'm another of the submitters, and mine seems stable as well, for the last few days anyway. It used to reboot every day, I would go into messages on purpose first thing to get it to reboot, now, nothing happens now matter where I go. Keeping my fingers crossed...


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## bothchefs

We have had this problem since at least October on two systems and dozens of times. It has rebooted in the middle of several of our favorite recordings. The weird thing is that it starts the recording again once it reboots, showing the show as two separate recordings. During power failures in the past, the recordings would just stop. The fact that it held the info and restarted the recording makes me think it isn't hardware failure and the system isn't truly suddenly shutting down (cold reboot vs warm reboot). I will add that it has happened when we touch the remote buttons in every occasion all DVR related, but different functions (menu, pause, rewind, Live tv, etc) and never TV functions like volume.

We will be so excited if they can fix this issue without any expense on our parts.


----------



## cwerdna

bothchefs said:


> We have had this problem since at least October on two systems and dozens of times. It has rebooted in the middle of several of our favorite recordings. The weird thing is that it starts the recording again once it reboots, showing the show as two separate recordings.


The behavior of recordings restarting and being split into two has been normal behavior for TiVo for ages (maybe as long as I've had TiVo, since 2001), in the event of reboot (abnormal reboot, requested by the user via UI, by pulling the plug, losing power, etc.).

Go try it for yourself. Pull the plug multiple times in the middle of recording. You'll see a # of recordings, as a result.


----------



## PhillyJimbo

I have two units. The older one has had its phone line disconnected for a while and has never had the rebooting problem. The other one had the problem. I called DTV, and of course they said it was a hard drive problem because of its age. On their recommendation, I unplugged it for a couple of days. When I fired it back up, I also disconnected the phone line. Not a problem since then and it's been a couple of weeks.


----------



## Tivo Guy

My Tivo (Directv R10) has recently starting having all of these reboot problems also. Mine will occur at most any time. Just today I was watching a show and pressed the info button and when that display didn't come up I knew what was coming. Sure enough...my Hitachi plasma showed "No Sync Signal" then the R10 came up with System Powering Up. I have been a Direct customer for probably 15 years and other than a free movie offer for this that's about their appreciation. Has anyone thought or wondered if Directv isn't sending "data" to these receivers hoping either to crash them or frustrate us users to the point we (or they think) will buy their newer DVRs? There is a fine line between customer paranoia and corporate greed...don't you think?


----------



## Solinas

It's been a MONTH now. It's absurd that Tivo has not been able to fix the problem yet. 

Any company that relies on software should:
a) have a rollback plan, for when new software screws things up, and
b) should INITIATE the rollback in a reasonable amount of time.

I can't believe Tivo hasn't fixed this yet.


----------



## stevel

There has been no new software. The indications are that DirecTV made a change in the guide data format that confuses some TiVos. It isn't deliberate, but I am pretty sure that DirecTV doesn't test its changes with TiVos as much as they do with their own boxes.

Come to think of it, given that folks here have indicated that disconnecting the phone line stops the reboots, it may be something in the data the TiVo receives over the daily call, though I don't know what it does anymore other than trigger a new software install.


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## BWS_GA

Second Saturday in a row that my TiVo unit has frozen up a couple of times and rebooted by itself (not using the remote) a couple of times - all during football! Why can't it reboot itself when football isn't on!


----------



## Wadebear

sphanks said:


> It's interesting to note the theory on channel changing -- the one that hangs/reboots mainly records shows for the kids, which are mainly on the same channel. I'll have to see if I can add something to the mix there to move things around a bit.


Well, I no longer think that's the issue. My machine is now rebooting despite changing the channels on both tuners.

It will do it regardless of what I'm doing - it will reboot while we're just sitting there watching a recorded show. It just rebooted as I tried to look at the upcoming recordings list.


----------



## JohnDG

wbgolfer said:


> This is an info message for STEVEL and others reading and posting regarding the re-booting issue.
> I disconnected my phone line on Wednesday 11/17/2010 approx. 9AM, and did not have one single re-boot. UNTIL today 11/26/2010 approx. 3PM. However, last night at around 6Pm I re-connected my phone line.
> Additional info - did not have any problems this morning as I watched several programs. At approx. 3PM - I wanted to do a SEARCH for a program my son recommended. When I tried to enter the Menu to "SEARCH" for the program - my DVR re-booted.
> Needless to say - I have disconnected my phone line.


I also disconnected my phone (HR10-250 and Series 2 DTV Phillips) a few? weeks back and no problems. Phone lines remain disconnected.

Started-up both my TiVos on Saturday afternoon and they both immediately rebooted on start-up. Note: the last time I had accessed them was Tuesday, and it looks like all recordings thru Friday night were completed correctly.

jdg


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## faeriefille

I am adding myself to the list of people experiencing this reboot problem. I have two R10s that I've had since the dawn of time.  I have experienced reboot issues for a couple of years but the problem had stopped for quite a while (months, if not a year of so). Then the "main" receiver was acting up - freezing up, then rebooting but the lesser used one was fine. I tried upgrading to newer boxes twice but found I could not abide the DirecTV DVRs after having TiVO branded receivers! So back to these guys. The problem seemed to go away for a few months but it's back and now it's affecting both receivers. It's been freezing up when we hit the List button, the "record" button, that I remember off the top of my head and also sometimes just in the middle of watching a show. I know I read on here that DirecTV has 20 volunteers' information and is working on a fix but I wanted to chime in that as of now, today, it's still a problem. I can't wait for the TiVO HD receiver. I love DirecTV for the most part and just want my TiVO with it! Oh, for what it's worth, both my receivers are connected to phone line.


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## mojotv

Had reboot on my R10 today same as many others. But I also had some program data issues. Attached what I posted over at DTV.

_The R10 DVR stopped getting full program guide information two days ago. Many channels in the guide only had "to be announced" as program listings. Some such as CNN had full information. LIve TV worked, previously recorded programs (pre-two days ago) played. A second normal receiver on the same dish had normal program guide information.

The "pick programs to record" screen there was a message that read "Acquiring Program Guide data from the satellite. Some data available now. Full data in 1-2 days."

While attempting to check messages the DVR rebooted without prompting.

After the unprompted restart I ran the system tests and everything checked out, but still had the same problem.

Ran a restart from the restart menu and full guide information was available afterwards.

Update:

Now the message in the Pick Programs to record screen shows "Acquiring Program Guide data from the satellite. Some data available now. Full data in 24 hours." Almost all channels now have program guide data._


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## MittensMorgul

Our Tivo is doing the same thing. We haven't been able to get into the DirecTV menu button section for over a week, it just reboots the system. we can record from the program guide, but can't get in to see the to do list, etc. Sometimes just changing the channel causes a reboot. Ugh. Mostly, though, it is doing anything in the menu system that reboots it. Our other Tivo unit works fine (the newer of the two), but the old Hughes unit is reboot happy. I hope they fix the problem soon!


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## granteaston

I contacted customer dis-service today at DirecTV. They said 2 things:

1. Don't believe what is being said on the internet, they don't believe there is a problem.

2. They say that reformating the drive will fix all problems.

If you want this fixed (without losing all of your programming) you will have to flood customer dis-service. Ask for a manager, tell them you are rejecting the format option and what to be escalated to an engineer.


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## calguy99

Is "clear and delete everything the" same as a full format and will you you loose all of your channels if clear and delete everything? Thanks


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## granteaston

calguy99 said:


> Is "clear and delete everything the" same as a full format and will you you loose all of your channels if clear and delete everything? Thanks


Anything stored on the disk: programs, programming, groups/favorites. It becomes a new fresh installed system.


----------



## walpow

I don't know if this is going to further confuse things, but I was having the problem for a couple of weeks, and haven't had a single occurrence since we went back to standard time - and I've been exercising the buttons that caused the problem (and reading messages) pretty regularly.


----------



## calguy99

granteaston said:


> Anything stored on the disk: programs, programming, groups/favorites. It becomes a new fresh installed system.


I thought your programming was stored on your access card


----------



## cu_paws

My Directv tivo unit began rebooting about a month ago again. It seemed like it coincided with the same timeframe as last year. It has been rebooting usually while trying to access higher menu system than recorded shows (left arrow from now playing list). Freeze (or lockup) while unattended that require manual reset began about the same time.

I have a un-hacked unit.

In May I changed my phone service to a Ooma (voip system). I had to program the two to work together (*99 for data transfer). I am not sure about the timing of this aspect, but I believe it was about the same time our phone line was left hung open (like a phone was off the hook) unplugging the dtivo fixed the issue. I went thru phone setup several times within the tivo menu. I even selected a different local number. After another day or two the same issue would happen again with a hung open line caused by the tivo.

Last Tuesday I began to research options and saw the post. It was the same one that was from a few years ago.

I unplugged the phone line last Wednesday and have not had any reboots since.

I just wanted to post my experiences and issues if it can help. I think the problem lies with daylight savings time and the daily call (maybe what the old DST that was earlier in November, before the recent change in 2007.)

That seems to be when the recurring problem begins. I suspected it previously.

From Wikipedia:
Start and end dates vary with location and year. Since 1996 European Summer Time has been observed from the last Sunday in March to the last Sunday in October; previously the rules were not uniform across the European Union.[28] Starting in 2007, most of the United States and Canada observe DST from the second Sunday in March to the first Sunday in November, almost two-thirds of the year.[31] The 2007 U.S. change was part of the Energy Policy Act of 2005; previously, from 1987 through 2006, the start and end dates were the first Sunday in April and the last Sunday in October, and Congress retains the right to go back to the previous dates now that an energy-consumption study has been done.[32]


----------



## litzdog911

granteaston said:


> I contacted customer dis-service today at DirecTV. They said 2 things:
> 
> 1. Don't believe what is being said on the internet, they don't believe there is a problem.
> 
> 2. They say that reformating the drive will fix all problems.
> 
> If you want this fixed (without losing all of your programming) you will have to flood customer dis-service. Ask for a manager, tell them you are rejecting the format option and what to be escalated to an engineer.


And I say "don't believe everything the "official" support folks tell you". This is BS. DirecTV and Tivo have both acknowledged the problem and are working on fix. In fact, a few of the folks in this thread are currently testing that fix. Reformatting the drive is a waste of time.


----------



## stevel

There is no "reformat" for a TiVo - there is only Clear and Delete Everything. Poorly trained CSRs will recommend this just to get you to go away. It's the same as people saying "reinstall Windows".

The only thing stored on the access card is PPV purchases. Everything else is on the hard disk.


----------



## anthemmobil1

My Hughs SD DVR-80 has also been rebooting especially when reading the stupid senseless messages. It started approximately a month ago. I guess the temporary fix is to disconnect the phone line. 
What will I miss out on when the phone line is disconnected?

Also I bought a 160 gig hard drive that is a plug and play but I never installed it because I have a lot of saved programs I don't want to lose. What options do I have besides copying all those programs to DVD?
Can I put the new hard drive in and keep my 80 gig as a secondary drive?
Can I copy all programs to the new hard drive?

Thanks


----------



## litzdog911

anthemmobil1 said:


> My Hughs SD DVR-80 has also been rebooting especially when reading the stupid senseless messages. It started approximately a month ago. I guess the temporary fix is to disconnect the phone line.
> What will I miss out on when the phone line is disconnected?
> 
> Also I bought a 160 gig hard drive that is a plug and play but I never installed it because I have a lot of saved programs I don't want to lose. What options do I have besides copying all those programs to DVD?
> Can I put the new hard drive in and keep my 80 gig as a secondary drive?
> Can I copy all programs to the new hard drive?
> 
> Thanks


You won't lose anything without a phone line, except the ability to order PPV movies with your remote control. But removing the phone line may or may not solve this problem for you. It can't hurt, though. Just realize that the fix will likely require a "phone home", even if it's not a complete new software update.

You can upgrade the drive and preserve your recordings. Check out the resources here ....

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=25

http://www.weaknees.com/index.html

http://tivo.upgrade-instructions.com/

http://www.mfslive.org/

http://www.newreleasesvideo.com/hinsdale-how-to/

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

http://www.9thtee.com/


----------



## anthemmobil1

litzdog911 said:


> You won't lose anything without a phone line, except the ability to order PPV movies with your remote control. But removing the phone line may or may not solve this problem for you. It can't hurt, though. Just realize that the fix will likely require a "phone home", even if it's not a complete new software update.
> 
> You can upgrade the drive and preserve your recordings. Check out the resources here ....
> 
> Thanks for your reply.


----------



## ST1100A

Well, mine started rebooting again a couple of days ago. I guess the "fix" didn't take (I'm one of the volunteers on the fix program)... 

I hope they come up with something soon...


----------



## pdswi

I have been experiencing the reboot issue as well. I called weaknees as we purchased one of the units from them. They told me that this was a known issue, and that some people have been helped by clearing the guide data by doing Clear Program Information & To Do List. The screen told me it would take an hour to do this. It took more time than that (don't do this shortly before primetime!), then because I still was missing most of the program info, I had to manually record tonite's programs. I thought as the program info continued to update i would be ok. However, when I looked at my season passes, I am missing probably 3/4 of them. Also, my channel settings in Channel List have been reset to include every channel. This is so, so bad. Anyone have any suggestions?


----------



## dtremain

pdswi said:


> I have been experiencing the reboot issue as well. I called weaknees as we purchased one of the units from them. They told me that this was a known issue, and that some people have been helped by clearing the guide data by doing Clear Program Information & To Do List. The screen told me it would take an hour to do this. It took more time than that (don't do this shortly before primetime!), then because I still was missing most of the program info, I had to manually record tonite's programs. I thought as the program info continued to update i would be ok. However, when I looked at my season passes, I am missing probably 3/4 of them. Also, my channel settings in Channel List have been reset to include every channel. This is so, so bad. Anyone have any suggestions?


I've never done that, but I'm afraid that you are going to have to manually re-select your favorites lists and re-program your season passes. I can't imagine what else you would do.

I hope I'm wrong, but I think that you will be further annoyed by the fact that it does not resolve the issue.

As you were told, it is a "known issue," and, according to Litzdog on this forum (whom I have always known to be correct in his statements), it is being worked on.

But, I don't think any type of clear and delete, even the most extreme, will resolve the problem.


----------



## jkb71

STA1100A-

Really sorry to hear that, I understand how awful this is. However, in the interest of keeping everyone up to date, mine is getting close to two weeks now without any problems.

It's possible that not everyone in the program has received a fix. They may be leaving some people's systems unchanged as a baseline so they can continue to collect data and logs on what the cause might be. Meanwhile, they could be trying one or more fixes on other systems. Just a thought.



ST1100A said:


> Well, mine started rebooting again a couple of days ago. I guess the "fix" didn't take (I'm one of the volunteers on the fix program)...
> 
> I hope they come up with something soon...


----------



## Tangent

stevel said:


> ...
> Come to think of it, given that folks here have indicated that disconnecting the phone line stops the reboots, ...


Neither of mine have been plugged into a phone line for almost 3 years yet one of them still fell victim to this rebooting problem...


----------



## DoubleAK

Just joining the chorus... 
Samsung SIR-S4080R running 6.4a-01-2-381 unhacked/unmodded

Like most of you, reboots began about a month ago. Only happens to me 2-3 times a week, but finally got fed up and came here for answers. Reboots are random for me, they occur when trying to view a message or selecting a list, but have also occurred unattended (30s skip disabled).

Sure hope this gets fixed soon. My loyalty is with Tivo. DTV subscriber for 13 years, but I'm not giving up my wishlists and suggestions for some half-baked DTV DVR!


----------



## bearbig

I got fed up with my re booting yesterday after trying to check new messages, after re boot there were no messages.
Called DTV for the sixth or so time. Asked for a technical supervisor ( took forever to get her on the line). I was told it is a software problem that they were not going to fix. She then broke into the upgrade pitch despite me saying at least twice that I wasn't interested until I can get a new Tivo. 

I do hope what litzdog has been saying is correct and that the percon I spoke with was uninformed!


----------



## litzdog911

bearbig said:


> I got fed up with my re booting yesterday after trying to check new messages, after re boot there were no messages.
> Called DTV for the sixth or so time. Asked for a technical supervisor ( took forever to get her on the line). I was told it is a software problem that they were not going to fix. She then broke into the upgrade pitch despite me saying at least twice that I wasn't interested until I can get a new Tivo.
> 
> I do hope what litzdog has been saying is correct and that the percon I spoke with was uninformed!


Yep. That person was misinformed. DirecTV and Tivo are testing a second round of fixes as I type this. Keeping fingers crossed.


----------



## POSTMark

Just thought I would chime in... I too, am experiencing the random reboots (HDVR2)(always while pressing some button on remote). Before I found this thread, I ordered and replaced/copied my original 40GB HDD (the only mod I have performed). Just like others, random reboots continued. Did some more Googling and found this thread. I started forcing a reboot/restart from the menu on a daily basis to try and circumvent the randomness.

Since reboots seemed to start around "old" or "new" DST, I decided to monkey with the Time Zone and DST settings. They are now set to my actual time zone (Not Auto Detect) and DST is set to No. I'm going on 3 days without a random reboot and I am no longer manually restarting during this test. I know I can't consider this conclusive without more testing, but it has definitely changed the initial symptom.

Anyone else try this? Anyone else want to try this for a broader test audience? Did I miss a previous post? If so, my apologies.

BTW, phone line is still, and always has been, connected.

Mark


----------



## mojotv

Getting worse since I last posted. Mostly when attempting to access the main menu it will reboot without prompting. But sometimes it will just do it out of the blue, where nobody touched nuthin'.

But seeing there is a second round of attempts to resolve I'll hang tight.

I see a whole host of fixes. Are any confirmed? 

Or at least I would like to get a hint at the most likely cause. Just for the sake of curiosity.

Update:

There appears to be a reasonable explanation over at DTV that puts the blame on a re-initiated download stream? (not a new software release)


----------



## rlarsonil71

Why can't DTV maintain a problem management software application/database system that would contain problem records for each "incident" (i.e. customer call) which all CSRs (Level 1 support), technicians (Level 2 support), and supervisors could log into and reference "incidents" to get consistent information on known issues and courses of action that are in progress? 

A lot of large companies have this type of software system to help with customer service including the one I work for. I feel that it is inexcusable for a large company like DTV that prides itself on customer service through its mailers and other communications to give inconsistent information to customers.

I am one of litzdog911's volunteers and so far so good with the second round of fixes.


----------



## BWS_GA

I am one of the volunteers too but I haven't seen any changes - still reboots once a day.


----------



## appleye1

Well, I've got something new happening. I have two HR10-250s with the rebooting problem. Starting yesterday I keep getting a nag screen on just one of them saying I need to call DirecTV and "activate the DVR service". And now it looks like I'm only getting 3 days of guide data. I also noticed some recordings missing and when I go into the History to check on them, the message says that they weren't recorded because I don't have "Tivo Plus" service. 

I tried re-authorizing the receiver online tonight and it didn't help. Forced a cold reboot but that didn't help either (not that I thought it would - it reboots enough on its own!) I'll call DirecTv tomorrow and see if they can "activate the DVR service." (Funny, said service works fine on the other 4 DVRs I have.)


----------



## TivoMo

This was happening to me so I found this thread then called DTV. They told me there were no known issues and tried to get me to "upgrade" to one of their receivers since my tivo seems to be broken. I then told them about this thread and that I was not interested in their equipment.

I am going to look around to see if I have any other options yet. I have been sick of DTV for a long time and only stay for TIVO. Last few times I looked I didnt have any other options...


----------



## MartyList

Mine haven't rebooted in over a week. I volunteered with litzdog911 but I don't know if that means anything changed for me, everyone gets the same data from the satellite, right? My phone line has always been connected, and I haven't changed any settings (except for turning on the clock so I know if it rebooted). I've stopped reading messages though, rarely anything interesting to me anyway.


----------



## imaref

My Directivo problem has been getting worse. When it first started, it would reboot once a day on its own AND would reboot when I tried to read the messages sent by Directv. Now it doesn't reboot by itself, but it DOES reboot every time that I click on "messages and settings", "pick programs to record", and any other menu option EXCEPT "now playing list".

I called Directv Thursday Dec. 2nd--told them the problems started back around Halloween and it's getting really frustrating, especially since this Directivo is hooked to my main TV. They told me that it is a known issue, that Directv and Tivo are working on a fix, and since I'm a preferred customer would I like a $5 credit on my bill for 3 months plus 3 free months of all the Showtime channels. I said HECK YES!


----------



## mschwab

Add 2 more DTivos to the list having problems. I replaced DirecTivos with bad hard drives 2-3 years ago, with 2 HDVR2's from Weaknees (240 hours each), and they have been working fine (each more than half full atm). Then, in the past few weeks, I noticed reboots on both of them when I went to read messages (most common), or sometimes when navigating other menus, but never on it's own (watching live TV or a recorded program). So I finally came back here to my old haunts (yes, I was the original FAQ editor, a moderator, and a DirecTiVo beta tester), to find that many others have the same problem! And no, I do NOT want to clear my hard drives and lose 150 hours of recordings!


----------



## imaref

Well this is interesting--this afternoon I noticed the amber light come on meaning that my Directivo was "phoning home" for data. When it was finished, I was able to access all menus/message/etc. with no problems. Curious, so I went in to see if the last data download was successful--it was not. So I figured what they heck, I'll tell it to go ahead and phone home again. When it was on the screen it got as far as connecting, and then the next part got an error message---it said that "service is not answering".

I'm wondering if they've now shut off the data streams until they have this figured out? Mine is working fine right now (cross my fingers)...


----------



## mrfixit454

It seems you can select any menu after if reboots for periods of time until maybe some error buffer fills up (just a guess), then it reboots when you access those menus again.


----------



## 230

So, any guesses as to how many average Joes just assume their box is dying and dropping tivo altogether?

My parents have had no problems, but they live in the middle of North Dakota with no local dial-in number, so they put up with the nag screens. They were paying about $10/month in phone charges before I told them guide data came the dish, and not the phone line.


----------



## litzdog911

Tivo has fixed this rebooting problem. You need to "force a callback" to download the fix. You'll find the "call now" option under the "Settings" > "Phone Setup" menu ....

Messages & Setup > Phone Setup > Connect to DVR Service Now


----------



## spamjam

Yay! Can you give us a hint as to what the fix was? If there's no software change how do we know we have the fix? Just sit back and notice the lack of reboots?


----------



## spamjam

Of course one of mine rebooted when I attempted to _get _to the settings to phone home.


----------



## lrhorer

Nittany Lioness said:


> Say - I thought putting one's unit on "Standby" was for the purposes of using your TV with other inputs (like when you would like to watch old fashioned antenna TV programming),


No, it's mainly for receivers that auto-switch when an input goes away or comes alive.



Nittany Lioness said:


> but is it a way to ... almost turn the box OFF, thereby keeping it cool, and it works less hard?


That's nonsense. The most strain is put on most devices - including a TiVo - during start-up. Significant additional strain is also encountered during shut-down. Generally the greatest longevity will be enjoyed when the device is run continuously.



Nittany Lioness said:


> I always wondered why the darned things don't have ON and OFF, period.


A TiVo with an off switch would be virtually useless.


----------



## fasTLane

spamjam said:


> Of course one of mine rebooted when I attempted to _get _to the settings to phone home.


Same here. But the download is in progress now. Hoping this is the *end *of rampant reboots.


----------



## cutt

litzdog911 said:


> Tivo has fixed this rebooting problem. You need to "force a callback" to download the fix. You'll find the "call now" option under the "Settings" > "Phone Setup" menu.


download done, didn't suggest a reboot.

I can read the dtv messages w/o a reboot now, hopefully this issue is history.


----------



## litzdog911

spamjam said:


> Yay! Can you give us a hint as to what the fix was? If there's no software change how do we know we have the fix? Just sit back and notice the lack of reboots?


I'm trying to find out. I'm still guessing it was some change to the Guide Data structure causing this problem. That's happened before.


----------



## jkb71

Litzdog911 asked me to do the forced callback a little over two weeks ago as part of the test group and mine has been OK since, so hopefully the rest of you are also good to go now. If not, maybe some on this thread do have hard drive issues, etc.

Litzdog911 - Thanks again for driving this issue to a resolution!


----------



## litzdog911

jkb71 said:


> Litzdog911 asked me to do the forced callback a little over two weeks ago as part of the test group and mine has been OK since, so hopefully the rest of you are also good to go now. If not, maybe some on this thread do have hard drive issues, etc.
> 
> Litzdog911 - Thanks again for driving this issue to a resolution!


You're very welcome. Your testing was very helpful. Let's hope they nailed this problem!


----------



## stevel

What is the nature of this download? Does it change the software version?


----------



## jbelmont

Thanks all for your perseverance. I've had the same problem all fall, called DTV about a month ago and passed on the "reset your hard drive" advice, and finally found this forum today. Good timing. I'll let you know how the fix works out. -Jon


----------



## yy4u

Mine has been rebooting for some time now I was thinking HD was on its way out Got to love this site if not for this thread DTV would have there way & move use all off the Tivo.


----------



## litzdog911

stevel said:


> What is the nature of this download? Does it change the software version?


From what I know, it's a "slice" that's updated via the phone call. Not a full software update. I'm still trying to find out what the root cause problem was.


----------



## rwardfla

Thanks,litzdog911,for all the work you put into this problem.I just did the forced call on my two HDVR2s-hope it works!


----------



## imaref

I received the updated data stream today around noon. After it finished, I decided to reboot the Directivo from the Messages/Settings menu. Working like a champ so far...

Thanks for all the help.


----------



## jdrod

I'm trying to call in and I'm getting the "Service not answering message" and I've tried a half dozen different numbers. This is frustrating.


----------



## k7rfi

I down loaded the software update tivo ran fine for several hours then
reset. I have an RCA tivo about 7 years old. I had ordered a new hard drive
several days ago so just installed it so far so good.


----------



## Tangent

litzdog911 said:


> Tivo has fixed this rebooting problem. You need to "force a callback" to download the fix. You'll find the "call now" option under the "Settings" > "Phone Setup" menu.


What do those of us with a non data-friendly VOIP service do?


----------



## litzdog911

Tangent said:


> What do those of us with a non data-friendly VOIP service do?


Take your Tivo to work, or a friend/neighbor's house, and initiate the callback from there.


----------



## rlarsonil71

Litzdog911 asked me to do the forced callback on 11/29 as part of the test group and both my Tivos have been OK. I am now looking forward to an uninterrupted day of football!

Litzdog911 - Thanks again for all your hard work! Appreciate it!


----------



## Zenara25

Also one of the volunteers. Our 2 R10 Tivo's haven't had any reboots since Dec 1st 

Thanks litzdog911 for all of your time.


----------



## boxkite

Hello,
I have not posted here before, but I have been following this thread since the reboot problems started. I'm glad there seems to be a fix. I have 2 old DTV r-10's. My question is that when I go to settings (which incidentally, I of course had to go through a reboot to get to) there is no "phone setup" I have "phone/change phone settings" there is no "call now" setting. I have dial-in number, dial prefix, call waiting prefix, tone/pulse dialing, availability detection, and dial tone detection. I tried just doing the connect to dvr service now setting, it just went through the routine call. Am I missing something here? Would appreciate your input.


----------



## litzdog911

boxkite said:


> Hello,
> I have not posted here before, but I have been following this thread since the reboot problems started. I'm glad there seems to be a fix. I have 2 old DTV r-10's. My question is that when I go to settings (which incidentally, I of course had to go through a reboot to get to) there is no "phone setup" I have "phone/change phone settings" there is no "call now" setting. I have dial-in number, dial prefix, call waiting prefix, tone/pulse dialing, availability detection, and dial tone detection. I tried just doing the connect to dvr service now setting, it just went through the routine call. Am I missing something here? Would appreciate your input.


I should have been a bit more clear ....
Messages & Setup > Phone Setup > Connect to DVR Service Now


----------



## CTB6

Wow, this thread has really helped quite a bit! I forced the phone call this morning and saw the information downloading. Mine also rebooted on the way to making the phone call...  Hopefully that's the last one I'll see!

Many thanks to all who worked to get this fix in existence! :up::up::up::up:


----------



## semituff

litzdog911 said:


> I should have been a bit more clear ....
> Messages & Setup > Phone Setup > Connect to DVR Service Now


I have 3 of the Hughes Tivos, tried to force the call and get an error message from them the connection cannot be made. Have check all my lines and numbers and they are correct. Any Ideas?


----------



## litzdog911

semituff said:


> I have 3 of the Hughes Tivos, tried to force the call and get an error message from them the connection cannot be made. Have check all my lines and numbers and they are correct. Any Ideas?


You start a new thread with this issue. Successfully completing phone calls from old Tivos can be a challenge if they haven't done it for a while.


----------



## semituff

actually these are current tivos that have had the problem you have been talking about on the rebooting. I meant to reply to your post. They did a sucessful call out on friday night, but since they have put the "fix" out, I have not been able to force them to connect to get the "fix". all lines are good and the numbers are good. They are HR10-250 boxes. They have always connected fine until now.


----------



## austinsho

Is the problem with units that haven't made a call in a while not being able to connect the same as a current unit that is having trouble connecting? Or are these two separate issues?


----------



## vrvince

I have a DirectTV R10, a few years old, software 6.4a-01-2-251, which started this rebooting a couple weeks ago. Forced a call back yesterday, 12/4, and forced a reboot. Was ok for an hour or so of use.
Worked a bit today, recorded a couple programs, then it rebooted upon calling up "Pick Programs to Record" tonight.
Perhaps it is back...


----------



## litzdog911

vrvince said:


> I have a DirectTV R10, a few years old, software 6.4a-01-2-251, which started this rebooting a couple weeks ago. Forced a call back yesterday, 12/4, and forced a reboot. Was ok for an hour or so of use.
> Worked a bit today, recorded a couple programs, then it rebooted upon calling up "Pick Programs to Record" tonight.
> Perhaps it is back...


So far most all reports are positive. But perhaps your Tivo has a different problem, like a dying hard drive.


----------



## Underwhelmed

I'm glad I came back to check this thread. My unit has been rebooting daily since October. I just did the forced call and hopefully my R-10 will be back to full use again.

Thanks litzdog911 and all the testers of this fix.


----------



## fasTLane

As a side benefit, the navigation of menus seems somewhat faster since the fix.  Anyone else notice this?


----------



## imaref

Navigation on mine is much faster too, but I cheated. After the fix was up and working, I decided that since I've never, ever cleared and deleted everything that now would be a good time to do it. Took 1.5 hours for the clear/delete everything, then everything was up and working except local channels--pinged from the directv website and they came right back. Took several hours for the guide to populate, now this morning it's updated through Dec. 17th. Hardest part was re-entering all of my season passes.

I didn't realize how slow my menus/navigation had gotten. It's working like new now.


----------



## jcf2001

fasTLane said:


> As a side benefit, the navigation of menus seems somewhat faster since the fix.  Anyone else notice this?


I noticed the speed up too.

Saturday after seeing there was fix I forced a call on my R10 Saturday night. When it finished and I tried things to see if it would reboot, it didn't, and the first thing I noticed was how fast the navigation was. It was really getting bogged down recently.

I do wish there was someway to tell if the fix is installed or not.

Keeping my fingers crossed.


----------



## Tangent

Well, it looks like my problem is being resolved by DirecTV's incompetence driving me to FiOS. The DirecTivo on my living room TV started rebooting around the same time everyone elses did. By the second week of November it was failing to complete the startup process and I'd have to unplug/replug power a few times to get it to start up. By 2 weeks later even that was a lost cause so I searched Craigslist and bought another DirecTivo.

Once I got the new unit home is when DirecTV started their real campaign to lose one more customer. I called up to have them activate my old access card in the new tuner and they refused which I was kind of expecting. No worries they said, we'll have your new card to you in no more than 3-5 mailing days. 6 mailing days later I call them up and pressure them to hang their policy and just activate my old card in the new Tivo so I can use it again. They refuse, but after finding no tracking info on the card they should have sent a week ago, they tell me they'll send one Fed-Ex 2nd day. Well, that 2nd day has now passed and I've had it.

All I've gotten for being a loyal customer for 10 years is ever-increasing rates and a bunch of special offers being mailed to my name (DirecTV account is in my wife's name) that they won't let us as existing customers take advantage of. For an extra $10 a month (after 6 months; it'll be cheaper 'til then) I'm going to switch my 6/1.5 mbps internet service (Time Warner) and my SD DirecTV service to FiOS and get HD and 25/25 mbps internet.

/rant


----------



## austinsho

OK, a good friend of mine has two Tivos, one Hughes and one Philips. They were fine for three days then started rebooting yesterday, both of them. Is he the first to have a problem.


----------



## fasTLane

The speed improvement of the menus and the fact that balky menus were a problem for me long before this latest rebooting episode tells me that some major housekeeping has been done to the code. My HR10-250 navigation has not been this fast or smooth in several years.


----------



## CTB6

fasTLane said:


> As a side benefit, the navigation of menus seems somewhat faster since the fix.  Anyone else notice this?


Yes, me too. I had noticed that mine seemed to be grinding to a halt when the rebooting thing started. So far, it is faster. I forced a download on Sunday.


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## drmanny3

Thanks to everyone who worked so hard to find a fix. Thanks goes to Tivo as well as Direct TV for their efforts. There are a lot of conspiracy folks out there but I think Direct TV is doing a good job. I wish Tivo would hurry up with the new Tivo unit for Direct TV. I noticed a big difference in picture quality between the HR10-250 and the Direct TV HR21. Much tighter picture. I know this as my parents have the same TV that I have a Panasonic TC-P65V10 Plasma. Anyway thanks again to everyone who contributed.
Manny


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## litzdog911

austinsho said:


> OK, a good friend of mine has two Tivos, one Hughes and one Philips. They were fine for three days then started rebooting yesterday, both of them. Is he the first to have a problem.


Only a couple of problem reports since the fixed was issued a few days ago. Did your friend force the call back as suggested? It's possible that something else is wrong with those Tivos.


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## jkb71

fasTLane said:


> As a side benefit, the navigation of menus seems somewhat faster since the fix.  Anyone else notice this?


Yes, mine is quicker now also. I forgot the mention that before.


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## austinsho

litzdog911 said:


> Only a couple of problem reports since the fixed was issued a few days ago. Did your friend force the call back as suggested? It's possible that something else is wrong with those Tivos.


Yes indeed. I saw the info here, told him, he forced the callback and everything was fine (including better speed) until last night when both Tivos booted. It happened again this morning.

I'm pretty sure the Hughes has other problems. He's reporting severe, but intermittent, pixelation on both MSNBC and ESPN.


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## lvsaint

I tried the call yesterday on my main Tivo (R10). Tivo took a while to process the call as it had been unplugged from the phone line for several weeks now. Call completed successfully. Noticed faster interface with menus. 

I got my first reboot earlier this evening. This time it was unprompted, before my reboots were from a button press. It had just reset itself moments before I switched the TV on.

Help!


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## BWS_GA

austinsho said:


> Yes indeed. I saw the info here, told him, he forced the callback and everything was fine (including better speed) until last night when both Tivos booted. It happened again this morning.
> 
> I'm pretty sure the Hughes has other problems. He's reporting severe, but intermittent, pixelation on both MSNBC and ESPN.


I've been having problems with the pixelation on ESPN also.


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## ss_sea_ya

Just curious, so what is the latest patched version # is for the HDV2, R10, and R15?

Mine HDVR2, R10, R15, and even a friend of mine who had a similar R10 model never experienced the reboot issue. Only my HDVR2 had a phone line connected to it and I was good about clearing messages. 

My HDVR2 is heavily used and old (>6 years) with an upgraded 350G drive (>4 years ago) and a capacitor added months ago to the chip to mitigate tuner 2 issues. I did unconnect this tuner Nov 26th when my new HiDef dVR was installed. I haven't moved it to another room yet, since I'm still watching recordings on it so its been disconnected from the Satellite (but still active on the account). However, I did maintain a phone line connection to it (and forced calls too) just prior to the new DVR and it did seem to have downloaded an update as I think it forced a reboot. Since I was disconnecting it, I didn't really pay much attention to it. So I'll verify its version tonight and see if it has the new version. I recall it was running 6.4a something something 151.
I wonder if the R15 was updated via the Satellite, since I forced it with the 0 2 4 6 8 command at the "hello" reboot screen. I think that version had ended with differ suffix - like 351. I didn't check what version it said it had. Haven't checked my R10 yet either.


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## CTB6

Pixelation:

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=333631&page=3


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## austinsho

CTB6 said:


> Pixelation:
> 
> http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=333631&page=3


Wow...didn't know about that. Thanks for that link.


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## ricardo_chan

I forced a "call home" on my two units. One of them has rebooted twice since then. The other one seems to stay so far.


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## dtremain

Mine seems fine now.

Thank you Litzdog, for keeping us informed and keeping me from doing a delete all and losing all of my kid's programming.

Over the years I have been on this forum, I have always known that if you say something, it is true.

And, I am very grateful.:up:


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## POSTMark

Mine rebooted Saturday morning (12/4). I forced a phone call immediately afterwards. All has been fine until a few minutes ago and BAM! another unexpected reboot. Hadn't touched the remote in 1+ hour.


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## jdrod

Finally forced the call back last Sunday. It rebooted later that day, but since then we've not had it happen again. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this has been resolved.


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## MartyList

Mine were fine for about 10 days, and then the Philips had no video output. If I rebooted it I could see the Welcome Powering Up screen, almost there..., and then no video at all, black screen. I swapped the power supply with an an old pixelating Hughes and it seems OK now, probably a coincidence.

No reboot after 5 days. My menus didn't seem slow before, but they don't seem any faster now.


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## ss_sea_ya

When I reconnected my HDVR2 to the satellite after couple week hiatus (We were watching shows off it during that time), it failed to see the satellite, then during after a power off reset, it did the same thing. Power up screen, almost there, then no video.
Gonna put in my old original drive and see if that makes a diff.


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## wbgolfer

I began following the re-booting issue from almost from day one. At first I was pretty sure my Hughes DVR was failing. As I posted my issues here on the Directv Forum - the responses were mostly unit failure ie HD, S-Video, Power Suppy etc. etc. No one - thought that TIVO or Directv were at fault. 
After approx. 10 days of spontaneous re-booting I went on the web and searched for a replacement Directv TIVO. I must mention Directv wanted to upgrade me to a new unit but I wanted TIVO! Those who are die hard TIVO fans know why.
So I found a dealer on the web and purchased a used R10. When I got the R10 I called Directv to get a access card and wow! - you would have thought that I had committed a major crime. It took three phone calls and approx. 1 1/2 hours of being switched around and many discussions of upgrades but finally I pay $20.00 for the card. 
Card arrives - active new/used R10 approx. one week ago. 
Then I now find out that it wasn't my Hughes having a problem it was Directv / TIVO.
My cost was $100 used unit / shipping/ access card. 
All because either Directv or TIVO failed to do their job - by that I mean not ensuring compatibility with older units. Of course someone at Directv or TIVO must understand that their are probably a couple of hundered thousand Directv TIVO still out there and they will remain for some time. 
Bottom line - These two outfits should be ashamed of what they did !!!
-- Bill --


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## Tangent

wbgolfer said:


> ...
> So I found a dealer on the web and purchased a used R10. When I got the R10 I called Directv to get a access card and wow! - you would have thought that I had committed a major crime. It took three phone calls and approx. 1 1/2 hours of being switched around and many discussions of upgrades but finally I pay $20.00 for the card.
> Card arrives - ...:


So it's at least not just me that hates their card activation people. I was at least able to talk them into not charging me for a new access car (good thing, more on that in a sec) when I explained to them that the death of my Hughes was due to them putting out a poorly tested update, plus the fact that I replaced the equipment they killed on my own dime. The reason it's a really good thing they didn't charge me is because to this day I still haven't received a new access card. In case you didn't read my previous post, they (supposedly) sent me one that they promised would arrive in 3-5 mailing days. On day 6 I called and expressed displeasure that it hadn't arrived yet so they promised to send a new one FedEx 2-day. That was a week ago and I still don't have either card. About an hour ago Verizon finished running the FiOS drop to my house and on Monday they'll be here to do the rest of the install.


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## Choirgirl21

I tried to force a shut down on Wednesday before I started watching primetime stuff and couldn't get it to happen. Same thing last night. So I finally came here hoping to hear it had been fixed. My settings say the last successful call was yesterday so I'm assuming my unit does regular calls and I don't need to force one? Given that I haven't had a problem in a few days that makes sense, but I want to make sure I shouldn't force a call anyway?


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## ss_sea_ya

Anyway to force the software update to take?
I had to reinstall my original drive today and its at 6.2. I did connect to the phone line and it did seem to take a big download. (Quirk was receiver was inadvertently marked as account closed at the time). I eventually refreshed the receiver and made several additional phone calls and resets, but still stuck on 6.2.
Also, did not experience any reboots with this (even before disk crash). I wonder if the update is market specific? So maybe update not available in my market? (Wash DC market).


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## CTB6

Crap. Mine rebooted yesterday, first time since the download last Sunday. We'll see if this continues.


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## drmanny3

So far our two Hr10-250s are working ok. Has anyone heard more about the new Direct TV Tivo unit that was scheduled originally for 2010 and not posponed to 2011? There must be someone out there that has some information.
Thanks,
Manny


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## stevel

Many have asked this, continually for the past two years. All we know is that it is supposedly in field trials now. Perhaps it will be shown at CES in January, but don't count on it. I have seen zero information about the capabilities other than what was in the original announcement, so long ago.

DirecTV is pretty good about keeping new boxes under wraps, though it appears this box's tests are being done by TiVo.


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## TVCricket

CTB6 said:


> Crap. Mine rebooted yesterday, first time since the download last Sunday. We'll see if this continues.


Same thing happened to me, but I forced a call on Friday. I am this close to dumping Directv. Only reason I'm holding on through the New Year is for the Bowl games.


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## Wadebear

I did the forced phone in a few days ago. It held for a couple of days then rebooted.

Meanwhile...

I had noted that one of the shows we record (Burn Notice) had an episode a few weeks ago and thought there were more to come. So I did some checking and - there were a whole bunch of episodes that weren't recorded. I checked the Season Pass and noted that there was an upcoming episode that should be recorded, booped through to the episode... It offered to get a Season Pass.

I've been through this before and check some of my other Season Passes... Yup. So I did what I'd been told to do to correct the problem: "Clear program information & To Do List". We'll see if it continues to reboot now.


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## stevel

I think my wife noticed a similar problem with Burn Notice. Seems to be a glitch in the guide data, with a different series ID. My HR10 has not rebooted at all while others have.


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## MartinHines

Tivo Series 2 DirecTV Hughes HDVR2 stuck at "Welcome. Powering up...".

Unplugging receiver, waiting a minute does not work. Any suggestions?


Background
-- I have three DirecTV Receivers with Tivo (R10, HDVR2, SD-DVR80)
-- all have had this periodic rebooting problem since October
-- just found this thread today
-- HDVR2 had the typical re-boot problem today. I was watching TV, hit some button on the remote then the receiver re-booted
-- annoying problem but I figured it was OK, but now the receiver won't get past the "welcome screen".
-- any suggestions besides buying a replacement drive from a 3rd party vendor like DVRUpgrade or Weaknees?


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## dtremain

ss_sea_ya said:


> Anyway to force the software update to take?
> I had to reinstall my original drive today and its at 6.2. I did connect to the phone line and it did seem to take a big download. (Quirk was receiver was inadvertently marked as account closed at the time). I eventually refreshed the receiver and made several additional phone calls and resets, but still stuck on 6.2.
> Also, did not experience any reboots with this (even before disk crash). I wonder if the update is market specific? So maybe update not available in my market? (Wash DC market).


It's not a software update. It's a replacement of the channel logos, but you need to dial in to get it.

If it is in your system, you should have seen the logos on you "now playing" list disappear for a day or two and reappear. If your unit is not re-booting when you hit the blue Directv button, that's a good sign.

The current software version is 6.2a and has been for years.


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## stevel

Martin, you have more serious problems, such as a bad power supply or hard drive.


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## Tangent

MartinHines said:


> Tivo Series 2 DirecTV Hughes HDVR2 stuck at "Welcome. Powering up...".
> 
> Unplugging receiver, waiting a minute does not work. Any suggestions?
> 
> Background
> -- I have three DirecTV Receivers with Tivo (R10, HDVR2, SD-DVR80)
> -- all have had this periodic rebooting problem since October
> -- just found this thread today
> -- HDVR2 had the typical re-boot problem today. I was watching TV, hit some button on the remote then the receiver re-booted
> -- annoying problem but I figured it was OK, but now the receiver won't get past the "welcome screen".
> -- any suggestions besides buying a replacement drive from a 3rd party vendor like DVRUpgrade or Weaknees?


That's exactly what happened to me. I ended up buying another Samsung DirecTiVo off of Craigslist. Since DirecTV completely screwed up, never got me the new access card they insisted I needed, and I switched to FiOS I now have that and another Samsung DirecTiVo I had for sale on craigslist myself...


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## litzdog911

MartinHines said:


> Tivo Series 2 DirecTV Hughes HDVR2 stuck at "Welcome. Powering up...".
> 
> Unplugging receiver, waiting a minute does not work. Any suggestions?
> 
> Background
> -- I have three DirecTV Receivers with Tivo (R10, HDVR2, SD-DVR80)
> -- all have had this periodic rebooting problem since October
> -- just found this thread today
> -- HDVR2 had the typical re-boot problem today. I was watching TV, hit some button on the remote then the receiver re-booted
> -- annoying problem but I figured it was OK, but now the receiver won't get past the "welcome screen".
> -- any suggestions besides buying a replacement drive from a 3rd party vendor like DVRUpgrade or Weaknees?


Best to start your own new thread. But check out these resources for do-it-yourself drive replacement and repairs ....

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=25

http://www.weaknees.com/index.html

http://tivo.upgrade-instructions.com/

http://www.mfslive.org/

http://www.newreleasesvideo.com/hinsdale-how-to/

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

http://www.9thtee.com/


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## ss_sea_ya

dtremain said:


> It's not a software update. It's a replacement of the channel logos, but you need to dial in to get it.
> 
> If it is in your system, you should have seen the logos on you "now playing" list disappear for a day or two and reappear. If your unit is not re-booting when you hit the blue Directv button, that's a good sign.
> 
> The current software version is 6.2a and has been for years.


Thanks very much for the info about the update is for logos only and NOT a new version of software. Not sure I gathered that from the many forums I've read on this. So clearly, I think mine (both the replacement drive and original downloaded the new logos since they did have a long download. I didn't pay much attention to the logo's, but didn't have an issue (until my replacement drive seemed to have apparently failed a couple weeks ago). (prior to that no rebooting issues).

As for the Software version, I think you meant 6.4a is the latest. I had that for I think a couple years or so on the replacement drive. (I replaced the original drive n 2006). The 6.4a release added the "deleted" folder which my original drive with 6.2 does not have. (even after deleting shows).


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## mrfixit454

Wadebear said:


> Meanwhile...
> 
> I had noted that one of the shows we record (Burn Notice) had an episode a few weeks ago and thought there were more to come. So I did some checking and - there were a whole bunch of episodes that weren't recorded. I checked the Season Pass and noted that there was an upcoming episode that should be recorded, booped through to the episode... It offered to get a Season Pass.
> .


Same here.... American Chopper Sr. vs. Jr. was in my season pass but no scheduled recordings. I deleted the pass and generated it again and all is good. So far this is the only one of my passes that did not continue to work.


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## ss_sea_ya

I think I read some posts somewhere that recommended redoing the season passes each season since there can be sublte changes in the title or series description so that the "old" season pass doesn't doesn't recognize the new series.


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## stevel

Season passes work off "series ID" numbers and are, if everything goes right, unaffected by title changes. But Tribune (which provides the raw data to TiVo) has been known to mess with series IDs, even in-season, so it pays to be vigilant. My wife regularly checks her ToDo list every Sunday to make sure everything is there that should be, but she sometimes still gets tripped up by errors, such as happened with Burn Notice.

What you can also miss are "special" shows that may have the same title of a series but aren't considered part of the series.


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## litzdog911

stevel said:


> Season passes work off "series ID" numbers and are, if everything goes right, unaffected by title changes. But Tribune (which provides the raw data to TiVo) has been known to mess with series IDs, even in-season, so it pays to be vigilant. My wife regularly checks her ToDo list every Sunday to make sure everything is there that should be, but she sometimes still gets tripped up by errors, such as happened with Burn Notice.
> 
> What you can also miss are "special" shows that may have the same title of a series but aren't considered part of the series.


Exactly. I suspect much of the problem, though, is the info provided to Tribune News Services by the stations and networks. Some just don't seem to care about this data.


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## cp1966

After numerous forced calls, my Tivo continued to reboot.

DirecTv told me to try doing a complete reboot (clearing everything from the drive) so I tried that one night as it said it coul dtake hours.

Since then (3 days ago) it has not happened that I have noticed.


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## chanman38

Even if that's a solution, I might as well upgrade to whole-home HD DVR because I have years of shows that are saved forever. Reformatting the drive is just not a viable option for me right now. Keeping fingers crossed waiting.


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## stevel

Understand that shows on the TiVo won't be available to other DVRs.


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## chanman38

Yes, I didn't mean I wanted to share my TiVo shows to the rest of my house. The only reason I haven't upgraded to a DTV DVR is because I like having all my old shows and my hundreds of hours of capacity. Hopefully DTV will support another TiVo before my current one dies, otherwise I'll just get my whole house sync'ed up with current whole-house DVR technology.


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## stevel

If your old box won't stay booted, you can't get at the shows any way. Even if it does, the new DTiVo won't be able to get shows from the old one.


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## Wadebear

Wadebear said:


> So I did what I'd been told to do to correct the problem: "Clear program information & To Do List". We'll see if it continues to reboot now.


Well, it rebooted again after a couple of days. It hasn't rebooted since, but it was a random thing anyway. Sometimes it reboots every day, then it skips a few days...


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## Wadebear

ss_sea_ya said:


> I think I read some posts somewhere that recommended redoing the season passes each season since there can be sublte changes in the title or series description so that the "old" season pass doesn't doesn't recognize the new series.


In all the years we've had this receiver I've only had this kind of Season Pass problem once before and it seemed to be contagious: first it was one show, then a second, then before I knew it a third of my season passes were acting crazy.

Deleting the old season passes and re-creating them didn't help either. The new season passes were also corrupt.

And here's the odd thing: The one episode it did record was the third one of the current set: _Brotherly Love_.

In any case, I checked my other Season Passes and a couple of other ones where doing the same thing.


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## Wadebear

Well, mine just rebooted again. We were just sitting there watching a recording. Nothing else was recording at the time.

I have to wonder if part of my issue is the fact that our receiver never re-updated to 6.4. It's still stuck at 6.3e-01-2-381.

Background:

Our #2 tuner on our old receiver was dying (severe pixelation). I got a replacement on eBay, swapped in the 140 hour upgrade drive from our old one and went through the 'getting the card changed over' issue, then it wouldn't make the First Phone Call and tech support had to force an upgrade through to get us going.


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## dtremain

ss_sea_ya said:


> As for the Software version, I think you meant 6.4a is the latest.


Yup.


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## MartyList

Mine have been up for over 2 weeks now.


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## k7rfi

I have the RCA tivo Dvr 80 that i did the software update on. no resets for 3 or 4 days, then it reset..I replaced the hard drive with 160 gb on 4 Dec so far no more
reset!!!!


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## MarleeKyana

I have some of the same problems. My tivo will reboot when I go to the messages or recorded shows. I did notice that on Thursday and Friday mornings it records one of the service channels. If I just unplug and reboot on those days, I'm okay for the rest of the week. Does anyone know why and what it is recording on those days? The shows don't show up on my list. I do remember one time it said it had to change the other satellite channel to get "enhanced" content. I believe that is what's screwing it up.


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## mrfixit454

Mine does not seem o reboot anymore but I now get messages to activate my DVR service. One on the 18th, one on the 23rd. When I check sys info.. everything is good and service is active.


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## appleye1

mrfixit454 said:


> Mine does not seem o reboot anymore but I now get messages to activate my DVR service. One on the 18th, one on the 23rd. When I check sys info.. everything is good and service is active.


After my HR10-250s quit rebooting I was getting the "Activate" notice every few days too. But I haven't gotten one in a while now, so I think that problem will clear up for you soon.

I did find out calling DirecTv support about the message was a worthless effort. They didn't really have a clue and tried several random things that didn't help. Their primary advice was, guess what, "we recommend you replace the unit with a DirecTV DVR." I decided to stick it out and see if it cleared up. It looks like it did (I hope!)


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## mschwab

My 2 HDRV2 seem to be fixed now (without resetting or anything). I even aggressively attacked the menus, reading all the old messages, etc., with no problems - maybe 2 weeks or more? I am plugged in to the phone line.


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## mrfixit454

appleye1 said:


> After my HR10-250s quit rebooting I was getting the "Activate" notice every few days too. But I haven't gotten one in a while now, so I think that problem will clear up for you soon.
> 
> I did find out calling DirecTv support about the message was a worthless effort. They didn't really have a clue and tried several random things that didn't help. Their primary advice was, guess what, "we recommend you replace the unit with a DirecTV DVR." I decided to stick it out and see if it cleared up. It looks like it did (I hope!)


They fixed one problem and gave another?????? Just got another activate service message again today. Seems to be ever 4 or 5 days I get this message.

OK.. 10 hours later and I get another message but it popped up on the screen ... wife went to kit play and thinks she hit record.


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## mrfixit454

appleye1 said:


> After my HR10-250s quit rebooting I was getting the "Activate" notice every few days too. But I haven't gotten one in a while now, so I think that problem will clear up for you soon.
> 
> I did find out calling DirecTv support about the message was a worthless effort. They didn't really have a clue and tried several random things that didn't help. Their primary advice was, guess what, "we recommend you replace the unit with a DirecTV DVR." I decided to stick it out and see if it cleared up. It looks like it did (I hope!)


Now I am in the same boat.. mine won't record because it thinks the DVR service is not active. A call to DTV did not help. They had me do all sorts of reboots (which I had already done before I called) and they sent some info down which did not help. As stated above, they want to replace the receiver. I told them no thank-you and would wait a few days. He said they had not known issues about this problem and told him there were a few online with the same problem. I will start a new thread.


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## litzdog911

mrfixit454 said:


> Now I am in the same boat.. mine won't record because it thinks the DVR service is not active. A call to DTV did not help. They had me do all sorts of reboots (which I had already done before I called) and they sent some info down which did not help. As stated above, they want to replace the receiver. I told them no thank-you and would wait a few days. He said they had not known issues about this problem and told him there were a few online with the same problem. I will start a new thread.


Thanks for starting a new thread. I'm curious to see if others are having this problem. I haven't had this problem on my Tivo.


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## mrfixit454

New Access card solved my problem. i reported on the other thread that maybe a marginal PS and all the reboots in December hosed the card. Thanks

Fixit


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## Eyecandy

Hi, I'm not sure if my problem follows the reboot situation. I can just about pinpoint a Saturday in December where my HR10-250 started pausing/stuttering. Given this I always figured it was a software issue. I have only had a couple of random reboots. As has been mentioned, in addition to the freezing, the menus have been very slow. I have software update 6.4a-01-2-357. 

I figured it was worthless to call DirecTV. I tried the force calling after I found this thread yesterday but the shows that recorded tonight still had some pauses. 

Any suggestions or fixes? Thanks!


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## litzdog911

Eyecandy said:


> Hi, I'm not sure if my problem follows the reboot situation. I can just about pinpoint a Saturday in December where my HR10-250 started pausing/stuttering. Given this I always figured it was a software issue. I have only had a couple of random reboots. As has been mentioned, in addition to the freezing, the menus have been very slow. I have software update 6.4a-01-2-357.
> 
> I figured it was worthless to call DirecTV. I tried the force calling after I found this thread yesterday but the shows that recorded tonight still had some pauses.
> 
> Any suggestions or fixes? Thanks!


You've got the latest software, and you've forced a phone call. Give it a day or so. If the problems continue, then it's likely hard drive issues.


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## ss_sea_ya

If after a day or so you still have the problem, try and see if you run "Kickstart Code" 57, 58 or 54. I don't have the HR10-250, so I don't know if they work or not. There is some info here about about kickstart codes:

http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=138413

On my DirecTV HDVR, Kickstart code 58 acted like did a software upgrade (kickstart code 51) so your results may vary as well. Some posts indicated that it would not work on an unaltered HR10-250.

If you can't get to work after a three or four attempts, then they may not work. You may just want to replace the drive. mfslive.org has a nice Windows program to use and you can use USB adapters so you don't have to rip open you computer. If you go this route, start a new post if you have questions.


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## tivoboy

Wow, i'm back to constant reboots now, every 15 minutes, trying to simply watch NOT record a CBS HD 5.1 feed, OTA. Could it be signal issues?


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## stevel

It could be - in some earlier software versions a poor signal could trigger reboots. What are your signal levels like?


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