# Cannot get Roamio Plus into kickstart mode.



## dlee0708 (Sep 21, 2002)

Believe I have hard disk problems and trying to get Roamio Plus into kickstart mode but it just goes right past and boots all the way up.

At weakness http://www.weaknees.com/tivo-kickstart-codes.php it gives some simple instructions on how to do this, but each time it just boots all the way up.

This thread http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=459244 talks about you have to wait for the Green led to go out. When I restart the Tivo the Green light never goes out like he talks about (it does briefly go out at the very beginning, but this occurs immediately after restart).

I don't have an RF remote (it's just the simple peanut with no Qwerty board) so that should not be a problem. I have tried multiple things.

1. hit pause for 2 seconds
2. hit pause for 3 seconds
3. wait a few seconds before entering 54 kickstart code
4. wait over a second between the 5 and the 4 like the above thread mentioned.
5. wait a few seconds when yellow light begins to flash.

Nothing works.

Here is what happens.

1. Green light is on
2. Red light is off and never comes on during the whole process.
3. Yellow light is off.
4. Go to Settings & Messages->Help->Restart or Reset
5. Thumbs Down 3 times
6. Press Enter (yellow light goes on briefly when I hit enter that I assume is just showing that the Remote control was recieved)
7. Green light briefly goes off and back on (like 1/4 of a second)
8. Screen display Welcome! Starting up...
9. After about 20 seconds yellow circle starts to randomly flash.
10. Immediately I hit the pause and hold for 2 seconds.
11. Yellow light continues to randomly flash.
12. I press 5 and release (normal button press).
13. Wait another second and press 4 and release (normal button press).
14. Yellow light continues to flash for a couple of more seconds (never goes steady, just continues to flash in sort of a random rate).
15. After another seconds or 2 screen goes blank for a few seconds
16. Displays Almost there... Just a few minutes more.
17. Roamio completes its boot up completely after about another 1 to 2 minutes.

So what am I doing wrong to try and get this into kickstart mode and do the code 54 for the Hard Disk test? This is a fairly new unit (less than 3 months).


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## Thom (Jun 5, 2000)

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=511294

Post # 4.


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## dlee0708 (Sep 21, 2002)

Thom said:


> http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=511294
> 
> Post # 4.


Thanks so much Thom. My mistake was my small peanut remote does have an RF mode. Once I took it out of RF mode I was able to start the Hard Disk Tests.

I am currently running the Hard-drive S.M.A.R.T. test and it passed the Initial State, Short test, Conveyance test and Extended test and is currently running the Off-line scan.

It has taken over 11 hours to make it this far. If memory serves the Extended test had an estimated count down time of like 2 hours, but took well over 4 (not sure how long).

The Off-line scan has an estimated Test time of 222:00, but currently is at 280:00.

Does anyone know how long these tests should normally take on a Tivo Roamio Plus (150 hours) with no extra hard drive added. I am currently at over 11 hours so far in these tests.

My symptoms have been huge stuttering of video and audio (sometimes audio gets completely cut out, other times audio stutter). Sometimes (rarely) it will last just a brief second. But most times goes on for several seconds and often times can go on for a minute or even more. This can go on happening maybe like 4 or 5 times in an hour. Other times I have been able to watch a 2 hour movie with no problem. But I would say more than 60% of the time in an hour show I will see at least one stutter occur. Sometimes I also get video blocks, other times just stutter (mostly just stutter if memory serves).

My unit is less than 3 months old I think (certainly less than a year). I bought it at Best Buy and got the extended warranty (normally don't do this, but with a lifetime service I thought it would be a good idea).

I would really like for one of these tests to show failure so that it can't be blamed on my Verizon FIOS service.

I am thinking of taking it back to Best Buy to get a new one. If I do this, can I just take the Verizon FIOS cable card out of my current Tivo Roamio Plus and put it in the new Tivo Roamio Plus, or am I going to have to get Verizon to activate something again. The Verizon guy setup the cable card for my current unit and I can't remember what specifically he did.

Any comments would be appreciated.

-Don


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## jrtroo (Feb 4, 2008)

Does this always happen at the same time in recordings? OR, if you replay a section does it change better/worse? bad signal is prermenant, a bad drive is normally intermittent.

At 11 hours, sounds like a bad drive. Do call tivo to make sure they log the issue.

Don't worry about the cablecard just yet, but you can service it yourself and call the provider for pairing.


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## dlee0708 (Sep 21, 2002)

jrtroo said:


> Does this always happen at the same time in recordings? OR, if you replay a section does it change better/worse? bad signal is prermenant, a bad drive is normally intermittent.
> 
> At 11 hours, sounds like a bad drive. Do call tivo to make sure they log the issue.
> 
> Don't worry about the cablecard just yet, but you can service it yourself and call the provider for pairing.


If I see a stutter, replay it, typically (like maybe always) it still occurs pretty much the same way. When I get done with this test I will go back and replay to see if exactly the same each time.

One other thing I failed to mention, this Tivo was rock solid (never a stutter) until a few weeks ago.

Have you ever run a kickstart 54 Hard drive S.M.A.R.T. test and how long did it take. I can't seem to find any info other than a few hours which I wish I could could something more definitive. It's been over 12 hours now (*UPDATE:* 19 hours).

Has anyone heard of Verizon FIOS service delivering stutter video/audio.

Another thing that also happens, it will stutter and then I see the same video replayed. So something knows there is something wrong with the video stream and replaying, so either the Tivo Software or the Verizon software/firmware knows there are errors going on. Sounds like Tivo has the capability to log such info, I wonder if Verizon does as well.

-Don


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## dlee0708 (Sep 21, 2002)

It finally completed the Hard-drive S.M.A.R.T. tests and took some 25 hours to run. But it showed no failures. It took 20 hours to run the Off-line scan.

When I try to run the Overnight automated test it immediately (or within 1 second) fails with

Confirm /dev/hdb
Cannot access /dev/hdb
Drive not present or not responding!

Then 1 second later it displays

Read, random locations on /dev/hda

TEST FAILED
S.M.A.R.T. enable/disable failed

Note that the 1st screen says /dev/hdb drive, but the final fail screen says /dev/hda, this is what it says, its not a typo.

If I try to run any of the tests on the individual drives they all fail.

In fact now if I go re-run the Hard-drive S.M.A.R.T tests, the Short test, Conveyance test and Extended test all fail with Fail 7.

These tests all passed some 24 hours ago, but are all failing now.

But the Tivo still seems to function (except I assume I still have stuttering).

But I have just now powered the Tivo down and back up again and am getting differerent results.

Now when I run the Hard-drive S.M.A.R.T. tests, the Short test just seems to run forever whereas the first time it passed quickly (it now is going on 7 minutes).

So I guess I will just let this run and see what happens and call Tivo in the morning (do they even have support on Sunday).

-Don


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## bmgoodman (Dec 20, 2000)

So what happened with your Roamio Plus and its stuttering? Did you return it? Did it get worse?


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