# Tivo slide remote (bluetooth) causing freezes?



## rogmatic (Sep 17, 2009)

Has anyone had an issue with the slide bluetooth causing the Tivo to freeze up? My Premiere has been locking up on the Welcome screen for the last two days despite several attempts to reboot it. Anyway, I ended up unplugging the bluetooth and it immediately booted up as normal. Has anyone else had this issue?


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## deandashl (Aug 8, 2008)

Are you talking about freezing the TiVo while it's running?

Or the TiVo is locking up during the reboot process?


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## shamilian (Mar 27, 2003)

rogmatic said:


> Has anyone had an issue with the slide bluetooth causing the Tivo to freeze up? My Premiere has been locking up on the Welcome screen for the last two days despite several attempts to reboot it. Anyway, I ended up unplugging the bluetooth and it immediately booted up as normal. Has anyone else had this issue?


I have 2 premieres with slides attached. I have both had been stuck on the "Just a few minutes more screen" about 50% of the time after reboot ( soft or hard boots). I saw a previous thread where someone suggested that the slide was the cause. I have not rebooted enough to know if this was the cause.

So now I remove the USB connector during reboots....


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## crxssi (Apr 5, 2010)

deandashl said:


> Are you talking about freezing the TiVo while it's running?
> Or the TiVo is locking up during the reboot process?


He clearly said it was causing the freezing while he was trying to boot up and if he removed the dongle, it would then boot up properly.

Why he was trying to reboot was not addressed.

My answer is "no", I have had the slide remote from day one, and have never had a problem with booting with the bluetooth dongle active/plugged in. I will clarify, however, that I have never rebooted the unit since the last update. And during that reboot for the upgrade, it hanged for 11 hours on "Just a minute". So I unplugged it and let it boot again and it did so just fine, and I did NOT unplug the dongle. So if it was something introduced in 14.7, my observations are not valid for the question.


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## rogmatic (Sep 17, 2009)

Thanks. I am honestly not sure why it was rebooting in the first place - my wife was not able to give me the details. I just got home and it was stuck on the wait a few minutes screen. I tried to reboot a few times and even let it run overnight, but it was having no luck so I unplugged the doggle and it worked immediately. I only installed the doggle a week ago, so I thought they must be related somehow. 

I like the slide, but I may ditch the bluetooth until I can figure this out.


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## rijowysock (Nov 6, 2010)

my slide remote only has one problem:


when fast forwarding, i go to press play and it doesnt do anything sometimes...

i used a diff remote and plays perfectly, trying to figure out why it would do that.


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## crxssi (Apr 5, 2010)

rijowysock said:


> my slide remote only has one problem: when fast forwarding, i go to press play and it doesnt do anything sometimes....


Yes, I am having the same problem. But I never had that problem until after the 14.7 update. Coincidence? Did it happen to you before 14.7?


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## Fofer (Oct 29, 2000)

shamilian said:


> I have 2 premieres with slides attached. I have both had been stuck on the "Just a few minutes more screen" about 50% of the time after reboot ( soft or hard boots). I saw a previous thread where someone suggested that the slide was the cause. I have not rebooted enough to know if this was the cause.
> 
> So now I remove the USB connector during reboots....


I woke up this morning to see my TiVo had been stuck on the Powering up screen. "Just a few minutes more..." ??? Yeah, right.

I guess there was a scheduled reboot or something.

So I pulled the plug and also, remembering what I have read here, also removed the USB connector, then plugged the TiVo back in.

Thankfully this time it booted successfully and then I plugged the USB connector back in.

I'm relieved my TiVo is still working and booting properly but the fact that I have to unplug the USB connector to get it to do so is really annoying. It doesn't make me feel comfortable knowing that any scheduled reboot or power outage in the future might leave my TiVo stuck in the "powering up" stage for hours, if not indefinitely, until I come home to "fix" it.

Sheesh. This is like amateur hour. TiVo doesn't know how to make this work properly?


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## smbaker (May 24, 2003)

I've also been experiencing reboot issues with the bluetooth remote. No confirmation, since I never tried unplugging the thing (eventually enough reboots and one would succeed). 

My other Tivo, without a bluetooth remote, doesn't have this problem.


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## Fofer (Oct 29, 2000)

Yeah, it's not consistent. I can reboot with it plugged in -- I've done it before. Sometimes it takes 15 minutes, sometimes 30. Last time felt like an hour. It's always a bit harrowing during that wait (I have a 2 TB hard drive in there, and really wouldn't enjoy having to set it up all over again. My TiVo Premiere has lifetime service and I'd like to keep it that way.)

This morning was the first time I turned on the TV and the TiVo was stuck on that screen. Could have been hours (since 2 AM, scheduled reboot time?) for all I know.

Unplugging as I mentioned above, with the USB dongle unplugged, brought it right up. I will always unplug the USB when I can from now on, if only for peace of mind and hopefully a faster reboot that actually works.

What I don't like is the feeling that if I am ever away from home and the TiVo reboots for whatever reason, that it might not finish rebooting properly until I come home to address the situation.


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## Fofer (Oct 29, 2000)

smbaker said:


> I've also been experiencing reboot issues with the bluetooth remote. No confirmation, since I never tried unplugging the thing (eventually enough reboots and one would succeed).
> 
> My other Tivo, without a bluetooth remote, doesn't have this problem.


Are you saying the BT remote is CAUSING your TIVo to reboot? Or that having it plugged in in is making reboots get stuck on the "powering up" screen?

Because if the BT remote causes freezes and reboots as well as causes it to get stuck on the reboot screen, well then, Houston, we have a real problem.


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## crxssi (Apr 5, 2010)

Fofer said:


> Yeah, it's not consistent. I can reboot with it plugged in -- I've done it before. Sometimes it takes 15 minutes, sometimes 30. Last time felt like an hour.


Yep. Only once has my Premiere not booted up until USB was removed. Otherwise it has always worked... including the last two updates (with both Slide and TA connected).


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## aridon (Aug 31, 2006)

Out if curiosity will that remote work through a single wall? They hint at better penetration over the regular one but don't say it.


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## smbaker (May 24, 2003)

Fofer said:


> Or that having it plugged in in is making reboots get stuck on the "powering up" screen?


^ this.

I have two Tivos. The one with the BT remote will freeze frequently if I reboot it (rebooting to solve some other issue). The one that does not have a BT remote works fine.

Whether or not the BT remote is the cause I cannot say, other than repeat the others have told me the problem goes away if the BT remote is removed.

[QUTE=aridon]Out if curiosity will that remote work through a single wall? They hint at better penetration over the regular one but don't say it. [/quote]

I've used the BT remote through a wall. I believe I even tested it through a couple of walls at the opposite end of my house. It is a bit finicky about the positioning of the receiver though -- plugged into the back of the Tivo it didn't work worth a damn; plugged in at the end of a 3ft USB extension it worked fine. I blame interference from other devices in the entertainment center and/or shielding from the metal entertainment center cabinet.


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## Doh (May 18, 2001)

I just got a slide remote (mostly for the bt, because the direct line to the tivo is often blocked) and when I installed the bt receiver the tivo rebooted and would not finish. I then powered off and on and it still would not come up (overnight), then I pulled out the bt receiver and it powered up fine.


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## rogmatic (Sep 17, 2009)

Yes, the Premiere will not reboot with the doggle plugged in. I had a lot of problems with my Premiere and the slide remote in general, so I moved the slide to my TivoHD and have had zero problems with it since. It must be a Premiere issue.


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## crxssi (Apr 5, 2010)

rogmatic said:


> Yes, the Premiere will not reboot with the doggle plugged in. I had a lot of problems with my Premiere and the slide remote in general, so I moved the slide to my TivoHD and have had zero problems with it since. It must be a Premiere issue.


Yep. Known issue.

Make sure not to try and start your car with luggage in the trunk.
Make sure not to try and turn on your phone with a headset plugged in.
Make sure not to try and turn on your computer with your printer connected.
Make sure not to try and use your washing machine with soap already added.

And make sure not to try and turn on your Premiere with the dongle plugged in.


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## Mauly (Oct 5, 2011)

There is no doubt about it. The bluetooth dongle causes restart freezing and slow response from the slide-remote. Removing the dongle fixes both problems but, of course, defeats the slide-out keyboard.
TIVO is in total denial on this issue.


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## Fofer (Oct 29, 2000)

Try using the USB cable extender. That helped matters for me, at least with the slow response. And I'm using the remote in the next room over, so I know it's working via Bluetooth and not line-of-sight IR. And yes, the slide-out keyboard always works too.

That being said, that the box sometimes freezes on restart with the dongle plugged in (and doesn't if/when I unplug the dongle beforehand) is just inexcusable.


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## crxssi (Apr 5, 2010)

Mauly said:


> There is no doubt about it. The bluetooth dongle causes restart freezing


Having the dongle plugged in will often cause bootup to fail or loop. That is true.



> and slow response from the slide-remote.


?? What are you talking about? The slide remote in Bluetooth mode is very snappy and responsive. Much more so than an IR remote or the Slide in IR mode (no dongle). If it isn't, you are having interference issues or reception issues. Mine works perfectly up to 20 feet away...


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

I guess I will hold off getting the BT remote until after I've used the Elite for a while to make sure it works as well as my Premieres.


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## timatkn (Oct 1, 2010)

I got the BT a few months ago and have never had this problem. 

It is much snappier than the regular remote except the volume button. You can't just tap the volume button to go up or down...if you do nothing happens. Have to hold the volume button for a second or so to get it to work...there is defintely a difference. 

Of course by posting I am sure my next reboot will not work 

T


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## Fofer (Oct 29, 2000)

FWIW, the volume is controlling the TV (or A/V receiver,) not the TiVo. I realize it shouldn't make a difference, the remote should be just as fast-responding on all hardware it is set to control&#8230; I'm just saying.


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## timatkn (Oct 1, 2010)

Fofer said:


> FWIW, the volume is controlling the TV (or A/V receiver,) not the TiVo. I realize it shouldn't make a difference, the remote should be just as fast-responding on all hardware it is set to control I'm just saying.


I know--don't know why it does it. I have tried different learnign techniques/ codes to control my Sony TV volume but just can't get it to perform right. I did a search and others have had the same problem--some resolved by using the "learning" mode or trying a different code, but in case can't get it to work perfectly. It is a minor issue though, but one that isn't present on the TIVO IR remote.

T


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## TerpBE (Jan 23, 2003)

crxssi said:


> What are you talking about? The slide remote in Bluetooth mode is very snappy and responsive. Much more so than an IR remote or the Slide in IR mode (no dongle).


Your experience seems to be different than many (most?) of the others on here. If you check these boards, you'll see that it is VERY common for slide users to have delayed response times, missed button presses, and incorrectly applying multiple button presses.

Do I have interference? Possibly, but I'm not about to get rid of my cordless phone, wireless router, baby monitor, or microwave just so I can use my slide remote. Besides, any other bluetooth product I've used has been able to deal with any potential interference without any problems - why shouldn't the slide?

Unfortunately I had to go back to using an IR remote, and only keep the slide nearby when I need to use the keyboard.


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## innocentfreak (Aug 25, 2001)

I must also be in the minority. The only issues I have had with the slide is when the batteries are low. It seems like the Slide is less tolerant of low battery levels.


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## DeWitt (Jun 30, 2004)

It could be quality issues as well. I have plenty of other potentially interfering devices but have never had an issue with the slide remote. I have also never experienced the problem requiring the dongle to be removed on re boots. Mine reboots fine, no freeze.

Inconsistency like that makes me crazy...


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## crxssi (Apr 5, 2010)

TerpBE said:


> Your experience seems to be different than many (most?) of the others on here.


No it is not! I read the forums every day!



> If you check these boards, you'll see that it is VERY common for slide users to have delayed response times, missed button presses, and incorrectly applying multiple button presses.


There *were* some problems with missed button presses but not performance. And I had those issues too. Those problems were introduced during an update, 3 updates ago, and solved by the update-before-last (yes, TiVo actually, somehow, fixed a real bug).

If you like, I could set up a poll to show you that YOU are in the tiny minority, not me. Note the immediate other two postings above me confirming no issues with the Slide.



> Do I have interference? Possibly, but I'm not about to get rid of my cordless phone, wireless router, baby monitor, or microwave just so I can use my slide remote. Besides, any other bluetooth product I've used has been able to deal with any potential interference without any problems - why shouldn't the slide?


I believe I can count on one hand the posts I saw about the slide remote not working right that was NOT related to the update bug that was fixed. And in most of those cases, people reported back that the problem WAS interference and was solved by moving the dongle using the included extension cable.


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## shamilian (Mar 27, 2003)

I always thought that my problems with the slide were caused by interference . I have 2 premieres and 2 slides, both use the extension USB. One works fine the other doesn't. I decided to switch the 2 slide units to see if that made a difference. The poor behavior was due to the slide not the location or the premiere. I replaced the poorly behaving slide and I have not had any issues with either since. 

(I still have the boot lockup issue with either slide plugged in)

My conclusion is that there are bad batches of Tivo Slides out there, no amount of turning other devices off will fix those issues.


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## HeatherA (Jan 10, 2002)

Glad I found this thread, I've been thinking of buying one of these, but don't want the headache. Guess I'll stick with using my iPad when I need a keyboard.


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## akc (Mar 13, 2003)

Wow - it's a relief to find this thread - although in a bad way, I guess. 

Our Premiere XL (bought in Feb) froze tonight and after a few min, I unplugged, waited and plugged it in. It got stuck on the "Almost there..." for an hour. Rebooted and it stuck again. 

Searched for postings and on the TiVo site and other forums, it said to unplug the Ethernet cord so I did that. Still got stuck on "Almost there" -

We just got a slide about two weeks ago and use it on the USB dongle/extender. Read this post and unplugged the slide connection and rebooted. NOW it started. 

So that (and this post) makes me nervous ... Is there a problem that the Bluetooth could create /worsen in a Premiere? 

The slide is great but not so much that I'm going to risk problems!


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## crxssi (Apr 5, 2010)

HeatherA said:


> Glad I found this thread, I've been thinking of buying one of these, but don't want the headache. Guess I'll stick with using my iPad when I need a keyboard.


This thread is pretty much stupid. I know lots of people with a Slide remote that have never had a bit of an issue, other than one bug in one release of the TiVo Premiere software that has long been fixed.

Look for older threads- people rave over the design, the speed, and the convenience. It is well worth buying. I am even still using the ORIGINAL batteries from over 1.5 years ago!


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## crxssi (Apr 5, 2010)

akc said:


> We just got a slide about two weeks ago and use it on the USB dongle/extender. Read this post and unplugged the slide connection and rebooted. NOW it started. So that (and this post) makes me nervous ... Is there a problem that the Bluetooth could create /worsen in a Premiere?
> 
> The slide is great but not so much that I'm going to risk problems!


Has nothing to do with the Slide remote, in particular. It is any HID (Human Interface Device) USB dongle that is plugged in. Sometimes, some Premieres will simply not boot with that type of dongle inserted. That Premiere bug has been around as long as the Premiere and has never been fixed.

On the hopefully rare times you need to reboot your Premiere, just remember that you MIGHT have to unplug any HID dongles during the boot.


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## Fofer (Oct 29, 2000)

crxssi said:


> On the hopefully rare times you need to reboot your Premiere, just remember that you MIGHT have to unplug any HID dongles during the boot.


The problem is you won't know that you have to unplug until it's stuck on reboot. Then your only choice is to force reboot it.

If, heaven forbid, it reboots on its own (from a software update, or a power outage) then it might be stuck for awhile, missing recordings, if you're not there to see it stuck and in a position to force a reboot.


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## crxssi (Apr 5, 2010)

Fofer said:


> The problem is you won't know that you have to unplug until it's stuck on reboot. Then your only choice is to force reboot it.
> 
> If, heaven forbid, it reboots on its own (from a software update, or a power outage) then it might be stuck for awhile, missing recordings, if you're not there to see it stuck and in a position to force a reboot.


Oh, I agree that it is a problem, overall. And it very much needs to be fixed- just like several other annoying bugs on the Premiere. I was just pointing out that it is not really the "fault" of the Slide Remote, itself.

It doesn't happen always, either. In the year I have been using the Premiere and the Slide, I estimate mine has been rebooted probably 5 times for updates, 6 times for maintenance (moving stuff, extended power failures beyond my UPS, and Cox technicians (cable card replacement or other Cable issues), and 3 times due to bugs (spontaneous or escaping from stuck). That is about 14 times. I think it was stuck on boot due to the dongle 2 times.


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## PrimeRisk (Dec 16, 2002)

Add me to the list of people stung by this little Premiere "feature". This is a PITA as I've already experienced it twice in a week. I got two brand new Premieres last week with slide remotes. Originally I couldn't get one of the Premieres to get past the Almost There screen on initial plug in. I unhooked it from the rack and took it to my bench to see if I could get it to boot and it did perfectly. I had unwittingly just left the dongle out when I pulled it from the rack. When I put it back in the rack and connected the dongle it booted and I just wrote the issue off to chance. Today we got back from being gone for the weekend and apparently TiVo was upgrading and got locked trying to install the upgrade in the wee hours of Saturday morning. Great, a few missed recordings. This started a series of attempts to reboot to try to correct...each time with it locking on the Almost There screen. Now that I have the bluetooth dongle out it is back up, but I've lost Netflix, Amazon VOD, and Hulu didn't show up. I'm forcing connects to see if it will re-attempt the update. This wouldn't be so bad if the Premiere didn't take 10 minutes to boot on average.

Locking up and missing recordings is why I can't stand the generic DVRs, but if TiVo is going to do the same thing they're going back.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

So has anyone used the BT remote with the Elite yet? I'm probably going to just pick one up from Amazon since I can use my AMEX reward points for zero out of pocket cost. Plus Amazon has the lowest price I've seen. BestBuy wanted almost 50% more than what Amazon sells it for.

I should have at least checked one out when I was at BestBuy to see how it feels in my hands. The size seems to be so different than the other TiVo remotes so I'm not sure how it will feel in my hands with my carpal tunnel and arthritis. The current TiVo remote is very comfortable.


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## innocentfreak (Aug 25, 2001)

Yeah. I swapped my Slide from my Premiere XL to the Elite. Works fine here. 

I find the slide is quicker than the remote and much more comfortable due to the small compact size. I found it a pain to switch back to the regular Glo remote after using the Slide for so long.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

So far this BT remote I picked up yesterday is working great with the ELite. The remote is a little smaller than I would like, since I have been hitting multiple buttons on occasion. But otherwise it seems like a good addition to my Elite.


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## innocentfreak (Aug 25, 2001)

aaronwt said:


> So far this BT remote I picked up yesterday is working great with the ELite. The remote is a little smaller than I would like, since I have been hitting multiple buttons on occasion. But otherwise it seems like a good addition to my Elite.


You will get used to it. I felt the same way at first and now the regular peanut feels awkward lol.


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## crxssi (Apr 5, 2010)

innocentfreak said:


> You will get used to it. I felt the same way at first and now the regular peanut feels awkward lol.


Agreed. It took me several weeks to get used to the Slide, since it was so much smaller. I had many, many years of using the standard and excellent standard, "peanut" TiVo remote. It was just an extension of my body. Now when I use that standard remote (very rare), it just feels huge and clunky 

The Slide is one of the best products to come out of TiVo. I only wish my Premiere worked as well...


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

How does it work with multiple BT remotes? Is each remote automatically paired to the TiVo when it boots up? Or is the BT receiver paired to the remote it came with?


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## PrimeRisk (Dec 16, 2002)

aaronwt said:


> How does it work with multiple BT remotes? Is each remote automatically paired to the TiVo when it boots up? Or is the BT receiver paired to the remote it came with?


Like other bluetooth devices, the remotes have their own code and they won't interfere with each other. The devices come in the box paired with their dongle, but there is a method to pair the devices if you need to.


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## crxssi (Apr 5, 2010)

PrimeRisk said:


> Like other bluetooth devices, the remotes have their own code and they won't interfere with each other. The devices come in the box paired with their dongle, but there is a method to pair the devices if you need to.


The one thing you can NOT do is have two Slides on one Premiere. A friend of mine was upset because he wanted two. I would never have even thought of something like that.


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## PrimeRisk (Dec 16, 2002)

crxssi said:


> The one thing you can NOT do is have two Slides on one Premiere. A friend of mine was upset because he wanted two. I would never have even thought of something like that.


Interesting... It's pretty common that you can have multiple HIDs of the same type attached to a computer, which is all a TiVo really is. A wireless mouse dongle attached to a co-worker's laptop dock is a barrel of fun.  So, would neither of them work, just one, or what type of issue was going on?


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## crxssi (Apr 5, 2010)

PrimeRisk said:


> Interesting... It's pretty common that you can have multiple HIDs of the same type attached to a computer, which is all a TiVo really is. A wireless mouse dongle attached to a co-worker's laptop dock is a barrel of fun.  So, would neither of them work, just one, or what type of issue was going on?


I would have thought it would work, but others reported it doesn't work, not sure why. If someone out there can shed more light on this, that would be wonderful (since I will relay it to my friend).

Of course, having only two USB ports sucks, since one will be taken by the TA, and the other with a Slide dongle. Do usb hubs work on the Premiere? Self-powered ones?


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## miadlor (Sep 4, 2003)

Yes this happens to me also.
One time, I fumbled while grabbing the remote, random buttons were pushed accidentally......froze up.


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## PrimeRisk (Dec 16, 2002)

crxssi said:


> I would have thought it would work, but others reported it doesn't work, not sure why. If someone out there can shed more light on this, that would be wonderful (since I will relay it to my friend).
> 
> Of course, having only two USB ports sucks, since one will be taken by the TA, and the other with a Slide dongle. Do usb hubs work on the Premiere? Self-powered ones?


I don't know for sure, but I don't see any reason why it wouldn't work.


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