# Error # 81



## mgmrick (Aug 28, 2002)

I don't know what that was all about. All my D*tivos said call D* as dvr service was not active error #81. Rather than call D* I rebooted 3 D*tivos and now they all work.

Rick


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## rbjorensen (Nov 3, 2005)

I'm not sure what your complete setup is, but I just had Dtv installed a week ago. I have 4 D11 boxes and 1 R10 tivo box. The tivo box would give me the #81 message no matter how many call-ins I made.

Basically, I could use the tv features, but none of the dvr features until this was taken care of. After several calls to Dtv they finally figured it out. They had me set up for the R15 (new Dtv dvr box) instead of the R10 (tivo). Evidently they have to set you up for which specific model you have. Also, be aware, they evidently charged me 5.99 for the R15 service, whereas, the R10 service was free with premiere. They refunded the fee, but makes me wonder about the two different fees if you have a R10 and a R15. People were discussing this on one board I was looking at...not sure if it was this one.

Bottomline, make sure they have the correct service setup on their side for your specific box (R10). That was my problem.


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## mgmrick (Aug 28, 2002)

Since this error message just came up with another user, I thought I would let you know how I got that error message to begin with. 

One of those no power ...power on and off things

I just rebooted all my tivos and that fixed mine.

Rick


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## johnny2bad (Apr 8, 2007)

message #81 called dtv, jumped through all their hoops. problem still there!!! after demanding new card, they finally complied.... installed new card, rebooted receiver and problem went away..... thanks tivo community.



hr10-250


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## jpsauro (Aug 24, 2007)

Thanks johnny2bad for the post!

I spent 4 hours with 6 agents over a week trying to get my Hd10-250 to start recoding again. It kept giving me the message 81--Call to Activate your dvr service. Went through dozens of reboots and last ditch efforts. They kept saying all they can do is upgrade me to a new DirecTV DVR= no Tivo.

I read johnny2bad's post here that said to get a new card. All agents told me that would not help and it was a waste of time. Finally they ordered a new activation card for $20. Got it today, inserted and activated and the message went away. It didn't even need a reboot...back recording.

The csr's only know what are on the note-sheets. If anyone gets that error after several reboots and all else fails, try the activation card, it saved me a big hassle.


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## dtvtivouser_9292 (May 15, 2004)

Spent about 25 minutes on the phone with a CSR about this as well, she tried a few things on her side, put me on hold a few times, no luck. She then asked me to reboot both units and all is well. 

I had thought this was due to my auto-pay being a bit messed but, but now I don't think so.


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## szvers (May 20, 2005)

I've never received the service 81 error until I downloaded the 6.3e. Do you think there is any problems with that update? I did do a restart and it fixed it, for now.


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## Jimmy_James (Jul 14, 2007)

I also just got this Error #81 thing. Got the new update late thursday night. I've probably had this problem since then, but just now had time to watch TV. I'm really not looking forward to call DirecTV on this...


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## Jimmy_James (Jul 14, 2007)

Spent an hour working with a very nice DirecTV rep. Unfortunately, she could not resolve the issue, and wanted to send me a new unit. Since she could only send DirecTV's new dvr and not an actual DirecTiVo, I declined. I will keep troubleshooting. Anyone have any ideas what to try next? Rebooting didn't help. I have a Philips DirecTiVo series 2. The hard drive has been upgraded via Instant Cake. My last option I think is putting the old drive back in, downloading the update again, and praying. Any advice would be much appreciaited. Thanks!


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## dtvtivouser_9292 (May 15, 2004)

I got the Error #81 *before* 6.3e.

Timeline:

Weird DVR behavior night before (issues with guide data, unit on ch 1 quite often)
Next morning - error #81 (think it's due to CC expiring on autopay)
Next afternoon - resolve with nice CSR
Next night - decide to go to 6.3e

So, not connected to 6.3e, or at least to activating it. 

Note, I have 2 DirecTivos, they both had exactly the same issues. Jimmy_James, this is a DirecTV problem, don't let them talk you into a new, non-Tivo DVR.


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## Jimmy_James (Jul 14, 2007)

Thanks for the advice. I think I'm going to try putting my old hard drive in there. If it works, I guess my only option is to either use the original drive or maybe re-format the larger drive and start from scratch. Not sure if either of those options will work, but at this point, DirecTV hasn't been able to resolve the issue. I'll post a follow up to this with the results of the drive swap.


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## Wakka092 (Dec 28, 2006)

A possible solution:
After recently switching to the Plus DVR programming package, I was told it included TiVO service. Well, it did, but as rbj said, you have to tell them whether you have a TiVO or their DVR. So they split up the $59 into $54 and $5.
Hope that helps.


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## Jimmy_James (Jul 14, 2007)

Well, I do have the Premier service, which includes "DVR". This isn't a recent change though, so I'm not sure why it would break just now. Although, this month is the first billing for the NFL Sunday Ticket, so maybe something in my bill got wrecked when that was added on. I checked my bills online and nothing seems to have changed. It says $99 for the Premier Package and $0 for the "DVR", but last month's says the same. But in my next call to DirecTV, I'll definitely make sure that they have me listed as having a TIVO and not a DVR. Thanks for the tip!


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## rminsk (Jun 4, 2002)

Jimmy_James said:


> I'll definitely make sure that they have me listed as having a TIVO and not a DVR. Thanks for the tip!


There is only "DVR service" in there billing. They do not make a distinction between there DVR and a DirecTiVo DVR.


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## Jimmy_James (Jul 14, 2007)

Well, I put the original hard drive back in the unit (glad I kept that), and everything works perfectly. I'm back to only 35 hours, but at least it's functional. It still hasn't downloaded 6.3e, though, so we'll see if that changes anything. If it installs and everything still works, I'm going to reformat the larger drive later this week with InstantCake and try this again. Worst case scenario, I'm back to having a 35 hour tivo, which is much better than getting DirecTV's crappy new DVR. However, if 6.3e hoses my 35 hour drive when it installs, I'm going to be pissed.


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## skittish (Dec 17, 2003)

Jimmy_James, I strongly recommend that you use ``mfs_tools backup'' to save the contents of your currently working TiVo OS just in case an upgrade does come down and hose up your 40 G drive. The other thing you could do is modify your bootpage to contain the "upgradesoftware=false" environment variable, so that your TiVo won't act on software upgrades until you allow it to.


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## Jimmy_James (Jul 14, 2007)

That's great advice. I'll do that tonight. Thank you.


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## Jimmy_James (Jul 14, 2007)

Just got back from a business trip and found that my DirecTivo (still with it's standard-sized hard drive) has downloaded 6.3e and is still fully functional. Next move is to use instant cake again to see if I can get it working on 6.3e with the larger drive. It's possible that 6.3e has nothing to do with the tivo blew up in the first place, but it would be a major coincidence, since it happened at the same time. I'll post my results later in the week, in case anyone else out there has run into this issue.


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