# Looping: Welcome, powering up...



## scorp508 (Mar 2, 2004)

From here: http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=355618

My 24004A Tivo is now looping from Welcome, powering up... to the Almost there screen, and back again..... over and over.

What is the most up to date diagnosis process for this? The original drive (which is dying) from which I copied this drive from still works fine for about an hour and then starts to stutter and send out pixelated video.

Am I going to end up having to just blow it away, find an image somewhere, and start from scratch? There really aren't any recordings on there I care about all that much.


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## HomeUser (Jan 12, 2003)

Find out why, mount the Var partition and look at the TiVo log files.

Try another copy using DD_RESCUE

As a last resort try using SpinRite to recover the failed sectors.

Get a good image or purchase Instant Cake.

If I recall the var partition is /dev/hd?9


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## scorp508 (Mar 2, 2004)

I already went and purchased InstantCake, its working great and contacting the TiVo service as we speak.  Too bad it is v7.2 so I'll have to upgrade again. I'm definitely interested in learning more about these things though, so I may yank the drive and do what you said anyways too take a look. Can't hurt now that I know this InstantCake CD works.


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## dean9000 (Oct 3, 2007)

did you ever find out what happened? I am having the same issue....


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## jksmith0011 (Oct 5, 2007)

My problem is...

After I restored the original HD (w/ ver 5.3.x.x.x.), the box (Tivo series 2 - 540040) started to call home. Then, it downloaded who know what (crap) TiVo tries to shove it to us. The box started to reboot & updated the "new" service (program / data).

After that, my box starts a looping show....Welcome Powering Up !!! Almost there.... screen.

Many thanks for a solution in advance...


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## HomeUser (Jan 12, 2003)

jksmith0011 said:


> My problem is...
> 
> After I restored the original HD (w/ ver 5.3.x.x.x.), the box (Tivo series 2 - 540040) started to call home. Then, it downloaded who know what (crap) TiVo tries to shove it to us. The box started to reboot & updated the "new" service (program / data).
> 
> ...


Hello JK, Let me be the first to Welcome you to TCF. If I understand your post you

- Upgraded your TiVo with a new drive several years ago and stored the original hard drive as the backup.

- Something failed with the TiVo possibility the disk drive.

- You pulled the drive and installed the original drive and the TiVo booted.

- TiVo downloaded the schedule and in the process downloaded a more recent version of TiVo software

- You either forced the reboot or at 2AM the TiVo rebooted to install the new version of software.

- TiVo is now in a continuous reboot cycle.

What I can suggest is unplug the TiVo for 5 minutes double check the drive cable connections, Cooling fan and remove any USB network device if you have one. If the TiVo still does not boot remove the drive and if you can check the log files in a PC.

JIC: If the drive is not the original drive the Series2 software would not work with drives larger then 127G until version 6.xx .


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## jksmith0011 (Oct 5, 2007)

Hi HomeUser,

Many thanks for your greeting & warm welcoming.

Yes, you got it...exactly right:

* Almost 4 yrs ago, I upgraded my 40Hrs TiVo to 200+Hrs w/ a Seagate 200Gb HD.

* Until 2 wks ago, the 200Gb HD just gave up....yep, it crashed w/ a scary squeaky awesome noise. (Since it has 5 yrs mfg. warranty, I will find the way to claim it later on.)

* So, I pulled out the original 40Hrs TiVO HD (ver: 5.3.x.x.x) & successfully restored it to a new Seagate 500Gb (using the mfstools...w/out any error).

* The new drive was working OK. (I can watch the TV programe & movies w/ no problem, except the warning message...your TiVo has not updated the program more than 30 days...blah...blah...)

* Also, testing wireless network connection is OK.

* My box (w/ the ver 5.3.x.x.x) is working as normal until it starts calling "Home" (personally, Hell is more likely).

* After it finished calling home, it updated the program & garbage software (ver 8.3.x.x.x ???) for almost 45-60 mins.

* After it reboot 2 times, my box just keeps showing a loop of 2 screens: Welcome !!! Powering Up. & Almost there.....(yeah, right !!!). And, it reboots the unit again & again...

* For the past 5 days, I restored the new HD & watched my box called TiVo's Hell. And, watching it screwed up my box exactly 6 times.

Yes, I checked the fan, the power-supply and replaced the IDE & power cables. (I even tried the panic/self-recovery code: "Pause, 5-7" which I was told by a very nice TiVo gentelman who really know the stuff. Still, it doesn't work...except my box now has an additional new "GSOD" screen to show in the loop.)

BTW, what log file(s) should I check (when I get the HD mounted on my Linux PC)?

I just wonder if anyone know or has a solution for this reboot looping problem (which actually caused by TiVo's garbage during the update)?

Otherwise, I would find an illegal image & use it on my new HD.
Then, I'll start to get even w/ TiVo...by distributing the TiVo image to the public...!!!

Again, many thanks,
JK



PS.
What really tick me off is....a TiVo lady who is working in the Tech-support trys to con me to buy a refurbish 40 Hrs box for $149. Also, she has not listened to my "real" reason on why my TiVo box kept getting craped for 6 times (in the past 5 days in a row)....yes, w/ it's own "original & legal" software from TiVo.


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## HomeUser (Jan 12, 2003)

Ok, I think I understand what is happening. I am not sure the distribution and version of MFSTools you are using I suspect it is the older buggy one.

My thoughts on what your problem may be
-1 ver 5.3 will not be able to use any of the drive beyond the LBA48 limit (137G) resulting in data corruption.

-2 there is a bug in MFSTools creating large swap partitions if you used a value larger then -s 127 you have no swap.

-3 there is a bug in MFSTools in creating the spare boot partition which is switched when the TiVo updates versions.

Items 2 and 3 are fixed in the MFSLive CD version of MFSTools.

Now this is what I would do 
First download the free MFSLive and use that CD

Use the mfslive backup/restore without expanding the drive and create a 250M swap partition to support the 500G drive. See the mfslive's "Interactive Command Generator" for help in generating the command select a 40G for the both source and destination hd. the command generated will be something like this
backup -qTao - /dev/hda | restore -s 64 -zi - /dev/hdc  use -s 250 instead of -s 64

Connect the unexpanded 500G drive (currently looking like a 40G) to the TiVo force the connection to download the 8.3 software. reboot the TiVo and let it install the new software.

When the TiVo is back up and you verified it is working put the 500G drive back into the PC and run mfsadd -r 4 -x /dev/hd? from the MFSLive cd this will create the additional partitions needed to fill the 500G The drive should be ready for use in the TiVo now.

To look at the log files boot the MFSLive CD 
mkdir /mnt/var
mount /dev/hd?9 /mnt/var
cd /mnt/var/log
ls -lsrt Directory of all the files sorted by date in reverse order (newest last) 
cat filename.txt displays the contents of filename.txt
replace the ? with the letter where your drive is attached
'a' Primary Master
'b' Primary Slave
'c' Secondary Master
'd' Secondary Slave


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## jksmith0011 (Oct 5, 2007)

HomeUser,

Many thanks for your advice...Yes, I got it works now.

My TiVo looping problem was actually caused by the "swap" partition is NOT big enough to accomodate the ext2 FS to mount properly. And, I have no clue that the MFSTools has a bug & it couldn't correctly create a swap partition -- larger than 127 Mb.

Yes, in my case...I'm using -s 300, just in case.

My TiVo is now humming... Again, many thanks for your help.


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