# The TiVo Box has detected a serious problem and is now attempting to fix it.



## abovethesink (Aug 26, 2013)

I have what I can only describe as a green screen of death on my basic. It says and I quote:

_"The TiVo Box has detected a serious problem and is now attempting to fix it.
This will take about three hours.
PLEASE DO NOT UNPLUG OR RESTART THE TIVO BOX
If you have a plasma TV or are concerned about burn in, you should turn off your TV for the next three hours.
If, after three hours, the TiVo Box does not restart, please call customer support."_

Anyone ever see this before? Obviously I am going to leave it alone, but it fails at self repair what will, if anything, TiVo do? I have had it for maybe 13 or so months and I life-timed it two months ago. What crap luck.

Could it just be the hard drive maybe?

And if it comes back, would anyone expect reliability problems going forward?


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## astrohip (Jan 7, 2003)

This just happened to me less than two weeks ago, on a Premiere Elite. It did not repair itself, in fact it just kept rebooting in an endless cycle.

I replaced the hard drive, and presto, back to normal.

My thread, where a number of options for hard drives were discussed...

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=522652


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## abovethesink (Aug 26, 2013)

Mine is stuck in a boot loop now too. Roamio owners, will this HD do the job?

www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-Cavi...id=1416020309&sr=1-2&keywords=3+tb+hard+drive


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## mattack (Apr 9, 2001)

That is the screen you get when it is fsck-ing the drive, AFAIK.

Look at the latest in the hard drive upgrade thread... but AFAIK, in a Roamio, basically anything 3TB or under will "just work" (and automagically reformat it).. Obviously you lose your recordings on your previous drive (there is no known 'upgrade existing drive' for the Roamio, AFAIK)


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## abovethesink (Aug 26, 2013)

Thanks guys. If the HD doesn't do the trick by some off chance (though I am confident it will), will TiVo do anything for me? Would they let me transfer my lifetime service that I got less than two months from if I were to buy a new box for example? Pretty sure the HD swap will do the trick, but I am curious.


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## fred2 (Jan 20, 2006)

Doesn't the unit have a warranty? Is it only 90 days? Or did you only add Lifetime to an older unit?


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## MikeekiM (Jun 25, 2002)

This is happening to me now... But it is my TiVo Mini (which doesn't have a hard drive to replace)...










The main box that it connects to is working fine...

Any ideas?


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## lhvetinari (Jun 24, 2019)

MikeekiM said:


> This is happening to me now... But it is my TiVo Mini (which doesn't have a hard drive to replace)...
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Let it scan for the recommended three hours - it's got the OS on a small internal flash-card, so I'd imagine it won't take that long. If it keeps up, call TiVo support and see what they can do for replacement.


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## MikeekiM (Jun 25, 2002)

Kept rebooting over and over again...with absolutely zero stability...

Ended up calling TiVo customer support and went through the pre-requisite troubleshooting steps, and after they had the confidence that it was, in fact, dead-dead-dead...they offered to replace it...

At first, I thought they might replace it at no cost (which would have surprised me since my box was activated in 2015). But they basically told me that they were going to send me a new TiVo Mini Vox, and that the replacement cost was $79.99, but that "because I have been such a loyal customer" that they would send it to me at the discounted price of $39.99.

Always a great strategy to tell you that the normal price is 2x the price that they are actually ready to offer you... 

Anyway, I have a spare TiVo mini and was going to decline the replacement if it was too high a price, but at $39.99 for the new Mini Vox, I decided to take the plunge...

I am on TE3...and he said that the Mini Vox would detect my TE3 Roamio and downgrade itself (I hope that is true)...

Anything I can look forward to with the new box? Will I notice anything difference between my legacy TiVo Mini and the new TiVo Mini Vox experience?


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## lhvetinari (Jun 24, 2019)

MikeekiM said:


> Kept rebooting over and over again...with absolutely zero stability...
> 
> Ended up calling TiVo customer support and went through the pre-requisite troubleshooting steps, and after they had the confidence that it was, in fact, dead-dead-dead...they offered to replace it...
> 
> ...


-The Vox is 4K capable, as well as 1080p full (not just passthrough) mode
-The Vox will auto-downgrade to TE3 just fine
-You can't pair an old RF (Roamio/Bolt non-Vox) remote in RF mode, or a BT remote (Vox) in BT mode while running TE3, IR only.
-It's faster, even in the TE3 UI for paging and moving around. Snappier-feeling experience, overall.
-Smaller, different shape, and a different power supply (1.5a vs old 1a)


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## keithg1964 (Feb 2, 2006)

MikeekiM said:


> Kept rebooting over and over again...with absolutely zero stability...
> 
> But they basically told me that they were going to send me a new TiVo Mini Vox, and that the replacement cost was $79.99, but that "because I have been such a loyal customer" that they would send it to me at the discounted price of $39.99.


I got the same offer for an failed Mini V1_, but I had to ask for a better price. _


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## lhvetinari (Jun 24, 2019)

keithg1964 said:


> I got the same offer for an failed Mini V1_, but I had to ask for a better price. _


I've also seen reports that if you hem and haw, you can sometimes get them down to 29.99


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## MikeekiM (Jun 25, 2002)

keithg1964 said:


> I got the same offer for an failed Mini V1_, but I had to ask for a better price. _


Interesting... So sounds like the strategy is to offer it at $79.99 and see if the customer "bites"... And if not, they have the flexibility to go down by half the price... And for some reason, I got an agent that was willing to go down to that pricing immediately... Cool...

How are you enjoying your new Mini Vox?


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## MikeekiM (Jun 25, 2002)

lhvetinari said:


> I've also seen reports that if you hem and haw, you can sometimes get them down to 29.99


Shoot! Are you telling me that I left $$$ on the table?


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

MikeekiM said:


> Anything I can look forward to with the new box? Will I notice anything difference between my legacy TiVo Mini and the new TiVo Mini Vox experience?


It collects fingerprints. It's water resistant.


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## MikeekiM (Jun 25, 2002)

JoeKustra said:


> It collects fingerprints. It's water resistant.


Did they also eliminate the headphone jack and offer it in a limited edition PRODUCT(Red) color?


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## dianebrat (Jul 6, 2002)

lhvetinari said:


> -You can't pair an old RF (Roamio/Bolt non-Vox) remote in RF mode, or a BT remote (Vox) in BT mode while running TE3, IR only.


Not true, a non-Vox RF remote will pair with it in TE3 mode, you just need to do a global reset on the remote to get it to do it.
I know because I have to do the dance every few months where I swap the mini to a TE3 or TE4 host.


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## lhvetinari (Jun 24, 2019)

dianebrat said:


> Not true, a non-Vox RF remote will pair with it in TE3 mode, you just need to do a global reset on the remote to get it to do it.
> I know because I have to do the dance every few months where I swap the mini to a TE3 or TE4 host.


Really? Maybe I've just got a bum one, because I couldn't get it to pair for love or money.


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## dianebrat (Jul 6, 2002)

lhvetinari said:


> Really? Maybe I've just got a bum one, because I couldn't get it to pair for love or money.


the global reset is the key, if you don't do that it won't ever pair when you use the standard procedures.
How to Program a New TiVo Remote - Tips and Troubleshooting


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## solsurfer (Mar 17, 2003)

So a few months ago, my roamio ota was making crunching noises. Replaced the hard drive only to discover it was the fan. Swapped in a quieter fan, but decided to try leaving the fan unplugged. Now I got this message of death. It must have over-heater the new hard drive. I was able to plug the old hard drive back in and it still works. But my question is can I salvage this new hard drive, or did I brick it?


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## tommiet (Oct 28, 2005)

Connect the hard drive to a computer and test it. I would just format it and let Windows (sorry no apple here) tell you the status of the drive. If it formats ok and no errors, toss it back into your TiVo and let it format it again. OR... get the hard drive vendor to replace it under warranty. Can be just a bad hard drive.


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