# Most days without a Tivo call in??



## Kobe8 (Nov 1, 2004)

Well, I'm up to 89 days without a call on one unit and 68 days on another one. How long have you gone without having the unit call in? Have you experienced programming losses and/or the receiver not functioning properly?


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## Stanley Rohner (Jan 18, 2004)

After 90 days without a call in the DTiVo will erase all your stored programs and permanently shut down.


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## DVRaholic (Mar 28, 2004)

Stanley Rohner said:


> After 90 days without a call in the DTiVo will erase all your stored programs and permanently shut down.


LOL


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## Knative (Oct 22, 2000)

Stanley Rohner said:


> After 90 days without a call in the DTiVo will erase all your stored programs and permanently shut down.


_Subject: Please Make a Daily Call Soon
From: DIRECTV
Date: Thu 3/10

The Recorder has not made a successful daily call for the past
161 days._

I clicked "Select" once this morning and all is well until tomorrow. Maybe I'll dig behind though the wires and find out what came unplugged this weekend. Or maybe not.

No ill effects so far.


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## rminsk (Jun 4, 2002)

A few people on this board are over a year...


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## krs7272 (Feb 2, 2002)

I think I'm around 300 and something.


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## maharg18 (Dec 4, 2002)

One of mine's up to a little over 300 days now.


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## acampo (Oct 11, 2003)

i started losing my guide after about 30 days and several warnings that i did not have my phone line connected.


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## BigDaddy (Feb 25, 2003)

I am at 158 days.


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## Books (Sep 21, 2001)

One of ours is a little over 400 days.


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## Big Doo (Mar 11, 2005)

330 days and no info lost!


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## rlj5242 (Dec 20, 2000)

I'm a few days over 700 since my last call.

-Robert


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## Billy Bob Boy (Jul 25, 2004)

I have a tivo that has not made a daily call for three years.. Than again it is sitting on a shelf in my closet!


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## Cartrivision (Feb 17, 2005)

krs7272 said:


> I think I'm around 300 and something.


I assume you get "nag messages" telling you to connect to a phone line. Where do these show up, and how often?


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## krs7272 (Feb 2, 2002)

Cartrivision said:


> I assume you get "nag messages" telling you to connect to a phone line. Where do these show up, and how often?


Oh yeah. They show up every day the first time you say try to access the Now Playing List. You can ignore it, or go into messages and delete it. My Mom's TiVo has probably all 304 messages stored for all I know.

Also if your a little computer savy you can get rid of the nag screen. And for all those that want to know how? Google!


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## acampo (Oct 11, 2003)

this does not make sense. i was forced to update within 30 or so days because the guide stopped working. Do you all actually have the phone line disconnected? or is it connected without call in......


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## rlj5242 (Dec 20, 2000)

acampo said:


> Do you all actually have the phone line disconnected? or is it connected without call in......


 As of tonight, I have NOT had a phone line plugged into my DirecTivo in 704 days.

-Robert


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## megory (Jan 23, 2003)

I thought a phone line wasn't necessary for Dtivo. How about cellphone! hahaha.


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## Ackbar (Dec 17, 2003)

One of mine is connected to a phone line (because I happen to have a phone jack right there) so it makes its regular calls. The other two are at about 140 days. I have no reason not to have them call other than there is no phone jack nearby. I used to string a line across the room and force the call every couple months, but I stopped doing that because I got used to the nag screens and almost like them now.


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## acampo (Oct 11, 2003)

My guide must have been disappearing for a different reason.....


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## gordon1fan (Feb 25, 2004)

Stanley Rohner said:


> After 90 days without a call in the DTiVo will erase all your stored programs and permanently shut down.


Now that where all of my Playboy movies have gone! Damn it!


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## TimTrace (Aug 24, 2001)

The Recorder has not made a successful daily call for the past 97 days.


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## Mrx (Jan 9, 2002)

i'm at 832 dtivo


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## Lee L (Oct 1, 2003)

acampo said:


> this does not make sense. i was forced to update within 30 or so days because the guide stopped working. Do you all actually have the phone line disconnected? or is it connected without call in......


Do you have a DirecTV all-in one receiver? A DirecTiVo? They get their guide info from the satellite so they can operate without calling in.

A stand alone TiVO that controls a cable box or some satellite receiver but that is not built-in gets its guide data over the phone line so it will shut down.


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## n6idf (Dec 27, 2003)

Over 300 days... Only problem I have now is that it locks up when I try to go into the messages. Guess I should have kept up on deleting those puppies!


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## rbtone (Dec 2, 2005)

Wonder what happens after 999 days...maybe another y2k thing?


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## rlj5242 (Dec 20, 2000)

rbtone said:


> Wonder what happens after 999 days...maybe another y2k thing?


 I'll let you know in about 10 days.

-Robert


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## PT22 (Dec 27, 2005)

I haven't made a call in years - just changed cable services (moved) and need to update the information before it will let me change channels... anyone have any ideas how to get around this without a phone service?

Standard coaxial cable connection... but the TiVo thinks we still have a box.

TiVo rep actually told me to take the box over to my neighbor's house and hook it up to their TV and phone line... (after I disassemble all their other components, or should I bring my own TV too so that I can see the screen???) I'm just about to call it quits... what a disappointment!


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## smak (Feb 11, 2000)

I'm at around 450 on mine. There's no reason to plug it in, since it's an Hd-Tivo and no software updates are anywhere on the horizon.

I barely notice it, i don't even think you see it if you do a left arrow to get back to the menus instead of hitting the Tivo button.

-smak-


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## Elistan (Jan 11, 2003)

n6idf said:


> Over 300 days... Only problem I have now is that it locks up when I try to go into the messages. Guess I should have kept up on deleting those puppies!


I'm nearly to 300, and my HDVR2 locks up on the Messages screen as well. Has anybody else with this issue discovered a work-around?


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## TimTrace (Aug 24, 2001)

Mine got to around 120 messages before I deleted them all through TWP. Wow, I can't imagine having 300 daily call messages!

I don't think there's going to be an easy way out of this.


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## dtremain (Jan 5, 2004)

acampo said:


> this does not make sense. i was forced to update within 30 or so days because the guide stopped working. Do you all actually have the phone line disconnected? or is it connected without call in......


What unit do you have?


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## rlj5242 (Dec 20, 2000)

TimTrace said:


> Wow, I can't imagine having 300 daily call messages!


 It maxes out at 363 messages. I don't remember the last time I deleted them but if I checked today, the earliest message would be March 8, 2005. Tomorrow, that message will be gone and the earliest will be March 9, 2005.

I'm at 1,070 days since my last call.

-Robert


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## Elistan (Jan 11, 2003)

TimTrace said:


> Mine got to around 120 messages before I deleted them all through TWP. Wow, I can't imagine having 300 daily call messages!
> 
> I don't think there's going to be an easy way out of this.


Well, I ended up doing the program info reset thingy. Not exactly "easy" since I have to re-do all my season passes, but it got rid of all the messages.  At least it doesn't touch any of the previously recorded shows.


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## onin24eagle (Feb 17, 2006)

D* told me that my mine was freezing up and stuff because it hadn't made a call in over 500 days. I got the new dvr4me deal and it freezes too.


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## richtate (Jan 14, 2002)

We sold our house and moved into an apartment while we build a new house. We didn't get a phone line. The TiVo started *****ing the day we officially moved in to the apartment. We now use it as a reverse countdown timer. 140 days in captivity and counting! It's actually become a useful indicator of when we get to move out of here. 40 days left? We can only hope.


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## 501 (Mar 9, 2006)

I got 3 Directivos, that are over 750 days without a call.


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## s11018 (Jun 8, 2001)

I have two Series 1 DTIVO's and one Series 2 that do not call.

One has not made a call in over 4 years, the other for 3 years.
My Series 2, made the first call to download 6.2 and then after hacking it thinks it calls but does not. Nice to get rid of the nag message.


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## jdavidk (Jan 13, 2003)

What is the point of not calling in? Do all of your season passes get messed up or do you switch them all to manual recordings? What if a shows time changes?


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## SleepyBob (Sep 28, 2000)

jdavidk said:


> What is the point of not calling in? Do all of your season passes get messed up or do you switch them all to manual recordings? What if a shows time changes?


Some of us don't have phone lines right next to our DirecTiVos to make calling in convenient.

You lose no functionality if you don't call in. So, from my perspective, the question would be: What is the point of calling in?


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## DonQijote (Mar 2, 2004)

Kobe8 said:


> How long have you gone without having the unit call in? Have you experienced programming losses and/or the receiver not functioning properly?


The TIVO in my bedroom has not "called home" since it was installed over TWO years ago. It is well over 700 days.


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## ww874 (Oct 10, 2005)

n6idf said:


> Over 300 days... Only problem I have now is that it locks up when I try to go into the messages. Guess I should have kept up on deleting those puppies!


Mine just stared doing this too. I hadn't made a call for 290 days. I had a lot of messages which I started to erase but soon realized it was a waste of time. So I then dragged a phone line across my room and let the DVR make some calls. I was hoping maybe if it made calls it would delete the messages. I went to check the other day and the messages are gone BUT the dvr freezes up and won't let me do anything. The only way to regain control is to reboot the system by killing the power. Everything else works fine. Does anyone know why this is happening and how can I fix it?


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## ww874 (Oct 10, 2005)

Elistan said:


> I'm nearly to 300, and my HDVR2 locks up on the Messages screen as well. Has anybody else with this issue discovered a work-around?


Mine just stared doing this too. I hadn't made a call for 290 days. I had a lot of messages which I started to erase but soon realized it was a waste of time. So I then dragged a phone line across my room and let the DVR make some calls. I was hoping maybe if it made calls it would delete the messages. I went to check the other day and the messages are gone BUT the dvr freezes up and won't let me do anything. The only way to regain control is to reboot the system by killing the power. Everything else works fine. Does anyone know why this is happening and how can I fix it?


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## Mavrick22 (Feb 7, 2006)

150 days and all is well on my D*Tivo


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## parka4life (Apr 29, 2007)

I have the same freezing problem with my Directv Tivo. I've gone atleast a year, if not more without making a daily call, and now once, if not twice a day, the tivo freezes. And when it freezes, it stops recording as well, the only way to fix this is to reboot, powering down. Anybody know of any fixes for this? thanks in advance for any info!!


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## John T Smith (Jun 17, 2004)

As far as I know (from reading here) the only time a DTivo will freeze due to not making the call is when the user then goes to the message area

If you are going to the message area to try and read, you most likely have a different problem, not related to messages


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## Matt9876 (Sep 1, 2001)

810 days and counting.

Hooked up to Vonage pap2 adapter and still not working. 

Matt


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## parka4life (Apr 29, 2007)

yeah I also freeze up if i go to the message area, but lately out of nowhere I'll turn the tv on, and it looks like the tivo's paused, but it won't respond to any commands, and if anything was set to record, it will have been cut off wherever it paused, and the only fix is rebooting, but this is becoming a daily occurrence so i'm worried, and i have directv tivo, which from what i understand, isn't made anymore, so how would i go about replacing it if it dies on me? I SO don't want the directv dvr, this directivo is WAY more user friendly. Any suggestions anybody??


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## Dkerr24 (Oct 29, 2004)

parka4life said:


> yeah I also freeze up if i go to the message area, but lately out of nowhere I'll turn the tv on, and it looks like the tivo's paused, but it won't respond to any commands, and if anything was set to record, it will have been cut off wherever it paused, and the only fix is rebooting, but this is becoming a daily occurrence so i'm worried, and i have directv tivo, which from what i understand, isn't made anymore, so how would i go about replacing it if it dies on me? I SO don't want the directv dvr, this directivo is WAY more user friendly. Any suggestions anybody??


Park: Your hard drive is failing. You can replace the drive easily yourself if you download the image for it.


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## bguppies (Jun 29, 2003)

My Tivo in the living room has no phone line within 3 rooms of it and the wireless phone adapters just won't work with it.

It hasn't made a call in almost 3 years. (this August)

I just delete the nag messages once a week or so. (I once let them build up for 3 or 4 months and that was a pain to delete them all.)

It just isn't worth the trouble for work arounds for the phone line.
I'll just keep spending 2 minutes deleting the nag messages once a week.

Bill


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## Dkerr24 (Oct 29, 2004)

Why delete the messages at all? Just don't go to the messages menu again.


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## parka4life (Apr 29, 2007)

Thanks Dkerr, can u please tell me how to do this? i'd GREATLY appreciate instructions, thanks again!!


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## parka4life (Apr 29, 2007)

i checked into dvrupgrade, and it looks like it would cost me more to get the new HD, even though it would have more space, than it would cost me to get a whole new unit on ebay, but how safe would that be? Which does anybody recommend? I NEED A QUICK FIX, NEXT DAY AIR SHIPPING IS GONNA BREAK ME! THANKS TO ANYBODY WITH HELPFUL INFO


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## rlj5242 (Dec 20, 2000)

I used PTVUpgrade/DVRUpgrade when I had a drive die on me. I downloaded the appropriate image from them for around $20 and burned it to a CD, I bought a cheap 320GB drive and installed the image following the instructions. The entire process took about 3 hours and that includes the trip to get a drive.

-Robert


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## John T Smith (Jun 17, 2004)

parka4life said:


> i checked into dvrupgrade, and it looks like it would cost me more to get the new HD, even though it would have more space, than it would cost me to get a whole new unit on ebay, but how safe would that be? Which does anybody recommend? I NEED A QUICK FIX, NEXT DAY AIR SHIPPING IS GONNA BREAK ME! THANKS TO ANYBODY WITH HELPFUL INFO


First, you are most likely not going to get a "whole NEW unit on ebay" since I have not seen a NEW unit for a long, long time... you will get a USED unit, with a USED hard drive... and maybe other problems

As far as speed... rlj5242 just described a 3 hour process

If you need more upgrade help, there is, of course, another forum
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/forumdisplay.php?f=24


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## parka4life (Apr 29, 2007)

THANKS SO MUCH to everybody for their help, i purchased a hard drive at weaknees, it should arrive tomorrow and we'll see how it goes, it's double the space i had before so that's nice. I'll let u all know how everything goes and once again I greatly appreciate the prompt responses and assistance, and DAMN was life difficult before TIVO or what? I had to watch Heroes last night with...........COMMERCIALS! NOOOOOOOOO!!!!


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## denov (May 2, 2007)

when i saw this post i thought i'd have most of you beat. i guess not but at i'm in front running with;

953 days


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## pkeedy (Feb 19, 2002)

modem was fried years ago in a thunderstorm.


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## rbtravis (Aug 9, 2005)

Yes connect the phone line. Then go to Messages and settings> settings> phone> edit phone number and see if you are using the right number and if your dialing rules have changed for your area code.


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## Jonathan_S (Oct 23, 2001)

Both of my current DTiVos haven't made a call since they were originally set-up, so it's been almost 2 years. 
But they're zippered, so they have fakecall installed and I don't get the annoying messages about not being able to call in.


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## vigfoot (Dec 1, 2003)

the disconnected one is at 424 days and works fine; the other is connected and suffers from random overnight reboots.


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## redwine (Nov 22, 2002)

792 days


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## bootsboy9 (Aug 16, 2004)

Why is my RCA39 unit, for the last two weeks or more been calling home everyday?


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## bguppies (Jun 29, 2003)

Still going strong....


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## latenight (May 5, 2005)

1438 days.. NO LIE.. 

Takes a few seconds every time I hit the List button but it gets there eventually.


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## ninjagator (Aug 10, 2003)

Do I win?


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## newsposter (Aug 18, 2002)

i had about 500 on the one hdtivo but i really wanted the faster speed and folders so plugged it in


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## DreadPirateRob (Nov 12, 2002)

ninjagator said:


> Do I win?


Yeah, I think so. 

I'm at 792 on one. My other one (R10) is new (to me anyway - my HDVR2 finally gave up the ghost after 6 years), so it's only got like 90 days without a phone call.

Mine is unhacked (duh - it's an R10), so I'm thinking about biting the bullet and upgrading to 6.4a. But it's a long way to run a phone line...


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## toivo (Jul 27, 2007)

I am about to break 1000.

Is there any way to mass delete all of those messages???


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## newsposter (Aug 18, 2002)

no but you better delete them, i heard that if you let them accumulate, the machine slows down and locks up!


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## HellFish (Jan 28, 2007)

ninjagator said:


> Do I win?


Did you read the post directly above yours?



newsposter said:


> no but you better delete them, i heard that if you let them accumulate, the machine slows down and locks up!


I went a few years without a call, and I never had it lock up under normal conditions. I did experience the same problem as posters on the last page had. Before I upgraded to 6.2a, I was at several hundred days. I tried to view the messages, and the unit locked up. Lesson: If you want to view the messages, you better not be recording anything important.

If you ever lose guide data, which happens from time to time, try a simple reboot. That always works for me.


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## leftstrat (Apr 18, 2005)

I've only got about 58 days since last successful call. I just kill the nag messages when they show up. 

If it's not hurting the guide, and if DTV chooses not to deal with the problem, it's not my problem.


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## Mrx (Jan 9, 2002)

i'm up to 1855


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