# Constantly rebooting TiVo (Cablevision)



## mbernste (Apr 6, 2003)

I've seen the various threads where people report their TiVo is rebooting due to the TiVo losing a lock on the channels. Mine seems to be in some kind of reboot loop. At first the TiVo would very rarely reboot and it slowly got more frequent. I tried guided setup, popped out/in the cable cards and have had both cards swapped out and authorized by Cablevision of Piscataway (Raritan system). I had a brief power outage tonight (5 seconds) and for the last 45 minutes my TiVo has been rebooting. In one instance it didn't even get past the "dancing TiVo" when it rebooted again. I'e had the TiVo since late October.

Anyone here think that maybe the hard drive is bad and I may have a dying/dead TiVo on my hands? I'm guessing the only thing I can do is RMA it, but I am concerned that I might lose my lifetime subscription if I have to send it in.

Any insight would be appreciated.

EDIT: After about an hours worth of reboots, it finally stopped rebooting and all channels on both tuners seem to be working. After having about 4 cable cards swapped out, I don't think its that (yeah, I've seen the threads were people had to go through like a stack of cards).


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## knitsafghans (Dec 21, 2006)

Interesting - our Series 3 rebooted 3 times tonight - a record.

Think it's Cablevision?


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## mbernste (Apr 6, 2003)

To be honest, at this point I really don't know what to think. I'm just getting tired of the spontaneous reboots.


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## hookbill (Dec 14, 2001)

mbernste said:


> To be honest, at this point I really don't know what to think. I'm just getting tired of the spontaneous reboots.


Guys....I've seen somewhere around here where someone came up with something to stop this. But God knows where it is. I don't have to tell the OP to run a search, I'm sure he did but there is so many threads on this issue.

Sorry, not very helpful but I am sympathetic on this one.


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## mbernste (Apr 6, 2003)

hookbill said:


> Guys....I've seen somewhere around here where someone came up with something to stop this. But God knows where it is. I don't have to tell the OP to run a search, I'm sure he did but there is so many threads on this issue.
> 
> Sorry, not very helpful but I am sympathetic on this one.


If you're talking about going through guided setup as well as taking one card out, do GS, then take the other card out and do the same...Been there, done that (saw that post).


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## knitsafghans (Dec 21, 2006)

chiming in - me too!


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## NJChris (May 11, 2001)

I just restarted mine tonight and it's in a reboot loop. This hasnt happened before... it's still doing it now.


I did a Guided setup (did not take out cablecards) and it's working now.

I hope this isnt the start of something bad.


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## mbernste (Apr 6, 2003)

NJChris said:


> I just restarted mine tonight and it's in a reboot loop. This hasnt happened before... it's still doing it now.
> I did a Guided setup (did not take out cablecards) and it's working now.
> 
> I hope this isnt the start of something bad.


I had the reboot loop last night also and did the guided setup. Hopefully it will stay. It look a long time on "preparing" when it went to start doing its first download in guided setup. What troubles me is that if others here are having the same problem, it might be Cablevision. Since CV is anti-TiVo since its the competition, they won't do anything to fix it and there's not much TiVo can do.


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## PatMcNJ (May 22, 2006)

Well, Cablevision better wake the heck UP. We are about to be offered Verizon/VIOS any week now, here in Monmough County. My development was wired underground in July. (all our utilities are underground). Competition may make Cablevision give us better service.

That said, my Tivo has never re-booted, as far as I know. I was going to reboot it myself, to see if it helped the gray channels when seleting from the menu problem. But, I am nervous to mess with something that is not that bad. And worried I will trigger the non stop reboots or something.


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## NJChris (May 11, 2001)

mbernste said:



> I had the reboot loop last night also and did the guided setup. Hopefully it will stay. It look a long time on "preparing" when it went to start doing its first download in guided setup. What troubles me is that if others here are having the same problem, it might be Cablevision. Since CV is anti-TiVo since its the competition, they won't do anything to fix it and there's not much TiVo can do.


Mine was stuck on preparing for a long time too.

Maybe Cablevision had a problem, since it seemed to be happening for a number of us around the same time.

*shrug*


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## xc04 (Dec 26, 2006)

I have been a long-time lurker on these forums, but I feel I should share my experience...

i purchased my first S3 at CC. Cox came and installed 2 CableCards (PowerKey models), and it worked impeccably... Until 8.0.1C came out. At that point, it started the endless reboot cycle. I first tried all the tips from the forums (taking out CC's, putting them back in, re-running setup as antenna, etc), and all remedied the problem for about a day. I called Tivo and was told that it was due to fauly CableCards. I than spoke to a supervisor, who really didn't help either (or even offer to exchange my unit). 

I exchanged the unit at CC and got a new one. I made sure it downloaded 8.0.1C before Cox cable to install 2 new CableCards. The new unit would not endlessly reboot; but instead, would constantly freeze on its own (the time wouldn't change), or would freeze the user interface when a button was pressed (so far, both the Tivo button and delete button has done it). I have also gotten some type of weird pixelization/flashing using the HDMI cable from time to time, which is remedied by changing the input out of HDMI and back again.

Meanwhile, I have another S3 that was purchased before this started happening but arrived after. This unit was purchased elsewhere. Again, it downloaded the new software before Cox installed 2 new CableCards. Again, all the same things happened. Freezing, HDMI problems, etc.

I can surmise that the problem is not with defective cable cards (there have been 6 total) and the issue is probably with the units themselves; as I have had the same problem on 3 units. This might not necessarily be hardware related; perhaps it could be fixed by a software update. 

My solution: I wrote a letter to Tom Rogers, CEO & President of Tivo. I copied the letter to the CEOs of the retailers I purchased my units from. I asked that either the problems be fixed via software update, or to provide me with new (not refurbished) units in person at CES next week. I also included copies of several S3 polls taken here on the site, where many people (but certainly not the majority) reported the same problems.

I highly recommend anyone experiencing similar problems to do the same thing. If upper-management is not aware of the problem, the solution will not be expedited. I will report the response when I receive it.


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## zibbler (Feb 15, 2004)

Recently, my tivo get into a state such that it would be on the initial powering up screen for a normal length of time and then reboot before getting anything farther. About about an hour of this and taking out the cablecards, I called tivo and they're sending me a replacement.


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## mdl_77 (Nov 11, 2006)

I've had this issue 4 or 5 times in the last few weeks. And I've got Time Warner Cable, so it seems to me that this is a TiVo problem. 

While I love the S3, this problem along with 1 bad unit , cablecard install issues (granted TWC's fault), and the high price makes it impossible to recommend this thing to anyone.


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## matt8268 (Nov 28, 2006)

I've got Cox in San Diego and am today seeing the infinite reboot problem (I've had my S3 a couple months now). So it's not limited to a specific cable provider, as there are 3 mentioned in this thread alone. I will write Tivo.


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## LargoFloridaBHN (Jan 3, 2007)

Over the years, I have owned and loved TiVo Series1 and then Series2 DVRs. But when HD became available in my area from Bright House Networks, I signed up for two Scientific Atlanta Explorer 8300HD DVRs (at $10.00 each per month) and was BLOWN AWAY with the HD picture quality. But alas the user interface experience didn't even come close to TiVo. So I eagerly awaited the TiVo Series3.

When my new Series3 arrived on Dec 25 and got its 2 PowerKEY Modules installed on Dec 28, I was stoked! In my rack, I now have 1 TiVo Series2, 1 TiVo Series3, and 1 Scientific Atlanta 8300HD... all connected to a Denon AVR-4306 switch (using non-HDMI interfaces).

So far, I have seen many flakey things with the Series3, including the random reboots and lack of responsiveness to remote control button-presses, as well as brief audio drop-outs when bringing up the program guide. Just tonight I had a situation where 2 tuners were recording and the remote control was totally unresponsive; even the TiVo button on the front panel did nothing (other than lighting an orange colored LED for each button press).

What's up with this firmware? And don't even let me get started on the features my Series2 has but not my Series3.... And I am certainly not interested to hear any DRM-based excuses due to HD support. (Hackers have already cracked Blue Ray.)

Because some of the TVs in my house are 4:3 while the big TV in the living room is 16:9, I have come to really appreciate the way the Scientific Atlanta box provides separate resolution outputs for the component/HDMI and the composite/s-video jacks so that all my TV displays present an attractive aspect ratio picture.

For $800, I sure hope the Series3 was "overdesigned" so it has the hardware capability to output two different video aspects, depending on whether it is talking to a SD or HD style interface. Therefore I yearn for the next Series3 firmware update that will unlock all the goodness I expect from this latest and greatest TiVo model. And I hope with all my heart that the slowness of response and occasional reboot insanity will go away just as soon as release D, or E, or F, ... comes along, and soon, because sadly I am not ruling out the possibility of returning this not-ready-for-prime-time appliance to the store from whence it came.


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## matt8268 (Nov 28, 2006)

I was able to fix my problem by following the steps others have posted on this forum. For me, here is what worked:

The problem: Tivo reboots whenever it tries to display something from the CableCard. Sometimes this means rebooting right away, sometimes it means booting up to the Tivo menu, but as soon as it times out to (a cable card) channel, or I manually select a cable card channel, it reboots.

The solution:

1. Power off unit
2. Remove cable cards
3. Power on unit, complete setup with "Antenna Only" option
4. Power off unit
5. Insert both cable cards
6. Power on unit, complete setup with "Cable and Antenna" option.


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## SystemJinx (Aug 13, 2005)

My S3 was also stuck in a reboot cycle after an extended power failure. After the third time, I just unplugged it and left it for about 6 hours. When I plugged it back in it booted up with no problems. I didn't need to unplug the cable cards or rerun the guided setup. My cable provider is Comcast in Washington State.


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## TostitoBandito (Sep 18, 2006)

SystemJinx said:


> My S3 was also stuck in a reboot cycle after an extended power failure. After the third time, I just unplugged it and left it for about 6 hours. When I plugged it back in it booted up with no problems. I didn't need to unplug the cable cards or rerun the guided setup. My cable provider is Comcast in Washington State.


I had the same problem during the storm but it was only for the duration of my cable outage (my power never went out). Cablecards don't like it when your digital cable is out and once you do the initial reboot they will continue to reboot the Tivo until they find a signal or you take the cablecards out.


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## ghbrown (Feb 22, 2006)

My problem: Tivo randomly rebooted when playing a recording. When attempting a reset, Tivo then looped - rebooting 15-30 seconds after the Tivo main menu appeared.. 

Matt8268's solution (#16) also fixed this problem. (Thanks Matt!)

My antenna signal strength is low on some channels (70-75) which has caused problems in recording -- My cable may have gone out (high winds in LA). Tivo doesn't appear to recover well from bad signals.

(Also - I have Time Warner - not Cablevision)


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## mbernste (Apr 6, 2003)

Well, my TiVo would spontaneously reboot when it was in standby mode. It would be completely "off" (eg nothing on the front panel), I would look up to see all the lights come on and/or "Ready, Set TiVo!" followed by the lovely reboot loop.

As an update to my original posting. I have since RMAed the TiVo and should be expecting a replacement within a week or two. Both of my well labeled cable cards (each in their own envelop labeled with the slot and serial number) are patiently waiting for their "friend" to come back.

Should the reboot cycle resurface with a new unit, I will have to say its a cable card or Cablevision issue. I do understand that there is a likelihood that the replacement TiVo could have the same issue (ie if its a software problem). If it does happen, I'll call Cablevision again and have them come out with a small stack of cards and see what happens. When I did have tuning issues, it seemed to be with card 2, so we'll see what happens. FWIW, my signal levels are excellent, so I know that's not the problem.

All I can say is it pays to have a backup. I moved my SA 4200HD box from my other HDTV along with my Series 2 dual tuner, so at least I'm not TiVOless nor dual tunerless, so it could be a lot worse. I do have to say, using a TiVo in which I am not in fear of a reboot every time I press a button on my remote is a nice thing to experience.


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## knitsafghans (Dec 21, 2006)

Cablevision was out this week and rewired a bunch to increase signal strength. 
That seemed to get rid of our losing channels problem (at least we haven't seen it in the last 3 days).

Cablevision told us to call and they'll replace the cards if we still have problems. 

Meanwhile we called TIVO tonight and they are sending a replacement unit. No need to even do the purchase and return thing.

I'm really suspecting this unit was released "ahead of its time." Sad - all the other TIVO's we've had (4) Series 1 and 2 were so solid.

Bleeding edge here,
Kim


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## rafeco (Sep 27, 2006)

I'm a Time-Warner customer with a Series3 and two CableCards, and I've seen the repeated reboot problem several times. I'm going to follow the steps suggested here when I get home and see if it helps at all. 

I also have to reboot daily almost every day because the Tivo gets in a state where the tuner thinks it's changing channels but it really isn't. These problems are driving me nuts.


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## rafeco (Sep 27, 2006)

Anybody noticed a correlation between this problem and having a bad signal from the cable company?


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## dreamseason (Mar 14, 2003)

rafeco said:


> Anybody noticed a correlation between this problem and having a bad signal from the cable company?


Not in my case. My signals are 99-100 on every channel. Today was the 3rd visit from a Cablevision tech. My Tivo box suddenly started to reboot every few minutes after the tech pulled out the #1 cablecard and inserted a new one. After the tech gave up on my rebooting box and left 45 minutes later, I did a "restart and clear everything" which stopped the reboot problem (and miraculously my #1 cablecard is now authorized).


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## Ivomir (Apr 5, 2006)

I got cable cards installed today, with the usual minor problems - few bad cards until we got 2 that work. Then I did guided setup and verified that all channels work on both tunners. Then because of all the rebooting reports here I tried to reboot it manually and see what happens (better to know if there's a problem early than late).

What do you know - endless reboot. I timed it that as soon as "Ready. Set. Tivo." goes off you have about 70 seconds till reboot. During that time I can press the Tivo button and bypass the THX and the dancing Tivo movies and go directly to the menu. If I manage to go to the cable card settings screen and try going in and out of "test channels" mode (half the time) the reboot doesn't happen. I was able to do it 2 times out of 4. No need to remove cards and run setup.

Seems like a software problem. The Tivo tries to get a signal through the cable cards and times out and reboots. The problem is that with my cards/provider combination (Motorola/TWC) it takes longer to connect than the provided timeout.

Hopefully this is fixed in 8.1 we are getting in the next few weeks...

Ivo


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## Ivomir (Apr 5, 2006)

BTW, is there anyone with cablecards whose Tivo won't endlessly reboot after a manual restart or a power outage? Seems like a 100% reproducable problem...


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## ejd65 (Dec 20, 2006)

No, its not universal. I've had the s3 since November and never have had the endless rebooting. At least once a week I get the grey screen on one or both tuners and have to reset the unit. It resets normally and I can then get all channels. I use Cablevision NJ (Oakland) with SA cablecards.


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## Acerxz (Mar 6, 2002)

Cablevision, NJ

I've had my series 3 for about 3 months. For 2 1/2 months everything was great. Out of nowhere I started getting freezing and reboots. It got so bad that when it would reboot I would just get snow on the screen, no picture at all.

I called Tivo, they said the snow was a problem they had in the past with series 2's and that I was the first they heard with this problem on a series 3. They sent me out a new one.

I just set up the new one last week, and today it started the same thing. What am I supposed to do? How can this be? I never had any problem with my Directv tivo. I'm really starting to loose faith in Tivo, but I can't bear to be without it. I just want it to work. 


...by the way, it happens when using HDMI or components. I'm going to call them tomorrow to see what they will do. It's crazy, I haven't even sent back the first one yet, now I need to send them both back.


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## matt8268 (Nov 28, 2006)

After experiencing different version of this problem, the common thread (for me) is ALWAYS a bad cable card signal. As soon as the Tivo sees that bad signal it reboots.


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## hainescj (Dec 27, 2006)

Matt,

The cable card signal says it's bad but by repeating the guided setup or sometimes restarting it's fine.

Why would that reset the cablecard?


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## sysdude (Mar 9, 2006)

Starting to watch an old SNL in HD, the TiVo restarted. After it rebooted, I started to play the same episode again and it rebooted in the same place. I did it yet again, and it rebooted again (same place) So I thought perhaps the recording was sitting on a bad sector on the disk, so I deleted it and tried to watch something else. Rebooted again 

It rebooted a grand total of 4 times before it became stable enough again to watch something else stored on the hard drive.

Is there not a way to get a verbose startup, access to the logs on screen so we can figure out what happens...

By the way, my service is RCN, not CableVision.. so I don't think it is a CableVision thing either..

[Edit: added note about my cable provider]


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## JPShinn (Aug 24, 2004)

Anyone experienced a constant reboot sequence that loops at the "Welcome! Powering Up. . ." screen?

Thx.
John

p.s. Comcast Bay Area


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## TivoJunkie43 (Mar 9, 2006)

matt8268 said:


> After experiencing different version of this problem, the common thread (for me) is ALWAYS a bad cable card signal. As soon as the Tivo sees that bad signal it reboots.


I'm Having the same problems with Tivo reboots, although it seems to happen more when I'm transferring from tivo to computer. Although 1 day I had 3 reboots in a row even though Tivo server desktop had crashed.

I had 3 more reboots today, and the last time it locked up on the startup screen. It seemed to be recording, but control was all locked up. Whatever was trying to record is finished now so I guess I'll have to unplug it, and hope it comes back to life.

My Tivo hasn't given me much problems the past year and a half, but the past 2 months (since the last tivo update) have been hell. I missed the beginning of the Bears game during a reboot! 

Signal loss has been suspect in the latest problems, but I believe the latest Tivo update (software) is to blame, because signal loss, and bad weather ("snow"  ) comes and goes and I've never had much problem until recently.


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## kjmcdonald (Sep 8, 2003)

TivoJunkie43 said:


> I'm Having the same problems with Tivo reboots, although it seems to happen more when I'm transferring from tivo to computer. Although 1 day I had 3 reboots in a row even though Tivo server desktop had crashed.
> 
> I had 3 more reboots today, and the last time it locked up on the startup screen. It seemed to be recording, but control was all locked up. Whatever was trying to record is finished now so I guess I'll have to unplug it, and hope it comes back to life.
> 
> ...


Just curious.

Any of you who have had these lockups, or reboots, have you also opened the box and upgraded the Hard Drive?

I'm not suggesting that upgrading the HD caused the problems, but I'm guessing that someone who was willing to do that upgrade might be willing to do what I suggest next.

That is opening the Tivo again, moving the drive to a PC, booting off one of the PC CD's that can mount Tivo partitions, mount the /var partition, and copy the log files off the disk.

Even if you can't read the logs yourself, if multiple people with this reboot and hangup problems could post the logs here, then those of us withm ore knowledge (but no rebooting S3) might be able to shed some light on the problem for you.

Again I suspect that only someone who's done the drive upgrade will be willing or comfortable doing what i'm suggesting. Who would want to void their warranty when there might be something really wrong with the machine. 

-Kyle
-Kyle


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## Speeden71 (Apr 17, 2000)

LargoFloridaBHN said:


> ......So far, I have seen many flakey things with the Series3, including the random reboots and lack of responsiveness to remote control button-presses, as well as brief audio drop-outs when bringing up the program guide.......
> 
> Well finally I see, someone else has this intermittent audio drop out problem when bringing up the Program Guide. I am already on my second S3. The first one had the IR interference problem with the remote hardly working.
> 
> ...


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## TivoJunkie43 (Mar 9, 2006)

kjmcdonald said:


> Just curious.
> 
> Any of you who have had these lockups, or reboots, have you also opened the box and upgraded the Hard Drive?
> 
> ...


No I haven't made any alterations on my series2, but it's out of warranty, so that wouldn't stop me.

Is pulling the HD any harder than pulling a hard drive out of a PC? Just wondering what I'd be getting myself into. On a 1 - 5 scale - 5 being the most difficult - how technically difficult is it to do what you're suggesting?

I have the day off so I suppose I could fiddle around with it.

Also after pulling the drive would I have to set Tivo up again? I've never done this so I don't know all that's involved.


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## kjmcdonald (Sep 8, 2003)

TivoJunkie43 said:


> No I haven't made any alterations on my series2, but it's out of warranty, so that wouldn't stop me.
> 
> Is pulling the HD any harder than pulling a hard drive out of a PC? Just wondering what I'd be getting myself into. On a 1 - 5 scale - 5 being the most difficult - how technically difficult is it to do what you're suggesting?


No the physical work isn't any different pulling th HD from a Tivo than a computer.
Pluggin it into your PC wouldn't be any harder either.

The technical stuff would come in when it came to the 'software' stuff. Burning the CD image to boot from, booting linux, determining which device the HD is, mounting the partition, copying the file(s) to another HD.

Upgrading the HD in a Tivo would have covered alot of this already, so that's why I asked it that way. It's really not that tough, but not an easy thing to walk someone through (over a posting board) who hasn't done it.

Do you have any linux experience?



> I have the day off so I suppose I could fiddle around with it.
> 
> Also after pulling the drive would I have to set Tivo up again? I've never done this so I don't know all that's involved.


No the Tivo drive shouldn't be changed at all by this operation. The Tivo shouldn't be able to tell that the drive was ever removed.

-Kyle


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## TivoJunkie43 (Mar 9, 2006)

kjmcdonald said:


> Do you have any linux experience?
> 
> -Kyle


No I have no Linux experience, and I think I'd want a dual boot situation - on a separate drive - if I was going to mess around with it.

No, this is definitely more than I want to bite off, and chew, for now, but maybe some time in the future...

Thanks


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## kjmcdonald (Sep 8, 2003)

TivoJunkie43 said:


> No I have no Linux experience, and I think I'd want a dual boot situation - on a separate drive - if I was going to mess around with it.


That's fine.

Just for everyone else's knowledge. YOu wouldn't have to install linux on your PC at all. For the purposes of this excercise, Linux can be booted and run directly from the CD only for the amount of time that you need it for this.

Just like the Tivo HD, No changes would be made to your computer HD - Well except copying the log files to it.



> No, this is definitely more than I want to bite off, and chew, for now, but maybe some time in the future...
> 
> Thanks


Thanks for considering it. If I had this problem, I'd do it myself.

-Kyle


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## Ivomir (Apr 5, 2006)

ejd65 said:


> No, its not universal. I've had the s3 since November and never have had the endless rebooting. At least once a week I get the grey screen on one or both tuners and have to reset the unit. It resets normally and I can then get all channels. I use Cablevision NJ (Oakland) with SA cablecards.


OK, so then let me ask this: Has anyone experiencing the reboot problem had it fixed by exchanging the S3 or the cable cards? There are multiple reports here of the opposite - new S3/cards have no effect.

I'm guessing the problem is related to the cable signal, not the S3/cards being damaged.

Here's a theory: When the cable card turns on it waits for authorization signal from the cable co. The signal is broadcasted on a regular interval, probably the more customers, the less often. Depending on the time you turn on the Tivo you may get the signal within the timeout interval or not. People have reported higher success rate if the Tivo is on the cable card screens, but that may just be coincidence. Also there are reports that if the cable company hits the cards after the reboot the problem is fixed. That may be because the signal is sent independently of the regular scheduled authorization broadcast.

Again, this is just a theory. I have no knowledge how the cable card authorization is done.

Ivo


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## riddick21 (Dec 12, 2006)

My TiVo went into an endless reboot today. I called Cablevision and asked them to hit the cards while in the blue acquiring channels screen. This seems to have fixed the problem for now. This leads me to think the problem is software related, the TiVo timesout to quickly.


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## Ivomir (Apr 5, 2006)

I just called Tivo and they suggested to switch the cable cards. Also to get UPS to avoid unnecessary reboots... Is 350VA enough? http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage...c+ups&lp=3&type=product&cp=1&id=1122655672352

I asked about 8.1 and they said they usually release new versions once a year, so it will be in a few months the earliest...


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## George Cifranci (Jan 30, 2003)

I just experienced this for the first time today. I came home and turned on my system (Sony SXRD R60XBR1 HDTV my TiVo Series 3 and my Yamaha RX-V2600 Receiver) and I got a green screen and my TiVo was locked up (wouldnt respond to the remote or the buttons on the S3 itself). I pulled the plug and plugged it back in. It booted up but after it came up it suddenly rebooted after a few minutes (when I tried to go to Live TV it showed the spinning wheel and said something about getting channel info).

My Series 3 is on its own UPS.


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## mbernste (Apr 6, 2003)

Well, my replacement TiVO came yesterday. I have to say, I was very impressed by TiVo. In their exchange instructions they made it very clear (multiple times) to _only_ return the box and nothing else, which is exactly what I did. I expected to get s replacement box in return, instead the RMA center in Louisville gave me a whole new TiVo "kit" with the zillion cables, instruction manual, and $50 "glow" remote. As a TiVo shareholder (a whopping 10 shares) I don't know how good this is for their bottom line, but as a customer I have to say its incredible good will.

I wish I could say my experience with Cablevision (CV) was as good (but could be worse). After hooking it back up, I called CV. I explained that I had gotten a replacement TiVo and I need to re-do the binding. He asked for the SN and host ID for card 1 and told me that the engineering group is behind and I should get a call in an hour. He did state he had a co-worker walk over and see if it could be expedited (I must've gotten Long Island). 90 minutes later, nothing authorized on the TiVo and I call back. I get the ssme "one hour, I'll e-mail you" thing. I didn't agree to that and got transferred to a supervisor. I explained the situation to her and she transferred me to "executive support."

Turns out the 1st CSR didn't write down the host ID correctly or the engineering department didn't enter it in correctly. The guy in executive support was very, very insistent that I put *BOTH* cards in the TiVo to give both host IDs. As you know, TiVo's instructions state otherwise and many here posted that their cable company were just as insistent with bad results. After going back and forth for a few minutes (I was polite, but firm) he relented.

So far so good (though its been less than 12 hours and there has been a period of time that I was asleep). I do notice that the signal levels are higher, so we shall see.


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## dbenrosen (Sep 20, 2003)

Friday night I had the constant reboot problem. I've had the intermittent yet consistent CableCARD FAILURE/gray screen on non-analog channels since I first got the unit in October and exchanged in November. A reboot always fixes that problem, but this time when I did the reboot, the TiVo got into the constant reboot cycle. After the 5th time, I pulled the plug and removed the CableCARDs. I then rebooted with the cards out. I installed the cards one at a time and everything was fine.

But it is/was incredibly frustrating wasting another 45 minutes on this to go with all the other time I've wasted in reboots/installs, etc with the CableCARD authorization issue(s).


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## nhaigh (Jul 16, 2001)

Had this reboot issue today.

Basically I restarted the TiVo and it went into a reboot cycle. What I found was if I hit Live TV immediately after the restart competed it would display a blue screen with a rotating icon and the message "Aquiring Channel Information". I think this is the cablecard syncing with the head end. 

Anyway it seems to me there is a time limit on how long the TiVo will wait for this process to complete and if it hits that limit it restarts itself. If the "connection" completes OK then the TiVo is fine. 

Today mine restarted about six times before it was OK. Perhaps TiVo just needs to make the device wait a little longer.


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## airjordanpj (Nov 19, 2006)

Yup I am right there with y'all. I had a long power outage recently due to all the lovely ice that was dumped on us. I have been in this reboot hell ever since. The only guaranteed way out so far was the power off, guided setup for antenna only, insert cable cards one at a time, wait for them to be happy(no weird messages on the info screens, repeat guided setup for cable cards. 
I also just put a UPS on my TiVo to prevent this mess as much as possible.
As a bonus Time Warner Austin has decided to turn of HBO HD for some reason so I am on hold, 35 minutes and counting for them to fail to help me


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## dbenrosen (Sep 20, 2003)

Had the reboot cycle again last night, and this time I can't get out of it with the CableCARDs.

I even reran guided setup with the CableCARDs out, and it was fine. But once I insert the first CableCARD (in slot #1), it starts the reboot cycle all over again.

Has anyone done a full Clear and Delete of the Series 3 and NOT had that fix the problem? I don't have too many recordings on the box, and I don't mind reentering the Season Passes, etc., but I don't want to do it if there is even a chance it won't work. Why lose all my stuff, waste even more time, and be back where I am right now with reboots.


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## chart (Sep 4, 2001)

Did you try powerup and re-run the guided setup with out the cards and then inserted them when instructed?


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## dbenrosen (Sep 20, 2003)

chart said:


> Did you try powerup and re-run the guided setup with out the cards and then inserted them when instructed?


Yes. I took the cards and and powered up. I then reran guided setup saying I have cable but no CableCARDs. This worked fine and I got all the standard channels associated with the non-STB cable.

I then inserted CC#1 in slot #1. The TiVo immediately recognized the inserted Card and took me to that screen. I checked the CP Status screen and saw that it was Authorized. I went to Test Channels, but it was still "Acquiring Channel Information". I checked the CP Status screen again, waited, etc. Within 2-3 minutes, I was back in reboot hell, having never even gotten to CC#2.

Once it powered back up, with CC#1 still inserted, it did what it had been doing previously, which is getting to the main TiVo menu. After a minute or so, reboot. I removed CC#1 again and let it power up.

This is the current state -- no CCs installed, TiVo "working", though fairly useless since the point is to get the HD stuff!

The only other suggestionI I have seen in the forums that I haven't tried yet is the Clear and Delete.


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## BruceShultes (Oct 2, 2006)

One other suggestion that I just heard about seems to work. 

Assuming it gets that far before the re-boot starts, try pressing the Tivo button as soon as the THX logo appears. 

I tried this approach this morning and it worked for me. 

Before this every time I had to re-boot the box or it did it on it's own, the only way I could make it stay up was to run Guided Setup with antenna only and then re-run it again with cable&antenna. 

I am not a CableVision customer. My cable company is TW, but I suspect this problem can happen with any cable provider.


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## Roderigo (Mar 12, 2002)

dbenrosen said:


> Yes. I took the cards and and powered up. I then reran guided setup saying I have cable but no CableCARDs. This worked fine and I got all the standard channels associated with the non-STB cable.


I thought someone posted that you need to run guided setup for *Antenna* only, and then switch back to cable.


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## dbenrosen (Sep 20, 2003)

I'll try Antenna only. I don't see why that should make a difference than Cable without the cablecards, but it is certainly worth a shot.

After I run it for Antenna only, do I then insert the CableCARD(s) and after they are authorized rerun guided setup for Cable, assuming no reboot?


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## Roderigo (Mar 12, 2002)

dbenrosen said:


> I'll try Antenna only. I don't see why that should make a difference than Cable without the cablecards, but it is certainly worth a shot.
> 
> After I run it for Antenna only, do I then insert the CableCARD(s) and after they are authorized rerun guided setup for Cable, assuming no reboot?


Just guessing that switching to Antenna only may clear out some cruft from the cablecard that just switching to cable w/o cablecard doesn't.

I would guess you can put the cards in as you suggest, or at the point in Guided Setup where it asks for them.


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## dbenrosen (Sep 20, 2003)

Doing it as Antenna Only worked. I did the guided setup for Antenna Only, and once that completed I inserted CC#1. Everything went fine, then I inserted CC#2 and reran guided setup for Cable Only.


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## Darthnice (Apr 29, 2002)

Rerunning guided setup twice is a royal PITA.

In my case, it only solves the problem temporarily. As soon as TiVo restarts for any reason (power failure, software upgrade, manual restart) it goes into the ever lasting reboot cycle.

For the time being, I'm running without cablecards installed.


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## dbenrosen (Sep 20, 2003)

This is temporary for me as well. My CableCARD authorization(s) fail every 5-10 days and the only way to fix it has been to reboot. Now that reboot throws me into the endless reboot cycle.

If you are running without CableCARDs, how do you get HD stations? OTA?

Running without CCs isn't really an option as I will lose a number of stations I watch.


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## Darthnice (Apr 29, 2002)

I do get one station OTA that my cable provider doesn't supply, ABC/NBC/CBS/FOX/PBS are all transmitted in the clear *and* the cable company provides the correct information to whomever that lets the TiVo tune to it with the right number, not a weird QAM frequency. I'm lucky in that regard.


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## T-Shee (Sep 22, 2006)

I've had so many reboot cycles that I feel like ".. Just a few minutes more" should be " ..just a few hours more". ( I'm sitll waiting for a replacement S3).

Here's what works for me (no guarantee it'll work for you, though):

*LEAVE the CableCards alone, DON'T remove them*.
You don't need to redo the Guided Setup for ANT only, or any other permutation of Guided Setup.

When the S3 starts up, *remove the CABLE INPUT and leave it DISCONNECTED*. Let the S3 come up fully to the Tivo Central screen, then grab the remote and enter any menu choice OTHER THAN Tivo Central. Go into your NOW PLAYING LIST, for example. The object it to prevent the S3 from attempting to go into LIVE TV by itself.

*Wait about 2 minutes*. While your waiting, hit up, down in the NOW PLAYING list, or any other menu choice you like. Just keep the S3 busy enough so that it won't time out and go into LIVE TV.

*After 2 minutes* (approximately, doesn't have to be exact) *REATTACH THE CABLE INPUT*.

Again, *keep the S3 busy enough in the menus to prevent it going to LIVE TV for at least 2 more minutes after the cable input has been reattached.*

After the CABLE INPUT is back and you've waited 2 minutes or so, you should be good to go into LIVE TV or anything else without the dreaded spontaineous reboot cycle happening.

I've been thru every variaton of the reboot dance, cards IN, cards OUT, Clear and Delete, redoing GUIDED SETUP, you name it.

This 4 minute "fix" sure beats the heck out everything else I've tried and you're running again quickly.

I hope it works for you if you get into the ENDLESS REBOOT nightmare.

(my sense about this is that v8.0.1c has no compensation for the fact the CCs get hosed software-wise and need an extra few minutes to reinitialize/authorize; the S3 boots assuming the CCs are OK/READY, when they're not, and it crashes. Rinse and repeat.)


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## DCIFRTHS (Jan 6, 2000)

Ivomir said:


> BTW, is there anyone with cablecards whose Tivo won't endlessly reboot after a manual restart or a power outage? Seems like a 100% reproducable problem...


I have Cablevision and my S3s have been working fine for me.

If the reboots are a TiVo software issue, my guess is that they will address it. I know that doesn't help you now, and I certainly feel your pain. I just don't think TiVo would leave such an important issue like this broken if they can fix it - even if it's a work around for a cable company problem.

If it turns out to be a cable company issue, I think it will be harder to get fixed, as there is little incentive for them to get the S3 working on their system. If turns out to be something as simple as a bad signal, then you have a very good chance of badgering them to fix it.

Keep us posted.


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## Loquitur (Jan 11, 2005)

I got the endless reboot cycle as well. I've had my S3 since October in a UPS without any significant problems or reboots except that a week ago it locked up. My screen showed half of my To Do list and I couldn't get out of it. I unplugged it to reboot and when I plugged it back in, the cylce began. I reran guided set up a number of times in different configurations as suggested here but the cards wouldn't pass the CP Authorization and I kept getting the spinning globe with "acquiring channels" banner. The only way I could stop the cycle was to remove the cablecards completely. So I did a Clear and Delete and Cablevision of Wappingers Falls was here the next day with new cards which took about 30 min to install. Its been fine since. I commented to the tech that I didn't know if the problem was with the Tivo or the cablecards and he said he didn't think it was the Tivo. I didn't get charged for the visit but the whole problem was obviously a PITA.


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## ah30k (Jan 9, 2006)

T-Shee, this didn't work for me. I needed to rerun guided setup with antenna only (CableCARDs unplugged) then plug in my cards and redo it with cable only to fix my problem.


T-Shee said:


> I've had so many reboot cycles that I feel like ".. Just a few minutes more" should be " ..just a few hours more". ( I'm sitll waiting for a replacement S3).
> 
> Here's what works for me (no guarantee it'll work for you, though):
> 
> ...


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## T-Shee (Sep 22, 2006)

ah30k said:


> T-Shee, this didn't work for me. I needed to rerun guided setup with antenna only (CableCARDs unplugged) then plug in my cards and redo it with cable only to fix my problem.


Sorry, but I guess it was worth a try. I feel your pain. I had to redo the GS quite a few time on my first set of CCs. I'm now on the third set of CCs and they seem to respond to the "trick" fix I mentioned, at least for the last two crash/reboot/reboot.. events I've had in the past week.

The first set of CCs would crash the S3 when you plugged them into the slots, about 10 seconds after they got plugged in. Didn't matter if the cable input was connected or not. Nasty.

If I remember correctly, redoing the GS only worked temporarily on those CCs - if you restarted the S3 intentionally, it would go into the reboot cycle again. Very Nasty.


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## ah30k (Jan 9, 2006)

Hey, don't get me wrong T-Shee, I really appreciate the advice on something that might work other than the double-setup. It took what seemed like forever. Hopefully I won't have to go through that again. Thanks!


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## lantern123 (Nov 22, 2003)

I've had this problem with my series 3 after the TiVo is disconnected. To solve the problem, ask the cable company, Comcast in my case, to send a new "hit" to the cards. Sometimes it takes a couple of hits but it eventually works. Effective but inconvenient.


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## chipvideo (Sep 25, 2006)

Well I got the endless reboot cycle. Nothing seems to fix it. I had my tivo on for the last 10 days and decided to reboot it and I guess I shouldnt have. Strange how the thing works flawlessly and then I decide to reboot the thing and now it wont stop.


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## dbenrosen (Sep 20, 2003)

chipvideo said:


> Well I got the endless reboot cycle. Nothing seems to fix it. I had my tivo on for the last 10 days and decided to reboot it and I guess I shouldnt have. Strange how the thing works flawlessly and then I decide to reboot the thing and now it wont stop.


Did you remove the CableCARDs? This always stops the endless reboot. Putting them back in may cause it to restart, but you should be able to get to a point where you can do the steps listed in this thread to recover. It is time consuming, but does work.


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## chipvideo (Sep 25, 2006)

dbenrosen said:


> Did you remove the CableCARDs? This always stops the endless reboot. Putting them back in may cause it to restart, but you should be able to get to a point where you can do the steps listed in this thread to recover. It is time consuming, but does work.


Yep. I removed the cards. So do I need to do a attena only option then. Even though I dont have antenna?

I think that if somone who knows the best way for this reboot problem to wright out a post of scenarios and make a sticky and have it locked so nobody else can post to it unless a moderator has info that needs to be added to it.


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## dbenrosen (Sep 20, 2003)

Yes, you need to do the Guided Setup selecting Antenna Only. I was in the same situation as you. I reran GS using Cable, but once I put the CableCARDs back in it would start rebooting. After I reran GS using Antenna Only, it was fine.

1. Pull plug/remove power
2. Remove CableCARDs
3. Restart TiVo by connecting power
3. Rerun GS select Antenna Only
After the calls to TiVo
4. Install the CableCARDs as if new, doing CC#1 first, testing channels, etc., and then CC#2.
5. Rerun GS for your actual configuration, in your case Cable Only.

Remember which CableCARD goes in which slot. When I did it I popped the cards out but left them halfway in the slot.

Good Luck.


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## dnorth12 (Feb 10, 2005)

This morning I initiated a restart for the second time since purchasing my S3. This was in order to fix/reset the live button so that it would switch tuners instead of toggling the guide.

The first time I did this restart was flawless and right back to live video after the intial bootup cycle.

Today not so.

After the initial rebooting process, I selected live and saw the spinning "wheel o' death" - looking for a video signal. After about 20 - 30 secs it rebooted again. 2nd reboot same result. During the 3rd reboot I decided I wasn't going to wait this out and would pull the power cord when it started the power down for the 4th recycle.

But then for no specific reason I decided to hit the tivo button on the face of the unit and then the live button and there all of a sudden was live video. Hmmm.

Coincidence or a fix? - don't know. But I guess worth a try.

The timing of the button presses were after the "just a few more minutes" screen cleared. Which would be about 20 - 30 seconds before the cycle would have started all over again.


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## ncbagwell (Feb 15, 2005)

Well, I have now joined the exclusive club of the endless reboot and missed the first half of the UNC-Miami game!!! I'm still stuck in the cycle and going through the various suggested fixes in this forum. This stinks.


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## dbenrosen (Sep 20, 2003)

I had the problem again last night. This time, after I reran guided setup for Antenna Only (after trying a couple of the shortcut ideas posted here), I put the CableCARD in slot 1. It caused the reboot anyway. I popped it out during the reboot and after it came back up went to live TV for the Antenna (as it were) before inserting the CC. Then it was fine to continue the CC install, rerun GS for Cable Only process.


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## Ivomir (Apr 5, 2006)

Different people list different ways to end the reboots, which work for some folks but not others. My Tivo got into reboot cycles a few times and fiddling with the cable card setup screen did work half the time. One day I had a power outage while I wasn't home but in the evening the Tivo was working fine. Other times after a manual reboot I just let it be and it works the first time.

I suspect this is a random problem, probably a timing issue. What we are seeing as ways to influence the reboot cycle may just be a placebo.

Ivo


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## SystemJinx (Aug 13, 2005)

I believe the Tivo is too impatient just after booting up. The cable cards don't work right after they are booted since they are still initializing/activating themselves. The Tivo doesn't give them time to do this and reboots it's self trying to fix a problem that isn't there. It just needs to give them more time.

This is why reinstalling the cards works. Tivo gives them more time to initialize. Sometimes just letting your Tivo reboot multiple times will fix it if the cards pick up the cable company's initialization signal right after the unit is booted. Other people don't have this problem at all because their cable companies have less congested networks and transmit the initialization/authorization codes much more frequently.

Just my 2 cents.


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## George Cifranci (Jan 30, 2003)

T-Shee said:


> I've had so many reboot cycles that I feel like ".. Just a few minutes more" should be " ..just a few hours more". ( I'm sitll waiting for a replacement S3).
> 
> Here's what works for me (no guarantee it'll work for you, though):
> 
> ...


I followed your advice except I didn't unplug the coaxial cable and it worked. I basically did what you said and kept moving through the menus to keep it from timing out. I also went into the Settings --Cablecards and looked at those off and on (and kept trying Test Channels until they were accessable).

So in my case I just needed to keep the TiVo occupied until the CableCards were happy.


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## ncbagwell (Feb 15, 2005)

Well, I am back up and running at the moment. Just for background, I have Time Warner Cable in Cary, NC. Got my S3 in November from the TivoCommunity Store. I've had some of the audio dropouts/pixelation and an occassional reboot but never the reboot loop.

One other thing of note if it matters, I scheduled an online recording for my S3 a couple of hours before it started into reboot hell. Don't know if that had anything to do with it but I think it might have been the first time I've done that on the S3.

My first attempt was to unplug the Tivo, pull the cable cards and then redo Guided Setup on Antena Only. Did that and then reran Guided Setup and plugged in the CCs when it asked me. Got through it and it worked for a while but then started rebooting again after about 30 minutes. Unplugged the Tivo overnight and tried to just boot back up the next day but it was still rebooting.

Left it unplugged over the weekend as I was heading out of town. Got back and popped the cable cards out as well as undid the Coax Cable. Rebooted and reran guided setup with Antena Only. Let that sit for about 30 minutes. Tivo functioned normally. Then, instead of rebooting, I just plugged in the Coax and popped in Cable Card 1. It then prompted me to rerun Guided Setup and I did with Cable Only. Went through each Cable Card process until I could see all of the channels in "Test Channels". After both appeared to work, I completed Guided Setup.

One thing that I thought was odd was that during Guided Setup for both "Antena Only" and "Cable Only", the Tivo took a *REALLY* long time during the "Preparing..." stage of the part where it gets the programming information (I think that is the correct description).

Everything appears to be working now. I've probably just jinxed myself, though, and will go home at the end of the workday to find it rebooting....


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## ScratchFury (Feb 12, 2005)

I just walked in to my house to a rebooting Tivo Serice3  This has never happened before. I pulled the cards out and the endless rebooting stopped. I put 1 card in and waited for it to initialize and as soon as it got to the point where it would normally initialize, the Tivo rebooted. I've been using a large UPS for my Tivo since I bought it, so the power going out is not the issue. I will try some of the fixes and report back here. I'll wait 'til after Heroes though since my HD over antenna still works.


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## surfnutbry (Jan 21, 2004)

I have been having the rebooting problems reported in this thread with my series 3 Tivo. The problem starts with the Tivo display freezing during playback. Sometimes it happens while watching a recorded program, but mostly happens when the I am not around. If I press a key on the remote, a light on the Tivo flashes and the clock keeps running, but other wise the Tivo is completely unresponsive. At this point I am forced to unplug the Tivo. My Tivo is plugged into a UPS so this is the only time it looses power. At this point, it takes Tivo about 3 minutes to reboot and show the THX logo. About 2 minutes later the Tivo shuts down and starts the cycle over again. I have seen it cycle as many as five times. If I press the Live TV button, I see the blue screen with the spinning wheel until it finds the program data or reboots. What has worked for me the last three times this has happened is to fallow this procedure. 

1. First unplug Tivo. 
2. Unplug both cable cards. 
3. Plug in Tivo. 
4. Let the Tivo boot up. The CableCard Decoder page should popup. 
5. Insert card 1. 
6. Press configure card one. 
7. Press Test Channels. 
8. I get the blue screen with the spinning wheel but it gets the channel data without rebooting. 
9. Next I backup to the CableCard Decoder page. 
10. Insert card 2 ,configure, Test Channels. 
11. After it finishes if I go to Live TV both tuners are normally black but if I change channels then they start working. 


Normally at this point I do a Guided Setup to get rid of duplicate channels. Another annoying bug. Every time I restart my Tivo I get duplicate channels in the Guide. 

I hope this helps someone else. 


Bryan


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## George Cifranci (Jan 30, 2003)

surfnutbry said:


> I have been having the rebooting problems reported in this thread with my series 3 Tivo. The problem starts with the Tivo display freezing during playback. Sometimes it happens while watching a recorded program, but mostly happens when the I am not around. If I press a key on the remote, a light on the Tivo flashes and the clock keeps running, but other wise the Tivo is completely unresponsive. At this point I am forced to unplug the Tivo. My Tivo is plugged into a UPS so this is the only time it looses power. At this point, it takes Tivo about 3 minutes to reboot and show the THX logo. About 2 minutes later the Tivo shuts down and starts the cycle over again. I have seen it cycle as many as five times. If I press the Live TV button, I see the blue screen with the spinning wheel until it finds the program data or reboots. What has worked for me the last three times this has happened is to fallow this procedure.
> 
> 1. First unplug Tivo.
> 2. Unplug both cable cards.
> ...


Bryan,

I really don't think you need to go through all that hassle to stop the reboot loop from happening (see my post above).

What appears to be happening when people get into this "reboot loop" is that when the TiVo reboots and is sitting at the TiVO Central menu, if you aren't doing anything the TiVo will timeout and try to play Live TV. If the CableCards aren't ready then the TiVo reboots itself (at least I think that is what's happening). The trick is to keep the TiVo occupied and prevent it from going to Live TV until the CableCards are reinitialized and ready (usually in about 2 minutes).

If you are experiencing the "reboot loop" wait until after the TiVo boots up and gets past the THX logo sequence and is sitting at the "TiVo Central" menu. Immediately use your remote and go in and out of the menus for about 2 minutes don't play any pre-recorded programs just page through the menus. The idea is that you don't want the TiVo to time out and going to Live TV. You can even go into the CableCard settings and check Test Channels from time to time to see when the CableCards are ready. Once you can see channels in "Test Channels". Then you should be able to leave the TiVO alone without it rebooting again. At least that worked for me. Sure beats unplugging stuff until TiVo has a fix for this.

Try it out the next time your TiVo gets into a reboot loop and see if that does the trick. Let's hope TiVo fixes this soon.


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## surfnutbry (Jan 21, 2004)

George Cifranci said:


> Bryan,
> 
> I really don't think you need to go through all that hassle to stop the reboot loop from happening (see my post above).
> 
> ...


You understand that the Tivo records live TV even when you are not watching it. Moving around in the menus does not prevent it from starting to use the cable cards to record live TV. I almost never watch live TV. The first time this happened I thought that I had a bad recording because I would start watching a recorded program and it kept rebooting on me. When it rebooted, I started searching through the menus and then eventually it rebooted again on me. So for me at least moving around in the menus does not help. It wasn't until reading other peoples post that I tried to look at live TV and found the blue screen with the spinning wheel. If you carefully read my post you will notice that I am forced to unplug my Tivo because it is frozen and that is the only time that I have this problem. According to Comcast support if the cable cards loose power it can take up to 30 minutes for them to be hit. Many people on this thread have been forced to remove their cable cards to stop the rebooting madness. All I am recommending is to fallow the instructions that came with the Tivo for installing cable cards because it has been working for me. Testing channels even displays a warning that says this will stop any normal recordings and I think that that is why it works for me.

Bryan


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## ScratchFury (Feb 12, 2005)

dbenrosen said:


> Yes, you need to do the Guided Setup selecting Antenna Only. I was in the same situation as you. I reran GS using Cable, but once I put the CableCARDs back in it would start rebooting. After I reran GS using Antenna Only, it was fine.
> 
> 1. Pull plug/remove power
> 2. Remove CableCARDs
> ...


This worked for me. I had the same problem as surfnutbry but inserting the cable card would cause it to reboot until after I did the antenna only guide. If it happens again I'm going to try the coax disconnected method.


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## charlesoutcalt (Feb 8, 2007)

Hello all. This is my first time on this board, and so I want to start by saying 'Thanks' for the great advice. This has been a lifesaver for me (or at least a Tivo-saver!).

I, too, had the endless reboot issue this evening, after I restarted my Series 3. After a couple hours of following the advice in this board, I _think_ I've gotten out of the reboot loop. 

Here's what worked for me: 

I unplugged both my cards, then went through Guided Setup, with 'Cable Only' selected, but without the cards in the Tivo.

After GS completed, I reinstalled the cards, then called my cable provider, Comcast. I asked them to send a 'hard hit' to the cards, which I think is a sort of reauthorization of the cards. While I was on the phone with Comcast (about 30 minutes), I toggled back and forth between menus for the cards. At the end of that call, I was able to display video from both cards, and I'm now nearly all the way through my second GS, this time with the cable cards working.

So, I hope that this is useful for others. I haven't seen that idea of calling the provider and asking for a reset of the cards in many of these posts, but I think it worked for me.

To respond to those who were wondering whether the Series 3 is worth it: My opinion, if it's useful to you: No. As you know, the box is tremendously expensive. Picture quality is great, as is audio, BUT I had to return my first S3, as it was defective; getting the cable cards from my provider took weeks, many, many phone calls, and quite a few visits from technicians, and now it's been stuck in reboot mode at least once. On top of that, Tivo-to-Go isn't available for Series 3. 

All in all, I wish I had done something else with that $800, or at least waited until some of the bugs had been worked out. So, for what it's worth: If you're thinking about getting a Series 3, hold off. . .


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## dwmarqu (Nov 7, 2005)

TivoJunkie43 said:


> Signal loss has been suspect in the latest problems, but I believe the latest Tivo update (software) is to blame, because signal loss, and bad weather ("snow"  ) comes and goes and I've never had much problem until recently.


I have ComCast in Walnut Creek, CA (east of SF).

The problems I had were:
- reboot looping
- reboot in the middle of recording
- 1 tuner would lose the signal and show a black screen.

I came very close to dumping the Series 3.

At first I thought it was signal loss due to splitting so I drastically reduced it. I still had the problem. Signal strength/loss wasn't it.

EVERY PROBLEM WENT AWAY COMPLETELY after my ComCast did the 2.0 upgrade of the cable cards! That was my solution.


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## George Cifranci (Jan 30, 2003)

dwmarqu said:


> I have ComCast in Walnut Creek, CA (east of SF).
> 
> The problems I had were:
> - reboot looping
> ...


Who makes the CableCards that you are using? Scientific Atlanta? Motorola?


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## CrispyCritter (Feb 28, 2001)

dwmarqu said:


> EVERY PROBLEM WENT AWAY COMPLETELY after my ComCast did the 2.0 upgrade of the cable cards! That was my solution.


Yes, there's obviously two problems together that cause the rebooting. One is the cablecards getting into a strange state (possibly because the head end can't contact them quickly enough), and the second is the TiVo reacting badly to that cablecard state when it notices it.

It sounds like the cable company corrected the first of the two for you. Happy TiVoing!


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## mbernste (Apr 6, 2003)

Since I'm the original culprit, er...poster, I feel I should give an update with my S3. I am catching my TiVo rebooting itself from time to time, but for the most part its pretty well behaved. I don't know if its the cable cards or if its signal levels or what. The good news is I'm still not seeing loops and so far with the exception of one movie, I haven't missed any shows. I did have one instance where the TiVo rebooted when watching a show (did this for two different shows during the same viewing session).

I do wonder if some of the reboots are caused by Cablevision doing some work in the wee hours of the morning (3-5 AM). If they are doing things with signal levels etc, the TiVo could be more sensitive to it, thus causing the reboots. I do notice that during this same time, when I go to use my SA4200 HD box on another set, the SARA guide says "no data" when later in the day it displays program information. I have yet to see the TiVo reboot during prime time TV like I did with my previous S3.

That all being said, I still have my S2 DT recording the same shows as a backup, at least for a while.


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## kelley (Jan 2, 2007)

My series 3 locked up and crashed last night while recording two HD shows, after this it went into a reboot loop cycle for about 10 reboots then it finally worked. When I went back and played back one of the shows the series 3 locked up again and rebooted at the end of the recording. I was able to watch an hour long HD program with no reboots and then it did it again. This morning it rebooted while I was just browsing the channel guide.


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## TiVolunteer (Jul 10, 2001)

Even though this thread is titled for "Cablevision" and I'm on Time Warner, I've been periodically having the rebooting loop problems. 

I've tried some of the options in this thread (keeping the menus busy etc) but the only one that worked for me was redoing the Guided Setup with antenna only and then redoing with cable. Since I have to open up my rack to get to the cable cards, I thought there had to be a better way and I may have stumbled on one. 

Immediately after reboot (right after the THX, "Tivo bowing" and the switch to the menu) and while it is still acquiring the cable channels, I go to the Diagnostics screen. I go in and out of the Diagnostics screen. Initially there is a lot of "NOT AVAILABLE's" but these eventually fill in. Once they fill in, you are good to switch to live TV and the rebooting has stopped.

Even though the values auto-update, just sitting on the Diagnostics screen doesn't work so it still needs something from the "keeping the menu's busy" workaround. However, just keeping the menus busy for a fixed time didn't work either. The time to recover has varied anywhere from 3 minutes to 8 minutes.

It has worked the last four times for me (one with 10 reboots in a row and the others with who-knows-how-many reboots -- I come home and it was in a reboot cycle).

YMMV

Now , I wonder if I can write a macro for the MX-850 to automate that recovery process.....


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## dbenrosen (Sep 20, 2003)

Interesting about all the spontaneous rebooting issues. I've never had it start the reboot cycle on its own while I'm watching something. The reboot cycle I have occurs once I initiate a reboot, or if I try to reinsert one of the CableCARDs for the CableCARD authorization failure issue (discussed in numerous other threads).

Of course, this could be because I usually need to reboot/reinsert it every few days (never more than a week).

How long does it function normally before it starts rebooting on its own? A week? A few weeks? Months?


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## mbernste (Apr 6, 2003)

dbenrosen said:


> How long does it function normally before it starts rebooting on its own? A week? A few weeks? Months?


Well, when I got the replacement S3, it was less than 12 hours when I had the first reboot. It happened when I pressed the TiVo button. Other spontaneous (but not looping) reboots happened many times since, including many times I am not aware of.

Ironically, one time I _wanted_ to reboot the TiVo, and when I went to the menu to do so, it locked up and I had to pull the plug to force a reboot.


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## ScratchFury (Feb 12, 2005)

I recently switched from a Netgear wireless adapter to a wired connection. Just to account for everything, is anyone having this problem and using a WIRELESS adapter?


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## TiVolunteer (Jul 10, 2001)

dbenrosen said:


> Interesting about all the spontaneous rebooting issues. I've never had it start the reboot cycle on its own while I'm watching something. The reboot cycle I have occurs once I initiate a reboot, or if I try to reinsert one of the CableCARDs for the CableCARD authorization failure issue (discussed in numerous other threads).
> 
> Of course, this could be because I usually need to reboot/reinsert it every few days (never more than a week).
> 
> How long does it function normally before it starts rebooting on its own? A week? A few weeks? Months?


Never had a reboot cycle start while I was watching anything either. Most of the initial reboots were initiated by me and usually due to the same "missing channels" issue you mentioned above. At least two of the ones where I came home to find it cycling were due to power issues (clocks around the house were flashing 12:00). Don't know about the others.


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## abredt (Nov 5, 2004)

I'm a new member of the rebooting club. It started after I unplugged TiVo-3 from the wall and plugged it back in. 

After repeating the unplugging several times, I left it plugged in and rebooting itself in its loop and read all of this thread. After that it was working OK and I had all my channels back.

I'm using TW West Valley of L.A. and original install of the cable cards was a nightmare. No way would I take them out unless there was nothing else to do.

I guess I should put TiVo on a UPS all by itself. (It shares one now.) What's a reasonable "size" to get?

CB


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## ScratchFury (Feb 12, 2005)

If I remove the Cable Cards and put them back in the same order, will it retain the CP Auth?


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## kelley (Jan 2, 2007)

I called TiVo about my unit, they said it sounded like a bad hard drive. I have a new one due to be in tomorrow.


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## brentsg (Sep 19, 2004)

I just had my cable company here to install the cablecards. I had to get on the phone with the tech's supervisor to explain that supporting me with cablecards was not OPTIONAL. To their credit the supervisor hopped in his car and came to my house.

In the meantime the tech messed with stuff and the box went into a reboot loop. I have to leave it off for a while to get it working each time. It seems to stick forever on the first booting screen. Anyways the techs left with the cablecards since my gear wasn't working.

TIVO told me to return the new series 3 to the vendor. Do you guys think it was the botched cablecard install and not defective gear?


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## greg_burns (May 22, 2004)

ScratchFury said:


> If I remove the Cable Cards and put them back in the same order, will it retain the CP Auth?


Yes.

I just popped mine out enough that the Tivo thought they were removed. Reran guided setup w/ just antenna. Put cards back in, reran with cable.


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## greg_burns (May 22, 2004)

ScratchFury said:


> I recently switched from a Netgear wireless adapter to a wired connection. Just to account for everything, is anyone having this problem and using a WIRELESS adapter?


I am currently wired. But I may throw in my unused Tivo Wireless Adapter and see if I have any more problems and let you know. (I assume this theory is based on the other threads talking about problems when using the ethernet port.)

My reboot loops (2 so far) have been self induced by unplugging the S3. Have yet to see it occurring without me initiating it.


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## ncbagwell (Feb 15, 2005)

ScratchFury said:


> I recently switched from a Netgear wireless adapter to a wired connection. Just to account for everything, is anyone having this problem and using a WIRELESS adapter?


I am also wired.


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## mbernste (Apr 6, 2003)

I knew I'd jinx it!

Today my _replaced_ TiVo went into the reboot loop. Who knows how many times it rebooted today. I'm going to try the antenna only thing and see if it works. If not, I'm going to have to call Cablevision and have them swap out the cards.

Sigh.

My understanding is that this issue is less prevalent with the Motorola systems, is this true? Like all of Cablevision, we're SA.


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## greg_burns (May 22, 2004)

mbernste said:


> I knew I'd jinx it!
> 
> Today my _replaced_ TiVo went into the reboot loop. Who knows how many times it rebooted today. I'm going to try the antenna only thing and see if it works. If not, I'm going to have to call Cablevision and have them swap out the cards.


Are you using the wired ethernet port?


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## mbernste (Apr 6, 2003)

No, I'm using the "TiVo" wireless NIC. I use the same kind on my S2 DT and its fine. On the "previous" S3, I was using the same NIC, TiVo customer support had me remove it and it still rebooted.

Oh, get this, _without_ the cards in (when doing guided setup with antenna) it did a reboot. That can't be good.


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## ah30k (Jan 9, 2006)

I'm Comcast/Motorola and I had the reboot loop.


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## mbernste (Apr 6, 2003)

Well, I just finished going through the two guided setup processes and so far, no reboots, but its only been about 10 minutes. We shall see.

I assume this is only a temporary fix? Can anyone explain why this seems to work for many? And now the big question:

Why has TiVo been so silent on this issue?


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## mbernste (Apr 6, 2003)

Well, that seemed to fix it (for now). Can anyone explain to me why/how that fixes it?


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## George Cifranci (Jan 30, 2003)

Once again I am stuck in a reboot loop. I am not sure what to do. This is very aggravating.


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## surfnutbry (Jan 21, 2004)

mbernste said:


> Well, that seemed to fix it (for now). Can anyone explain to me why/how that fixes it?


Last week I had a bad recording of Law & Order that would lock up my Tivo every time at the same exact spot. Needless to say the only option left to me was to pull the plug. I have had this rebooting problem before from pulling the plug. I now have seven successful Tivo booting under my belt. I firmly believe that the key is to prevent the Tivo from trying to record live TV from the cable cards until they have been hit with channel data. When the cable cards lose power, they loose their channel data and it takes time for the cable head end to send that data. The Tivo is timing out too early and deciding it needs to reboot to fix the problem. When you remove the cable cards and set it up for antenna only, the Tivo could not possibly be trying to record from the cards. Then you install the cards and because the Tivo is setup to record only from the antenna is still is not trying to record from the cards, but the cards have power and are listening to the network. At this point, you should have all the time in the world for the cards to get hit without the Tivo timing out. After they are hit then you can continue your guided setup for your cable card.

Personally, I use a shorter version of the procedure because I hate losing an hour of recordings while I am doing the guided setup twice.

1. Unplug Tivo
Normally my Tivo is locked up but if I was in a constant reboot cycle I still would unplug to stop the madnes.
2. Remove the cable cards.
3. Plug in Tivo
You will not see the THX or Tivo animation, but will go directly to the cable card install page.
4. Insert cable card 1 only
5. Go directly to the Test Channels page
You will see the spinning wheel until the card is hit with channel data.
I have never had the Tivo reboot from this screen. 
It seems to be less impatient then the live buffer.
When it is done a warning screen pops up about the procedure preventing normal recording.
6. Insert cable card 2, go to Test Channels
This card always seems to go faster. I don't know why.
7. Exit out of the cable card menu and your recordings will continue.
Tivo normally advises to redo the guided setup, but I choose not to do that.
It thinks that I changed my setup and have bad guide data but I don't.

The whole process takes less than 10 minutes, which is a lot better than doing two 30 minute guided setups.

If some one else carefully fallows my method and their Tivo reboots I would love to know about it.

It has worked so many times for me that I am confident that it will work for other people.

Bryan


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## T-Shee (Sep 22, 2006)

Bryan,

Thanks for the procedure/fix. I hope it works for others, but I have to tell you that this procedure did not work for my first 2 sets of CCs.

At that time, Tivo CSRs told me that if the cards were "bad", the Tivo would crash and reboot shortly after inserting the first card. That's exactly what happened to me. 

After unplugging the Tivo and removing both cards, repowering the Tivo and letting it come back the Cable Card screen, I plugged in the first card (lower - slot #1) and the S3 immediately crashed. The second set of Cable Cards (Scientific Atlanta BTW) did the same thing. FYI.

Note: I strongly suspect that my first two sets of CCs were "recycled", i.e. they were installed, initialized and firmware updated previously in another device, TV, perhaps even another S3. The cable guy who installed the third set of cards said something to the effect that if these cards were ever installed and working in another device, you would never get them to work properly in the Tivo. FWIW. The third set of cards were "new", unused, straight out of the box and unwrapped in front of me (which doesn't necessarily mean that they were "virgin", but if not, somebody went to an awful lot of trouble to repackage them so they looked new - not likely. The "virgin" cards were paired and took 15 min. each to get their firmware updates from the headend - the first two sets never got the firmware update, presumably because they were originally updated in other device(s).

The third set - after updating their firmware in the Tivo itself - have worked without problems since.


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## brentsg (Sep 19, 2004)

I tried the procedure where I do guided setup and tell it I have antenna only. It continues to just reboot and hang at the Powering UP screen...


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## greg_burns (May 22, 2004)

brentsg said:


> I tried the procedure where I do guided setup and tell it I have antenna only. It continues to just reboot and hang at the Powering UP screen...


Did you unplug the cards? How can it continually reboot *and* hang at the Powering Up screen. It is one or the other, no?

Mine would always reboot a couple minutes after getting to the menu. Apparently right after the spinning pinwheels would go away (if I were not in the menu, but in Live tv waiting on them).


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## dbenrosen (Sep 20, 2003)

Did you remove the Cablecards?

Do you mean it doesn't get past the powering up screen before rebooting?


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## brentsg (Sep 19, 2004)

dbenrosen said:


> Did you remove the Cablecards?
> 
> Do you mean it doesn't get past the powering up screen before rebooting?


I can't explain it.

It spontaneously reboots during operation. Then when I try to power cycle it I can't get past the "Welcome. Now powering up..." screen. It will hang and sit there forever. I have to unplug it and let it sit for a long time. Then I can boot it and get through a guided setup. Of course then it will reboot, hang, and I again have to let it sit forever if I want to get through the welcome screen again.

I guess it's just simply defective.

Oh yeah, and the cable company took the cablecards. It rebooted on them during their setup, then we couldn't get past the welcome screen so they left.


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## surfnutbry (Jan 21, 2004)

T-Shee,

I would only expect my procedure to work on a system that had functioning cable cards waiting for channel data because of a power loss. Hopelessly flawed cards would need to be fixed by the cable company.

If some one currently is using the two guided setup procedure, I am only suggesting they may want to try my procedure minimize down time.

Bryan


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## CrispyCritter (Feb 28, 2001)

brentsg said:


> I can't explain it.
> 
> It spontaneously reboots during operation. Then when I try to power cycle it I can't get past the "Welcome. Now powering up..." screen. It will hang and sit there forever. I have to unplug it and let it sit for a long time. Then I can boot it and get through a guided setup. Of course then it will reboot, hang, and I again have to let it sit forever if I want to get through the welcome screen again.
> 
> I guess it's just simply defective.


One thing to test before sending it back (I agree it's probably defective) is to make sure it has good power. Disconnect every electrical connection on the way to the TiVo , and reconnect, leaving any UPS's out of the loop. If it's still hanging, then send it back.

I had similar symptoms caused by a loose connection at the TiVo end of the power cord. A bad UPS might cause the same problems.


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## garm (Oct 23, 2006)

What fun the re-booting club is!

I've been using my S3 for about two months without significant issues with just analog cable and digital OTA using an antenna. Last week (not during us watching), the TiVo began a reboot cycle. It seems to have done this for about 24 hours before we noticed it. We unplugged it for two days [why do I even have this thing if we never watch it?] and restarted it. After the ridiculously long startup time, it would run for about 30 seconds before dying. It's not clear that there was an inciting event causing it to restart. Though I vaguely remember mention of this issue on these boards, I just decided to try the "Guided Setup". It would get to the point of completing connecting to the internet (first via a Netgear wireless USB and then via direct connection) and then reboot. I called tech support and after having me pull the wireless, they immediately told me they would need to send a new unit.

We didn't have any power outage, I don't have a cablecard, and we hadn't done anything differently. The tech support person couldn't give me any good explanation for why this had happened and what I might do to prevent it in the future ("maybe it got hot").

Pretty annoying loosing all the saved shows but I guess it's good they're sending a new one... I just wonder what I do if this happens again.


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## George Cifranci (Jan 30, 2003)

The good news is that I think the 8.1.1 fixes the reboot loop issue. I have been running with it for over 12 hours and I rebooted a few times to see if I would go into the reboot-loop but so far so good.


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## dbenrosen (Sep 20, 2003)

You might try disconnecting the cable wire input before running guided setup, as others within this thread have suggested. And rerun guided setup selecting Antenna Only the first time, then reconnect the cable wire, assuming you've stopped the reboot loop, with Antenna and Cable.

The new release of the software, which started rolling out yesterday, is supposed to fix the reboot loop. I've only had it since yesterday at 3pm so I cannot verfify that it does in fact fix it. I did do a reboot and didn't get stuck in the loop as I had been for the past couple of weeks, but it is still too early for me to say it is fixed.


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## greg_burns (May 22, 2004)

dbenrosen said:


> You might try disconnecting the cable wire input before running guided setup, as others within this thread have suggested. And rerun guided setup selecting Antenna Only the first time, then reconnect the cable wire, assuming you've stopped the reboot loop, with Antenna and Cable.
> 
> The new release of the software, which started rolling out yesterday, is supposed to fix the reboot loop. I've only had it since yesterday at 3pm so I cannot verfify that it does in fact fix it. I did do a reboot and didn't get stuck in the loop as I had been for the past couple of weeks, but it is still too early for me to say it is fixed.


I never disconnected my cable wire. Just popped out the cards when rerunning GS as antenna only.


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## dbenrosen (Sep 20, 2003)

I've never disconnected the cable wire either, but garm's problem doesn't involve CableCARDs at all and he was still rebooting.

Further up the thread, someone suggested that instead of rebooting to install the CableCARDs, disconnect the cable wire and insert the cable cards that way. It's worth a shot if nothing else is getting it to stop.


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## ScratchFury (Feb 12, 2005)

If you haven't seen the few hundred messages already, the new 8.1.1 update for the Series3 solves the reboot problem for most people, myself included.


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## xc04 (Dec 26, 2006)

Scratch,

If YOU didn't notice, the last message was posted on Feb. 13. The update came out Feb. 12, and was not distributed to everyone until last week.

X


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