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No local dial-in numbers in any area code

41K views 113 replies 46 participants last post by  timkelco 
#1 ·
Greetings!

I have a Hughes SD-DVR40 on which I recently did a "clear and delete everything" reset. It boots successfully, and I can watch live TV. The problem is that, in order to record shows, I have to make an initial phone call.

Ostensibly, the purpose of this first phone call is to download a list of local dial-up numbers for my specified local area code. The TiVo is able to complete this first call successfully (without having to put a different phone number in as a dialing prefix). The problem is that, after completing the first call, it tells me that there are no local dial-in numbers available in my area code and that I should try a different nearby area code.

I'm calling from Atlanta, and I have other TiVos that successfully call out to a local number in my area code, so I don't believe that there are actually no dial-up numbers here. Secondly, I've tried dozens of other area codes from different major cities, and it tells me there aren't any local dial-in numbers in any of those area codes either.

Any ideas?
 
#54 ·
Telzey what is Instant cake and how do I go about using it to fix my Philips Series 2 DVR.
It is the software from DVRUpgrade that you can use to create a clean new drive for your Tivo using pretty much any existing PATA drive that you have.

Please note that there are free methods of doing the same thing, but you'll have to do a lot more hunting around.

Unfortunately, he doubled the price at some point in the last couple of years, and it now costs $40 for InstantCake and another $20 for PTVnet.

I purchased both of these because I have 5 DirectTivos and it was worth the cost to me to get the easy InstantCake setup.

If you're only trying to fix a single machine, you might not find it worth the cost for you, and I'd suggest that you ask for help in the Tivo Underground section of this forum.

All-in-all, unless you enjoy mucking around in the innards of computers, you might find it easier to keep holding on for a bit longer for an official fix.
 
#56 ·
Got this message back earlier when I asked for an update.

Thank you for writing. I understand your concerns about not being able to make a daily call. I see that we have escalated this issue for you. Please be aware that you should receive access to toll-free number within 48-72 hours. Once you receive this number you will need to make a daily call within 3-4 days to receive access to toll-free number. If you have not received the number please let us know.
 
#58 ·
I have tried using a local number as the prefix as well with no luck either. I'm still waiting for it to start working hopefully. I am guessing that I could be waiting up to a month for it to start working. I just have this feeling that the activation is happening when the TiVo somehow calls DirecTV to report PPV purchases.

I also sent a PM to TivoJerry on these forums (although not sure if he's still around) as he seemed to be able to get things going again when a similar problem happened a few years back.

For those who now having working units... What was your final phone setup that it was on when it started working?
 
#61 ·
I also contacted Directv's office of the President, you can only email them, but they called within 8 hours...they in turn said that they will contact Tivo and have them send my unit a 800 number to dial..within 4 hours my unit and DVR service is up and running...I don't know if it was the 800 or it just made a call on its own..I would suggest a email to the office of the President..I did not put any prefix in ..it was all blank, for the link just put directv dot com in front of
/DTVAPP/global/contentPageIFnorail.jsp?assetId=P4960016#h:594.391
 
#62 ·
Ok, I just emailed exc customer support, and haven't gotten a call back yet, however one of my DSR704's has started working! Now, in order to prevent having to go through all this hassle again...

If I make a backup of the drive now that it is working - with the latest version of WinMFS - should I not be able to restore it (or a freshly baked InstantCake image) and not have to go through this again should I ever put a new drive in? Would that save me from having to go through this initial setup hell?

Could I also possibly backup the working unit using WinMFS and restore to the other unit or would that cause issues because of the HD being married to the hardware?
 
#63 ·
If I make a backup of the drive now that it is working - with the latest version of WinMFS - should I not be able to restore it (or a freshly baked InstantCake image) and not have to go through this again should I ever put a new drive in? Would that save me from having to go through this initial setup hell?
Yes, making a backup at this point should work for future issues.

Could I also possibly backup the working unit using WinMFS and restore to the other unit or would that cause issues because of the HD being married to the hardware?
Won't work. You'd have to do a "Clear & Delete Everything" after restoring to the other unit, which would cause you to go back to Guided Setup.
 
#64 ·
You know...I don't understand DirecTV.

If it's just a matter of them needing to push a different 1-800 number to the receivers for the initial call, can't they just go ahead and do that for all of their receivers and save their customers the frustration of having to complain? They must know it's not an isolated issue, judging by the number of complaints they have had about it. :rolleyes: Not very customer service-oriented.

Thanks for letting me get that out..lol.

Thank you for the information. I'll be emailing them now.
 
#65 ·
My unit started working on its own after several days. I left all the dial in prefixs set to none. Nothing fancy, just the default dial in settings. I did call DTV and complain the first day I started having the problem. They also told me they would send an 800 number via messages.
 
#66 ·
I have a Philips DSR6000. I went to the TiVo website and got the list of local dial-in numbers. Then, I entered my local number into the "set dial prefix" selection. In CT, you have to dial the area code for a local number, and 1+ the area code for a non-local number. So I entered "203XXXXXXX,". The comma is important because a 2 second pause will complete the call. Even though the tivo modem will attempt to dial the numbers after the prefix, it doesn't matter because the call will have already completed. You'll then be able to put this issue to rest.

This all happened after getting a replacement drive from weaknees. I was using the 800 dial in number but for a week now my guide data has not compiled further than 1 day. I'm hoping this does the trick. I forced 3 daily calls today after getting my local dial-in number situated but still seeing the black bar message at the bottom of my pick programs to record screen telling me it'll take 1-2 days to get guide data. A restart hasn't fixed the issue.

My DSR6000 is from 1999, and I saw a 3V CR2032 battery on the motherboard. Figured after 11 years it'd be dead so I replaced it when I dropped in the weaknees drive. I don't even know what it's used for.

Also modded my box. Cut a circle out of the lid and installed a CPU fan which had blue LEDs. Looks pretty funny.

-J
 
#69 ·
Well mt tivo finally made the call last night about 12:30am, my DVR part works like it should, but no dial in numbers listed. So did it, I email the CEO/President of Directv last night and they called me today by noon and it's Sunday, they sent my service number to Tivo anyways so it would send a dial in number to my tivo box. He told me to call back in 72hrs if did not work. I suggest anyone who is still having a problem with their Tivo DVR should email the CEO/President/Advocate Team it worked well for me.:)
 
#70 ·
Same story as everyone else, my HR10 Instant Cake 6.4a upgrade sends no tones when onscreen shows it as Dialing.

After wasting a couple of hours trying to figure out why my did not work, I called Support and asked the rep to re-activate the unit. The reps can activate via satellite, and within seconds, the unit was fully-functional.

Those of you still stuck with live TV paperweights might want to try re-activation.

DTVs dialed by TiVo respond and become functional, which proves the modems are fine, and it is easy to understand why DTV and TiVo are buffaloed.

- The TiVo itself does the dialing
- Software downloads are not transmitted via satellite
- An Instant Cake image cannot have been corrupted by a previous phone download

This has the look and feel of a latent bug, triggered perhaps by time elapsed from a specified starting day and time.
 
#72 ·
After two calls to DirecTV to get them to have TiVo to send an 800 number to my box, it made the call automatically.

Good thing! I was about to return my hard drive to Weakness at a considerable loss to me.

My DirecTV RCA DVR40 with a new hard drive now records! Wish Lists and Season Passes all working.

The phone setting were at the factory default of nothing in the dialing prefix or the call waiting prefix. Phone Detection off and Dial Tone connection On.

Note: I went into the phone settings to see what the local dial in number is and it is set to None. Not sure if the connection was made over the phone or the satellite.
 
#73 ·
My receiver made a successful Service Connection call, so I can record and set Season Passes.

It hasn't yet done a good Service Data Download but it hasn't tried since the Service Connection call.

There's still no phone number listed in the phone settings page, but Exec. Cust. Svc said it should be okay.
 
#76 ·
Same boat as everyone else here... No numbers available no matter what area code I put in, including 800.

Does anyone know the number that the DirecTivo dials to get the local numbers? I had an issue on an old SA Series 1 TiVo with the modem partially bad... I ended up having to dial the number myself and then plug the phone line and TiVo would take it the rest of the way. The number it dialed to get the list of numbers was 877-877-1756.
3.tivo.com/tivo-misc/popfinder.do
I used this site and tried all my choices of call in numbers Didn't work for me but at lease I have the #'s Might work for you give it a try. I couldn't add the http or the: or the // or the www to the address because you have to have at least 5 post to add a link so you add it!
 
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