My setup resets tv's!

[opeless]

Hi All,

My (uk) setup is as follows:

Downstairs: Satalite in -> standard Sky receiver.

From Sky box via scart cable to my series 1 tivo. RF comes into tivo too.

Scart out from tivo to my main tv, sitting next to the sky & tivo box, and rf out - split: 1 to the same tv and the other to a splitter which goes to my loft that spreads that signal over the house.

This way I get the tivo or standard rf broadcast anywhere in the house (channels 1-5 are the standard stuff, 6 is my tivo output) - obviously downstairs I can use channel 6 or AV1 to watch tivo.

This all works fine on the main tv (on any of the channels), but around the house I get intermittent problems. About once every couple of hours - or even more regularly sometimes (and only when watching channel 6 (the tivo output) the remote tv will cut out. Depending on the tv model (the crt's are the most resilient) the picture will cut out and the tv will need to be turned off and on again. The sony lcd is particularly affected when this glitch happens and generally needs turning off at the socket and must be left for 20 or so seconds.

I've tried boosting the signal both pre and post the tivo and before it gets to the remote tv's but nothing helps.

What's going on? How can I fix this?

Thanks in advance,

Dave

[iangale99]

Sound like you need the 2.5.5a update. Call Tivo customer services and they can do it. However, if you have upgraded to larger drives (cant remember exact size limit sorry, over 160gb??) asking for the update will stop your system working.

[opeless]

eek - I think I put in an additional 120 gig hd (in addition to the 40gb that it starts with I think) - is there a way I can check this without opening it all back up again?

Thanks,

Dave

[Glesgie]

The limit before you need the LBA48 kernel is 137GB.
The number of hours you can record should tell you your disk size, but I cannot remember
how many hours 137GB is.

[ndunlavey]

I take it that's size of any one disk, not total of all disks?

[blindlemon]

Yes

[opeless]

Here's my info from tivo web. Will my box survive a 2.5.5a upgrade?

TiVo Box Information
Current Temperature: 29C
Software System: 2.5.5-01-1-023
Remote Address
Uptime 39d 23h 01m 24s
Kernel Information

Version 2.1.24-TiVo-2.5
Compile #2 Thu Feb 7 17:49:48 PST 2002

Memory Information

Memory Statistics:
total: used: free: shared: buffers: cached:
Mem: 14147584 13983744 163840 1977376768 110592 3641344
Swap: 67104768 3981312 63123456
MemTotal: 13816 kB
MemFree: 160 kB
MemShared: 1931032 kB
Buffers: 108 kB
Cached: 3556 kB
SwapTotal: 65532 kB
SwapFree: 61644 kB

Space Used - 141911 MB
Expired Guide 1 4312 MB 3.0% 1:40:02
Expired Season Pass 1 1292 MB 0.9% 0:30:00
Expired Suggestion 34 62557 MB 44.1% 24:11:03
By Name 2 6684 MB 4.7% 2:34:59
Suggestion 34 52205 MB 36.8% 20:11:00
Bookmark 2 1760 MB 1.2% 0:40:46
Season Pass 2 5396 MB 3.8% 2:05:04
Guide 1 5171 MB 3.6% 2:00:02
Live Cache 1 1428 MB 1.0% 0:33:30
Total 78 140805 MB 99.2% 54:26:26

[blindlemon]

As you have network access the easiest thing would be to perform a 'silent' upgrade yourself to fix the problem while leaving the version at 2.5.5 :)

See this thread (http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=248502) for details and the file you need.

[opeless]

Thanks for the help. I got the 2.5.5a downloaded via customer support and everything's working well - no more resets! (I can't believe I lived with that for over a year!)

Cheers,

Dave

[opeless]

ok - back again.

Since the problem's been fixed I think the daily calls have been failing. Is this expected? (I restarted my tivo and noticed that I don't get the cachecard cache filling up message any more) and I can't telnet into the box.

Do I need to re-install the cachecard drivers?

Thanks in advance,

Dave

[blindlemon]

Yes, the download will have overwritten them. (That's why I suggested the 'silent' upgrade;))

[opeless]

Yeah - I foolishly requested the update before reading your reply..

However, I swear this will run and run... So I reinstalled the cachecard drivers, and the daily call was successful. But now, about every 4-6 hours, tivo freezes, during live tv. The drive isn't clicking or making any strange noises - and the temperature after an hour or so seems normal (30 degrees).

Does anyone have any advice?

[blindlemon]

Ahh, well maybe it wasn't the teletext problem after all...

Have you checked the drives for errors?

[opeless]

No, I think it was definitely the teletext problem - the tv problems have gone - it's just that tivo isn't so happy now!

Are there particular utils for checking the disks? Don't make me buy Sky+ :)

[healeydave]

ok, lets recap:

You had 2.5.5 and an expanded system (Requiring the LBA48 Kernal).

Your TV's exhibited the teletext bug symptoms, so you requested Tivo CS to upgrade you to 2.5.5a

The upgrade overwrote your LBA48 Kernal, thus causing operational issues (e.g. only the first modem call being successful after a reboot).

You stated above that you have re-installed the cachecard drivers (which I doubt was neccessary) but unless I missed it, you have not rectified the LBA48 Kernal issue, I advise doing this asap.

[opeless]

hmm. I don't think I ever upgraded the kernel (unless the cachecard driver disk does this).

My log above from my (2.5.5) system shows 140 gig available but when I opened up the box I realised I'd installed a 120 gig drive, in addition to the 40g drive that was there by default, so I assume with the non-LBA48 driver I was losing 20 gig.

The kernel details in that log show "2.1.24-TiVo-2.5" - is that significant?

Thanks again..

[blindlemon]

You don't need the LBA48 kernel unless any single drive is > 137GB and you want to use the bit past 137GB.

IMHO, your problem sounds more like a drive issue than a swap issue. Have you checked the logs for drive errors? Have you checked the drives - eg. with Hitachi's DFT or Maxtor's PowerMax?

[opeless]

Well, I had a warning. Tivo won't boot at all now :(

No real problems - we'd watched most of what we wanted to anyway. I've ordered a new 300gb hd with the drivers pre-installed, so I'm hoping it will all be a simple open/shut case, job done.

Thank you all for your assistance. Fingers crossed it the problem will go away once we're up and running again.