Daily Call Problems - every possible error

[matt33]

Hi,

Apologies for the lengthy post.. there are quite some chapters to this ordeal..

About a week or so ago my daily call starting failing. The strange thing is I have seen almost every error trying to make it work since.

Initially the test call was failing (number not answering, call interrupted etc) then after playing around (unplug modem cable/power up/down etc) it would work.

Despite this, the actual call would consistently fail with one of a number of error messages, then the test call would fail again.

Everything seemed to point at noise on the phone line so I bypassed the splitter, tried a different phone cable and still the same intermittent issue. I could usually make the test call work playing around, but the actual call if it managed to make a connection (about 1 in 10 attempts) would fail after 15mins downloading.

Played chicken with the customer support people… eventually they had me do a guided setup. Terrible advice as I now realise that can trap me in a loop.

Reduced the number of channels and somehow managed to get out of the guided setup… now I get an indexing problem.

Completely confused by what seemed like a phone line issue, now looking like a disk issue. Everything else seems fine - channels/recordings/etc all perfect.

Any advice greatly appreciated.. will be throwing myself off a building soon.

Matt

[cwaring]

.. will be throwing myself off a building soon.
Can I bag your Tivo now then ;)

[blindlemon]

Have you tried doing a "Clear guide data and todo list" from the System Reset menu?

Although that will delete your Season Passes, your recordings and other settings will remain and it is often successful at clearing database corruption.

[matt33]

No I havent tried that... sounds like a good next step without too much impact, thanks.

Is it possible that some disk corruption is causing the calls to fail as well? I can see it impacting the indexing, not obvious how that would prevent the dial out

Matt

[matt33]

Tried that without any joy.

Test call works about 1 in 5, the daily call never working. Each time the failure seems to be for a different reason -

"call not answered"
"couldnt connect"
"call interupted"

Confused as to why a differnet msg every time - modem needs replacing or more likely to be interference on the phone line?

[terryeden]

Do you have ADSL on the line?

[matt33]

Yes - broadband from Bulldog (vmail etc all turned off)

Had this for months without any problems until a week or so ago.. are you thinking Bulldog have changed something their end?

[terryeden]

Do you have an ADSL filter attached to the phone point to which the TiVo connects?

[matt33]

Yes, microfilter is in place.

Broadband has been up and running for months without any problems to the Tivo dial up until a couple of weeks ago. All very confusing

I did find a thread where a number of ppl had very similar sounding problems in the middle of last year with Bulldog. Would be interested to ehar from anyone who resolved those issues

Thanks
Matt

[terryeden]

If you plug a phone into the socket that TiVo connects to, do you get a dial tone and can you make a call.

If you have an old computer modem, it might be worth plugigng that in to see if it can connect. If it can, your TiVo's modem is fubar.

It might be worth trying a different microfilter.

T

[blindlemon]

Have you tried using the dialling prefix codes at tivofaq.co.uk (http://www.garysargent.co.uk/tivo/bugs/wizard/phone/index.htm)?

[matt33]

Yes, normal phone calls are fine from the line. Can also listen into the handshaking the modem is doing and all sounds fine (the test call works sometimes, so this isnt surprising).

Have also tried a new cable and microfilter and the symtoms are the same - test call works about 1 in 5, the actual call fails at random times (sometimes after "downloading" for 10-15mins).

I have also tried the dialing prefixes in the faq.

Everything seems to point to noise on the line since it is so intermitent. Have spoken to Bulldog and their first reaction is that modems dont work on Broadband enabled lines!

This clearly isnt the case... so they are sending to 3rd line support to run some tests. Also found a thread re Bulldog talking about "call echoing" and the need to have it off for modem traffic. Possible this has been turned on in the last couple of weeks, or that Bulldog have made a change somewhere.

Am hoping the modem isnt cooked... though the success of test calls and the randomness of when the calls fail seems to imply the modem is probably ok.

Thanks for all the good suggestions... please do keep them coming!

Matt

[terryeden]

I had a similar problem a while ago - non-broadband line though.

Only a few of my modem calls would get through at full speed. It turned out to be a combination of water leaking into BT's connection to the house, and a tree that had a growth spurt onto the line.

Might be worth dialing 150 and asking them to run a test on your line.

T