Not downloading guide data though connects fine

[ifekas]

A couple of weeks ago I cloned and expanded a friend's TiVo drive to enable me to get my Turbonet card to work, which in the past I couldn't get working.

To minimise the risk, I purchased a new Samsung 250g drive for this and kept the 120g Samsung as a backup.

Everything seemed to work fine; and TiVoweb works wonderfully.

The first symptom that something wasn't quite right was that TiVo seemed to love to play the TiVo animation everytime it was switched on and the TiVo button pressed, though this wasn't a problem in itself.

Although TiVo makes a 'successful call' over the Internet, it doesn't seem to download any guide data, and now I only have five days of guide data left. I've got TiVo to force a daily call several times, and each call is successful, yet no guide data appears to be downloaded.

I've left TiVo overnight, then restarted in the morning twice, but this hasn't made a difference.

When TiVo is restarted, after the 'nearly there' screen, a message comes up that says 'Installing New Software from the TiVo Service. This will take a few minutes' Only, it only takes about 10 seconds.

I will obviously have to put the old drive in to restore normal functionality, albeit without TiVoweb functionality for the meantime; but has anyone got ideas on why TiVo is playing up in this way and whether there is a simple way to fix it.

My friend's TiVo (the disk of which I cloned) continues to work fine. If it makes any difference, his had a lifetime sub while mine is a monthly one, though my TiVo shows the correct status that '3: account in good standing'. The software version reported is 2.5.5a-01-1-023.

[Rob Nespor Bellis]

*You have not initialised the swap file on the new drive correctly. It is normally done as part of the process of changing the kernel to a >137GB hdd aware one.

You will need to pull the drive and install back into a PC and manually activate the swap.*

Oh, re-reading your post it looks as though you have also used the wrong version of the software for your box, I guess you were on v2.5.5 and your friend was on v2.5.5a, the version is tied to the service number.

I suggest you get a version 2.5.5 image and start again.

Rgds,

R.

[blindlemon]

I'd hazard a guess that although your friend's software version is 2.5.5a, yours should be 2.5.5. You can check this by putting back your old drive and checking the version on the System Info screen.

What's happening in that case is that the TiVo software detects that the software verson running (2.5.5a) is not the same as is held on the TiVo server (2.5.5) and downloads what it thinks is an upgrade. However, at the end of the daily call, when it comes to install the upgrade, it checks the two versions, finds that the one it's about to install (2.5.5) is actually lower than what is running (2.5.5a) and aborts the upgrade process, aborting the daily call into the bargain.

The solution is to re-image the drive from YOUR original drive with version 2.5.5 or, if you think there are issues wth that image, from a known-good 2.5.5 image.

[ifekas]

Thanks; I will try that!

[cwaring]

Damn! I suspected it was a verson number issue, but deleted my post as I didn't like to give wrong advice :( Oh well.

[ifekas]

I reinstated the older hard drive, and the version is 2.5.5-01-023 which confirmed as blindlemon had said would be different from that on the other drive, which is a bit of a b*****, but at least I know what caused the problem.

As I never had any success updating my drive image to support TiVoweb, I suppose I will have to image from a known 2.5.5 image that is not version a!

[AMc]

On the other hand if you don't care about the minor changes in 'a' then you could just ring Tivo and 'request the upgrade'. At that point your account ID in the Tivo database and your software version will correspond and it should stop trying to download and install new software.
You should check the differences as you can't downgrade later, but if you're happily running a 'a' Tivo now I can't see a problem.

[blindlemon]

You will still have to re-image the drive from your friend's 2.5.5a image though, as the current configuration is messed up by the failed download.

[AMc]

Knew there'd be a catch...:)

[dragonlord666]

HI
I have this very same problem, I upgraded to a bigger hard drive ( to a 250gb) with a cachecard & ram.
I had 2.5.5a running before but I still have the same problem. I can get it to work if I repeat guided setup about once a month

[blindlemon]

What software version did you put on the new drive? Did you image it from the old drive or from scratch?

[healeydave]

I had to sort out a guy's Tivo recently who had this exact same problem.

He had purchased an expanded drive (from else-where) which mis-matched the software version Tivo had registered on their database for his system.

As a result, the daily call was working but his guide data wasn't updating.

He could re-run guided setup and everything would appear to be ok for a couple of weeks but of-course this was giving him a false impression.

Running guided setup is the only way to get the tivo to download the next batch of EPG data irrespective of a software version clash.

Once your out of guided setup (in normal mode), any calls to Tivo result in an attempt to fix the software version before any EPG data is considered. Hence to the user, the system looks like its doing the job properly, successfull calls and downloads from Tivo but no EPG appearing.

His Tivo had 2.5.5 but Tivo had him down as having 2.5.5a. This would normally result in the software version simply being updated (however would have repercussions later on because the expanded LBA48 Kernel would be overwritten) but this was not happening, the new software was failing to be implemented after a reboot, despite the Tivo going through the correct motions of "Installing New Software".

I think the problem was due to a partial installation of 2.5.5a being implemented by a hard disk upgrade hack as oppsosed to by Tivo downloading it. The result being the Tivo was reporting it had 2.5.5 , the Tivo Servers was then supplying 2.5.5a which was failing to install causing a viscious circle with no software update ever being completed.

So in summary, if you have a software mismatch and there is a problem where the tivo can't update your version, the daily call will simply be constantly downloading the new version rather than any EPG data.

[dragonlord666]

my upgrade was via tivoheaven. I purchased the drive, cachecard & ram
I had 2.5.5a so had this put on the drive.
Mind you I was having this problem before I upgraded.

[blindlemon]

Mind you I was having this problem before I upgraded.Thanks for pointing that out :)

I suspect, then, that the TiVo servers think you have version 2.5.5 regardless of what TiVo CS say. They do sometimes get it wrong, believe me.

I suggest you phone them up and ask them to double-check. When they finally admit that their servers think you have 2.5.5, ask them to schedule the upgrade to 2.5.5a for you. When that comes through it won't download because you already have 2.5.5a, but your problem should go away :up:

[dragonlord666]

OK. Thanks, I'll give them a call over the weekend and see what happens.
Must admit, when I called them before the upgrade they said they had no idea what the software was that was being downloaded - maybe I'll tell them that the servers say one thing and the tivo's say another - might spur them to check all the accounts, humm.... maybe not!!!

[Pete77]

Must admit, when I called them before the upgrade they said they had no idea what the software was that was being downloaded - maybe I'll tell them that the servers say one thing and the tivo's say another - might spur them to check all the accounts, humm.... maybe not!!!

Asking to speak to a supervisor might not be a bad idea as although Sky do still have some staff with good Tivo knowledge one or two of the front line Tivo advisers are not so knowledgeable these days with less and less of their day spent on Tivo calls and especilly this kind of issue, especially when most UK Tivos have not had a software upgrade issue to solve for over four years...............

[dragonlord666]

OK called Tivo and spoke to a guy called Ahzer. he said I have to DOWNGRADE my tivo to 2.5.5 as they cannot change my account. now I pretty sure I HAD 2.5.5 and they upgraded it to 2.5.5a

Gonna go to the tivo homepage and see if I can find a email address.

This is bl***y stupid, never heard of having to downgrade to match THEIR account.

[healeydave]

OK called Tivo and spoke to a guy called Ahzer. he said I have to DOWNGRADE my tivo to 2.5.5 as they cannot change my account. now I pretty sure I HAD 2.5.5 and they upgraded it to 2.5.5a

Gonna go to the tivo homepage and see if I can find a email address.

This is bl***y stupid, never heard of having to downgrade to match THEIR account.

If he is saying you have to downgrade your Tivo to 2.5.5 perhaps the Tivo database has you down to have 2.5.5.

Tivo will not upgrade downwards (if you follow me). so if your drive has 2.5.5a on it and Tivo's servers say you should have 2.5.5, each time you dial in, you will be given "new" software (in inverted commas) because the versions don't match (instead of any EPG data as this must happen first) but when you Tivo reboots if will say to itself hang on a minute, I'm not downgrading to 2.5.5 , I already have 2.5.5a

If this was correct, all they should need to do is change the Tivo Database to have you down as 2.5.5a and the versions will match next dial in so EPG data can be pushed instead of software.

If they DO already have you down on the database 100% as having 2.5.5a though, then the only way to forward is to fix the drive with a full 2.5.5a implementation as there must be something wrong with the exisitng 2.5.5a.

There's no point in putting 2.5.5 on as all that will happen after the first call will be 2.5.5a will be pushed to you, thus destroying your expanded drive kernel.

[blindlemon]

he said I have to DOWNGRADE my tivo to 2.5.5 as they cannot change my account. Call back and ask to speak to one of the other TiVo advisers. There should be no reason why you can't get the 2.5.5a upgrade if you ask for it. As you already have a full 2.5.5a implementation on your drive, it won't download but your problem will go away.

If you get no joy, try calling again and just say your TiVo is having problems with your TV, turning it off and making it go crazy etc., and they should offer to upgrade you to 2.5.5a as their first response...;)

[dragonlord666]

healeydave & blindlemon, Thanks for the info.
This is what I was trying to tell dipshit..er.. sorry Azher but he insisted they cannot update their end - this is why I'm gonna call again (they don' have an email address!!)
Might have to leave it until after Xmas now.
I tried telling them that I had 2.5.5 and one day during a restart it update to 2.5.5a, I did not ask for this, it just did it) and can they not just change my details - he said something about they sent a request to update and it was rejected??!!

Hence why I'm gonna wait as I was getting pi$$£d off with them and thought it better to hang up before I told them where to stick the subscription and cut my noise off to spite my face!!

Before I brought my upgrade drive (from tivoheaven) I checked the software version on the tivo and this said 2.5.5a.
So I'll give them one more change and ring them, ask to speak to someone who knows about tivos (supervisor maybe?) and see if not I'll go the "hey my tv is doing weird sh** and is about to jump from the roof & threatening to take tivo with it- can you help???" route

Again thank to you & everyone else, for the help and posts.

Happy holidays and have a great 2007

Gaz