ARRGGH! Welcome! Powering up...

[Klankster]

Just got back from a trip and started to watch some stuff recorded on my HR10-250. Three minutes into the playback, the darn thing rebooted to the "Welcome! Powering up..." screen. Once it completed rebooting I started the playback again. This time it got about 20 minutes in and rebooted again. This happened once last week before I left but now it's starting to look like a chronic problem.

The thing is out of warranty, being about 18 months old.

Anybody have any suggestions regarding repair? I'm mainly wondering if there is a history of problems with things like loose interconnects or bad connections like the HDMI card issue that I might be able to fix myself. Since we record a lot, I'd rather not have this off being repaired for several weeks. Or should I just go get a new one, considering the price vs. out-of-warranty repair cost?

Or should I try calling D* and see if they'll send a replacement? If so, is there any particular person/department I should ask for?

Suggestions appreciated! Thanks!

[rminsk]

The is most likely a hard drive failing.

See http://tivo.upgrade-instructions.com/index.php or http://www.newreleasesvideo.com/hinsdale-how-to/index9.html

[rlj5242]

Mine did the same back in may and I wasn't going to send it to D* in exchange for a refurb. I checked the Sunday sale papers and found a 320 GB drive on sale at Office Max. I was up and running in about 2 hours and that included the trip to buy the drive and download InstantCake. Total cost was $120.

-Robert

[Klankster]

Thanks for the replies. I saw in another thread where a simple Clear Program Data operation restored one person's unit -- I'll try that first then do the drive replace if it still fails.

[Klankster]

I performed the complete reset and cleared everything, and the machine seems to be back up and functioning correctly. No reboots lately, and the record setup time, which had gotten to a point where it was taking up to 11 minutes(!) to schedule a record, now just takes a couple of seconds.

Question -- Does anyone know what the heck TiVo was doing when we were setting up the records that took 11 minutes? I use a PC-based DVR for video editing and I have to manually clear contiguous space on it for recordings sometimes. Is that what TiVo was doing -- Making space on its hard drive for the record operation? I'd assume the complete reset reformats the HD and eliminates any fragments, making that problem go away.

Still doesn't really explain the spontaneous, random rebooting. Sure would be nice if someone knew what is going on there.

[newsposter]

doubt this is your problem but I'd try seating and reseating the hard drive cable. my T60 is finicky and this was a problem for me once.

Otherwise the C/D is a good suggestion and can't hurt (much:))

[THE Frozo]

So strange, my HD10-250 just started doing this today as well! Ive only had mine for about 7 months though. Coincidence? Lets hope the "clear everything" option works. Doing it now (says it will take an hour!). Klankster, Please post if you have any recurrences after your reset. Thanks.

[Klankster]

The "will take one hour" thing is somewhat underestimated -- I think ours took a bit longer.

We're still running really nicely, record/season pass setups are going so fast my wife can't believe it. She was really starting to get annoyed by the huge pauses when she set up records. No reboots yet, either (that isn't saying a lot since it's just been over a day, but considering it rebooted twice in 30 minutes before, I'm cautiously optimistic).

Good luck, Frozo.

[Cody21]

Just experieinced this damn "Welcome - Powering Up" problem last night. I was watching a show while it was recording. We have yet to do the C&D thing. However a few months ago (when these POWER UPS were much more frequent), we DID delete all Suggestions & Season Passes which seemed to help for a while... Oh, and our unit is about 3 years old.

[Ivan1670]

I got the "powering up" twice today, I have had the unit two years with no problem. I don't think this is a random problem.

[TyroneShoes]

...Does anyone know what the heck TiVo was doing when we were setting up the records that took 11 minutes?...
I have a guess.

Back in 1998 when a Tivo could hold about 8 hours of programming (at next to worst quality level) it really didn't matter that the indexing routines were written inefficiently, because even so, they were relatively quick with relatively little info to index. It also made no sense to have 100 WL and 100 SP when Tivo could only hold about 3 days of normal viewing. Tivo was originally designed as a cache server, not an archive server.

No one could predict that a 9 GB drive would turn out to be tiny compared to what is available today.

Also, Tivo is not "slow" at recording, it starts all timed recordings to the clock, and if you press "record" for a program you are viewing, it has already been recording it.

And the whole concept of Tivo is to schedule recordings or let Tivo pick what it thinks you will like, rather than to record stuff on the fly. Even then, when you instruct it to record a program "live", it starts recording immediately...it just doesn't tell you that the recording has started for a little bit.

Since the time gets exponentially longer when more instructions are added (WL, SP, thumbs), larger drives made this time creep upwards. It takes a hefty rewrite to fix this, which is what v6.x.x did. Once that migrates to the HR10, discussions like this will be moot.

The fact that a "clean" Tivo is very snappy tends to support this theory.

[avoiceoreason]

Okay, I'm beginning to think this is a conspiracy now that the HR20 is out.

My HR10 just started doing the same thing. Automatically reboots sometimes then works fine for anywhere from 10 - 30 minutes. Other times just get pixelation. Other times it is unresponsive to the remote. Weird.

And furthering my conspiracy theory is that this started the day I had two Directv techs out to install a second "free" HR10 (not sure why this requires one person much less two). Then my old one starts doing this. Weird.

I have had seven Tivos over the last six years and never had a problem with any of them (oldest still going strong after six years). Then all of the sudden I get this, and I then see that I am not alone. Weird.

I guess I'll try the clear and delete thing and see what happens.