I got an "Error Playing A Recording" Message

[Tivo4Meevo]

I started to watch Survivor on my Tivo tonight and instead of playing the program it pops up with the message "Error playing a recording" "The Tivo DVR was not able to record this program because there was no video signal on the channel. You may have been trying to record on a channel that you don't receive."

I know that it was on the proper channel and the signal was fine at the beginning of the program because I watched a few minutes of it. It has recorded several programs since Survivor and they play fine. This is the second time that I have noticed this happening. It happened a few days ago when I started to watch a "Tivo Suggestion". Does anyone know what causes this message? Is this just another 7.3.1 bug? My Tivo is a model TCD540080 by the way.

I would appreciate any help. Thanks!

[funtoupgrade]

Original or upgraded hard drive?

[Tivo4Meevo]

Original or upgraded hard drive?

It has an upgraded 400 GB Seagate hard drive. I installed it last June using instant cake and it had been working fine.

I just noticed something strange. My Tivo just recorded a suggestion on The History Channel and when it got done it changed the channel to Turner Classic Movies and didn't record anything. Is that normal? I've never noticed that before.

[funtoupgrade]

Sounds like the swap file is screwed up. Symptoms like yours don't show up until disk gets approx half full. You need a swap file of at least 200, the -r 4 switch, and then need to run tpip after the restore.

[Tivo4Meevo]

Sounds like the swap file is screwed up. Symptoms like yours don't show up until disk gets approx half full. You need a swap file of at least 200, the -r 4 switch, and then need to run tpip after the restore.

My Tivo is completely full although about a third of it is "Tivo Suggestions". Hopefully this doesn't keep happening but if it does would it help if I do a Clear and Delete everything? I really don't mind losing the programs that I have recorded. I don't think I would have the ability to do the procedure that you mentioned. Doesn't Instant Cake use the proper size swap file?

[funtoupgrade]

If you search the forum you will find there are many problems using instantcake with largere hard drives. I never use it and always write the mfstools commands myself based on what I have learned on this forum.

Theorectically a clear and delete everything might allow the unit to work normally again until it gets full enough to repeat the problem since it apparently did after first install.

[Tivo4Meevo]

Thanks for all the advice funtoupgrade, I hope that this problem was just a fluke or maybe the signal really did go out when I wasn't watching it. It has recorded allot of programs since Survivor and everything has played fine. Anyway, I will take your advice and do some more research into doing the upgrade without Instant Cake if the problem persists.