CableCard Inserted --> Tivo Reboot

[hackysak]

I seem to have a problem I don't see many talking about. It appears that whenever I have a CC inserted (into either slot) after approx 2 or 3 minutes the Series3 reboots.

Anyone have any ideas??

[mezclador]

I have the same exact problem. I actually exchanged my Tivo for a new one, and the new one also exhibits this behavior. What cable company are you with? What town?

[hackysak]

Comcast in Summit, NJ.

[mezclador]

I've got Comcast in Montclair, NJ

[hackysak]

It doesn't make sense to me that it reboots. I can understand the cablecards not being setup correctly at which time the Tivo should generate an error. How do I go about troubleshooting a reboot? Tivo support is no great help. They told me it was the cablecards and that I should have Comcast bring others. It's BOTH of the cable cards (and once again, why a reboot?). If I have either CC inserted into the Series3 then the it will continuously reboot (the reboot usually occurs 2-3 minutes after the system starts up).

I don't even know where to begin to troubleshoot. Is there any way to find out the reason for the last reboot on a Tivo??

[hackysak]

mezclador,

One thing I forgot to note is that if I have the cable out of the unit with the cablecards in then the unit does not reboot (yeah, I know, a lot of good that is).. I suppose it's some basic form of troubleshooting. I'm scraping the bottom of the barrel here..

Do you notice the same thing??

[mezclador]

There are vareious reports of "Toxic Programs" that cause Tivo reboots. I assume that some signal that Comcast is sending down the line is causing the reboot. It's clearly not the CC's, and I really doubt that it is the Tivo. As I said, this is my second one, and yours, and several others, all connected to Comcast in this general area. Tivo hasn't a clue, suggests that a different brand of cablecard might work, but there are only two brands, and hundreds of people are happily watching HD tivo using Moto cards, which Comcast uses. I don't know, but I am sadly leaning towards sending the Tivo back right now. Good luck with yours.

[hackysak]

There are vareious reports of "Toxic Programs" that cause Tivo reboots. I assume that some signal that Comcast is sending down the line is causing the reboot. It's clearly not the CC's, and I really doubt that it is the Tivo. As I said, this is my second one, and yours, and several others, all connected to Comcast in this general area. Tivo hasn't a clue, suggests that a different brand of cablecard might work, but there are only two brands, and hundreds of people are happily watching HD tivo using Moto cards, which Comcast uses. I don't know, but I am sadly leaning towards sending the Tivo back right now. Good luck with yours.

The Comcast installer that was out had told me that he had just got done setting up a Series3 with two cablecards without any problem during one of his earlier installss. In fact, he was pretty confident he would have ours up and running in no time. I'm not sure exactly where that customer resided, but I assume they couldn't be too far from where I am located.

I have another appt scheduled with Comcast for Tuesday (joy, more time off from work). I don't really have a confident feeling about how it will go.. I would put my money on it being the Tivo itself since I don't believe it should be rebooting regardless of what Comcast is sending down the line. But the fact that you have now gone through two Series3's without success isn't a good sign. Though I SUPPOSE it is possible you could have gotten two Series3's with the same problem. It would be nice if Tivo would have veirified that the problem definitely was the cablecard slots.

[hackysak]

I just called into Tivo Tech Support again (luckily I had a case open from my call yesterday). I talked to tech support tech who aggreed (in fact, she brought up) that the Tivo should not be rebooting (if anything, it should be generating an error). They are going to ship me out a replacement unit which I should receive by Wednesday..

Does anyone think this could have been caused by a defective or bad cablecard?? I'm wondering if I should insist that Comcast bring new cablecards for installation.

[mezclador]

Let me know how it goes, I really don't want to give up, but my refund window is rapidly closing. Good luck.

[cableguy763]

I work for time warner and deal with cable cards everyday and nobody out of the many customers in Austin that I know of are experiencing this problem. It sounds like the Tivo rep you talked to was correct, for we have no "code" to send down the line to make your Tivo reset :) .

[Underclaw]

You may have some bent or broken pins in the CableCard slot. Mine first S3 kept rebooting after the card went in. We tried multiple cards. After each card went in you could see visible marks on card where something was not aligned. These were using Scientific Atlanta cards, which Tivo told me are known to be a little more snug than others.

[hackysak]

Update: New, replacement S3 arriving tomorrow. I've scheduled another appointment with Comcast tomorrow to have the cablecards installed.. Will keep you updated <crossing fingers>

Also, mezclador, where did you purchase your S3 from?

[Bklyn]

Update: New, replacement S3 arriving tomorrow. I've scheduled another appointment with Comcast tomorrow to have the cablecards installed.. Will keep you updated
Good luck. I went through the exact same experience (TiVo rebooting when CableCARDs were inserted) and I think it was defective cards not a defective TiVo. I RMA'ed mine as well but I am still without cards.

My local Comcast office (Union/Verona NJ) says they sent back an entire shipment of cards to their supplier as defective, and now they have none available 'til January 2007!

[Bklyn]

I don't know, but I am sadly leaning towards sending the Tivo back right now. Good luck with yours.
Same boat, same town. I RMA'ed my S3 and now that I have the new unit, Comcast is saying they don't have any CableCARDs on hand and will not until January 2007. I was told that they sent back an entire shipment of CableCARDs to their supplier as defective. This is likely the root of the problem, not anything to do with the TiVo units.

One potential glimmer of hope is Verizon's FiOS service. I was told by installers who were setting up the Internet service for my neighbor, that Verizon will start selling the TV service on December 26th. But when I called about it the sales person had no detailed knowledge nor definitive start-date but had been told to expect Q1 2007.

[Jiffylush]

But doesn't FiOS service not work with the S3?

I am not sure on this but that is what I was thinking

anyone with more info please correct me.

[Bklyn]

But doesn't FiOS service not work with the S3?

Apparently it does. See the FAQ thread:

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=315791&highlight=fios

[hackysak]

mezclador,

I got the new Series3 and set it up. I made a mistake in my last post as Comcast won't be out until tomorrow. However, I decided to be daring and insert one of the cable cards (since I've been reading others on the board could tune HD channels with the card in even if their premium channels didn't work)..

I used the SECOND card as I didn't want to take a chance with the first.

I'm now watching HD channels with no problems. It's been running for about an hour now and there has been NO reboots. In fact, even when I set up the unit with cablecard the unit NEVER rebooted once. When the Comcast tech was out here last weekend he said it was NORMAL for it to reboot.

When the Comcast tech comes tomorrow I'm going to insist he use another cablecard. My previous problem is probably due to a defective Tivo. However, I don't want to take any chances..

Also, with one cablecard inserted I only have access to one tuner.

[gbrail]

I, too, live in Montclair, I have cable service from Comcast Union/Verona, and I have a new Series 3. When I first received the box a few weeks ago, I had two Comcast installers come out on two separate days and try a total of four CableCards. The result was that once the cards were activated, the Tivo rebooted continually, and stopped rebooting when we removed the cards.

At this point, the Comcast people were blaming the Tivo, and I got the impression that they are getting tired of spending hours getting these things to work -- my first installer was at the house for about two hours.

I called the Tivo support people, who blamed the CableCards, saying they were "damaged." The phone rep told me, "I heard of someone who had to try ten CableCards before they found one that worked." I replied that I was going to have trouble finding a third Comcast tech willing to spend all day at my house with ten different CableCards.

And I know that I'm supposed to think that Comcast is Evil and Tivo is Goodness and Light, but as far as I'm concerned, rebooting is not an acceptable behavior for a Tivo, even if the CableCard is sending out total garbage.

Tivo agreed to swap out my unit with a new one, and when I received it, the Comcast phone people are now telling me that their CableCards are back-ordered and I should call back.

But all is not lost. I discovered the wonders of the antenna. After all, Montclair is 12.5 miles from New York City, and at a pretty high elevation. With an inexpensive Zenith antenna sitting on the top of the TV, aimed through a wall, a neighbor's garage, and tons of trees, I get digital TV from NBC, ABC, CBS, FOX, PBS, channels 9 and 11, a few Spanish channels, and some other weird ones I have never heard of. NBC has three digital sub-channels, ABC has two, PBS has three, and after a while I'm wondering, if I can get all this with the antenna, all I really need cable is for a few non-digital channels anyway. The only digital channel we've ever really watched is BBC America, and the $20 extra plus the $10 for the CableCards isn't really worth it just for British home-makeover shows.

My current plan is to stick with the antenna and basic cable, and forget about digital cable. I'm even thinking of getting a bigger outdoor antenna so I can pull in a few more channels.

Perhaps in the future I will go back to the CableCard and see if we can make one or two of them work, but in the meantime I'm finally happy with my Series 3, even though it doesn't do what I thought it would.

(On the other hand, I feel a little bait-and-switched that I can't get the old shows off my Series 2 using multi-room-viewing. I just assumed that the Series 3 would have that too. I'm sure that I would have known this if I had devoted hours of research before purchasing one, but I didn't, and I was disappointed to learn this and I'm hoping that Tivo will at least give us the ability to pull video FROM other Tivos TO the Series 3 soon!)

[JimPa]

gbrail,

Remove any remaining cable cards and do a total delete and restart.

If your cards require pairing with your cable service, you're going to need them to authorize the cards. If not, then you might want to try putting the cards in yourself.

Mine was doing a repeat spontaneous reboot until I removed the cards and did a delete and restart. Placing the first card back in even without reauthorizing it did not restart the reboots.

[hackysak]

Alrightie..

Comcast has come and gone. The installer brought two additional cards (we used the new cards). These have a Comcast label on them (the previous cards had Motorola). The firmware version is 4.21 just as the previous. The installer claims these new cards work better.

Both cards installed without incident. I am currently getting all of the channels on both cards. There have be zero reboots of the Tivo during the entire process.. Also, the Test Channels (in the CalbeCARD stup) comes up IMMEDIATLY. There should be no BLUE screen with a Tivo wait rotating thingie (not sure what you call it, equivalent to the beach ball on a Mac).

Also, I chatted with the installer (same guy that came out on Saturday) while he was waiting on the phone (which I think is most of the time for the install, BTW). He said that they have been having meetings regarding the Tivo at Comcast. Some tips, experiences, conversations with Tivo tech support, etc. I showed him what to look for in the "Conditional Access" screen (Thanks to TC Forums!). Figured it might be good for him to know (and hopefully pass to his group so it makes installs a little less painful).

Right now I'm thrilled with this unit. Though for a while there I wanted to throw the Series3 out the window. I asolutely LOVE HD. It's amazing.

[mezclador]

Well, I gave in to despair, and returned my series 3. Perhaps I'll give it anothrt shot in a couple of months. Hackysak, glad to hear that you are up and running. I find it unsettling that perhaps I got TWO funky Tivos in a row, direct from Tivo. Ah well.at least the republicans are out.

[hackysak]

Well, I gave in to despair, and returned my series 3. Perhaps I'll give it anothrt shot in a couple of months. Hackysak, glad to hear that you are up and running. I find it unsettling that perhaps I got TWO funky Tivos in a row, direct from Tivo. Ah well.at least the republicans are out. :up: :up: :up: to your last statment.

Sorry I didn't get back to you sooner.

It is strange that you got two units that didn't work. To tell the truth, I didn't have my hopes up with this new unit after reading your experinece. I hope that they are able to determine the problem from the two units you returned and the one unit I returned.

I do REALLY like the S3 now. Though I must admit I was EXTREMELY frustrated last weekend (and that was with one unit)..

I don't know if this matters, but the cablecards were installed with 8.01a. I upgraded afterward (which is not what I did the first time around. I had already upgraded to 8.01b since I was playing with it attached to regular cable while waiting for my appointment to have the CC installed).

When I rebooted after the 8.01b upgrade and went to tune a channel the S3 rebooted. I almost FREAKED (plus I'm SO SICK of seeing that boot screen)! Luckily it appears to have been a fluke. It hasn't rebooted since.

[Silversun]

Registered User


Join Date: Oct 2006
Posts: 79 gbrail,

Remove any remaining cable cards and do a total delete and restart.

If your cards require pairing with your cable service, you're going to need them to authorize the cards. If not, then you might want to try putting the cards in yourself.

Mine was doing a repeat spontaneous reboot until I removed the cards and did a delete and restart. Placing the first card back in even without reauthorizing it did not restart the reboots.


JimPa was right about this.

My problem begins with one of the CC did not receive the HD signal. Had a tec come to only switch the cards around. That did not work. After rebooting the Tivo 3 times (which toke about 2 hrs.) the problem was the card was not config right. After the card was fix then that card and the other card would go to the HD channel then go right in to another screen that would give info about the card. Then it would reboot and reboot and reboot every 5 to 6 min.

So I did what JimPa said to do even though I did not like the idea of losing all my recordings and had to put my wishlist back together and so forth. It finally work out the bugs. Thanks alot

Thank God for this site and other sites that helps us out. If not for that we would be really pi-- off customers.

Thanks to all of you for you help

[JimPa]

Silversun,

Glad you got it going.

I have to admit, I pretty much stumbled across the fix. Figured that something on the hard drive got corrupted causing the reboots and like a computer, deleting and starting over might fix it.

Just got lucky this time.

Now, if I can get my problem channel working like it should. :)

[Kelster72]

gbrail,

Remove any remaining cable cards and do a total delete and restart.

If your cards require pairing with your cable service, you're going to need them to authorize the cards. If not, then you might want to try putting the cards in yourself.

Mine was doing a repeat spontaneous reboot until I removed the cards and did a delete and restart. Placing the first card back in even without reauthorizing it did not restart the reboots.

JimPa, you are the Man!

I was on my fifth visit from Time Warner service and on my 2nd TiVo 3. This also was the first time I got a tech that understood cablecards after many requests. The TiVo3 would go into spontaneous reboot mode at at the configuration screen with each of 4 new cablecards he tried. None of them could be configured. The TW tech left in defeat with the promise that he would take this up with his IT Department.

I then happened upon your post. I removed both cablecards, did a total delete and then repeated the Guided Setup. IT WORKED! This tip should be listed as SOP on a sticky. After all the frustration I was on the verge of putting my TiVo3 for sale on eBay and buying (leasing?)TW's PVR instead. Thanks again, you are a life saver.

[JimPa]

Kelster77

Glad you got your unit going again. :)

It would be interesting to find out if we might have done something unknowingly that caused a file to get corrupted causing the reboots.

The only thing that I may have done was unplug the A/C from the unit and moved it to another outlet. I waited for it to go through the normal reboot and after that, I'm not too sure what happened. I did some channel changing trying to figure out why I am having problems tuning a particular station. That's when the continuous, spontaneous reboots started.

Does anyone else recall what happened immediately before before the reboot problem start???

[Kelster72]

JimPa,

My experience with the spontaneous reboot problem would seem to indicate that once a cablecard activation fails, you must go through the total delete process before attempting another Guided Setup. I've had spontaneous reboots occur at the cablecard screen and also during the download process from my wireless network.

What really gripes me is the lack of knowledge regarding cablecards and the TiVo 3 by most of the Time Warner personnel encountered during this odyssey. Some TW personnel also weren't particularly truthful in my dealings with them. Particularly infuriating is their practice of sending inexperienced technicians to a job even when they know they are dealing with a problem cablecard/TiVo installation. This happened time and again even when cablecard experience was requested. TW is also very good at finger pointing and trying to blame TiVo for any and all problems.

In my situation it all came to a head yesterday, when at 11:00 am I called TW and their service representative confirmed that my 8:00 am 12 noon service appointment was on schedule. When I checked back again at 1:00 pm, I was informed that the job had been marked as being "completed." My inquiries determined that without ever having shown up, the service technician called in and told them the problem was fixed. TW then canceled the appointment.

That's when I almost lost it. I finally got to speak to a supervisor (after being on hold for 45 minutes) who tried to BS me that I really didn't have an appointment. He said that they had been there on Wednesday (which they were) and that the problem was fixed (it wasn't). I quickly disabused him of that notion citing the details of my 11 a.m. call and pointing out the fact that the cablecards weren't installed and in fact were lying next to my TiVo. Realizing he was caught, the supervisor quickly backtracked and a service technician showed up at my door 45 minutes later. He sorted out all the configuration issues but was stymied by the spontaneous reboots.

One last anecdote. On the previous service call the person in the service department told the installer (and me) that because I had any flatscreen TV, my TiVo 3 would never work. He "knew" because he had one and had to get rid of it in order to get his TiVo to work!

The lessons here are fairly obvious, but are worth repeating.

Keep detailed notes of who you talked to and when.
Request a cablecard/TiVo knowledgeable service technician. TW may balk on the TiVo knowledge requirement, but try anyway
Request that the technician bring extra cable cards
Reconfirm your service appointment and points 2 & 3 again and again
Make them honor their commitments & if they don't talk to a supervisor
Don't let TW try to pass the buck and put blame on TiVo. They didn't have an answer for the fact that my TiVo would setup without cablecards and only had the spontaneous reboot problem once the cablecards were installed.
Completely install the cablecards one at a time, making certain that the bottom card (#1) is installed first.
Spontaneous reboot problem? Pull both cablecards an run Guided Setup. After it's finished, go to Tivo Central and select Messages & Settings. Select Settings and then choose the last option - delete everything and restart. Takes about an hour depending how much is on your harddrive. When complete repeat the Guided Setup being mindful of all the caveats.


Regards.

:)