TIVO 2 faults in 7 days- help please!

[Andy_B]

After faithfully serving me for the last two years my TIVO has finally decided to develop the following problems

1) I have just run out of program data as despite no change to my stable set up every time the modem tries to get make its daily call it says either line busy or call failed. If I listen in to a forced daily call the modem dials out OK and then you hear the handshaking protocols taking place and then the modem noise just stops and after about 30 seconds to a minute the TIVO drops the call usually citing line as being busy. Symptoms present for over a week now.
Any ideas folks ? modem problem

2) For the last 5 days the TIVO recorded input now has a ghastly green hue to it . Confirmed as not the Freeview box as the screen returns to normal colours by pressing the aux button ?tuner problem or hard disc failing

Was always going to get round to opening up the case and upgrading/modding the TIVO now might be as good a time as any.

Any suggestions folks? Willing to open up the case and dabble as required!

[Pete77]

Your problems don't sound like standard examples of hard drive failure but blindlemon or HealeyDave (of www.tivoheaven.co.uk and www.tivoland.com Tivo upgrading fame) would be better qualified than me to render an opinion.

Ideally they would want to see the contents of a few log files on the Tivo but obviously you can't access those with no network access available.

[blindlemon]

Have you tried powering down the TiVo for a couple of minutes?

[Andy_B]

Have you tried powering down the TiVo for a couple of minutes?
I tried a restart but not a complete shutdown and leave off.
I will try this tonight and see what happens
Thanks

[AMc]

Pull the plug, wait a minute or two and power up again. It's easy to forget that a device as stable as Tivo is actually a computer and sometimes they get in a tizz.

[Pete77]

Have just remembered that I experienced the ghastly Green Hue in part of the Tivo picture problem a few months ago.

I initially feared my telly tube was on its way out but on checking the Aux Sky Digibox input realised there was nothing wrong with it

A full power off reboot of my Tivo corrected the problem. I have only ever once seen this issue in four years of Tivo use. There would be no harm in leaving your Tivo off overnight if the poor thing has been running continuously for so long.

[iankb]

There would be no harm in leaving your Tivo off overnight if the poor thing has been running continuously for so long.Personally, I wouldn't leave it off for more than a minute or two. Starting up drives from cold that have been running for a long period is likely to exacerbate any head-alignment problems that have built-up over time. Also, like light bulbs, components are more likely to fail when subjected to the stress of temperature changes.

[Pete77]

Also, like light bulbs, components are more likely to fail when subjected to the stress of temperature changes.

I think it all depends on the item and how well ventilated it is.

Any notebook PC that runs too hot (and many of them do unless they are placed on special third party cooling bases with extra fans etc) that is left on 24/7 all the time is on the whole likely to have a much shorter lifetime than a Notebook PC only is used for 2 or 3 hours a day.

I supose you may be right though that if the hard drives are already on their very last legs after several years use that letting them cool down over night might possibly be the last straw and finally finish them off. Still my old Quantum drives and my Tivo were powered down for a day or so several times when they were four and five years old without experiencing any obvious ill effects.

[mesaka]

Also its worth checking your connections - I remember being in a real panic after getting a rather greenish tone to all of my pictures and it turned out to be a slightly loose scart lead.

[Andy_B]

Things not getting any better. Tried the shut down leave for few minutes suggestion -no improvement. Tried new modem/telephone cables no difference still says unable to connect on TIVO. Also now getting either no sound or sound that rapidly fades to inaudible on TIVO but sound OK on aux (bypass) ie Freeview box must be OK

Am going to disconnect the TIVO from my tv set up and give it a severe talking to this weekend. Any other suggestions welcome!

[blindlemon]

Not heard of the "fading sound" problem before - I'd suspect the PSU in the first instance.

[Pete77]

For the ghastly green hue I suggest checking that all your Scart lead connections are secure at all ends. If that doesn't work I suggest power off the machine and leave off for an hour or so and then restart.

For the modem problem it sounds like a blown modem to me in which case the only solution is to install a Cachecard and network drivers to get the program data that way instead, although its hardly worth doing all that without upgrading the hard drive at the same time as you have to install network drivers by connecting your hard drive to a PC etc. If you buy a new drive from TivoHeaven or TivoLand they can install all the necessary drivers for the Cachecard for you.

Before you go to this expense you might want to try rerunning Guided Setup and changing your program source to say Sky Digital instead of Aerial or whatever you currently have as your program source or Freeview instead of Sky etc. And then after that do another Guided Setup back to your actual source. If the modem dialup issue is some kind of database corruption then this ought to help clear it.

Where do you live in relation to Malmesbury? I suppose if it was near you could always take your Tivo over to TivoHeaven over for him to have a look at and take the necessary corrective action for you.

[Andy_B]

Am I best just turning the TIVO box off and waiting until I can get to replace the PSU ?(don't want the hard drive and my 'image' to get mangled)
Think it might be time for a second TIVO box on ebay (to have one in reserve/play with) am already missing its functionality and the programme data only ran out on the 13/12/06 DAM YOU TIVO!!!!!

[Pete77]

Alternatively what does it say about your current subscription status in System Information? I hope it says either Lifetime or In Good Standing? If not then are you using a credit card that has expired or something to pay Tivo? Why not call Tivo Customer Services to check if they think that your subscription is up to date.

[Andy_B]

For the ghastly green hue I suggest checking that all your Scart lead connections are secure at all ends. If that doesn't work I suggest power off the machine and leave off for an hour or so and then restart.

For the modem problem it sounds like a blown modem to me in which case the only solution is to install a Cachecard and network drivers to get the program data that way instead, although its hardly worth doing all that without upgrading the hard drive at the same time as you have to install network drivers by connecting your hard drive to a PC etc. If you buy a new drive from TivoHeaven or TivoLand they can install all the necessary drivers for the Cachecard for you.

Before you go to this expense you might want to try rerunning Guided Setup and changing your program source to say Sky Digital instead of Aerial or whatever you currently have as your program source or Freeview instead of Sky etc. And then after that do another Guided Setup back to your actual source. If the modem dialup issue is some kind of database corruption then this ought to help clear it.

Where do you live in relation to Malmesbury? I suppose if it was near you could always take your Tivo over to TivoHeaven over for him to have a look at and take the necessary corrective action for you.

Thanks for the help. Unfortunately I live in Chester much closer to you Pete77 than Blindlemon! Will let you know how I get on :D

[Andy_B]

Alternatively what does it say about your current subscription status in System Information? I hope it says either Lifetime or In Good Standing? If not then are you using a credit card that has expired or something to pay Tivo? Why not call Tivo Customer Services to check if they think that your subscription is up to date.

Lifetime subscription :up:

[Pete77]

Am I best just turning the TIVO box off and waiting until I can get to replace the PSU ?(don't want the hard drive and my 'image' to get mangled)
Think it might be time for a second TIVO box on ebay (to have one in reserve/play with) am already missing its functionality and the programme data only ran out on the 13/12/06 DAM YOU TIVO!!!!!

Losing the image will only be a problem if you want to hang on to your Thumbs Data, Season Passes, Wishlists and recordings and are planning to do the upgrade yourself or buy the TivoHeaven option that lets you keep your own data. If you want to do any of those then leaving your machine off in case its the hard drive is not a bad idea.

I would suggest acquiring a new power supply and fitting it ASAP. I know Tivoland has them, although I see they recently increased their price for them (to £8 from £5 plus post and packing) which suggests that it may be getting harder to source them.

I don't think getting another machine on Ebay is really the answer unless you plan to buy one with a Lifetime Sub, Cachecard, and 512k memory for Cachecard already installed? If you then sold your own machine on Ebay that might work out cheaper than upgrading your own non upgraded machine fully. However this is normally only a particularly good option for people who have a non upgraded machine that doesn't currently have a Lifetime Sub. If you have a Lifetime sub then upgrading your own machine is quite cost effective if you did all the upgrading yourself.