Tivo Updates causing me to lose programs :(

[Jon3]

This is the second time I've gone on vacation, only to return home to a 'YOU GOT NEW FIRMWARE!' message. Of course, it STOPS halfway through the damn reboot in order to display this, and it doesn't go RESUME RECORDING SHOWS until I come back from being away for a week and select 'done reading', and therefore it skips recording all the shows that were the entire reason I subscribed to tivo in the first place.

Am I the only one frustrated by this?

[ZeoTiVo]

TiVo never displays "you have new firmware" and under proper conditions it does the whole reboot and goes back to normal operation. You will see a message the first time you check the TiVo saying the fall 2006 or whatever release has been applied - but the recordings are still happening.


I suspect you mean the Cable box supplied by the cable company is getting firmware updates and popping up the firmware message which all the TiVo recordings display as that is what is in the signal being outputted by the cable box

[shady]

This is the second time I've gone on vacation, only to return home to a 'YOU GOT NEW FIRMWARE!' message. Of course, it STOPS halfway through the damn reboot in order to display this, and it doesn't go RESUME RECORDING SHOWS until I come back from being away for a week and select 'done reading', and therefore it skips recording all the shows that were the entire reason I subscribed to tivo in the first place.

Am I the only one frustrated by this?

I've never seen that before. Are you absolutely sure? What does it say in your ToTo list History against the programs that weren't recorded?

[Jon3]

I've never seen that before. Are you absolutely sure? What does it say in your ToTo list History against the programs that weren't recorded?

It doesn't show anything. It is like it never knew they were there.

What happens is, I get back from being away, I turn on the Tivo, and it goes to the 'you got new firmware' message. I click the whatever button, then it pops out to the bootup sequence with the little tivo dude sliding down the ramp etc. 5 minutes later, I got my playing now screen up. From then on, it continues to record things AOK, but from when the update came in to when I hit the 'ok' on the message, I got nothing.

I'm wondering if something on my tivo is broken now, if you guys don't get it.
Early 80 hour S2 model, lifetime sub.

[ZeoTiVo]

I turn on the Tivo, and it goes to the 'you got new firmware' message. I click the whatever button, then it pops out to the bootup sequence with the little tivo dude sliding down the ramp etc. 5 minutes later, I got my playing now screen up.

OK - it is not a "firmware" update - but there is the messgae for the update. By whatever button I assume you mean the bar at the bottom saying press select to continue. The animation sequence is not part of the "bootup" the Bootup has already happened and that animation just plays after each bootup.

5 minutes later is a pretty long time for the now playing to show up - plus it should be the main menu - unless you are hitting buttons while waiting.

in nay event the recordings should still be taking place.

anyhow - bottom line - your TiVo has a defect. you can call CSR but i suspect you will get the 150$ to "repair this" which is really just swap yours for a refurbished box and they transfer whatever service you have.

or I suspect it is a hard drive going bad - easiest is to replace the hard drive using methods detailed in the undergorund forum here - or using the ad links at the top of this forum to the 3rd party companies that can go as far as do the whole thing for you and copy your shows to just send you a new Hard rive to put in. that way the 150$ can go to a much larger hard drive in the unit.


ETA - I suspect a bad hard drive as the partition spaces the hard drive uses to get the new updates and then reboot to use them likely has some glitch that is not letting it completely finish adn thus the final flag to start doing the DVR stuff does not happen. It could be some circuitry on the board finally gone bad - but failrly rare that the circuits have such a specific symptom.

[Jon3]

OK - it is not a "firmware" update - but there is the messgae for the update. By whatever button I assume you mean the bar at the bottom saying press select to continue. The animation sequence is not part of the "bootup" the Bootup has already happened and that animation just plays after each bootup.

5 minutes later is a pretty long time for the now playing to show up - plus it should be the main menu - unless you are hitting buttons while waiting.

in nay event the recordings should still be taking place.

anyhow - bottom line - your TiVo has a defect. you can call CSR but i suspect you will get the 150$ to "repair this" which is really just swap yours for a refurbished box and they transfer whatever service you have.

or I suspect it is a hard drive going bad - easiest is to replace the hard drive using methods detailed in the undergorund forum here - or using the ad links at the top of this forum to the 3rd party companies that can go as far as do the whole thing for you and copy your shows to just send you a new Hard rive to put in. that way the 150$ can go to a much larger hard drive in the unit.


ETA - I suspect a bad hard drive as the partition spaces the hard drive uses to get the new updates and then reboot to use them likely has some glitch that is not letting it completely finish adn thus the final flag to start doing the DVR stuff does not happen. It could be some circuitry on the board finally gone bad - but failrly rare that the circuits have such a specific symptom.

Sorry for firmware/software typo. I'm at work and doing firmware updates.

I also had an issue with some choppy playback, but only on certain shows, and I was wondering if I maybe had a bad hard drive.

I'll try that swap and see if that helps.

[TiVoDan]

Choppy playback, is usually the first warning, of an impending hard drive failure. I've had a situation, where I started getting choppy playback, so I ordered a new hard drive online; but by the time the new drive arrived, the nard drive had already failed.