Jon545
11-15-2008, 05:49 PM
I've got a strange one that I'd like everyone's input on before I try getting a new hard drive that may not fix my problem.
I have an S2 with Lifetime service that's been working great for years. Back when I bought it, I had it immediately upgraded with a second drive for ~ 213 hrs capability. I've now had FIOS for about 1.5 years and the TIVO has still worked fine with the FIOS STB. Uuntil about a week ago, that is. My Connections: FIOS Cable into to FIOS STB; S-Video cable from STB to TIVO S2 video input; S-video cable from TIVO to TV. I've been on 9.3xx SW on this TIVO for a while now with no problems either. Using a TIVO wireless to get updates and no problems there either. The guide data gets updated daily and the last few SW updates came through without problems.
But starting about a week ago, and multiple times a day, the TIVO "live" output to my TV starts to freeze and/or break up, and within a few minutes the TV displays the TIVO warning "Cable box signal lost". If I leave it alone, it may get the signal back in a few seconds or minutes, but if so, it will usually lose it again in a few minutes to hours. All other TIVO functions still work when this happens (menus, recorded show playback, TTG, etc). Any shows that tried to record when this was happening has the recording show the same freeze/breakup and occasionally the signal loss resulting in the recording stopping.
I thought the cable in signal might be bad, but I've got 2 other TIVOs that are working fine at the same time this happens, and I also took the STB S-video output directly to the TV for several hours and saw no video problems. I then swapped in a different cable STB (from my Humax S2 TIVO setup) and the same video signal loss problem still occurred, and I then swapped the S-video cable out with 2 other known good ones with no improvement. Oh, I also tried switching the STB out to TIVO in from an S-video cable to a straight composite video cables without curing the problem either.
Next I tried all the Kickstart routines: 54 (hard disk), 58 (MFS cleanup), 52 (reload TIVO SW to the alternate partition), and 55 (Tuner/AFT test). None of these appear to have fixed the problem or found anything of significance. The SMART tests don't seem to run on these 2 old drives, but all the short and extended read/seek/time vs distance tests run and pass on both disks. The Tuner/AFT Kickstart 55 test doesn't give me any result report, but after I kickstart 55 it, it does a normal startup after a few minutes, and the problem is still there. The internal temperature report in the System Information screen looks OK (40-44 deg C) too. When it loses the signal, if it doesn't come back on by itself in a few minutes, I've gone to TIVO/Settings/Video and told it to change my video input. This causes it to check all the TIVO video inputs for signals, and has always found the STB S-video input signal and the video from the TIVO to the TV is back... for a while. If I reboot the TIVO or the STB, it seems to always come up OK too... for a while.
I'm trying to figure out how this could be a hard drive problem before I invest in a drive and Instantcake. Since this TIVO has lifetime service paid on it, just getting rid of it isn't a viable option. While it doesn't seem to me to be a power supply or tuner problem, maybe one of you has seen something similar and can tell me what it turned out to be. And, assuming no one comes up with anything and I try a drive replacement without success, does anybody know if TIVO will sell me a refurb S2 or equivalent as a replacement and keep my lifetime service still intact? I think they used to do that, but haven't seen anyone mentioning it lately. I know they don't transfer lifetime anymore except for old S1's, but buying their refurbished unit might be a way around that.
Thanks
I have an S2 with Lifetime service that's been working great for years. Back when I bought it, I had it immediately upgraded with a second drive for ~ 213 hrs capability. I've now had FIOS for about 1.5 years and the TIVO has still worked fine with the FIOS STB. Uuntil about a week ago, that is. My Connections: FIOS Cable into to FIOS STB; S-Video cable from STB to TIVO S2 video input; S-video cable from TIVO to TV. I've been on 9.3xx SW on this TIVO for a while now with no problems either. Using a TIVO wireless to get updates and no problems there either. The guide data gets updated daily and the last few SW updates came through without problems.
But starting about a week ago, and multiple times a day, the TIVO "live" output to my TV starts to freeze and/or break up, and within a few minutes the TV displays the TIVO warning "Cable box signal lost". If I leave it alone, it may get the signal back in a few seconds or minutes, but if so, it will usually lose it again in a few minutes to hours. All other TIVO functions still work when this happens (menus, recorded show playback, TTG, etc). Any shows that tried to record when this was happening has the recording show the same freeze/breakup and occasionally the signal loss resulting in the recording stopping.
I thought the cable in signal might be bad, but I've got 2 other TIVOs that are working fine at the same time this happens, and I also took the STB S-video output directly to the TV for several hours and saw no video problems. I then swapped in a different cable STB (from my Humax S2 TIVO setup) and the same video signal loss problem still occurred, and I then swapped the S-video cable out with 2 other known good ones with no improvement. Oh, I also tried switching the STB out to TIVO in from an S-video cable to a straight composite video cables without curing the problem either.
Next I tried all the Kickstart routines: 54 (hard disk), 58 (MFS cleanup), 52 (reload TIVO SW to the alternate partition), and 55 (Tuner/AFT test). None of these appear to have fixed the problem or found anything of significance. The SMART tests don't seem to run on these 2 old drives, but all the short and extended read/seek/time vs distance tests run and pass on both disks. The Tuner/AFT Kickstart 55 test doesn't give me any result report, but after I kickstart 55 it, it does a normal startup after a few minutes, and the problem is still there. The internal temperature report in the System Information screen looks OK (40-44 deg C) too. When it loses the signal, if it doesn't come back on by itself in a few minutes, I've gone to TIVO/Settings/Video and told it to change my video input. This causes it to check all the TIVO video inputs for signals, and has always found the STB S-video input signal and the video from the TIVO to the TV is back... for a while. If I reboot the TIVO or the STB, it seems to always come up OK too... for a while.
I'm trying to figure out how this could be a hard drive problem before I invest in a drive and Instantcake. Since this TIVO has lifetime service paid on it, just getting rid of it isn't a viable option. While it doesn't seem to me to be a power supply or tuner problem, maybe one of you has seen something similar and can tell me what it turned out to be. And, assuming no one comes up with anything and I try a drive replacement without success, does anybody know if TIVO will sell me a refurb S2 or equivalent as a replacement and keep my lifetime service still intact? I think they used to do that, but haven't seen anyone mentioning it lately. I know they don't transfer lifetime anymore except for old S1's, but buying their refurbished unit might be a way around that.
Thanks