R10 DVR - is it fried?

[rfbluebird]

We had a power outage and when the power came back, my poor DTV R10 DVR Tivo won't boot. I get the orange powering up screen, then the black Just a Few Minutes More screen with the blue logo, then nothing.

The lights on the front act like they see the remote and button presses, but they don't do anything. It was in standby, but none of the buttons on the front do anything at all.

I'm embarrassed that I had been moving the furniture and "temporarily" had Tivo on an unprotected outlet. It was running 6.4a, I had checked it the day before.

I'm really new to DVRs, but I'm OK with taking it apart, I bought it used. I'm even up for trying diagnostics, although I'm not hearing any strange sounds from the disk and the fan sounds normal. It wasn't giving me any problem, so I'm so annoyed at myself now. Any ideas?

[litzdog911]

Have you tried resetting it couple more times ....
disconnect power, wait one minute, then reconnect power.

[lrhorer]

What do you mean by "nothing"? A black screen? Frozen on the "Just a few more minutes" screen? The "...few more minutes" screen is put up by the OS, so we know the drive is booting, and of course we know the video works. It could be a trashed root partition, or more likely something in /var that's hanging. A kickstart 52 or 56 drive scan might help. You might need to re-image the drive or install a new drive. For more diagnostics, we would need the kernel output, but that requires hacking the Tivo.

[rfbluebird]

Well, "nothing" is a blank screen, it would be just static, but my TV has some smarts and detects no signal with a blue screen.

It looks finished with the "Just a few minutes more" phase, as it sort of "resets" the screen - I don't know how to describe it, but it kind of twitches and then just goes to blank.

I've tried leaving it with no power, then trying to start it, and I've left it at the blank screen for hours, then pressed reset, same thing.

I was hoping for a magic key sequence for reinitializing it from ROM or something. I'll keep reading, it's all very interesting. This is actually the backup DVR that's dead now, I have one that's activated and recording even now. I got a spare for just in case I needed a spare and to hopefully learn more about it.

Thanks for the replies and idea, I'll keep with it.

[codespy]

Try this:

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=3941692#post3941692

[rfbluebird]

Try this:

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=3941692#post3941692

OK! Thank you for the link and tip, I'm making progress.

I waited for the yellow light during the powering up phase, and hit pause, as directed. The record light lit up also, and I keyed 57 (MFS check) as that sounded like a good idea for starters.

It went to the Just a little longer screen for a while, then did a reset. Normal Powering up screen, then the green screen that I've heard of. This is where we are, I gave it a phone line even though it's not activated. I plan on coming back in 3 hours to see if it fixed itself. There's nothing on the disk I care about. Will post back!

[rfbluebird]

Well, that didn't get it. But there are other codes, now that I have read up on what a kickstart code is! I think ... 56 looks like a good next choice. Can't hurt at this point!

[rfbluebird]

I did a code 58 and it went to the "installing an update" screen, then the "almost there" screen, then blank again. I repeated the 58, same thing. It still doesn't boot normally so I guess either 56 or 52 is the next try.

I can't tell which one is the better choice. 52 says Emergency Install, and 56 just Install.

[rfbluebird]

OK, my guess is that the 52 is a quick reinstall of the current version and 56 is a reinstall from a ROM image, like a factory install, perhaps?

I'm going to try 52.

[wscannell]

Try presing the Directv button on the front panel or the remote. It really sounds like it is going into standby.

[rfbluebird]

>Try presing the Directv button on the front panel or the remote.
>It really sounds like it is going into standby.

I totally agree with you, but believe me, I have pressed every button on the front panel, and some in odd combinations.

The argument against it being in suspend mode is that the green light is on, and it flashes in response to the remote or front panel button presses. The only thing is, the buttons don't actually do anything. I've pressed "left" enough times that I ought to be at Tivo Central, and then "down" enough times that it ought to be on the suspend option then "select" to see if it would go to suspend, but no.

Kickstart 56 didn't change anything. Tonight it's time for kickstart 52, I guess.

[rfbluebird]

52 is not supported on this model, I take it, as I get
'Connecting to the server... Error: Bad Connection'

I don't actually hear it trying to dial the modem, and this model doesn't do USB networking from what I've gathered.

Ah, well. When I get a better hex screwdriver, I'm going to crack the case and run some diags on that disk. 4 of the 6 hex screws are in too tightly and I'm about to strip my cheap little hex tool.

I think I'll move on to my next project - figuring out what I need to do to make the working R10 do dual tuners.

Thanks to all who replied!

[bay230]

Had the same thing happen to my R10 receiver. The receiver would boot to the powering up screen, then to the a few minutes more screen then glitch to a black screen. The receiver would still have power cause the power light remains on but no picture. I had another R10 receiver which had one defective tuner laying around. I took out the harddrive from the receiver with the defective tuner and replaced it in the receiver which kept glitching to a black screen. Low and behold the receiver booted and passsed aquiring satellite data, everthing seemed fine as far as receiving a picture and both tuners working except I got a message on the screen stating that access card did not match receiver. I was expecting that because I swaped out the harddrive from one receiver to another. Hope this helps, with my situation the hard drive crapped not the receiver. This was driving me insane too.

[wscannell]

4 of the 6 hex screws are in too tightly and I'm about to strip my cheap little hex tool.

The case screws are not hex. They are Torx screws (sort of star shaped). You will need a Torx screwdriver.

[rfbluebird]

You all are not going to believe it, but Tivo lives!

I hit the down and left and down and left (whatever it really is) in the right combination to take me to the reset and delete everything screen, did the 3 thumbs down and enter, and then went away for the day, since if it was working, it was going to take a while. When I came back, it looked like it was in real standby mode, and when I pressed the standby button, lo, it woke up!

Really, I had pressed that button and the directv button before and it had not been doing anything other than flashing the left LED. I haven't booted the unit yet, but it looks cured to me. Let's hope, anyway!

It's alive, and a relief to have a backup. I think I'll ask Santa for a decent Torx set.