TivoHD freezing up

[saz25]

Hi,
I've had a TivoHD for approx a year. Its been working wonderfully all this time. In the past week or so, almost every night it freezes.

As you know, even though the TV is turned off, Tivo is always tuning in 2 channels. Everyday when I turn on the TV I see one of the channels frozen. Its not always the same channel either. I've seen it on channel 852 which is Comcast Sports Net in the New Endgland area. I've seen it freeze on channel 805 which is the local ABC affiliate. Also 849 ESPN has frozen.

Its as if it froze sometime during the evening and I only notice it when I turn on the TV in the morning or whenever.

The Tivo does not reboot like I've read in other threads. Another observation: it unfreezes when I change channels. For example, if I change from 852 to 851 and then back to 852, all is well again.

I am nervous about calling Tivo tech support since I bet they will ask me to erase/clear everything and see if that fixes it. If I do that it will erase all my recorded shows.

I also tried restart and that doesn't resolve it. Could it be a bad hard drive? Or perhaps a recent software update broke something?

Oh, one more thing. Sometimes when I click on the TIVO button on the remote, it takes a few seconds for the screen to be painted. Or when I try to go into the Program Guide, the screen takes many seconds to be painted as well. Its almost as if too many processes are running and the application can't get enough of the CPU, such as when a PC slows down when too many apps are running. Again this sounds like either a software problem (thats why I was hoping to see many reports of such on this forum but I don't) or a failing HDD. Perhaps bad spots on the HDD.

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance,
Steve

[dwellers]

I saw your post and am having the same problem. During Rudolph (nooooo!!!!!!) the system would start jumping, pixelate and then freeze. The remote was extremely unresponsive. This only appears to happen on HD shows, not SD. I do have WD DVR Expander attached and quite a few shows recorded. I've tried a menu system restart and then an unplug restart...same effect. I'm going to shut it down again today and leave it off for awhile to see if that helps.

I hope there's a simple solution, one that doesn't involve erasing. This is one of the reasons I left my Comcast box at the Comcast office...horrible reliability and fixing be reformatting. Hopefully someone will have a suggestion.

Thanks!

[saz25]

I happened to me again last night while watching the Celtics game in HD. When I tried to view the Program Guide, Tivo acted very sluggish and it took many seconds in order to completely display the guide. There was picture jitter for a few seconds as well.

I would love this to be a software issue that would be fixed with a new update and not require an erase.

I also have the WD DVD Expander external drive.

Hopefully this thread will generate some information for us all.
Thanks,
Steve

[phish3rz]

Yeah that happened to me the other game whilst watching a football match in HD. There was a picture jitter and then a blank screen for a while. Quite annoying!!

Hope they sort it out soon enough.

[charms]

My guess would be that it has something to do with the Expander drive. I had similar problems a few months ago after the Fall software upgrade.

Divorcing the expander drive solved the problem, which unfortunately means you lose a lot of recordings. You can transfer as many recordings as possible to your PC and then try the divorce and transfer back things as necessary. No solutions for DRM'd programs.

The ultimate solution for me was spending the $100-125 and doing the ridiculously simple upgrade of the internal drive to 1 TB. Absolutely no problems since and I have more recording space than I'll ever need.

I don't know why, but recording across two drives seems to cause a lot more problems than just recording to a single, big drive.

[saz25]

Hi,
Could it be that a recent Tivo software update has compatibility issues with the WD DVR expander? The reason I ask this is because I installed the expander at least 8+ months ago. It had worked fine up until the last month or so.

Steve

[dwellers]

After a LONG rest today, the machine exhibited the same problems again tonight on CBS HD. Skip, skip, skip, pixelation, freeze, unresponsive remote. I'm backing up a bunch of shows now in anticipation of a full reset. At this rate, it should be done before the end of the weekend.

I'm concerned that there are bad sectors or other hardware issues with either the internal drive or the WD Expander which will cause this to happen again I'm sure.

Anyone have any experience with TiVo customer service? I have not yet availed myself of their expertise.

[saz25]

Hi,
I posted this same question on the Tivo forum. The only reply I've gotten so far (after 2 days) was a very detailed set of instructions to run a test on the drives.

I haven't done that yet since it says I need to connect to a monitor that accepts S-video or composite since this particular low level test menu does not output through component video. I can do all this but I need to run some cables since at the moment my Tivo is connected to my receiver via component video cables.

I "may" run this procedure over the weekend.
Steve

[dwellers]

So, after about an hour on the phone with TiVo, they had me look at the cablecard firmware and it's 2.65 which according to TiVo, has known issues especially around channel authorization which may be causing the problem. I called Comcast and they will swap out the card for me. I'll try it out this afternoon and post the results. Hopefully this is all it will take! Wish me luck!

--David

[saz25]

Hi,
I just checked. I have firmware 2.65 in my cable card. Can you confirm that it is the cause of the problem? I haven't called Comcast yet. Does anyone else know whether Comcast agrees that 2.65 is a problem?

Can cable authorization be the cause of the freezing picture? I kinda doubt it unless someone can explain how this is so.

Thanks,
Steve

[BigBillTolbert]

Do you have a link to the instructions? I'm having some of the same issues and would like to verfiy that hard drive is going bad or not.

I think I found something similar that talks about the Kickstart 54 tests:

http://www.tivo.com/setupandsupport/technicalsupport/compatibilityhelp/DVR_Expander_Troubleshooting_Generic.html

It is talking about the expansion drive, but it tests the internal drive too.

[saz25]

Yes, that is the correct link.
Steve

[dwellers]

Looks like the new cablecard made no difference. I'll be calling TiVo in the AM and keep you posted. Bummer...

--David

[dwellers]

Another interesting thing: when I access the hard drive performance tests (hold pause for 2 minutes, then type "54" when the red and green lights are on) I am unable to run the S.M.A.R.T. test. I can move the cursor to it but when I push SELECT, it just freezes. What's up with that?

Tech suggested running a "57" test but that will take about two hours. Any thoughts?

Another thing that occurs to me is that if it's a disk issue, why would the freezes just occur on selected HD channels (CBS and ESPN for me so far) and not other HD or SD channels, recorded or otherwise? If it's a disk issue it should be happening randomly on all channels no?

And can anyone tell me what sort of attenuator or diplexer to try? I'm happy to go to the Shack to buy one but I'd like to know what specs before buying.

--David

[dwellers]

So now I've isolated the problem to just CBS and ESPN HD channels on Comcast here in the Bay Area. It could be happening on more HD channels but I haven't found it the probme anywhere else.

When I've been watching on those channels for about 5 minutes and it starts to skip, if I change channels (one down or one up) and come back, I get another five minutes or so skip/freeze free. I'm STUMPED! This is the most frustrating thing and means I cannot record anything on those channels.

[dwellers]

Well I tried an inline diplexer (both directions) and no luck. And now the thing froze on another channel so I'm stumped. TiVo is absolutely no help at this point. I'm not at all happy and just as the netflix stuff appears.

:mad:

[ghuido]

Please let me know if you find a solution for this. Mine froze up on an SD channel. I also have Comcast and a Western Digital Expander. I just got V. 11 Fall Update this weekend.

Almost makes me wish I got the TIVO HD XL.

[rsawlani]

Another interesting thing: when I access the hard drive performance tests (hold pause for 2 minutes, then type "54" when the red and green lights are on) I am unable to run the S.M.A.R.T. test. I can move the cursor to it but when I push SELECT, it just freezes. What's up with that?

Tech suggested running a "57" test but that will take about two hours. Any thoughts?

Another thing that occurs to me is that if it's a disk issue, why would the freezes just occur on selected HD channels (CBS and ESPN for me so far) and not other HD or SD channels, recorded or otherwise? If it's a disk issue it should be happening randomly on all channels no?

And can anyone tell me what sort of attenuator or diplexer to try? I'm happy to go to the Shack to buy one but I'd like to know what specs before buying.

--David

i have the exact same problem when i run the SMART test. for me this freezing seems to only occur on HD channels, although i mainly watch HD.

also...it doesn't seem to be affecting any of my recordings...making me doubt its a problem with either of the hard drives. its only a problem with live TV for me.

[dwellers]

TiVo tech support confirmed that the S.M.A.R.T. selection from the top menu freeze is a known bug. You have to go into the specific drive (dev/hd0a etc.) to run the tests.

As for me, I bit the bullet and unplugged the WD Expander since I'd lose everything at this point anyway. And replacing the Expander is easier than the HD box. And as of now, I've been running on two HD channels without a skip or freeze for over an hour now. Keeping my fingers crossed and getting ready to hit the send button on the WD RMA. And not a moment too soon as my warranty expires in early January!

Hopefully this will fix the problem. Now it's on to Netflix!

Good luck to all!

[rsawlani]

TiVo tech support confirmed that the S.M.A.R.T. selection from the top menu freeze is a known bug. You have to go into the specific drive (dev/hd0a etc.) to run the tests.

As for me, I bit the bullet and unplugged the WD Expander since I'd lose everything at this point anyway. And replacing the Expander is easier than the HD box. And as of now, I've been running on two HD channels without a skip or freeze for over an hour now. Keeping my fingers crossed and getting ready to hit the send button on the WD RMA. And not a moment too soon as my warranty expires in early January!

Hopefully this will fix the problem. Now it's on to Netflix!

Good luck to all!

yeah i called tivo and they said the same thing about the SMART test. but i foun out that recently my cable lineup had changed...and i think that may have been causing my problems. i will get back to you guys on if that worked. otherwise i may have to *gasp* unplug the expander. there goes season 3 of dexter....

[sturner]

My screen was frozen last night as soon as my TV powered up. Tivo tech had me unplug the comcast cable card, which unfroze the picture, and has asked that I try it for a week. Their logic is, if it happens again, its the Tivo. If it doesn't, it's the cable card.

[Belbo]

I just received my Tivo HD XL last week and noticed some problems with it being unresponsive within a couple days of activating it. A SD show would be playing just fine, but if I attempted to pause it/etc, the Tivo didn't respond at all. It didn't even recognize that a request had been sent (no amber light). After the Fall Service Update was pushed down the other day it seems to have increased.

Then today I had the Comcast rep come out and install the CableCards and it froze several times when trying to get the channel list. I did verify that pulling the CableCard did seem to unfreeze the picture.

I'll be interested to see what works for others

[dwellers]

Well at this point I have to believe the problem was the WD DVR Expander. It's been unplugged now for over 24 hours and there hasn't been a skip/freeze on any channel. This is even though the unit passed drive tests. Go figure.

WD shipped out a replacement under warranty that should be here on Friday. I have concerns that this will happen again so I'll be sure to watch what I want early and often! Thanks to everyone who contributed and to SAZ25 who started this thread, I hope you get your issue fixed. But it sounds like you'll have to do what I did. Sorry.