Spontaneous Rebooting

[jdrod]

Hi folks, I'm new to the site, but have been using TiVo for about 7 years now. We have a Series 2 (I think) Tivo and have been using it for 3 years as our primary unit. Just today, it started spontaneously rebooting. After looking through the site, it seems this is probably an HD problem.

My question is, whether I'm on the right track here or could this be something else?

Thanks.
Jim

[litzdog911]

This could be the classic symptom of hard disk failure, or soon-to-be failure. Can you still get it to restart when you disconnect/reconnect AC power? If so, and you value the recordings on your Tivo, you may want to act fast to replace or upgrade that hard drive. But try these tips first:

*** Note that problems like this can also be caused by AC power spikes or fluctuations. Your Tivo is essentially a computer inside, so you should seriously consider powering it with an uninterruptable power supply (UPS). Good quality 350VA UPS's are available for well below $50 and will power your Tivo for nearly an hour, plus they provide much better powerline isolation and protection than a surge protector.

http://www.staples.com/Catalog/Browse/Sku.asp?PageType=1&Sku=474045


*** Check your Tivo's internal temperature. If it's running too hot you'll sometimes see problems like this. Look in "Messages & Setup" -> "System Information" and scroll down a couple of pages to see the internal temperature. Anything under 50-deg C is usually OK. If it's higher than that, make sure you have good airflow under and around your Tivo. It's a good idea to raise your Tivo up an inch or so for better airflow. Some folks use pop bottle caps under each corner.


*** If your Tivo is a combination DirecTV+Tivo receiver, you should try re-seating your access card. Remove power, remove the access card, wait a few minutes, re-insert the access card, and reconnect power.

*** If you're comfortable opening up your Tivo (which will void your warranty if you still have one), then disconnect and reconnect all the cables leading to the hard drive(s). Sometimes connections can work loose, or tarnish, and re-seating them will help.


*** If these steps don't help, then it's likely a hard drive problem. You can try a "Clear and Delete Everything" (in the Tivo's "Messages & Setup" menu). That might help the drive repair itself, but you will lose your recordings, Season Passes, and other settings.

*** Finally, if all else fails, then you might want to try connecting your Tivo drive(s) to your PC and run the disk manufacturer's DOS-based diagnostic utilities. These are usually available for download from their web site. Unfortunately they don't always detect all of the failures that can disrupt your Tivo. Some folks have reported success using the SpinRite disk repair utility available from Gibson Research at http://www.grc.com/sr/spinrite.htm or HDD Regenerator at http://www.dposoft.net/#b_hddhid

Also check out these sources of information, much of which you'll find in the Tivo Upgrade Center forum:

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=25

http://www.weaknees.com/index.html

http://tivo.upgrade-instructions.com/

http://www.mfslive.org/

http://www.newreleasesvideo.com/hinsdale-how-to/

http://www.dvrupgrade.com/dvr/stores/1/instantcake.cfm

http://www.9thtee.com/

[John T Smith]

I don't do/understand Linux, so have no idea how to clone a drive with any of the Linux tools that are available

But... WinMFS runs under Windows and will allow you to clone a drive, and even adjust a new, larger drive to use the available space

I have several DTivo's (all the same age) and when the drive on one went "suddenly" bad, I bought new 320gig drives to replace all of the old 80gig drives... other than the one that had actually died, I did not lose a single show or setting

http://mfslive.org/winmfs/

[jdrod]

John
Can you tell me how you hooked up your TiVo drives to your computer? I'm looking at that winmfs site and it a little confusing. They tell you to disconnect your computer hard drive and then they tell you not to if you are using winmfs. I was wondering if I could use an external hard drive case to pop the drive into and connect it via USB.

BTW, I did more searching on the site this morning and found another post w/some info on "kickstarts". I tried the ks57 and that seemed to help. I'm thinking it's probably just prolonged the inevitable, so I'm looking at upgrading the drive.

Thanks to both of you guys for the help.
Jim

[John T Smith]

WinMFS is a Windoze program, so you just put it on your drive and run it

I had an extra case so connected 80g and 320g drives to the second IDE controller

I think WinMFS will also work (slower) if you connect your original and new drives to USB

[BajaBoy]

Hi folks, I'm new to the site, but have been using TiVo for about 7 years now. We have a Series 2 (I think) Tivo and have been using it for 3 years as our primary unit. Just today, it started spontaneously rebooting. After looking through the site, it seems this is probably an HD problem.

My question is, whether I'm on the right track here or could this be something else?

Thanks.
Jim

I have only had this problem with my Standard Def Tivo and it was a software glitch of some sort. Turns out for some reason the updates stopped happening automatically, I went in to the phone setting and connected to DVR service now, no problems since then.

If it persists you can try to reboot the entire system, which will erase all info on your unit (as discussed below).

One item to check is the internal temp after the unit reboots, poor aiflow will cause the same issue.

[becca924]

I had the same problem (spontaneous rebooting) and DirecTV sent a guy to my house to check it out. For me, there was a bad multi-switch outside my house that was causing it to happen. The guy said that the DVR would just keep rebooting to try and fix itself. Since he replaced it I've had no problems. I was so afraid I was going to have to get a new DVR and lose all of my saved programs! He also gave me a number to call if anything goes wrong in the next 90 days.

Just thought I'd throw my 2 cents in...not that it will help but I tried!

[jdrod]

I had the same problem (spontaneous rebooting) and DirecTV sent a guy to my house to check it out. For me, there was a bad multi-switch outside my house that was causing it to happen. The guy said that the DVR would just keep rebooting to try and fix itself. Since he replaced it I've had no problems. I was so afraid I was going to have to get a new DVR and lose all of my saved programs! He also gave me a number to call if anything goes wrong in the next 90 days.

Just thought I'd throw my 2 cents in...not that it will help but I tried!

I'm beginning to wonder if there isn't some problem with DTV. We have a DTV DVR as well as the TiVo and what I noticed last night was that the DTV DVR was pixilating and freezing, but not locking up. When I turned on the tube downstairs this morning, the Tivo had locked up, at about the same time as the DTV DVR froze last night. (It was on ESPN and the frozen picture had the time in the corner). Maybe I should call DTV and see if they can look at my system.

[dtremain]

I'm beginning to wonder if there isn't some problem with DTV. We have a DTV DVR as well as the TiVo and what I noticed last night was that the DTV DVR was pixilating and freezing, but not locking up. When I turned on the tube downstairs this morning, the Tivo had locked up, at about the same time as the DTV DVR froze last night. (It was on ESPN and the frozen picture had the time in the corner). Maybe I should call DTV and see if they can look at my system.
Silly question, maybe. But, since you don't say where you live, how was the weather?

There was quite a bit of rain on the east coast. What you're describing could have been attributed to rain fade.

[jdrod]

No, the weather was clear. Here's an even stranger things. For weeks, months maybe, we've been having problems with our local ABC feed. We'd have sever pixilation and sound lock ups, then it would come back. Sometimes this would happen for a few seconds, some times up to a couple of minutes. I bring this up because, I've started to notice that the reboots and freezes only happen when one of the two tuners is on that ABC feed.

I'm not saying the two things are related, but it sure seems like a strange coincidence.

[dtremain]

No, the weather was clear. Here's an even stranger things. For weeks, months maybe, we've been having problems with our local ABC feed. We'd have sever pixilation and sound lock ups, then it would come back. Sometimes this would happen for a few seconds, some times up to a couple of minutes. I bring this up because, I've started to notice that the reboots and freezes only happen when one of the two tuners is on that ABC feed.

I'm not saying the two things are related, but it sure seems like a strange coincidence.They could well be related. I had the same thing with the local CBS feed (channel 2 -- NYC) a couple of years ago. It would always happen during Judge Judy, every day.

And it went on for a couple of months, and then stopped.

Others have reported similar incidents.

Hope that's helpful.

[quaisior]

I've been having spontaneous reboot and freezing problems for a while now. My TiVo was always on a local channel on one of the receivers when it rebooted or froze until today. It's so bad on local channels that I try not to watch network or public television much anymore. As far as I know, any local channel will cause the problems, although I rarely watch CW or MyNetworkTV, but my local ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, and Fox all cause the problem. I'm in the Albany area of NY and I haven't seen this area mentioned as one that has a lot of TiVo issues with the local channels. I didn't think it was a hard drive problem because this issue only comes up when the TiVo is on the local channels, but today it rebooted when it was on either the History Channel or History International on both receivers. I wish I could remember how long ago I bought the unit. It's a series 2 DirecTV DVR with TiVo DVR R10.

I should also mention that I never had this problem until March. I moved in March and the TiVo upgraded to a new software version when it was plugged in to the phone line. I can't remember now what one it was at the time or what the one that was on there previously was. When we still lived in an apartment, we had phone issues so we had to unplug the TiVo's phone cord and we figured we'd be moving soon, so we could just plug it back in when we moved; however, it took us longer to move than we anticipated, so we didn't get any software updates for several months. The TiVo worked fine then, but as soon as we got the new software, it started rebooting and freezing all the time. I also have problems advancing the to do list past the first screen or two most of the time. Although, oddly, today it was working perfectly, then the TiVo rebooted in the middle of my search through the to do list.