Tivo Frozen - Suggestions

[karlk1]

I was watching a recorded program on my Tivo and then it froze. No amount of button pressing on the remote or Tivo would make it budge. I then pulled the power plug. It started the Powering On and then the It Will Be A Few More Minutes screen. However it never goes past that few minutes screen.

I restarted it a few more times and even after an hour it never made it past that screen. I have a Toshiba Series 2 Tivo with DVD player. It is about 3 years old and past warranty.

A) What are my options ?
B) Can I transfer my lifetime subscription from this dead machine to another fancy Tivo HD ?

I was thinking of throwing in the towel and getting a nice Tivo HD but it would suck if I had to pay for another lifetime subscription.

[KeithB]

It sounds like either a hard disk drive or power supply problem is preventing the TiVo from rebuilding itself. If you can remove the drive and use Linux and MFS tools on another computer to read the log files, you might get a better idea. Check the files in /var/log/ to see what's happening... A serial console may provide more information without pulling the drive, but it wouldn't be as detailed as the log files.

[karlk1]

Thanks for the reply. I have never taken apart my Tivo so this will be fun.

Is it possible to transfer my lifetime service to a new Tivo ?

[travelmad]

If I may piggyback on this conveniently named thread:

I have a Series 1 that has been working great all these years. In the last few days, I have had two instances where I turn on the TV (with the TiVo remote) and see just a freeze-frame picture from some random channel--not moving, and nothing I hit on the remote will get it off the screen or even turn TiVo off. The one thing I managed to do was to unplug the unit and plug it back in, after which it went through the boot-up sequence and then worked fine. Until a day or two later, when the same thing happened again.

Any thoughts? Please don't say that my beloved Series 1 is in its death throes! For the last two years, it's been working with a DirecTV receiver, and they are getting along just fine even though TiVo is jealous not be be HD.

[FMNY]

That's exactly what my series 1 does. It started freezing every few days. Then the freezes became more and more frequent until it basically would freeze within a couple of hours of powering it off and on. I decided it was in its death throes and got a new TiVo.

[KeithB]

I'll look in my parts bin this Saturday. I think I still have two spare TiVo Series 1 power supplies, if anyone might need them. They were $5 surplus items a few years ago when I bought them, and I've never needed one yet. :up:

You'll know your TiVo's power supply is bad if you check the output voltages with a meter and they're not near the correct 5V and 12V levels, or if they fluctuate a lot, rather than being stable.

[travelmad]

I'll look in my parts bin this Saturday. I think I still have two spare TiVo Series 1 power supplies, if anyone might need them.
Thanks KeithB--I will have this checked out this weekend by my friend who has a voltage meter.

I just Googled "TiVo power supply" and came up with the website WeaKnees.com. They are also suggesting that a replacement hard drive might be needed (I have no way to test this, though). I'll look at the power supply thing first and take that as my first line of attack.

If I get a replacement hard drive, would that invalidate my lifetime service? (You may have already guessed that this is why I am so unwilling to get a new TiVo, as FMNY did.)

[FMNY]

I also have a lifetime subscription on my series 1. A replacement drive will not invalidate your lifetime service. As for why I decided to get a new TiVo even though I have a lifetime subscription on the one that freezes constantly, I've had that TiVo since 4/2000 and figured it's lasted long enough (8 years) and that it was time to upgrade to HD all around. Along with a new HD TiVo I got a new TV (HD of course) and am ordering a blu-ray player. I was going to go HD at some point in the future and the dying series 1 was the impetus to do it now.

[urwathrtz]

I was watching a recorded program on my Tivo and then it froze. No amount of button pressing on the remote or Tivo would make it budge. I then pulled the power plug. It started the Powering On and then the It Will Be A Few More Minutes screen. However it never goes past that few minutes screen.

I restarted it a few more times and even after an hour it never made it past that screen. I have a Toshiba Series 2 Tivo with DVD player. It is about 3 years old and past warranty.

A) What are my options ?
B) Can I transfer my lifetime subscription from this dead machine to another fancy Tivo HD ?

I was thinking of throwing in the towel and getting a nice Tivo HD but it would suck if I had to pay for another lifetime subscription.

The EXACT same thing happened to me last Saturday with my TiVoHD. Here's my post form last week :

This happened last night. My son was watching a movie on Netflix. It stopped and went right to live TV. I went to Tivo Central and the selected VOD. The TiVo locked up on the "please wait" for around 15 to 20 min. I did a power cycle. When it booted back up it wouldn't go past the "Almost there" screen for about an hour. I called Tivo and the had me do the same thing, a power cycle with out the wireless adapter connected. Exact same result, the "Almost there" screen for about an hour. The guy said to let it sit overnight and try it again, he said it's rare that, that works but I gave it a try the following morning. Again, "Almost there" screen for about an hour. Good thing it's still under warranty. I'm starting an RMA.

TiVo sent me a replacement and, it's "out for delivery" UPS today. I had to spend $50 because it was after 90 days, but within a year.

[KeithB]

I will have this checked out this weekend by my friend who has a voltage meter.That's a good friend to have. :)
I just Googled "TiVo power supply" and came up with the website WeaKnees.com. They are also suggesting that a replacement hard drive might be needed (I have no way to test this, though). I'll look at the power supply thing first and take that as my first line of attack.WeaKnees.com won't steer you wrong. If you have a spare hard drive of equal or larger capacity, it's not tough to check. MFStools and WinMFS are your Swiss Army Knife for cloning a TiVo drive.
If I get a replacement hard drive, would that invalidate my lifetime service?Nope, it's the motherboard and download data subscription that are lifetime. Cloning to a new and/or larger hard drive has been done by more people than you could possibly guess. I'm one of them. My Series 1 came with a 40GB Quantum hard drive, and I replaced it with a Western Digital 120GB drive after the first month.

[travelmad]

...figured it's lasted long enough (8 years) and that it was time to upgrade to HD all around. Along with a new HD TiVo I got a new TV (HD of course)...
I did the switch to HD (mostly) already, but I'm still using my Series 1 anyway. In the last 1-2 years, I got an HD television plus a DirecTV HD receiver, and managed to rig up the Series 1 to work with it. Soon afterwards, TiVo came out with the new HD TiVo. I was all excited and all set to buy it and upgrade to the special package with a discounted lifetime subscription for existing TiVo owners--until I ran into the fact that the HD TiVo will not work with a DirecTV box. :mad::mad::mad: So I still have the Series 1, and now I'm keeping it until I go to my grave. I don't really mind not having HD on the shows I watch on TiVo--the reception is still light years better than it was pre-DirecTV.

If you have a spare hard drive of equal or larger capacity, it's not tough to check. MFStools and WinMFS are your Swiss Army Knife for cloning a TiVo drive.I am not the kind of person who keeps spare hard drives lying around, or who knows what the words "MFStools" and "WinMFS" even mean, so I'm going to go with the WeaKnees no-hassle return policy on that hard drive!! It is all I can do to have a friend with a voltage meter and the ability to use it :D

[ricnewman]

My Series 2 Tivo just started freezing and it does work after I unplug and plug. I noticed that the software was recently updated. Any chance this is a software rather than I hardware issue?

[travelmad]

I noticed that the software was recently updated. Any chance this is a software rather than I hardware issue?
I am hoping that myself, but given the age of my box, I would put more money on the hardware. But if you get a good answer to that question (like from TiVo's help desk), please report back!

[KeithB]

Soon afterwards, TiVo came out with the new HD TiVo. I was all excited and all set to buy it and upgrade to the special package with a discounted lifetime subscription for existing TiVo owners--until I ran into the fact that the HD TiVo will not work with a DirecTV box. :mad::mad::mad: Yeah, same thing here. A disappointment, for sure.

I am not the kind of person who keeps spare hard drives lying around, or who knows what the words "MFStools" and "WinMFS" even mean, so I'm going to go with the WeaKnees no-hassle return policy on that hard drive!! It is all I can do to have a friend with a voltage meter and the ability to use it :DThere's definitely no shame in either of those statements. :) I'm kinda embarrassed :o to say I have more than a few 320 Gb drives lying idle.

[chisholmski]

My TiVo series3 will freeze while watching live TV (both tuners). It takes some button pushing to get it to eventually start working again.
Recorded shows will work.
This started recently. Seems it was shortly after the last software update.
Also noticed, there is less room for recording. I had never run out of space until after this software update.
I wonder if the freezing happens when the HD space is used?

[Nirvana_AV]

I deployed a TivoHD this past summer and I am experiencing the same frozen Tivo problem that has been mentioned in this thread. I find it freezes sometime during the night and when we turn on the TV the next day, all we see is a shot of what was on as if it's paused. Nothing will make the Tivo respond and I end up resetting power to reboot the system. This has become increasingly more frequent in the past two to three weeks.

[travelmad]

I'll be putting in a new hard drive as soon as it gets delivered, so I'll report back on whether that solves the problem.

[travelmad]

Update on the situation--resolved! The hard drive appears to have been the source of the problem. The replacement (80 GB) cost about $90 with the shipping, which took only a few days. My more mechanically inclined friend did the install, but the WeaKnees.com instructions were so thorough that I'm sure I could have done it myself. No more frozen TiVo! And now I have twice as much storage space! :D

[briandsloan]

Lately I’ve been having a lot of problems with a Toshiba RS-TX60 Toshiba TIVO I bought off Ebay. Supposedly it was almost new, but after a few months of use, it was giving me a lot of problems. I think the initial problem was that I didn’t do a clean sweep prior to my using it – deleting all the programs, season passes, etc. under Restart & Reset System > Clear & Delete Everything.

While everything was deleted, and there was nothing saved, doing a complete restart having cleaned everything may have been helpful. I have read some posts that said that problems with a hard drive might be corrected with this type of clean sweep.

That is what I thought I had. I thought there was a problem with the hard drive.

The symptoms I was experiencing included:
• Digitized or pixilated picture while playing live TV or recorded TV
• Loss of picture and audio for a few seconds
• Pausing or freezing while watching live TV or recorded TV
• Crashed or frozen screen, wherein I couldn’t do anything with the remote or with the buttons on the front of the TIVO itself
• Only half or part of a show actually being recorded, despite the red “recording” light on the front of the TIVO being lit, the actual video was paused

Sometimes I would pause the screen and come back to find that it wouldn’t work anymore. Trying to turn hit the power button on the TIVO wouldn’t work, and I would have to pull the plug just to get it restarted.

Also I would try leave the TIVO on all night, and when I woke up, I would see that the front display clock would be stopped at a certain time during the night, and I would have to unplug and replug the system back in.

I tried to do everything I could think of. I took apart the cover, blew the dust out, unplugged the ribbon cables, replugged them back in. I deleted unneeded season passes, removed channels I didn’t watch, and deleted programs that were in the deleted folder. I was thinking that maybe there was a problem with the processor, since it seemed that when things did work, they were delayed in their response – I hit a button, and it took a few seconds for the TIVO to acknowledge that I hit the button.

I even switched between using a phone cord and a network drive, switched between the tri-color cables and component cables, took the coaxial cable off, and did everything else I could think of. Nothing seemed to work.

I heard about this Kickstart stuff.

When my TIVO froze, I unplugged it and when I plugged it back in, I held down the pause button on the remote. Up came the screen of ‘Powering Up,’ and once it changed to just a ‘Just a Few Minutes More,’ I released the pause button and typed in 54 on the remote.

That took me to a diagnosis test. Check out other posts about “Kickstart” to find out about all the hidden diagnostic utilities in TIVO.

Use the arrow buttons and the “Select” button to run the tests. When they are done, hit the left arrow button to go back to the diagnostic main page.

I ran all the tests I could. There was an “overnight” test that I ran just to see what happened. I actually ended running that one twice.

What popped up both times was a statement that said “There are now 1 point(s) in the Red Zone.” I looked all over the internet to see what that meant, but I didn’t see any posts on it. After that statement popped up, the test seemed to stop running. I went back to the main Diagnostic page, ran a few other tests, went back to that “overnight” test again, ran that again, and after a while, I got that same message, “There are now 1 point(s) in the Red Zone.” The test then seemed to stop working again.

So I restarted the system to get back to the normal Tivo main page (I think I just kept hitting the left arrow until the TIVO restarted as normal. Since then, I haven’t had any other problems. No more freezing, no more digitizing, no more pixilation. I did notice one thing once, where a recorded program went black for a second, but I think I was still able to hear the audio, but that is it.

Before running Kickstart 54 (as it is called) the Tivo would not go 12 hours without freezing so that I had to unplug the system. Since the Kickstart, It has been a few days, and no problems at all. The Tivo even seems to be running faster – I hit a button, and the response is within a second or less.

I just thought I would post this to help out others that may be experiencing the same problem.

I was about to purchase a new hard drive on Weaknees.com, which seems like a really good company. Unfortunate for them, I figured out how to solve this problem myself.

My next step was to do a Kickstart 57 and a Kickstart 58, but it never came to that.

I will keep this post updated if something changes, but it seems like everything is great now.