S3 freezing/not responding/rebooting

[klgood1]

I'm running an S3 with a WD DVR expander, all stock & unmodified. It's about 2 years old, and the eSata drive is about a year old. Tonight, it started freaking out on me when I went to play a new recording. The remote was extremely slow to respond (1 or two minutes) after starting the recording, and the recording length was showing up wrong. Live TV seemed to be OK, and I just played an older recording, which is working OK. I've rebooted a few times, and unplugged the power on the eSATA drive also.

Is this a hard drive failure, and how do I figure out which drive it is? I wasn't sure if I unplugged the expander drive & disconnected it via the software, if I could hook it back up again without losing my recordings.

[T-Man]

I've been having the same problem with my S3 for about a month. My eSata drive (not the Tivo-approved My DVR expander) is a year and a half old. Due to a lot of travel, I have not done any troubleshooting except to have Comcast send a signal to reset my cable cards, twice, with no effect on the problem. Sometimes the Series 3 reboots itself after slowing down, showing lots of pixelation, and freezing. I've also rebooted and unplugged to no avail.

The other thing I have noticed is that the problem only happens on HD channels. SD channels are fine and do not cause a reboot. This problem for me also occurs when watching live TV, i.e., just viewing an HD channel using the Tivo 30-minute buffer.

[jmh96]

I'm having the same issues as T-Man, starting a few weeks back (shortly after the v11 upgrade permitting Netflix viewing). Problems w/ my S3, which has a non-Tivo supported eSata drive: some pixelization, frequent freezes, sometimes leading to reboots. (I haven't noticed issues on my Tivo HD, but do not watch as frequently.) I have only noticed problems on HD programs, both recorded and live. I ran kickstart 54 S.M.A.R.T. drive diagnostics, and am waiting on the last test, but so far all have passed (though it does not check the external drive). I have FIOS and have recently added an attenuator to reduce signal strength to 90% or so (no improvement).

[dsol]

Same issue being discussed here:

Tivo HD freezes (http://tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=411811)

I don't think this has anything to do with the external drives as I'm having the exact same problem, just started around the same time, isolated to HD channels, and I do not have an external drive.

[erikrh]

Add me to the list.

I also have a Series 3 with the My DVR Expander connected.

I mostly watch HD channels, so I can't say for sure whether this is an HD channel issue. The sequence of events seems to be that while watching live tv I will started to notice pixelization and frequent freezing. Then I will get a green screen saying that the Tivo has detected a problem and is trying to fix it. Then within a minute or two it will reboot and all will be fine.

After the third reboot in the last couple of weeks, I decided to check here to see if any one else was having this issue. I thought I would see more posts, as I am fairly certain that this started soon after the last software update that brought Netflix to the Tivo.

I will be watching this thread with great interest.

[George Cifranci]

This sounds like the issue my friend is having with his Series 3 DVR (pixelization, rebooting). He also has a My DVR Expander. Anyway, Tivo sent him another Series 3. He didn't hook up the My DVR yet to see if that was the issue, but he says this new Series 3 is doing the exact same thing. So that rules out the My DVR in his case. He has had Time Warner Cable come out twice with no resolution.