TiVo HD XL Reboot problems

[fast n' bulbous]

ALERT! Be advised I have had HD XL (1TB) random reboots that interrupt my recordings for approximateley 9 minutes at a time and the Tech support people are NO HELP. I tried to work with them, was told by a level 1 tech they would have a level 2 call. I waited, after a week called back for status and was told "You are near the top of thier list." Waited another week, told then, "The note on your case said you were supposed to pull the cable cards and see if it reboots then." By the time I found this out, my labor part of the warranty was expired, and now I have to PAY for more frustration. THE HD XL TIVOS REBOOT RANDOMLY AND THE TIVO PEOPLE ARE NOT ANXIOUS OR IN MY EXPERIENCE, WILLING TO DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT. KEEP AWAY FROM THESE DEFECTIVE UNITS. I ALREADY WASTED MY $$$, DON'T WASTE YOURS. BTW- LEVEL 2 TECH SUPPORT IS APPARENTLY NON-EXISTANT, A RUSE USED TO DELAY. DON'T ACCEPT DELAYS, SEND YOUR UNIT BACK BEFORE YOUR CHANCE TO DO SO UNSCATHED EXPIRES!!! GOOD LUCK TO ALL.

[DaJoos]

Wow what's with the DEFCON-9 settings? FWIW I've never seen the HD XL I purchased back in September do a reboot while I was watching TV, live or recording. That said about once a month I'll get a recording that's 'split in two' - I'm guessing a reboot happened during the recording.

Sorry you're having problems, but I don't believe it's a product-wide issue (or world wide!).

[alyssa]

fast n' bulbous,
if you're willing to work with people on this issue, we can get you in contact with someone who will solve your problem but you've got to dial back the shouting a bit. You should be able to get your warranty retro to the first phone call.
I do agree most of the level 1 help is useless.

[jrm01]

calm down and explain your problem, maybe some one can help.

[fast n' bulbous]

To those I have been advised this is not a common problem, I would advise you search the threads in the forum. I understand those who say calm down, but I was calm for my first three phone calls. Its when they tell me I must wait for a return phone call that does not come and then I am told I must pay to repair a problem I have patiently waited for tech support to work with me on and then get told I must pay for warranty repair because the case number they started after they closed the first one they did not fix I tend to become indignant. For crying out loud, level one tech support told me "we have 96 issues tonight alone goin to level 2 tech support." I waited patiently for one week after being given that little nugget (supposed to make me less apprehensive)? only to be told level 2 tech support had put a note advising me to pull the cable cards and wait to see if it reboots then. I am on Verizon FIOS. I had already explained to level one tech support I only get 13 channels I don't care to watch - without the cards. For that reason pulling the cards might look good to a TiVo rep (I would never see another reboot, as I would never watch it), but id ludicrous from my point of view. I was offered an exchange, but I don't really want that, as I have three months of content invested in this machine. I offered to change the cable cards, but wanted to talk to a level 2 rep, as it will cost me $70- for a Verizon truck to roll if so requested. I explained patiently there should be an event log located somewhere in the software that should explain why this thing is rebooting. For gods' sake, even windows has an event log. I was hopeful he might SEE the cable cards are causing the problem. I explained patiently that I would then elect to change out the TiVo if there was no such log or if it did not reflect a valid reason for the reboots. TiVo support's decision to ignore my request, to simply put a "notation" from "level 2 tech support" telling me to remove the cable cards and watch for an intermittent reboot problem I explained several time was not practical given my cable providers system, coupled with the reboot issues posted on this site and the internet in general leads, and the tech reps "96 others referred to level 2 tech support" makes me believe these are problem boxes. If not for you, perhaps just for those of us on FIOS. Here's another example. I bought my TiVo directly from TiVo. They did not bother to ask me who my cable provider was, it was only several days after I received my TiVo and had installation issues that I learned FIOS customers commonly require attenuators to get this box to work properly. I called and talked to tech support who advisedme this was a problem with the Verizon FIOS system. I don't remember Verizon selling me anything that they said would work with TiVo. I do remember going to the TiVo site and seeing a chart that says TiVo works with cable TV services. Tech support telling me this is a problem with the Verizon system is an insult to both me and Verizon. I'm not that stupid. The verizon boxes work flawlessly, I still have two in the house here that I can check. These TiVo people need to get thier house together, deal with thier customers honestly (accept the accountability for foisting a system not ready for prime time on thier customers) and fix what is bad from the onset as they should. Someone suggested I keep me calm and try working with tech support. I patiently waited for two one week period for level 2 tech support to call me back and got bupkis. How patient would you be? How undersatnding? I put < $900- into this box, including the program guide and for that price, I expect the box would work as advertised or they would bend over backwards to make it so. I believe they are overcome by these issues. Good luck to you if you believe otherwise. BTW- I am by nature an early adopter who is technically savvy. I am by nature patient, understanding and a promoter of these technologies that make our lives better. I had a series two for several years and never had a problem with that one, even afer I expanded it's storage capabilities with third party kits. I am one of the fortunate ones who knows what an attenuator is and actually had some on hand to adapt the TiVo to the FIOS signal. I don't think may average consumers would be able/capable/willing to work as hard as I have to get this thing working.

[bkdtv]

fast,

In the future, you might want to separate your comments in different paragraphics. Long single-spaced, single-paragraph posts are difficult to read on a computer screen.

I assume you installed an attenuator before the TiVo? How much attenuation did you add?

[fast n' bulbous]

fast,

In the future, you might want to separate your comments in different paragraphics. Long single-spaced, single-paragraph posts are difficult to read on a computer screen.

I assume you installed an attenuator before the TiVo? How much attenuation did you add?
-18 db and a low-pass filter seems to work best. Still periodic artifacts, but least I have experienced. My artifacts occur around channel 512 of the FIOS SJ lineup, which is a PBS HD channel. Different attenuation will cause the problem to change in severity and location. -12 DB made it happen frequently and around channel 899 (HBO HD). BTW- The signal strength seems to fluctuate slightly, so what I use today might not work the same way tomorrow. I have experienced one major, to date permanent shift in the attenuation issue in the last 4 months. It appeared I had gotten rid of them and they reappeared, requiring me to experiment with different values after having gone through that before. All the time the Verizon boxes were shoing very very infrequent minor pixellation/artifact problems.

[lessd]

Wow what's with the DEFCON-9 settings? FWIW I've never seen the HD XL I purchased back in September do a reboot while I was watching TV, live or recording. That said about once a month I'll get a recording that's 'split in two' - I'm guessing a reboot happened during the recording.

Sorry you're having problems, but I don't believe it's a product-wide issue (or world wide!).

Just turn on the TiVo clock to check on re-boots, if the clock goes off your TiVo did a re-boot. To turn the clock on (will show in the lower right part of your TV screen) start to watch any recorded program and press S-P-S-9-S S=Select and P=play buttons.

[alyssa]

fast,
I'm just trying to understand the time line here;

Reboots & artifacting
called tech support multiple times
installed an attenuator & reduced the artifacting
still getting the reboots

does this sound like an accurate time line?

I'm assuming the artifacting & the reboots are unrelated- this is a huge assumption tho.

The bad news is reboots are usually caused by a failing hard drive but that could actually good too. You seem to have a choice, send your unit in for a replacement HD or try to replace the hard drive & hopefully keep the recordings.

BTW, I agree with you if you were getting multiple reboots due to a HD issue within the first 3 months, tivo should do the right thing. If this occurred to me I'd put all the details into a email/letter format. When did you contact tech support about the reboots? When did you buy the unit? etc all
How you've presented the problem here is difficult to understand.

lessd outlined a good method of telling if a reboot occurred when the tivo was not recording.

[DaJoos]

Just turn on the TiVo clock to check on re-boots, if the clock goes off your TiVo did a re-boot. To turn the clock on (will show in the lower right part of your TV screen) start to watch any recorded program and press S-P-S-9-S S=Select and P=play buttons.

Thanks for the tip!

[fast n' bulbous]

Yes your timeline is pretty close. 1st were the artifacts and pixellation which required the attenuators. Then my son bought me an expander for the holidays. After I put the expander on, I began getting frequent reboots. I scoured the user groups for reboot issues. I found people were associating the reboots with the expander, so I RMAed the expander back to western digital. Once it was removed, I didn't see any reboots at first, then I noted they were occuring without the expander, and called tech support. I bought the DVR on Oct 3rd. My last call to tech support concerning that issue was Dec 31st.

Tech support wanted me to remove the cable cards, now that the expander was no longer an issue. I explained there was nothing to watch and the reboot ocurred once in a week of steady watching, so removing the cards and having nothing to watch was ridiculous. They said they would have the "level 2 tech support" call me back.

Long story short... just got off phone with tech support. Decided to call them as they have never returned a call as promised. They did the right thing, reviewed my case history and decided the labor charge was unwarranted. Full reimbursement and apology for the hassle given.

The new (refurbished) TiVo is due Tuesday next week. (Did a pre-purchase for quick replacement). And not a moment too soon.

Now I cannot switch out of hybrid/fixed modes (both those lights as well as the blue downloading from internet light are remaining on). It takes over an hour for service calls and refuses to acknowledge I have netflix set up. It wont access utube or any web based apps, but I can clearly see it has access on my network via my Network Magic program. Its slipping fast. The lessons I learned from this is the people who can really help apparently don't work the midnight shift. Also-You have to call them back, they are not going to call you. (Three broken promises there). Also- once you open a case number keep it open until you're certain it's fixed.

[alyssa]

Wonderful!
I'm glad CS reviewed the case & did the correct thing. I had to laugh at your comment regarding the midnight tech support calls...;)

It's interesting that your unit has all the lights on & is having difficulty contacting the web. I'm not sure if that's a HD issue or not. Regardless, it's not your problem anymore.

In the future, if you do ever have a Hard Drive issue again & your unit is out of warrenty, come back here to find a way to replace the Hard Drive & retaine all your settings & recordings. The process is user friendly for the tech minded types or you can buy pre-formated replacement HD's.

[acitrano]

I am having a very similar issue - HD XL, 1TB, Verizon FIOS. Only had it about a week - lots of random reboots.

We've tried multiple attenuation options to deal with pixellation, etc. and found pixellation was no longer a problem with -14db of attenuation directly behind the TiVo.

The random reboots occur:

- with and without attenuation;
- with and without the CableCard (Motorola M-Card) installed;
- with and without the coax physically connected;
- with and without an Internet connection;
- with and without HDMI.

When it's not a random reboot, I also have experienced random freezes - watching or playing something and suddenly I get just a gray screen and a totally unresponsive box that requires a hard restart.

The latest TiVo software is in place on the box. (11.0c or whatever the latest is.)

The CableCard is authorized fine. (All channels work great when - and if - the TiVo works.)

Sometimes it stays on the "powering up" screen forever. Pretty ugly stuff.

With all these years of experience, you'd expect TiVo's software to be more graceful about dealing with failure, whether it's hardware or signal related.

Edited to add: I called TiVo and they are sending me a replacement unit. So, for now, who knows...

[dverespey]

I just went through the random reboot dance.

The replacement has been here a week and so far no reboots.

I hope the Tivo manufacturing process is tight enough to track this problem to it's source. Somewhere, some hardware supplier has a problem. (Hard drive, video, memory, etc)