CZSilas
01-25-2009, 09:41 AM
I had an issue recently after installing a DVR expander to a relatively new Tivo HD, and found no help in the Tivo knowledgebase, these forums or elsewhere. So I thought it might be helpful to others if I posted a summary of my symptoms and how I finally got the problem resolved.
I use the Tivo desktop software to transfer and convert shows for use on a portable device (PSP and Zune). And have done so with my old Series 2 and new HD without issue for some time. Then recently decided to expand the HD with a WD My DVR Expander (the Tivo certified one). Shortly after doing this, I started noticing serious performance issues on the Tivo and in the desktop software.
Symptoms:
The Tivo became sporatically unresponsive, that is sometimes it simply would not respond at all to remote inputs. I could see the LED confirming that the device was receiving the remote commands, but the Tivo failed to pause, go to Tivo central or respond to whatever the command was. After 10 min or so, the issue seemed to resolve. Needless to say, this made the unit nearly unuseable. The other issue presented in the desktop software. I could not get the list of shows to fully display. It could see the HD unit, but as it was trying to pull the show detail, it stopped and showed and error message (failed to connect). All other Tivo boxes in our house continued to operate fine (on their own and accessing through desktop).
Tivo support was stumped on this problem too, suspecting a bad DVR expander. But even after I removed that unit, the problems persisted. So in the last call to support, we seem to have found the issue. One or more of the files (shows) on the Tivo were corrupted. That would seem to be the reason why Tivo desktop made the connection fine, but puked part way through retriving data. I deleted all shows, and now everything works fine. Reinstalled the expander too, and no problems yet either.
I hope this helps others, and that Tivo adds to their knowledge base and support the importance of considering the possibility of file corruption.
Silas
I use the Tivo desktop software to transfer and convert shows for use on a portable device (PSP and Zune). And have done so with my old Series 2 and new HD without issue for some time. Then recently decided to expand the HD with a WD My DVR Expander (the Tivo certified one). Shortly after doing this, I started noticing serious performance issues on the Tivo and in the desktop software.
Symptoms:
The Tivo became sporatically unresponsive, that is sometimes it simply would not respond at all to remote inputs. I could see the LED confirming that the device was receiving the remote commands, but the Tivo failed to pause, go to Tivo central or respond to whatever the command was. After 10 min or so, the issue seemed to resolve. Needless to say, this made the unit nearly unuseable. The other issue presented in the desktop software. I could not get the list of shows to fully display. It could see the HD unit, but as it was trying to pull the show detail, it stopped and showed and error message (failed to connect). All other Tivo boxes in our house continued to operate fine (on their own and accessing through desktop).
Tivo support was stumped on this problem too, suspecting a bad DVR expander. But even after I removed that unit, the problems persisted. So in the last call to support, we seem to have found the issue. One or more of the files (shows) on the Tivo were corrupted. That would seem to be the reason why Tivo desktop made the connection fine, but puked part way through retriving data. I deleted all shows, and now everything works fine. Reinstalled the expander too, and no problems yet either.
I hope this helps others, and that Tivo adds to their knowledge base and support the importance of considering the possibility of file corruption.
Silas