TIVO HD SLOW to react

[blakewhitaker]

I have a TIVO Series 3 HD unit. I have had it for over a year (yes the warranty is now over) and it worked great for many months. A few months ago I joined a Beta group for the unit and tested some software for TIVO. Then I received the latest version of the software and my problems began.

The unit has frozen a few times since the latest download and once when I turned on my TV, the screen was a strange shade of Yellow and frozen with a TIVO logo. I have had to reboot the unit multiple times by unplugging it.

Also the menus are slower and slower. Just the TIVO Now playing takes forever to come up sometimes. Sometimes fast forward and reverse are slow to react and eventually lock up all together. When I clean up the unit and remove programs (delete them from the Deleted folder) it gets a little better for a while, but eventually it slows down so much I find it hard to use the unit.

I do not have any extra hard drives and everything is original. The tech support team had be run a hard drive test and everything is fine. I doubt it is the hard drive since the unit records fine, calls in every day, has the latest version of the software, etc... I am in IT and to me it sounds like the software has a problem and when I asked the tech if they could just refresh the TIVO files to make sure I did not have something corrupt, they said no and my only option was to pay $149 and get the unit replaced. Does anyone have any other things I can check without opening the unit up and voiding things. Does anyone know if TIVO can refresh the software over the network.

Thanks in advance for any help or advice.

[basf_audio]

I have a TiVoHD and noticed that in the last few weeks (and again today) I've had to reboot a few times in order to get it "working" again. Menus frozen... Background screen frozen. Shows partially recorded. I'll try rebooting again and see what happens. I've had it for a year now or so and have never had issues until recently... My guess is software...

[stoneyb]

I have a TiVoHD and noticed that in the last few weeks (and again today) I've had to reboot a few times in order to get it "working" again. Menus frozen... Background screen frozen. Shows partially recorded. I'll try rebooting again and see what happens. I've had it for a year now or so and have never had issues until recently... My guess is software...

I've had a similar problem for several months, slowly getting worse. It got to the point where I couldn't even watch TV, as the TiVo would freeze after a little while. After some experiments, I determined that this was caused by a failing external drive. Divorcing it completely fixed the problem.

[bkdtv]

As suggested above, poor responsiveness over a prolonged period of time is indicative of a problematic (dying) internal or external drive.

TiVos will always be less responsive for a few days after guided setup, and after some software updates, as guide data is reindexed in the background. But 2-3 days after guided setup, and 2-3 days after software updates, TiVo responsiveness should be back to normal. If it is not, then your internal or external drive is likely failing.

Note: TiVo just began rolling out a new software update last night, so don't be surprised by sluggish responsiveness for a few days this week.

If I were you, I would look at upgrading / replacing the built-in TiVo drive with a larger model. That should fix your problems and increase your capacity at the same time. Instructions to do the upgrade can be found at the bottom of the upgrade / expansion link in my signature.

[JWThiers]

I have a TiVoHD and noticed that in the last few weeks (and again today) I've had to reboot a few times in order to get it "working" again. Menus frozen... Background screen frozen. Shows partially recorded. I'll try rebooting again and see what happens. I've had it for a year now or so and have never had issues until recently... My guess is software...

So something can run fine for a year and never have issues and when something does start to suddenly act up it must be software? <sigh>

Software doesn't just suddenly start acting up, something must have changed and in an environment like a tivo the only thing that can change is failing hardware or a new version of the software. So unless the acting up started when the software up graded the problem is hardware. If a problem crops up on a software update the problem can still be a hardware issue because of the way that tivo handles updates. In fact I would as a general rule I would almost always suspect hardware first.

[Charlie_M]

I have been having a similar problem since December. What I have noticed is that I can not have both of my tuners on HD Channel's at the same time. Eventually one of the tuners will just freeze up and have a gray screen and if it is being recorded the recording just stops at that point. Also the Tivo will sometime reboot in the middle of recording a program. I have a My DVR Expander drive connected to my Tivo HD box. I ran the restart & reset 54 tests against the hard drives and both drives past all the tests including the overnight tests. One thing about this is that I had to select each of the automatic test individually. If I selected the Run S M A R T Tests the Tivo appeared to just freeze up and noit run any of the tests. I have also run the restart & reset 52 to reload the current software release and finally I ran restart and reset 57. After that I am still having the same problem. Does anyone have any ideas as to what may be causing this and how to fix it?

[basf_audio]

So something can run fine for a year and never have issues and when something does start to suddenly act up it must be software? <sigh>

Software doesn't just suddenly start acting up, something must have changed and in an environment like a tivo the only thing that can change is failing hardware or a new version of the software. So unless the acting up started when the software up graded the problem is hardware. If a problem crops up on a software update the problem can still be a hardware issue because of the way that tivo handles updates. In fact I would as a general rule I would almost always suspect hardware first.

It's possible that it's hardware... I was hit with bad blocking on HD channels that plagued my HDTiVo for a few weeks and then "just went away" never to have returned. Perhaps that could be the cable company's fault. However - I've left it alone now for 3 days and everything has recorded properly. Degrading hardware? Shouldn't I just always have issues?

For a consumer device, I would expect that it either works or it doesn't. I shouldn't have to be tasked with troubleshooting hard drives and other components (which would essentially have deleted all of my recordings) to test a theory of a hard drive failure. It would be nice if additional health checks were available. I've yet to find any outward explanations from TiVo when there have been terrible software releases (as evidence by these community forums).

Trust me, I'm a TiVo fan to the death. I've had 5 of them including the very first one that came out and preach the gospel to whoever will listen. But when it comes to hardware versus software - my experience tells me software is more buggy than hardware (perhaps that's my enterprise infrastructure background! LOL).

But - I'll will keep an eye out for impeding hardware issues.

Thanks,

_DS

[bkdtv]

Does anyone have any ideas as to what may be causing this and how to fix it?The 11.0 software had a known issue with "losing" the analog tuners. But if you seeing this under 11.0b on HD channels, that points to a failing internal or external drive would cause the behavior you describe. The only way to be certain which is to remove the external drive and see whether the behavior continues.

If removing and unpairing the external drive eliminates the problem, then you have your cause. If it doesn't, that suggests the internal drive is going bad. You can replace the internal drive using the instructions in my signature.

[Charlie_M]

But if you seeing this under 11.0b on HD channels, that points to a failing internal or external drive would cause the behavior you describe.

I don't think it is a hard drive problem since all of the S M A R T Tests past even though I had to run each of the automatic test individually. If there were a problem with the hard drives then I think the test would most likely have found it. I really don't want to uncouple the hard drives because I will lose most if not all of my recordings. I think it could still be a software problem or a problem with one of the tuners'.

[bkdtv]

I don't think it is a hard drive problem since all of the S M A R T Tests past even though I had to run each of the automatic test individually. If there were a problem with the hard drives then I think the test would most likely have found it. I really don't want to uncouple the hard drives because I will lose most if not all of my recordings. I think it could still be a software problem or a problem with one of the tuners'.Time and time again, members have determined that the built-in kickstart tests cannot be relied upon to report all drive errors that cause instability. Unless your TiVo drive is in very bad shape, it may not report any errors at all.

You can remove the TivoHD drive and connect it to your PC for more comprehensive error testing using the Western Digital DLGDIAG boot disk (http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=502&sid=30&lang=en).

[basf_audio]

I too ran the boot tests... for 6 hours... Nothing bad and all tests passed. I'm going to try and delete as many shows as I can and pull the rest off before a divorce my external drive or start over. I also noticed the system being "full" with over 100 shows not being able to be pulled back over the desktop or Web interface... Now that I've gone and started deleting shows - both work again... I'll see how many shows get partialed out or rebooted over the next day or so...

I want to believe that it's not a hard drive issue... It's not even a year old yet...

[systah]

So looking at this thread, how likely is it that all of us at one time are having hardware issues?

For the last three days I've yet to be able to use my Series 3 because the tivo becomes unresponsive and reboots automatically. I suspect it is due to the recent software issue. If tivo is really that ridiculous to think that we are all having hardware issues at the same time, right after a software issue, I'm regretting my purchase of this machine.

My menus are unresponsive, HD is breaking up, it reboots all by itself constantly, and/or menus are not showing up at all.

They will have to deal with this but wanted to send this quick note to make sure everyone else who looks for a solutions realize that this is no way a hardware issue especially since I bought mine only 6 months ago and it was running fine until three days ago when the software was updated.

[basf_audio]

So I divorced my external drive Sunday morning... And as of today, everything is fine. I haven't had the issue since. Is that end of story? Probably not. I'm going to hook the drive back up and see what happens. Since everything I record is in HD, the little 250 GB drive won't last long with HD shows... I'm wondering if it really has to do with the software and the number of shows I had on the system...

Guess I won't know until I plug the external drive back in...

[richsadams]

They will have to deal with this but wanted to send this quick note to make sure everyone else who looks for a solutions realize that this is no way a hardware issue especially since I bought mine only 6 months ago and it was running fine until three days ago when the software was updated.Sorry to hear about your TiVo. Unfortunately yes, it's almost certainly a hardware issue brought on by the software upgrade. See my response (http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=7109270#post7109270) to your other post as well as the link in that post as to why it's most likely a hardware issue.

Either way as far as you're concerned it really doesn't matter and it looks like you're getting your TiVo replaced so hopefully things will be right with the world again soon.

[basf_audio]

I just called into support since my 1 year support is about 2 days away. They said to try and get the warranty work done on the expander first... then come back to them for a replacement. However - it's $49 replacement after 90 days... I'm hoping it's just the WD drive and not my TiVo...

[huckl3b3rry]

I've been fighting this issue for a couple of months now. If I let the unit sit for several hours and come back then it takes several seconds to respond to input from each remote command. Sometimes I will get the yellow light indicating it gets the commands sometimes it doesn't. I have to go into Now Playing and keep pressing the arrows up and down for a few minutes until it catches up and then it responds normally. Going to try disconnecting the WD drive and using the test tools. Hopefully that's the problem. Been driving me crazy and getting worse.

[richsadams]

I just called into support since my 1 year support is about 2 days away. They said to try and get the warranty work done on the expander first... then come back to them for a replacement. However - it's $49 replacement after 90 days... I'm hoping it's just the WD drive and not my TiVo...If everything has been working fine since you disconnected your eSATA drive my money says it's the eSATA drive. Unfortunate but not unheard of. Once you get a new drive and marry it up I'm betting things will be fine. Let us know!

[richsadams]

I've been fighting this issue for a couple of months now. If I let the unit sit for several hours and come back then it takes several seconds to respond to input from each remote command. Sometimes I will get the yellow light indicating it gets the commands sometimes it doesn't. I have to go into Now Playing and keep pressing the arrows up and down for a few minutes until it catches up and then it responds normally. Going to try disconnecting the WD drive and using the test tools. Hopefully that's the problem. Been driving me crazy and getting worse.Okay, don't take this the wrong way, but one of the causes of the symptoms you've described is a failing remote...usually dying batteries. But I'm guessing you've already tried installing new batteries.

So it's certainly possible that the eSATA drive is causing problems. The sluggishness isn't commonly reported when they go south though. Have you tried running any of TiVo's built-in diagnostics called "Kickstarts (http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=5643823#post5643823)"? They aren't a cure-all, but might be worth a try.

[basf_audio]

I reconnected the expander drive and wham-o, immediately started having issues again. I pulled it back off and hooked it up to my HTPC and ran some WD diagnostics. Sure enough, it found some bad sectors that the TiVo tests didn't find. I'm running the scan one more time to be sure and then it's being put back on my TiVo. We'll see if that fixes it...

[bkdtv]

I reconnected the expander drive and wham-o, immediately started having issues again. I pulled it back off and hooked it up to my HTPC and ran some WD diagnostics. Sure enough, it found some bad sectors that the TiVo tests didn't find. I'm running the scan one more time to be sure and then it's being put back on my TiVo. We'll see if that fixes it...If you've got some bad sectors, that likely means more are on the way. Your PC scan may fix those errors (by marking them so they aren't used), but that may be just a temporary fix.

[huckl3b3rry]

Okay, don't take this the wrong way, but one of the causes of the symptoms you've described is a failing remote...usually dying batteries. But I'm guessing you've already tried installing new batteries.


You sound like Tivo's support, hehe. Yeah, I've checked the remote and I have a Harmony One that does the same thing. I've done a complete reset, (which is why I don't mind disconnecting the eSATA drive because I have very little saved. I just have to wait for my wife to finish watching last night's Bachelor. I thought about trying the kickstarts, and I might but if it's a bad internal drive I believe I've read a kickstart can cause to fail. I would rather pull off the eSATA drive and run it through diagnostics on a different machine before and if it's fine then I might try a kickstart, but i will probaby just make Tivo send me another because if it's a bad internal drive I don't want a ckdsk or something to finish it off and be without for a few days.

Thanks for taking the time to give the kickstart link and for helping out.

[richsadams]

Thanks for taking the time to give the kickstart link and for helping out.Sounds good and let us know how things turn out...with your TiVo that is, not so much the Bachelor. ;)

[basf_audio]

Reconnected and as expected - problems right away. The external drive would still be under warranty if I could find the receipt. But since I can't - I'm going the route of replacing the main drive with a 1 TB WD drive and forgetting about the external drive. Suppose it could be considered cutting your leg off to save your toe... But the cost of a new expander drive is $10 more than a 1 TB drive and I'd potentially come up into this problem again...

Thanks for the responses... Now hoping over to the threads to figure out the drive replacement FAQ!

[richsadams]

Reconnected and as expected - problems right away. The external drive would still be under warranty if I could find the receipt. But since I can't - I'm going the route of replacing the main drive with a 1 TB WD drive and forgetting about the external drive. Suppose it could be considered cutting your leg off to save your toe... But the cost of a new expander drive is $10 more than a 1 TB drive and I'd potentially come up into this problem again...

Thanks for the responses... Now hoping over to the threads to figure out the drive replacement FAQ!Bummer, but these things happen I suppose. You could still get an RMA from WD Expander I think. All you need to do is register it on their web site and then file a claim here (http://websupport.wdc.com/warranty/rmainfo.asp?custtype=end&lang=en). By all accounts they are being very cooperative and if your purchase date is close I don't recall anyone saying that they asked for an actual receipt. Might be worth a try even if you only ebay it when it arrives.

The DVR dedicated WD10EVCS is the recommended internal upgrade at the moment. All the info you need is on the upgrade sticky (link under my signature).

Happy upgrading!

[huckl3b3rry]

Sounds good and let us know how things turn out...with your TiVo that is, not so much the Bachelor. ;)

Well, I'm sad now. I pulled off the WD expander and diagnostics came up cleans. The slow reponsiveness went a way for a couple of hours, but then came. Have to call Tivo and found out where I'm at what I can talk them into doing for me. :) Might be time to upgrade the internal. Will try a kickstart first.