HR10-250 - Suddenly Wrong Date

[PeterGV]

So, I'm watching my DirecTivo HDm and I to Menu, and I get a notice... "Please make a daily call soon! Your TiVo hasn't made a daily call for 110 days."

That seemed strange to me, my daily calls are always up to date. And then I notice... no program guide data. It all just says "To be announced" or "regularly scheduled programming". Hmmm...

I navigate off to System Information, and notice that my TiVo says my service is up to date... but thinks it's July 2009 (I'm writing this in March), and the last successful daily call was in March. OK...

I reboot: Same problem... it thinks it's July. I re-run guided setup (twice). Immediately after acquiring the satelites, it has the correct time and date. Minutes later... it thinks it's July again.

I force it to do a Daily Call. Still thinks it's July.

This would be funny, but I don't have any guide data, and I therefore don't have any Season Passes.

Ahhh... help???

Peter

[Crash_Corrigan]

I just discovered the same problem, and must have been posting my thread while you posted yours.

[DanT]

I just discovered the same problem, and must have been posting my thread while you posted yours.

Ditto. We need a mod to merge our threads.

It looks to me like it's happening at the Daily Call. I only say that because I had it happen on one of my std-def units as I was writing my post, and when I checked, the last daily call correlated to when the ToDo List disappeared (which is presumably when the date jumped 4 months into the future.)

[MartyList]

It looks to me like it's happening at the Daily Call. I only say that because I had it happen on one of my std-def units as I was writing my post, and when I checked, the last daily call correlated to when the ToDo List disappeared (which is presumably when the date jumped 4 months into the future.)

Or after the date changed the system immediately made a call since it thought the last one was a few months ago.

[Monkeybiz]

DirecTV DVRs began losing guide data all across the US.

Subscribers at DBSTalk.com, and myself experienced a blank program guide with a date of 7/14 and all shows noted as 'To Be announced'. While channels continued to receive programming, any recordings were disrupted.


http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10201673-1.html
and a new thread just now here
http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=154768

[ntsc525]

OK, I've got 4 TiVo's:

2x Hughes HDVR2's, both hacked with DRUpgrade, 1x Hughes SD-DRV40, and one DIRECTV R10 unhacked.

The R10 is the only TiVo that makes calls and takes software upgrades, because it's unmodified. It thinks the date is July 14, 2009, when today is May 21, 2009. That's why the program guide is not available, because this TiVo is in the future. It also had a message saying I haven't made a call in 120 days, because the last dial in was May 20, and it thinks it's July 14.

One HDVR2 still has the correct time and has full program guide info. It's never dialed in, and I don't believe I even enabled the "fake call" option.

The second HDVR2 thinks it dialed in on July 14, thinks that's the current date, and has no program guide info. (I guess I accidentally enabled dial-in by Internet, because there's no phone line connected.)

The SD-DVR40 also thinks it dialed in on July 14, is set to that time, and has no program data. (I'm sure it doesn't dial in even through the Internet, but I believe that one was set up with the "fake call" option. Information screen.)

I guess only TiVo's that have dialed in are having the problem because their times have been set incorrectly. I don't know how two hacked TiVo's can be dialing in and never get upgraded away from TivoWebPlus.

I hacked my TiVo's some time ago, and they work so well I forgot everything I learned about the hacks!

Dan

[ntsc525]

If you have a hacked TiVo and can telnet in or connect to the console (BASH prompt), you can fix the program guide problem by resetting the date from Linux.

I know a lot of TiVo hackers probably use Windows for everything else (most of the PC side TiVo tools are for Windows for some reason), so you're probably rusty on Linux.

If you don't know what BASH is, dig elsewhere to learn Linux if you're going to try this. The command you want is "date", which sets both the date and time.

TiVo's Linux doesn't have help commands, and the format is kind of cryptic, which is why I'm glad I'm sitting on a Fedora (Linux) PC now.

So, here is the first part of the man page (help) for "date":

DATE(1) User Commands DATE(1)

NAME
date - print or set the system date and time

SYNOPSIS
date [OPTION]... [+FORMAT]
date [-u|--utc|--universal] [MMDDhhmm[[CC]YY][.ss]]

I'll simplify that for you:

To check the date and time, just type "date".

To set the date and time, type "date -u MMDDhhmm.ss"
where
MM=month (03),
DD=day (22),
hh=hour (in 24 hour time, just use the same value it gave you),
mm=minutes, and ss=seconds. (Remember the "." before the seconds.)

First, type "date" by itself, to see the time your TiVo is set at. Because it's set to UTC (London time), the hour will be off, but that part IS correct. Have an accurate watch or clock (preferrably an "atomic clock" or a computer that's just set it's time via an Internet time server, so you know by the second the accurate time.

In this example, my local date is March 21 at 10:something, but the TiVo thinks it's July 14 (same time). It's evening, and I'm 7 hours behind UTC (London time), so Linux thinks it's July 15, at 05:something (7 hours ahead is the next day). If Linux thinks the date is a day ahead of what your menu says, then you have to add a day when you set the time in Linux. (System Information on your TV or TiVoWebPlus app will give you the local time.)

OK:
Now, on the TiVo, type "date" as follows.

bash-2.02# date
Wed Jul 15 05:23:02 UTC 2009

In my example, "System Information" said it was July 14, but Linux says it's July 15. So, knowing the actual date is May 21, I have to remember that in London it's already May 22. Also, remember that the hour is 05:something. You'll have to give it the same hour as before, and compensate for how many seconds (or minutes) have passed since you typed the command.

Now, get ready and type the correct date and time (in Universal or London time), but put the seconds about 10 seconds ahead, then wait for the time to pass on your accurate clock, and hit <return>.

bash-2.02# date -u 03220523.40 (<- Wait for your watch to read 40 seconds then hit return)

Sun Mar 22 05:23:40 UTC 2009

Now, check your TV or TiVoWebPlus System Time and make sure the local time is correct. If it isn't, figure out what you did wrong and try again.

Presto! The guide is back! Now, just wait for your To Do list to recover.

If your TiVo is not hacked, then you have to wait for DIRECTV to fix the time, just like I do on my unhacked TiVo. (I can't fix that on my own.)

Good luck!

Dan

[hiker]

I had this problem on 1 of 8 HR10's that apparently attempted a scheduled call. Tried forcing a call for 2 hours to get a call to complete successfully and after many "Service not answering", "No dial tone", "Disconnected", etc, and one reboot, the call completed and the date and time are now correct and SP's are working OK.

[PeterGV]

YAY!

I got up this morning, and the problem seems to have corrected itself.

THAT's a relief!

All's well that ends well, I say.

Peter

[WaldorfSalad]

No problem with my HR10-250, could be because I've had the phone line disconnected for 900 days to prevent upgrading firmware from 3.1.5f.