Am I hosed?

[NA9D]

Hey gang,

Tonight I came down with a serious Tivo problem. Earlier, I got a message stating that my DVR Expander drive had been unplugged, but it hadn't. I then pulled the power on the Tivo and rebooted. It stayed there at "Welcome! Powering up..." for probably 45 minutes. So I rebooted again. Same thing. This time I powered down longer and also power cycled the DVR Expander. I then powered up the Tivo and it started to reboot and looked like all was going well but then it started into a reboot cycle. Now I'm getting this message that tells me that there's a serious problem that the Tivo is attempting to fix over the next three hours. I'm not sure if it's fixing anything as the box reboots shortly after displaying that message.

I know there's a code I can press on the powering up screen to run hard disk diagnostics, but I forgot it. Anyone know it? Would that help?

Bottom line - Am I hosed up here? Did one of my drives bite the dust?

[newskilz]

This is just one of the threads concerning the kick start codes. You could probably search within TiVoCommunity and find what you need but links in this Kick Start Code Thread (http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=397882&highlight=start+up+codes) should work for you and what you are looking for. Note that when kick starting, according to the thread here anyway, it will not display in HD, so you will need a component or coax connection to some sort of display in order to read it.

I'd recommend leaving the TiVo alone for a while if it's displaying it is trying to fix things. It usually is from what I recall. If it stays in that screen for 12-24 hours, then it's probably stuck and will need another reboot.

Hope you can get it going again. Others may have more specific knowledge than me. :)

[NA9D]

Thanks. I am not sure if those kick start codes are what I was thinking of but I'll try them out. I had been searching for terms like "diagnostic" and that was finding me nothing. It's still rebooting this morning.. Bummer...

[NA9D]

Well, entering the kickstart codes didn't do anything as the machine wouldn't get that far before rebooting. I began to use some of my engineer brain and thought about what I could do to troubleshoot this further. I decided that since the original problem was that my DVRExpander drive had disappeared that I'd try removing it from the system. Physically removing it brought up the message that the drive was missing and that I should either hit clear to if I no longer wish to use it or power cycle the Tivo to reboot. I knew power cycling would do nothing so I bit the bullet and removed the expander drive. After removing the drive, the box rebooted normally and came right up. I lost all my shows, but at that point, i don't think there was any way to avoid that anyhow.

I then tried re-adding the expander drive and it added back in just fine. So now I'm back to a working system just with no shows.

Just thought I'd post thing in case anyone else has a similar problem at some point.