Tivo restarting itself

Bernie33 · 07-16-2006, 12:57 AM

I've had this Series 2 Tivo for almost exactly one month and it has worked fine - until last night. Then, when going to watch something the green light on the front when off and the Tivo restarted itself. I guess that means it rebooted itself.

Tonight that has happened three times, sometimes when selecting something, and sometimes while watching something that had been recorded. One of those times it was also in the process of recording something (don't know what) and it didn't resume the recording when it came back up, but that wasn't important, at least in this case.

Suggestions?

Bernie

litzdog911 · 07-16-2006, 02:36 AM

Most likely your Tivo's hard drive is dying. Since it's still under warranty you should have it replaced.

plowsterbabe · 07-16-2006, 06:12 PM

I know you used the word 'likely' but I'm not so certain it's the hard disk. My Series 2 is a bit older (~ 2 years) but I did change the hard drive out after the warranty expired.

I actually think my case has to do with software update and/or the TiVo wireless adapter. I had no issues until that point when I got the adapter---the place where I'm interning at the summer doesn't have an ethernet jack handy for me to use my wired adapter.

I've also noticed that the unit is likely to restart at certain times, say around 7:30 PM. And when the unit restarts, there's no visible stumble of the video playback. It just restarts.

Unfortunately, I need to wait until I get back to Atlanta to troubleshoot this more.

Bernie33 · 07-16-2006, 07:25 PM

In my case when the unit restarts the green light goes off, then the TV displays "Powering Up", eventually followed by "Almost there . . ." and then the intro to Tivo. At that point I can hit the Tivo button and nothing is lost, but if you were watching something previously recorded it does not remember that.

Doesn't sound like the problem as where you say "no visual stumble of the video playback". If there is no stumble I'm not sure how you even know that it restarted, so I don't know if we're talking about the same symptoms.

I am using a Tivo wireless adapter. Have been since I got the unit. The first time it restarted I thought perhaps an update had been downloaded and was being applied , and it was around midnight. But I dismissed that idea when it happened additional times on a Saturday evening.

I don't know if it has happened other times when we're not watching TV of course, and we don't watch TV very much (more now that we have the Tivo though). Our TV is on perhaps 2-3 hours a day total now that we have Tivo.

I will contact Tivo Monday and share the results.

plowsterbabe · 07-16-2006, 08:41 PM

What I meant by video stumble....if it was a hard disk going bad, and you were watching a recording, I'd expect to see the video quality get all jumbled and freeze up a little bit before the unit actually restarts to the "Welcome. Powering up" screen. At least with my unit, when it restarts when I'm watching something, it just all of a sudden will go from video to the powering up screen.

I suspect that the issue, in my case, is either a power supply problem or a software issue.

I'm curious when I get back to Atlanta, if I switch back to the wired adapter, if there'd be any changes.

mfrns0123 · 07-17-2006, 11:20 AM

Just started having the same problems. I received the new 7.3.1 update, and since then my Humax series 2 has a random reboot at least once a day now...very frustarting

Bernie33 · 07-17-2006, 09:18 PM

Tivo decided to replace the unit.

It did suddenly reboot itself in the middle of viewing a program again today.

Bernie33 · 07-25-2006, 05:33 PM

While waiting for the new unit to arrive the Tivo locked up twice. Once displaying a picture, and once while the "just a few more minutes" was displaying after a reboot. Had to unplug it both time to get it restarted.

The replacement unit came quickly (I paid the deposit which will be refunded when I return the original), and because it failed within the first 30 days Tivo should be sending a return label. It is over a week and the label hasn't shown up yet, so I called again and they are said it should show up.

The new unit rebooted itself in the first half hour after I set itself up. I haven't had the TV on much since then, but the new unit hasn't failed since while I have had it on.

When I called about the label I mentioned the new unit rebooting itself and the rep said he'd had some reports of that happening when using the Tivo wireless adapter, which is what I'm using. He suggested leaving the TV on Live TV and seeing if it would fail again.

bedelman · 07-25-2006, 06:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bernie33

When I called about the label I mentioned the new unit rebooting itself and the rep said he'd had some reports of that happening when using the Tivo wireless adapter, which is what I'm using. He suggested leaving the TV on Live TV and seeing if it would fail again.

I've found that running a chat client that uses Bonjour (or Rendezvous) messaging will make a TiVo using the TiVo Wireless Adapter reboot unexpectedly.

The chat clients of which I know that have this protocol include Trillian (for Windows) and either iChat or Fire (for Mac OSX).

I disabled the Bonjour protocol on the chat client and haven't had an unexpected reboot since (and it has been months)

radartech · 07-27-2006, 05:12 PM

Related only in a reboot fashion. I unplugged my USB wireless adapter while the TiVo was still on only to have the TiVo shutdown and reboot, bad idea. Now when the need might arise to remove the wireless adapter I shutdown the TiVo first.

Marshalonis · 07-29-2006, 04:00 PM

Very interesting. My Hughes Directv DVR just started restarting almost once a day for the past couple of weeks. Both during recording programs and also during feedback. I only have to wait until Wednesday when I'm getting the HR10-250.

Bernie33 · 08-12-2006, 05:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bedelman

I've found that running a chat client that uses Bonjour (or Rendezvous) messaging will make a TiVo using the TiVo Wireless Adapter reboot unexpectedly.

The chat clients of which I know that have this protocol include Trillian (for Windows) and either iChat or Fire (for Mac OSX).

I disabled the Bonjour protocol on the chat client and haven't had an unexpected reboot since (and it has been months)

Interesting. We do run Trillian on our machines. For a while we were trying Trillian Pro supports Rendezxous, but we've reverted to Trillian Basic which does not I'm not certain of the timing, but there may have been some overlap.

With our replacement Tivo, and since the latest software update to the Tivo we haven't had the problem and I attributed it to that update. The Trillian angle is interesting.

Bernie

plowsterbabe · 08-13-2006, 12:21 PM

I haven't had internet access for a few days and I had unplugged my TiVo wireless adapter. No more random reboots. Yep, I was also running Bonjour in the background on my laptop out of habit.

Well, when I get back to Atlanta it'll be going back on the wired adapter I have.

jodi.de.vries@gm · 10-08-2006, 03:20 PM

So does anyone have any updates on the restart issue? Our Tivo restarts itself every time we're watching a show. It's getting really old.