S3 will not load tv guide data

Stormydog · 07-05-2012, 11:17 PM

My S3 Pioneer Tivo, which has worked perfectly for years ran out of tv guide data because of a crappy Linksys network adapter. I have tried everything from rebooting, rerun guide set up and connecting to Tivo service.

When I connect to Tivo service it produces the "Done" for every step (rather quickly and not much time to actually load anything). It always reports Success on last connection. I still can not get the guide to load. All channels report "To be announced" for show information.

I use broadband and have a Comcast DTA. Have powered off/on DTA.
I have lifetime suscription. Wonder if anyone knows possible what steps in what order to clear this up.

shwru980r · 07-06-2012, 01:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stormydog

My S3 Pioneer Tivo, which has worked perfectly for years ran out of tv guide data because of a crappy Linksys network adapter. I have tried everything from rebooting, rerun guide set up and connecting to Tivo service.

When I connect to Tivo service it produces the "Done" for every step (rather quickly and not much time to actually load anything). It always reports Success on last connection. I still can not get the guide to load. All channels report "To be announced" for show information.

I use broadband and have a Comcast DTA. Have powered off/on DTA.
I have lifetime suscription. Wonder if anyone knows possible what steps in what order to clear this up.

You might want to try an new network adapter.

When the guide data runs out and you finally download new guide data, then the data has to be indexed in the background. The shows will still show as to be announced until the indexing is complete.

Stormydog · 07-06-2012, 02:01 PM

Thanks for a reply,

Yeah, I should throw this adapter away because of you barely touch it, it looses the network connection. thiis is how the guide data ran out. This Pioneer is a second unit, not used as much as my Premier. But this Linksys adapter is the absolute worst, but works fine if wires are never touched.

As far as indexing, I have only seen it take a little time during connection to Tivo Service when it is loading information (last step). Otherwise it really processes Done much quicker, as if I already had the guide information.

If it needs to index in the background, it should not take over a week I would think. That is how long I have been trying to get the guide data to be processed by trying various steps.

I'm sure this is not the first time anyone had this problem with a S3 unit. I was hoping someone knew of specific steps or a special code to enter. In the meantime, will keep you informed if it continues to not process guide data.

WhiskeyTango · 07-09-2012, 11:41 AM

FYI, that is not a S3.

Stormydog · 07-17-2012, 05:46 PM

Ok, I thought it was an S3, so it must be a S2. I may have a S3 in the other room.

Still cannot get guide data to load. Last connection or connecting to service always says Successful. It does go thru all steps, sets clock, quickly downloads and quickly loads, ending in Done on all steps.

Is there a way to force a rebuild of whatever is on the hard drive? Resetting machine does not help.

unitron · 07-17-2012, 06:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stormydog

Ok, I thought it was an S3, so it must be a S2. I may have a S3 in the other room.

Still cannot get guide data to load. Last connection or connecting to service always says Successful. It does go thru all steps, sets clock, quickly downloads and quickly loads, ending in Done on all steps.

Is there a way to force a rebuild of whatever is on the hard drive? Resetting machine does not help.

Do you already have experience with WinMFS?

Stormydog · 07-18-2012, 02:03 PM

Sorry, no experience.

This same thing happened several years ago and I took to cover off, unplugged hard drive . cleaned dust from machine. Was starting to look into replacing hard drive, but was bewildered with software to transfer recordings. So I put the S2 back together and plugged in, has been working ever since. That is until a month ago. This unit has worked perfectly except for that time and now.

I will investigate this software.

unitron · 07-18-2012, 06:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stormydog

Sorry, no experience.

This same thing happened several years ago and I took to cover off, unplugged hard drive . cleaned dust from machine. Was starting to look into replacing hard drive, but was bewildered with software to transfer recordings. So I put the S2 back together and plugged in, has been working ever since. That is until a month ago. This unit has worked perfectly except for that time and now.

I will investigate this software.

What I actually had in mind was forcing it to change to booting from the alternate partitions to force a software upgrade.

Stormydog · 07-26-2012, 02:16 PM

I did look at WinMFS. Looks like I can hook it up to me desktp using an IDE adapter. I am not sure how to accomplish changing to boot from alternate partition. Wondering what WinMFS tools I should use.

Instead of using WinMFS, if I can off load my saved shows to my Premier using network, maybe I can try deleting saved info on that S2? At least try that first? I don't think deleting this info will leave recorded shows or will it?

unitron · 07-26-2012, 07:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stormydog

I did look at WinMFS. Looks like I can hook it up to me desktp using an IDE adapter. I am not sure how to accomplish changing to boot from alternate partition. Wondering what WinMFS tools I should use.

Instead of using WinMFS, if I can off load my saved shows to my Premier using network, maybe I can try deleting saved info on that S2? At least try that first? I don't think deleting this info will leave recorded shows or will it?

WinMFS has a utility you can click on called mfsinfo which will show a bunch of stuff about the drive.

TiVos generally came from the factory with partitions 2, 3, and 4 being the set from which it booted and loaded the OS into memory.

Partitions 5, 6, and 7 were exactly the same, and there as an alternate set of boot partitions.

In the event of a software update being sent out, it would be written to whichever set of partitions wasn't currently being used, then the bootpage (which I think is sort of the partition before the first partition, and is where the TiVo looks to find out from which partition set to boot), would be re-written to change to use the set which had just been updated, and there would be a soft re-boot in the middle of the night.

mfsinfo will show whether you're set to boot from 2, 3, 4 or from 5, 6, 7.

There's another utility in WinMFS called bootfix or fixboot or something like that, and it has two options.

Option 1 rewrites the bootpage to make the TiVo use 2, 3, and 4, and Option 2 makes the TiVo use 5, 6, and 7.

And that's regardless of what it's set to beforehand.

So, you find out which set you're using, use the option that will change that, put it back in the TiVo, it boots into the old software and and calls in and finds out there's newer software, downloads and installs it.

Which may help straighten out any problem with the software it's running now.

Remember, you have to run WinMFS with admin privileges for it to be able to see drives.