Tivo Freezing - Page 2

RL523 · 06-01-2004, 03:45 PM

The symptoms described here match the symptoms of my Series 1 Sony SVR 2000 exactly (lifetime sub). They also started around the same time, around a week ago. I replaced the original hard drive and added a second one about 2 years ago. Like another person mentioned, I was beginning to look at new units, but now I'm not so sure. It seems odd that many units experienced the same symptoms at the same time. I really don't need or want any other Series 2 features (other than faster processor & more memory), so I would like to keep my Sony going. I will next try putting a new "A" hard drive in unless I read more on the software problem possibility...

devjfl1 · 06-01-2004, 07:33 PM

Hmmm...I thought it was just me.

I have had my Directv TIVO for about a month. Flawless.

Just within the last 3 or 4 days, I have noticed that after about 30 - 90 seconds I get a 1 or 2 second freeze and then everything is ok.

It happens about 100% of the time.

wownflutter · 06-01-2004, 08:23 PM

TivoBill and dahacker apparently see the freezing as a "It must be broke." scenario.
I see the freezing as a software issue happening rather recently after an update.

Just look at the posts and the timing of this lovely issue.

Stuttering, freezing up, whatever you call it...once the inner circle of tivo company starts experiencing it...then the problem solving will begin.

I chalk this one up to the "Squeeky Wheel" metaphor. :-O

Cheers

tsedg · 06-02-2004, 05:19 AM

Just my $0.02 - Sony SVR-2000 with a lifetime sub. 2 years old, started skipping/freezing yesterday.

Rkkeller · 06-02-2004, 08:40 AM

Mine never froze or jerked again since getting the "C" upgrade. Might not
have anything to do with it but do the people that still have the problem
have the "B" or "C" software ? Or it could have just been a download gone buggy, line noise and such?

Rich

dharel · 06-02-2004, 08:49 AM

I had to do a clear and delete all to get my Sony SVR-2000 to work again. Again, freezing problem occured over weekend while I was away. Daily phone call said it failed when I checked before the clear and delete.

Drimple · 06-02-2004, 07:54 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Rkkeller
Mine never froze or jerked again since getting the "C" upgrade. Might not
have anything to do with it but do the people that still have the problem
have the "B" or "C" software ? Or it could have just been a download gone buggy, line noise and such?

Rich

I've got the B software, and it just updated today to another version of B. I'll keep an eye out to see if the freezing/studdering goes away.

Jeana · 06-02-2004, 08:31 PM

Okay, I'm going to test TivoBill's theory. I've ordered a replacement drive. If he's correct, replacing the drive ought to end the freezing. I'll post the results once I've had a chance to test it.

MonkeyTennis · 06-03-2004, 07:14 PM

OK mine is doing all described above too, stuttering, freezing for 10 secs or so for a while and then eventually freezing or black screen.

Interestingly I put the log file up while it was misbehaving and it was getting the following over and over again

FsNodeScanner[109]: Scanner got I/O error 0x11029

Then it got the following

"TmkTransform::Trace[117]: Have a buffer (0) with zero segments, did someone zero memory?"
"TmkTransform::Trace[117]: leaking buffers=pt->theBuf=0x30301000, Trying to recover."

It then hung. I guess it couldnt recover.

There are also lots of FsVolume errors reading buffer pages

Does that sound like a bad disk? It does to me. It must be the weather.

jpwoof · 06-03-2004, 08:41 PM

Scratch that! =)

Poogie · 06-03-2004, 09:15 PM

Update on my freezing, stuttering TiVo. I just got a message from Weaknees. They tested both my hard drives and the diagnostics didn't show anything. They did say that in some cases the testing doesn't pick up a bad hard drive. They are going to replace my Weaknees hard drive, and the original hard drive, so we'll see if I still have these issues. Not having my TiVo (for almost a week, now) is driving me nuts!!!!! I want my TiVo back!

MonkeyTennis · 06-04-2004, 08:38 AM

I popped down to the local retail giant last night and picked myself up a 120M drive to replace my 22M.

The saving a backup appears to have failed which may point to a bad drive again. Anyway I have left it ticking away at home doing the slow copy (including programs) so I'll see how the new drive works in the Tivo this weekend and report back here.

MonkeyTennis · 06-04-2004, 05:31 PM

My new disk is in and I now don't get the freezing issues anymore.

I also get the extra capacity. Which is nice.

lairc · 06-04-2004, 07:14 PM

If I'm having the same problem but have 2 disks how can I determine which disk the culprit?

todw1fd · 06-05-2004, 03:36 PM

Having same symptoms. System only 8 months old. Just started since the home media option trial. Live tv unaffected. Playback begins to pause soon after playback begins. Pauses get more and more frequent till unit hangs and reboots itself. Got one green screen which self-fixed in about 15 minutes. Pausing still a problem. B software on the box. Connection attempts are successful. Temperatures normal at 36 degrees. Could it be that we all have HD problems popping up at the same time? Or is something in the software hinky? Not looking forward to time without my Tivo, or clearing all my saves before getting to see them. Crappers.

Jeana · 06-09-2004, 07:41 PM

Replacing the hard drive appears to have cured the freezing issues--with the added bonus of a greatly increased capacity. The Weaknees do-it-yourself kit was easy to use, too.

Jeana

todw1fd · 06-10-2004, 05:49 AM

Looks like it was a hard drive after all. Both hard drives passed the manufacturor's diagostics without failing. But I guess when you're streaming video, read errors show up visibly before the drive would show symptoms in a normal computer. I decided to yank the factory 80 gig from Maxtor and replace it with a WE 60 Gig drive. Shame I lost all the saved programs I had in the process

, but I didn't have a large enough drive to save my stuff. Oh well..Tivo back to normal now with only the occasional pause. Weaknees kit working well..highly recommended.

outerlimits · 06-10-2004, 06:14 AM

This issue of heat and how hot your TIVO operates is not take seriously enough.

When possible I would suggest the following.

Keep your tivo in a well ventilated area that is not subjected to Sunlight. I would not recommend a enclosed entertainment center, closet, etc.

My Tivos sit in open style entertainment unit that has execellent ventilation.
My Home theater setup is in my finished basement. Since the basement is built into the ground the basement area of the house is cooler and the tivos are not subjected to sunlight.

I use the twinbreeze kit with the units that I have 2 120 GB hard drives installed. My units operate at 29-31 degrees celsius. These units are tightly packed and generate a tremendous amout of heat. If you treated your pc hard drives the way folks do with their tivo hard drives failure rates would go through the roof.

Poogie · 06-10-2004, 01:31 PM

I replaced both hard drives with new hard drives from Weaknees (thanks, Weaknees!), and so far there is no freezing. Seems to have done the trick, plus more storage!

I am thinking about ordering an extra fan to help with cooling. The temperature sometimes gets in the upper 40s (degrees celsius) on warm days.

Kreeper-X · 06-12-2004, 04:27 AM

Update. I recieved my "replacement disk" from weaknees and so far so good. the tivo booted like normal and made it's call and download like normal.

I'm now waiting to see what happens once it starts recording my shows again... Not looking forward to rebuilding my season passes again, but as soon as I see how the Tivo is working when streaming video I'll post again.

So far, live TV is fine.

RTOlson · 06-16-2004, 11:17 PM

I've been experiencing the same problems that many of you have mentioned -- the one-second pauses and then resuming as normal (eariler the unit had crashed altogether and wouldn't start up from standby after I updated the software). Today, however my Series2 bit the big one.

The screen froze while I was rewatching a show and my remote stopped working. After determining that it wasn't going to unfreeze somehow. I restarted and haven't been able to get past the "Welcome. Starting up..." since.

It's a refurbished unit that I've had for a week and a half. I'm not all that happy that this has happened so soon (especially because I've liked TiVo so far).

Obviously, the unit's still under warranty and I'm going to take advantage of calling customer support. Hopefully, it's something that can be fixed.

Kreeper-X · 06-17-2004, 12:00 AM

Okay... Final Update:

Everything is working fine since replacing the drive. Shows are recording and playing perfectly. It's just like I got a new unit.

So if there are problems with freezing like I had, then it really does seem to be a hard drive problem.

Jeff8737 · 07-12-2004, 12:16 PM

After seeing the response from TivoBill that this freezing/pixelation thing is likely to be coincidental failures on the part of 10 people I thought I would post.

My Tivo is doing it too. Stared a short time ago, maybe 2 months back, and its getting worse.

Didn't have this problem at any time in the past 3 years, our Tivo is nowhere near capacity, my drives are only 18 months old, and they're making NO noise to speak of...

WabbyTwax · 07-12-2004, 07:43 PM

I replaced my hard drive from that site that sends them to you preformatted for tivo.. and it works great now. So it was a bum hard drive for me too. At least now i tripled my recording time.

veritech · 03-05-2005, 06:20 AM

I have been having the problems with sporadic video freezing and pixelation. After reading different forums I went to Maxtor and checked their support site for some help and I found this under performance issues..............

"Maxtor hard drives are normally shipped with the "write verify" feature enabled. The "write verify" feature is enabled to provide protection against any particles that may have moved caused by mishandling. This feature is enabled only for the first 10 power cycles after which the feature will be disabled. A power cycle is the normal shutdown operations of the computer, including turning the power off.

Since reading this I figured I'd give it a try, since I was having problems I have already powered off my TiVo a number of times. To be sure I powered it down 2 more times and as a result for the past week I have not have any problems with TiVO freezing up, pixelation or sound problems that some people have come accross after upgrading their harddrives. I know it states write performance but according to what I've read these "non-pvr specific drives" write as they read to check data accuracy. go here for more info...

http://maxtor.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/maxtor.cfg/php/enduser/popup_adp.php?<?%20print("p_sid=$p_sid&p_lva=$p_lva&p_li=$p_ li")%20?>&p_faqid=1219&p_created=1030489466

Hope this helps....

JT-KGY · 01-08-2006, 02:44 AM

I'm having the same frozen tivo problems...

Are there any utilities out there that attempt to do things like chkdsk/scandisk
on Tivo hard drives?

emdee · 01-30-2006, 11:41 AM

I had the screen freeze problem with my Series 2 (15 months old). Over the last 3 weeks it began freezing during every conceivable situation--while watching live TV, while watching a recorded playback, while recording playback to a DVD, and even on the start-up screen itself. The only way to get it going again was to power cycle, and I was having to do that at least once a day. I called Tivo a few times, and after a lengthy and sometimes heated, on my part) "chat" with a supervisor, he agreed to drop the exchange fee to $79 (from $149). They shipped me a refurbed unit in two days, and I sent them back the other unit. The refurb unit has only a 30-day warranty, though, so I hope it doesn't fail in the next few months. I won't have gotten my money's worth out of the lifetime subscription for another year or so. I asked the rep if he had any ideas why the Tivo unit failed...he made the usual noncommittal noises and spiel about surge protection. I have a surge protector on the unit, as well as on a $2500 LCD TV, DVD recorder, and stereo equipment, with which I have had no problems. Then he suggested that perhaps it was a phone line power surge, although the sat box is also on the phone line and has had no problems. I am looking into getting a surge protector for the phone line. If the "new" unit fails I will look into DirecTV's DVR or maybe a Humax DVR.

mrj597 · 02-23-2006, 06:02 AM

I've had my series 2 for just a couple of weeks. After about 3 days the intermittent freezing started.

There may be many more users experiencing this that are not on this forum. There is probably someone @ TiVo that can fix this - if they knew about it.

wownflutter · 02-23-2006, 11:19 PM

Look at the thread date.

Its been a great while.

Clearly TIVO doesnt care...

megazone · 02-24-2006, 03:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wownflutter

Clearly TIVO doesnt care...

Right... They have over 1.4 million standalone users, and because a handful of users have reported sporadic problems and TiVo hasn't magically found a fix, they don't care.