SD-DVR40 spontaneous reboots; no freezing/pixelation

[MustHaveTivo]

Greetings. Our SD-DVR40, received from DTV March 2005 in exchange for a failed GXCEBOT, started spontaneously rebooting a lot starting Tuesday night -- at least 4 times in about 30 hours. There is no picture freeze or pixelation, just Blam, a very brief blank screen and then "Welcome. Powering up". Absolutely no probs with this unit post-disk-addition until this.

Since there is no freezing or pixelation, am I correct to move hard drive way down on the list of likely causes?

Other than power cleanliness issues, any other suggestions where to go with this? Directly to Best Buy for an R10?

Many thanks, folks.

[Dkerr24]

Bad hard drive most likely. If you want to replace it yourself and and handy with computer repair, you can do it yourself.

[MustHaveTivo]

We are rather handy with computer repair and have been around the block with TiVo HD upgrades. I am just reluctant to get into it again (remember, this is a 9 month old unit) unless I feel like the HD is the most likely culprit. Instant reboots with no freezing/stuttering/pixely behaviour just didn't really say HD to me. So you think that's an incorrect assumption? Ah, perhaps if the HD prob is on the system partition rather than the data areas, that would explain reboots without video probs?

Thanks again. It just rebooted again just now. At least it's not going to be one of those annoying hard-to-reproduce intermittent problems.

[morgantown]

Originally Posted by MustHaveTivo

Absolutely no probs with this unit post-disk-addition until this.

Sounds like you added a drive to your unit... The bad part about the dual drive units is when one goes bad you whole unit is on the fritz. If you kept a backup image of your original drive you might want to try going back to a single drive (assuming you kept a backup of the image). If you don't have a backup image, google. You probably can find one without too much hassle.

On the other hand, $100 for the R10 and then the $100 mail in rebate is kind of a no-brainer... Use the R10, have you current unit taken off the bill, and then fix it at your leisure.

...and get a UPS, well worth the minimal cost.

[Want1394]

While it most likely is a bad drive, it may just be a corrupted database. The fix for that is to do a "clear and delete all." It's still a severe (wipes out everything from programs to season passes) fix, but you might try it before going the new disk route.

[MustHaveTivo]

Here's how this one played out. We pulled both drives and read the SMART diagnostic data. Neither showed any failures. They passed the nondestructive vendor diags we had, too.

I slogged through the 6.2 Causing Random Reboots? thread, having initially discounted it because we've had 6.2 for more than 9 months with no probs. I was suspecting we had some database corruption issue, and the mention of some folks clearing thumbs data struck a chord. We rarely use thumbs, but I distinctly recalled accidentally hitting one shortly before the first reboot. I had "cancelled it out" immediately afterward by hitting the opposite thumb once.

So I reset the thumbs, and we've been reboot-free for a week. Prior to clearing the thumbs, we had 8 in a 24-hr period or something flagrant like that. So far, so good.

morgantown's comment about getting an R10 being a no-brainer is well-taken, though... Best Buy still shows stock at a few locations around here and I will likely grab one to replace our remaining GXCEBOT.

Thanks, folks.

[BTUx9]

I've heard complaints from some that R10s are having random reboots/freezes, too. And as far as the thumbs info, even if you never use the thumbs buttons, everything you record receives a complimentary 1-thumb-up, so you have thumbs data, even if never using the buttons.

[kayson712]

Originally Posted by MustHaveTivo

I slogged through the 6.2 Causing Random Reboots? thread, having initially discounted it because we've had 6.2 for more than 9 months with no probs.

See my comments in the 6.2 Causing Random Reboots? thread about using "Keep Until I Delete". I have the same unit as you and this is the only way I have found to keep it boot free for the last several months. IMO this is a software problem and nothing to do with a bad hard drive. I talked to someone in D*s tech support several months ago and they admitted that this is a know problem and they also suspect it is the software, but they don't know what the fix is. I also suspect they won't try to fix it anytime soon since there seems to be so few of us complaining about the problem. This unit never did a reboot until it received the 6.2 upgrade. They did offer me a replacement, but since my unit is upgraded I didn't want to give it up for another unit with lesser capacity.

[carter.home]

I can't find anywhere exactly how do you you "reset thumbs"

[mduvall216]

Greetings,

I'm having the same spontaneous reboot issues you've described. I agree its a software problem, just does it whenever, no pixelation or anything. I noticed that you said you 'reset your thumbs database' and you have not had any problems. Exactly how did you do this?

I went into Pick Programs to Record > Suggestions and removed all the thumbs. This didn't help, plus the thumbs mysteriously come back. I can telnet into my Tivo, is there a command or something I can run that will reset this database? Thanks for your help.

Matt

[MustHaveTivo]

How odd that I just happened through tonight and saw this old thread of mine.

This is how I "cleared thumbs":

Go to Tivo Central -> Messages and Setup -> Restart or Reset System -> Clear Thumb Ratings and Suggestions.

This TiVo has not given us any rebooting (or other) problems at all since we did performed this action 8 months ago.

Good luck.

[mduvall216]

Hey thanks for the quick directions, just must have missed that. I cleared the thumbs and rating and turned suggestions off. So far so good, keeping my fingers crossed for. Thanks again for your help.

[wscannell]

Note that anytime you record a program the TiVo automatically gives it one thumb up.