TiVo Series 2 - Channels Go Black

BillyDaKid · 11-03-2006, 12:02 PM

I'm having a strange occurrance with my TiVo series 2. When I got home from work yesterday and turned on the TV, I went to change the channel and the screen went black. In addition to that, when I tried to change the channels they would not change on the cable box. I'm using the serial hookup and it works fine all other times I try to change the channels. When I did some troubleshooting of my own I tried to connect the cable box directly to my TV (bypassing the TiVo) and it worked fine. I was able to temporarily resolve the issue by restarting the TiVo. Another time I just fiddled around with the guide for about 5 minutes and it popped back on. This is the third time this week that this has happened to me.

Does anyone know if this is a known bug in the TiVo 7.3.1 software?

If it were poor signal strength like I've read on the other post wouldn't the TiVo display the blue screen message that reads "No Video Detected"?

Any assistance on this would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Billy

nogee · 11-03-2006, 08:59 PM

I had this happen to me and I believe that it was due to a poor signal. In my case I was trying to change channels and when Tivo couldn't find it, it kept searching and this is when the screen went black. If you wait long enough it should "settle" into a channel. I had to re-boot the Tivo box.

I've had pixelation and it was during the summer months when it was hot. I don't know if it was the Tivo box or the cable (Cox) box that was overheating. Now that it's cooled down I don't have the problem.

Posts to my pixelation problem pointed to a failing hard drive but it must have been the heat and poor signal.

Do a search on overheating and you'll read how to isolate the Tivo box to keep it cooler.

sandiegoguy · 11-04-2006, 12:21 AM

I had the same problem, and fixed it by rebooting. What I don't understand is why the TiVo didn't pop up an alert -- I was watching previously recorded programs at the time that it recorded two of my favorite shows with a duration of 0:00, so it knew something was wrong. As far as I know, it hasn't happened again to me.

BillyDaKid · 11-04-2006, 10:14 AM

Hey Nogee, I don't think it's an overheating issue because it's actually pretty cool when I notice it. The TiVo is in a well ventilated area with no other devices stacked on top of it.

SanDiegoGuy, the reason why it didn't pop up an alert only makes me believe that there might be a strange bug in the current 7.3.1 software. I never had this issue before I updated the software.