Crashing when using MRV or transferring

joemg · 09-28-2011, 07:45 AM

I have 2 new premiere's. I can record/watch on either one of them individually with no problem. However, when i try to watch something on the other box the tivo crashes. If i try to transfer from the other box it will reboot.

It reboots from a different spot each time, does it with any recordings.

Both are hardwired to my router.

Any ideas?

joemg · 09-29-2011, 03:52 PM

anyone?

spent some time with tivo support last night, but no results.

have to call back tonight, they had me disable video sharing, wait 4 hours, enable...

unitron · 09-29-2011, 07:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by joemg

I have 2 new premiere's. I can record/watch on either one of them individually with no problem. However, when i try to watch something on the other box the tivo crashes. If i try to transfer from the other box it will reboot.

It reboots from a different spot each time, does it with any recordings.

Both are hardwired to my router.

Any ideas?

Give both static IP addresses.

Different static IP addresses.

Might help, can't hurt.

jeff92k7 · 10-02-2011, 10:29 PM

I'm having the exact same problem. Just seemed to start recently. Twice in the last three days, my living room TiVo has crashed and restarted when attempting to MRV copy a show from my other TiVo. I figured it was a fluke the other day, but after it happened again tonight, I became concerned.

First time, it crashed within seconds of starting the MRV transfer. This time, the MRV transfer was about half done. Each was a different show, originally recorded from different channels. The first was a 1 hour show, the second was a 30 minute show. Both MRV's completed successfully after the TiVo rebooted.

I have not had any problems with MRV transfers in the past. Granted, I haven't done as many as in the last couple of weeks (new fall shows), but still, this is the first time I have had any trouble with MRV transfers.

As with the OP, both my TiVos are wired on my network. Though, the reboots don't happen every time. I was able to MRV another show yesterday without incident, as well as copy some pyTivo content from my computer earlier today without incident.

Both my TiVos are running 14.8c-01-3-746

Jeff

shamilian · 10-03-2011, 04:57 AM

Occasional reboots when transferring from one tivo premiere to another have happened for a long time. I think they have a bug in their ethernet driver.

I have static IP addresses, the tivos are hardwired. The reboot always happens on the receiving side. I think the receiving tivo buffers overflow.

Nothing much we can do, calling customer support will not do much good for this kind of problem.

unitron · 10-03-2011, 01:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jeff92k7

I'm having the exact same problem. Just seemed to start recently. Twice in the last three days, my living room TiVo has crashed and restarted when attempting to MRV copy a show from my other TiVo. I figured it was a fluke the other day, but after it happened again tonight, I became concerned.

First time, it crashed within seconds of starting the MRV transfer. This time, the MRV transfer was about half done. Each was a different show, originally recorded from different channels. The first was a 1 hour show, the second was a 30 minute show. Both MRV's completed successfully after the TiVo rebooted.

I have not had any problems with MRV transfers in the past. Granted, I haven't done as many as in the last couple of weeks (new fall shows), but still, this is the first time I have had any trouble with MRV transfers.

As with the OP, both my TiVos are wired on my network. Though, the reboots don't happen every time. I was able to MRV another show yesterday without incident, as well as copy some pyTivo content from my computer earlier today without incident.

Both my TiVos are running 14.8c-01-3-746

Jeff

The more things the TiVo is doing at the same time, the harder the CPU is working, which means the more current it draws.

If your power supply is getting marginal (capacitor going bad and changing value, probably), then maybe it can't quite do the job during the TiVo's busiest moments.

Go to badcaps.net and google up the link for lcdalternatives and learn about capacitor disease and how to look for the signs, then carefully look yours over.

jeff92k7 · 10-03-2011, 02:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by unitron

If your power supply is getting marginal (capacitor going bad and changing value, probably), then maybe it can't quite do the job during the TiVo's busiest moments.

Assuming that could be the problem, is it possible to purchase a replacement power supply, and change it myself? (Very familiar with computer repair).

ETA: My TiVo's are both Premieres

Jeff

johnd01 · 10-03-2011, 02:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by shamilian

Occasional reboots when transferring from one tivo premiere to another have happened for a long time. I think they have a bug in their ethernet driver.

I have static IP addresses, the tivos are hardwired. The reboot always happens on the receiving side. I think the receiving tivo buffers overflow.

Nothing much we can do, calling customer support will not do much good for this kind of problem.

I have the same problem.
If I am recording 2 channels, transferring a show and fast forwarding at the same time I get the reboot. I do not remember it without other activity.
If it is not recording and I just watch the show everything seems fine. Buffer overflow or out of memory could be doing it. Would like to know how busy CPU is at the time.

It has been a few years but as I remember it my S2 (HDVR2) boxes did not use much CPU to record or paly back.

johnd01 · 10-03-2011, 02:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by unitron

The more things the TiVo is doing at the same time, the harder the CPU is working, which means the more current it draws.

I would think the more disk activity would have more of an impact on power supply or low memory and swopping could do it to.

I do not think this is a week parts kind of problem. It could be an under designed parts problem. it is happening in too many device for it to be a week parts problem. both of my unit do it about the same way.

jeff92k7 · 10-03-2011, 07:23 PM

It happened again. MRV a show...started watching it while transferring....about two minutes in, freeze and reboot. Reboots fine, resumes transfer and completes successfully. Nothing else was recording at the time. This is two in a row now.

Got to thinking about this more and this is a problem that just started recently (at least for me). We have actually used MRV a lot more recently than I thought. We recently just finished watching Hell's Kitchen. We didn't start watching it until the season had almost finished. Within about a two week period, my wife and I watched all but the last episode since it hadn't aired yet. All of the episodes were recorded on our Bedroom TiVo and all but a couple were watched via MRV in the living room. We didn't have any crashes with any of the episodes in that series/season.

I think I'm going to try rebooting our bedroom TiVo in the next day or two to see if that does anything. Maybe the problem isn't actually in the receiving unit, but the sending unit. I'll post back with any results.

Jeff

joemg · 10-26-2011, 09:05 PM

they RMA'd me a new tivo and the problem remains...

has anyone had any luck with this?

spowers · 10-27-2011, 12:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by joemg

they RMA'd me a new tivo and the problem remains...

has anyone had any luck with this?

none at all.

TiVo replaced two of our Premiere XLs when the first set failed. Now that these are failing, they're grasping at straws suggesting we have "bad power", "bad router", etc. so long as it gets them off the phone and it's not something they're responsible for.

I've worked in the PC industry for decades - both on the hardware and OS sides. It seems to me to be software. Chances of two hard drives failing on the same day in different units are quite low. The units worked and worked well when we bought them last November. They've only gotten worse - now to the point that they're totally unreliable.

unitron · 10-27-2011, 07:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jeff92k7

Assuming that could be the problem, is it possible to purchase a replacement power supply, and change it myself? (Very familiar with computer repair).

ETA: My TiVo's are both Premieres

Jeff

If it's the power supply, it's probably the electrolytic caps, and it'll be a lot cheaper to break out the soldering iron.