Can't get Tivo to update software

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I have had an HD Tivo for 2 years and never had a problem.

I decided to buy an HD Tivo for my mother which she will use OTA.

I figured it would be a good idea to set it up @ my house so it is just plug & play.

Bad news out of the box it is running 8.1.7c2.

It also has a ton of gray screen issues.
sometimes channels just show geay (OTA)
it takes about 2 sec to change channels and it shows gray between them.
once the tivo background disapeared to be replaced by gray screens.

So I connect to TIVO network and pulls down the guide but no software update.

The status just says: Sucessful not pending reboot.

So I connect again: same thing.
so I reboot anyways. same software version.

So I connect again: same thing.
I pull the plug wait 30 sec, power it on - same version.

Connect once more: same thing.

What gives?
I think the gray problems would go away if I can get the software up to date.

 

Thanks for the info.

Sadly it doesn't seem to work.

In was pretty sure I did 5 connections but to make sure I did this

1) Power Cycle TIVO
2) Complete 6 "connect to TIVO Now" connections in a row.
3) Checked Last Status: Always says "Succeeded".

Guess I will need to call Tivo support.

Anyone know if activation will cause a problem? Like TIVO won't install latest software until activated. Doesn't make sure sense. The bugs might make someone never want to activate it (return it instead).

 

I will try again tomorrow. Hold time was bad on Tivo Technical Support so I gave up.

I am giving it to my mother on Saturday hopefully it is up to date by then.

She isn't the type to deal well with updates, and versions, and errors and stuff so that is why I want it as ready out of the box as possible.

 

Update:

It finally updated.

I called Tivo support. Waited on hold for 20 minutes. Some nationwide problem w/ dialup numbers. I find it hard to believe that so many people deal w/ dialup still....

Anyways the tech has me do basic stuff and we connect to tivo service. While we are waiting he "looks up some information".

He asks has it been activated. I say not yet. He says it needs to be activated before it will pull down update.

Just as he says that the Tivo service connection completes and guess what....
status is "awaiting reboot".

The tech sounded tired (likely from non-stop calls about wrong dialup numbers) so I didn't argue with him.

I reboot and it had flashed Tivo up to 11b.

Weird thing is I am NOT affected by the "not activated system info crash" bug in 11b. I went in and out of system info dozen times.

Anyways all is well that ends well. Guess Tivo only wanted to update on its terms.

 

One last thing.....

Tivo needs to update the boxes to later version so it puts best foot forward out of the box.

Having used Tivo so long I forgot how bad it is at 8.1.

long channel change delays.

Also the "blanking" screen to solid gray between channels (instead of just keeping old channel up until new channel is tuned) makes it even worse.

Everything seemed sluggish. Now that it is running 11 it is what I expect from Tivo. Funny how I never noticed it getting better in incremental steps but take one giant step back and it looks really bad.