Constantly rebooting TiVo (Cablevision)

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Cablevision was out this week and rewired a bunch to increase signal strength.
That seemed to get rid of our losing channels problem (at least we haven't seen it in the last 3 days).

Cablevision told us to call and they'll replace the cards if we still have problems.

Meanwhile we called TIVO tonight and they are sending a replacement unit. No need to even do the purchase and return thing.

I'm really suspecting this unit was released "ahead of its time." Sad - all the other TIVO's we've had (4) Series 1 and 2 were so solid.

Bleeding edge here,
Kim

 

I'm a Time-Warner customer with a Series3 and two CableCards, and I've seen the repeated reboot problem several times. I'm going to follow the steps suggested here when I get home and see if it helps at all.

I also have to reboot daily almost every day because the Tivo gets in a state where the tuner thinks it's changing channels but it really isn't. These problems are driving me nuts.

 

Anybody noticed a correlation between this problem and having a bad signal from the cable company?

 

Not in my case. My signals are 99-100 on every channel. Today was the 3rd visit from a Cablevision tech. My Tivo box suddenly started to reboot every few minutes after the tech pulled out the #1 cablecard and inserted a new one. After the tech gave up on my rebooting box and left 45 minutes later, I did a "restart and clear everything" which stopped the reboot problem (and miraculously my #1 cablecard is now authorized).

 

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I got cable cards installed today, with the usual minor problems - few bad cards until we got 2 that work. Then I did guided setup and verified that all channels work on both tunners. Then because of all the rebooting reports here I tried to reboot it manually and see what happens (better to know if there's a problem early than late).

What do you know - endless reboot. I timed it that as soon as "Ready. Set. Tivo." goes off you have about 70 seconds till reboot. During that time I can press the Tivo button and bypass the THX and the dancing Tivo movies and go directly to the menu. If I manage to go to the cable card settings screen and try going in and out of "test channels" mode (half the time) the reboot doesn't happen. I was able to do it 2 times out of 4. No need to remove cards and run setup.

Seems like a software problem. The Tivo tries to get a signal through the cable cards and times out and reboots. The problem is that with my cards/provider combination (Motorola/TWC) it takes longer to connect than the provided timeout.

Hopefully this is fixed in 8.1 we are getting in the next few weeks...

Ivo

 

BTW, is there anyone with cablecards whose Tivo won't endlessly reboot after a manual restart or a power outage? Seems like a 100% reproducable problem...

 

No, its not universal. I've had the s3 since November and never have had the endless rebooting. At least once a week I get the grey screen on one or both tuners and have to reset the unit. It resets normally and I can then get all channels. I use Cablevision NJ (Oakland) with SA cablecards.

 

Cablevision, NJ

I've had my series 3 for about 3 months. For 2 1/2 months everything was great. Out of nowhere I started getting freezing and reboots. It got so bad that when it would reboot I would just get snow on the screen, no picture at all.

I called Tivo, they said the snow was a problem they had in the past with series 2's and that I was the first they heard with this problem on a series 3. They sent me out a new one.

I just set up the new one last week, and today it started the same thing. What am I supposed to do? How can this be? I never had any problem with my Directv tivo. I'm really starting to loose faith in Tivo, but I can't bear to be without it. I just want it to work.


...by the way, it happens when using HDMI or components. I'm going to call them tomorrow to see what they will do. It's crazy, I haven't even sent back the first one yet, now I need to send them both back.

 

After experiencing different version of this problem, the common thread (for me) is ALWAYS a bad cable card signal. As soon as the Tivo sees that bad signal it reboots.

 

Matt,

The cable card signal says it's bad but by repeating the guided setup or sometimes restarting it's fine.

Why would that reset the cablecard?

 

Starting to watch an old SNL in HD, the TiVo restarted. After it rebooted, I started to play the same episode again and it rebooted in the same place. I did it yet again, and it rebooted again (same place) So I thought perhaps the recording was sitting on a bad sector on the disk, so I deleted it and tried to watch something else. Rebooted again

It rebooted a grand total of 4 times before it became stable enough again to watch something else stored on the hard drive.

Is there not a way to get a verbose startup, access to the logs on screen so we can figure out what happens...

By the way, my service is RCN, not CableVision.. so I don't think it is a CableVision thing either..


[Edit: added note about my cable provider]

 

Anyone experienced a constant reboot sequence that loops at the "Welcome! Powering Up. . ." screen?

Thx.
John

p.s. Comcast Bay Area

 

I'm Having the same problems with Tivo reboots, although it seems to happen more when I'm transferring from tivo to computer. Although 1 day I had 3 reboots in a row even though Tivo server desktop had crashed.

I had 3 more reboots today, and the last time it locked up on the startup screen. It seemed to be recording, but control was all locked up. Whatever was trying to record is finished now so I guess I'll have to unplug it, and hope it comes back to life.

My Tivo hasn't given me much problems the past year and a half, but the past 2 months (since the last tivo update) have been hell. I missed the beginning of the Bears game during a reboot!

Signal loss has been suspect in the latest problems, but I believe the latest Tivo update (software) is to blame, because signal loss, and bad weather ("snow" ) comes and goes and I've never had much problem until recently.

 

Just curious.

Any of you who have had these lockups, or reboots, have you also opened the box and upgraded the Hard Drive?

I'm not suggesting that upgrading the HD caused the problems, but I'm guessing that someone who was willing to do that upgrade might be willing to do what I suggest next.

That is opening the Tivo again, moving the drive to a PC, booting off one of the PC CD's that can mount Tivo partitions, mount the /var partition, and copy the log files off the disk.

Even if you can't read the logs yourself, if multiple people with this reboot and hangup problems could post the logs here, then those of us withm ore knowledge (but no rebooting S3) might be able to shed some light on the problem for you.

Again I suspect that only someone who's done the drive upgrade will be willing or comfortable doing what i'm suggesting. Who would want to void their warranty when there might be something really wrong with the machine.

-Kyle
-Kyle

 

No I haven't made any alterations on my series2, but it's out of warranty, so that wouldn't stop me.

Is pulling the HD any harder than pulling a hard drive out of a PC? Just wondering what I'd be getting myself into. On a 1 - 5 scale - 5 being the most difficult - how technically difficult is it to do what you're suggesting?

I have the day off so I suppose I could fiddle around with it.

Also after pulling the drive would I have to set Tivo up again? I've never done this so I don't know all that's involved.

 

No the physical work isn't any different pulling th HD from a Tivo than a computer.
Pluggin it into your PC wouldn't be any harder either.

The technical stuff would come in when it came to the 'software' stuff. Burning the CD image to boot from, booting linux, determining which device the HD is, mounting the partition, copying the file(s) to another HD.

Upgrading the HD in a Tivo would have covered alot of this already, so that's why I asked it that way. It's really not that tough, but not an easy thing to walk someone through (over a posting board) who hasn't done it.

Do you have any linux experience?

No the Tivo drive shouldn't be changed at all by this operation. The Tivo shouldn't be able to tell that the drive was ever removed.

-Kyle

 

No I have no Linux experience, and I think I'd want a dual boot situation - on a separate drive - if I was going to mess around with it.

No, this is definitely more than I want to bite off, and chew, for now, but maybe some time in the future...

Thanks

 

That's fine.

Just for everyone else's knowledge. YOu wouldn't have to install linux on your PC at all. For the purposes of this excercise, Linux can be booted and run directly from the CD only for the amount of time that you need it for this.

Just like the Tivo HD, No changes would be made to your computer HD - Well except copying the log files to it.

Thanks for considering it. If I had this problem, I'd do it myself.

-Kyle

 

OK, so then let me ask this: Has anyone experiencing the reboot problem had it fixed by exchanging the S3 or the cable cards? There are multiple reports here of the opposite - new S3/cards have no effect.

I'm guessing the problem is related to the cable signal, not the S3/cards being damaged.

Here's a theory: When the cable card turns on it waits for authorization signal from the cable co. The signal is broadcasted on a regular interval, probably the more customers, the less often. Depending on the time you turn on the Tivo you may get the signal within the timeout interval or not. People have reported higher success rate if the Tivo is on the cable card screens, but that may just be coincidence. Also there are reports that if the cable company hits the cards after the reboot the problem is fixed. That may be because the signal is sent independently of the regular scheduled authorization broadcast.

Again, this is just a theory. I have no knowledge how the cable card authorization is done.

Ivo