New Roamio Pro Stuck in Reboot Loop during setup

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I spoke a great support specialist, and after commiserating over our issues with users, he said they were aware of the issue, and were working on a fix, but he was unsure how they could implement because the system wouldn't connect.

He did indicate that it may have been due to the original version of the OS on the replacement TiVo being one version lower than expected for the 20.4 update, and that causing an error during loading.

I will say, this is actually my second problem in 9 years from devices coming directly from TiVo. My second Series 2 Nightlight died on me about 2 weeks after purchasing it, they send me a replacement, but in the meantime, I bought one off of craigslist, so I had two. And this was back in the days of modem setups only, unless you tricked it into using a specific brand of USB-to-Ethernet adapter for the initial connection.

 

My replacement for my replacement comes on Wed as well. Hopefully it's a non issue. I don't even want to plug it in until I've confirmed that the issue has been resolved! Please post if this has been fixed for you all and I will do the same.

 

I just got an RMA to return my unit also. They wanted $350 to ship the replacement immediately but waived that after I complained. The technician that I talked to pleaded ignorance of a widespread issue so hopefully it was confined to a few units.

 

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My original unit was shipped on April 21.

 

Talked to Tivo today. They have a list of people who have had this issue but still don't have a fix. They will be calling these people once they figure out the problem. I got my second new one delivered today and I'm not sure what I should do. I don't want it to update and get a corrupt update again. Anyone get their replacement and get it up and running?

 

Oh my, I'm so sorry some of you are experiencing this issue!

If your box gets all the way to "TiVo Central" before restarting, I may have a solution.

First, email me your TSN (margret@tivo.com) with the subject: "Reboot Loop" so we can make sure your box is configured correctly.

AFTER I email you back that I've confirmed your configuration, proceed with these steps:

1. Once your box boots all the way to TiVo Central, please IMMEDIATELY unplug the Ethernet Cable as soon as you see "TiVo Central".

2. Then navigate to Settings & Messages > Help > Restart or Reset > Clear & Delete Everything and enter the three THUMBS DOWN + ENTER to proceed

3. After it completes, it will prompt you to repeat Guided Setup.

4. Once it has completed Guided Setup, make two more connections to the TiVo Service.

5. Email me and let me know how it all went.

--Margret

 

Email me the TSN of the new box, and I can confirm it is configured correctly and safe to set up.

--Margret

 

I just obtained an RMA for my brand new Roamio Plus that was endlessly rebooting during guided setup at the "Preparing the connection..." step. Made in Mexico, 11-DEC-13. I ordered it last week and received it in the mail today.

My Roamio seemed to be working fine until it auto updated to 20.4 during setup, then the rebooting started. I also noticed the cablecard automatically ran a firmware update upon first power up, but that had nothing to do with the reboots, since the unit rebooted with the card removed. I selected the WiFi option during the initial setup and the TiVo connected to my home network just fine until the 20.4 update took place.

This is my first TiVo failure since I first starting using TiVo back in 2003.

Oh, well. At least my Premiere and ancient Series 2 still works.

 

Well, third time is the charm... I hope? I now have 3 Roamios sitting on top of my 5-year-old rock-solid HD XL, and the third Roamio finally appears to be ok. I can't fully confirm until I can call TiVo tomorrow to get it activated (I also haven't moved the cablecard from the HD XL because things are recording...).

Box #1: purchased Roamio Plus with lifetime service online last week, reboot loop during setup. Never got to TiVo Central. Called support and had a replacement sent out.

Box #2: arrived today. Same as Box #1 - reboot loop before completing setup. Never got to TiVo Central.

Box #3: I really didn't want to wait another week, just to get a third box from TiVo that did the same thing. So I took matters into my own hands and picked up another Roamio Plus at the local Best Buy. I figured best case, it works and I get TiVo to transfer the lifetime service from Box #1/2, then return those two. Worst case, it either doesn't work or TiVo refuses to transfer service (which would be ridiculous), so I return it to Best Buy.

Well, Box #3 got all the way through Guided Setup and into TiVo Central. I noticed one difference right away: on initial bootup, just prior to the welcome screen where you pick US or Canada, I saw the following message:

Kind of strange, I thought - what update? It hadn't even connected to the network yet. In any case, neither Box #1 nor #2 did this.

I can think of 2 differences between Box #1/2 and Box #3:

• Box #3 has an earlier TSN. I specifically chose this unit (out of 2 available) at Best Buy because this problem seemed to pop up only recently. Maybe a recent bad hardware batch was the cause? TSNs of Box #1,2,3 in order are 848-0001-903A-A***, 848-0001-903A-D***, and 848-0001-9026-E***.
  
  
• Box #3 wasn't already tied to an account with lifetime service since it was purchased at retail.

Other notes:

• The solution posted by TiVoMargret couldn't apply to Box #1/2 because they never saw TiVo Central. Just to be safe, I did follow her instructions for Box #3, but I suspect it was unnecessary.
  
  
• When Box #3 got to TiVo Central, it said "Go to UNKNOWN and enter your TiVo Service number to activate the UNKNOWN. The UNKNOWN will not work without an active service subcription." What's with the UNKNOWNs?
  
  
• For the reboot loop in Box #1/2, it happened when the Getting Program Info screen got down to Loading info. After that point, it was reboot city, every 2 minutes and 43 seconds like clockwork.

I'll respond back with confirmation that all is ok once I get Box #3 activated and actually recording/viewing TV.

 

I was able to get the Roamio to TiVo Central during setup by setting it up as a Demo model, then once it restarted on its own, it went right into TiVo central, said it needed to go through guided setup again, and would reboot like before. I have already RMA'd it, so I'm not going to mess with it, but it anyone would like try, that might help TiVo guide people through the solution for Margret.

 

I was having the same issue as everyone else here. I contacted Margret who was able to assist me and I am able to report that I was able to complete Guided Setup without rebooting. I would suggest to everyone here to e-mail Margret (margret at tivo dot com) with your TSN number. She will verify the configuration of the box first to make sure it will work.

 

This also happened in my case.

My TSN was similar to your #2 Box: 848-0001-903A-D***.

 

Happy to report that my 2nd replacement unit is up and running great after emailing Margret. I didn't even want to plug it in before confirming that the same issue wouldn't reappear on this 2nd replacement unit.

For some reason, I can't get it to update to 20.4.1 after multiple restarts and connecting to the Tivo service, but I'm not worried about that right now.

 

When finally getting my Tivo up and running with Margret, my software version was at 20.3.6.3.B2-USA-6-INT. After confirming with her that my Tivo is up and running, an hour or two later she told me to check to see if my Tivo was pending restart. Sure enough it was. Now I'm at software version 20.3.8-USA-6-848. My guess is she was able to control what software was getting pushed to my Tivo as a software update when first setting up the Tivo is what I believe caused the boot loop.

I'm just happy to have a working Tivo right now!

 

I wouldn't be too worried about being on 20.3.8. I don't think the full roll-out of 20.4.1 is complete. I'd guess you'll see 20.4.1 within a week or so if you're not yet getting it.

 

I was not able to get to Tivo Central. I was stuck in Guided Setup. I sent e-mail to Margret with my TSN and issue (Roamio Reboot Loop). She gave me instructions on a code to enter when I boot up the tivo (I think similar to a kickstart code). This reset my Tivo, then got screen saying update in progress. Once complete, box restarted back to Guided Setup. This time I had no issues completing Guided Setup and getting my box/cablecard to work. Software version 20.3.6.3.B2-USA-6-INT was on my box.

I can't confirm this...but my guess is Margret was able to use my TSN and force my Tivo to download an older version of software.

 

Update: my replacement Roamio Plus from TiVo (Box #2 in my post above) is now working properly. Well, as near as I can tell - still haven't moved the cablecard over because once again things are recording on the old TiVo and I don't want to disturb that... But it has finally broken out of the reboot loop and is running normally. I have been able to transfer a bunch of shows from the computer (via pyTiVo) and can stream them to my iPhone. Excellent.

As of last night, this box was in the same reboot loop as my original Roamio (Box #1). I had emailed TiVoMargret with my TSN but hadn't heard back, so when I tried to set it up anyway last night, I got stuck in the loop.

Today I heard back from Margret - she said that my Box #2 was NOT configured properly and I should hold off. Of course, I had already jumped the gun by this point - whoops! A second email about 30 minutes later informed me it was now safe to proceed. I'd love to know what setting or data was changed on TiVo's end…

After reading reports of success here, I decided to give Box #2 another try since it would be less hassle to return #3 to Best Buy and use #2 (which already had my lifetime subscription and account info).

Since the box was already in the reboot loop, I tried TEG's suggestion of using Demo mode to clear & delete everything, hoping that would put it in a state that would allow Margret's magic behind-the-scenes fix to do its thing. I pulled the ethernet cable and proceeded to set it up as a Demo unit. I didn't reconnect the ethernet until it asked to setup the network. This did allow me to get all the way through to TiVo Central, where I went through the menu to Clear & Delete Everything.

Once the Clear & Delete finished, I was back at the beginning of Setup. I did take note that unlike my Box #3 and lemieuxfan67's experience, I did NOT see the "Preparing update…" screen prior to the initial Setup screen. Went through the menus anyway and... got the reboot loop. Boo!

I tried the Demo mode reset method a couple more times, each time leaving the ethernet cable unconnected until absolutely necessary. While in the reboot loop, I also tried Kickstart codes 52 and 56 on different boots. The lights indicated that the Roamio took the codes, but I don't know if they did anything or not. At one point, the box was in a state where it got all the way to TiVo Central, but always rebooted about 5 seconds after that came up.

Finally on the last try through the process (Demo mode, Clear & Delete, regular Setup), it went all the way through. I honestly don't know what I did any differently that last time. Or maybe it just finally got whatever change TiVoMargret did for me back at TiVo HQ.

At any rate, I appears to be up and running. Box #1 goes back to TiVo and Box #3 goes back to Best Buy. Thank you Margret again for your help! I will update if anything changes...