Tivo Mini stuck in reboot loop

Try moving it to the other location, could bethe power cord. May help, may not.

 

If you try a good power adapter and boot loops, you have one from a bad batch of mini 2's. If you call support and it's out of warranty, they will replace it for a discontinued price.

 

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Running into the same issue with my Mini (TCDA93000). It's three years old this month. It’s connected to a Bolt Plus and a Premiere XL via MoCA. Until a few weeks ago it’s been flawless.

A few weeks ago when I'd FF it would suddenly reboot now and then. Recently I'd turn the TV on and it would reboot then work normally.

Today I turned the TV on and it displayed the “Welcome!” guided setup screen. I ran it through the setup process and it ends with the network connection screen, going through each step and at the “Verifying” stage it displays a caution icon and “Could not verify info”. Pressing select for more information takes it to the “Connection Problem” screen with the message “Your TiVo box can’t complete guided setup. (S308). I clicked on “Try connecting again now” and it went back through the “Getting Setup Info” once more.

On very the last reboot it temporarily flashed the “The TiVo Box has detected a serious problem and is now attempting to fix it“ green screen. That only lasted about a minute and it went back to the Guided Setup again resulting in the same “Could not verify info” on the last step of the Getting Setup Info. In my two-decades of TiVo experience the green screen (of death/kickstart) generally meant a failing HDD. Of course in the Mini's case, there's no HDD.

I’ve checked the connections, replaced the COAX and replaced the HDMI cable. Rebooted the Actiontec MoCA. Rebooted both TiVos.

Finally I substituted it for the Premiere which has an Ethernet connection and that resulted in the same “Verifying” error OR it never finishes that stage, reboots and goes back to the Guided Setup Screen.

Nothing’s changed with respect to my ISP, network, etc. I haven't called TiVo yet.

Time for a new Mini? Will TiVo swap it for a price? Thoughts?

TIA!

 

Yours seems to get the the network screen so maybe its not dead. If the premier does the same thing, try a factory reset of your gateway/router or try another one.

Also see if you got the new firmware where it asks you what moca channel you want to use. Try "automatic" and reboot, if it fails use the first default channel, I think its 12.

 

Hey foghorn, thanks for that. Should have been more clear...just "substituted" the Mini for the Premiere to connect it directly via Ethernet to see if it was a network thing or if the Mini itself was the real issue. (The Premiere works fine). Turns out it was the Mini. It was in a continual reboot loop...no way to get to the network settings, etc.

Just got off of the phone with TiVo and after they understood that the Mini had experienced the GSOD (2x) they offered to exchange it.

A very nice CSR named Shelia put me on hold for a couple of minutes and when she came back she said that normally it would be $79 but since we had had a TiVo account since 2002 they would exchange it for $39. Woo hoo!

I'll post back with an update regarding the "new" Mini should there be any issues. If it lasts another three years, money well-spent I guess.

Cheers!

 

So probably a flash memory failure?

Scott

 

With TiVo it is always a disk or power supply Even if there is no disk.

 

Initially it was just the odd reboot, sometimes in the middle of a show, sometimes during FF or switching menus. Then it got progressively worse and worse until the reboot loop and a couple of GSOD. Guess we'll never know.

 

Hi Dan...long time no see!

That's possible. Although it was sitting out on an open wooden shelf with nothing around it, it always felt warm to the touch.

Cheers!

Rich

 

I had the same issue... I did some trouble-shooting and swapped connections with a second Tivo-Mini. I thought my unit was done.

I noticed a little reset looking button on the bottom and held it down as I inserted the power connector... I held it down for a good 30 seconds and voila!! It began booting without cycling.

Perhaps that was the trick or maybe I just got lucky. In any event, my TiVo mini is no longer cycling. Good luck to anyone else who finds this!

 

One of my TCDA93000's just suffered the same fate. Naturally, and seemingly as always, it happened while I was traveling out of town and I have to listen to my better half about something not working...ugh.

PS: The button on the bottom, seems to be for cycling through the various output resolutions.

 

Called TIVo support, I ended up getting the same $39 deal on a swap. I also took advantage of the $99 TiVo Mini deal from Weaknees.

 

I was offered $39 for a swap, but only after saying $79 was too much. I declined and asked about the TiVo Mini Vox instead - transferred to sales and the best they could do was $160 for a refurb. Give the preroll crap, and how slow the mini 2s are...I'll pass. I'd rather put that money towards a Roku.

 

Adding in another recent update:
I had the same rebooting issue, and the green screen of death, called Tivo and they tried to sell the replacement Mini for $79, but eventually offered $39. (btw, I bought the Mini in March 2015, it died in November 2019)

 

I'm guessing these failures are the result of the soldered-on flash chips going bad, but that's just speculation. Has anyone bothered to try to troubleshoot these?

 

Documenting I just had the same issue, 2nd generation Mini in a boot loop showing the logo for about 5 seconds before constantly restarting. The mini was purchased in April of 2015.

Today it was replaced by a call to support for that same $39.

 

Same problem, same resolution. Only had to say "That seems steep, I know others have paid less" and I was offered the $39 price. The failed unit was a TCDA92000 activated in 2014.

It had been a bit flakey for some time. Sometimes, there'd be no sound when playing a recorded program. Sometimes that would be fixed by pausing for a second, or by a 30-second rewind, or by fast-forwarding a little. Usually it would be fixed by backing out to the menu and navigating back to the program. But otherwise it worked fine, up until I went to use it one day and it was nonresponsive. The power-cycle resulted in the boot loop.