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tivo not starting up after system reset.

Discussion in 'TiVo Series 1 - UK' started by mooch, Mar 4, 2007.

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  1. Mar 7, 2007 #21 of 40
    mooch

    mooch New Member

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    Mar 4, 2007

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    The drive is a Maxtor D540X-4G 120GB. Mfg. Date: 15Jul2002. Sounds around the time I installed it.

    I don't have the original drive. Not with the tivo software on anyway.

    Before I run MakeTivoBootable, is it worth me backing up the drive? I have a lifetime sub. Is that information stored on the hard drive and if so what happens if I can't restore it? Would it be safer for me to upgrade the drive and keep this one as a backup?

    Just thinking out loud before I dive in.
     
  2. Mar 7, 2007 #22 of 40
    Pete77

    Pete77 New Member

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    Not Far...
    All the Tivo Lifetime subscription information is tied to the Motherboard's id and not to the hard drive. You can request a link to a clean Tivoweb image to download by posting a request in this thread.

    www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=4928587#post4928587

    So if your drive has had it completely then you can still get going again, although you would lose your recordings, thumbs, SPs and Wishlists.

    With a drive that old it must be time for a newer and much quieter Samsung one anyway like their 400GB HD LD T series model with a 3 year warranty.

    Cheapest price currently around £78 from:-

    www.cclonline.com/product-info-pc.asp?id=7168&pc=pricerunner

    It was down to low 70s a week or two back but prices seem to have risen in the last few days.

    Information on how to fit it at www.steveconrad.co.uk/tivo and the Large Hard Drive Upgrade section. Or you can buy a fully pre prepared one from www.tivoheaven.co.uk
     
  3. Mar 7, 2007 #23 of 40
    blindlemon

    blindlemon tivoheaven.co.uk

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    Malmesbury, UK
    MTB should be non-destructive so, theoretically, there's no need to back up the drive. However, it's always a good idea.

    Something like

    mount /dev/hdYn /mnt/dos
    mfsbackup -l32 -so /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdX

    (where hdYn is the FAT32 partition for your backup, and hdX is your TiVo drive) should do the trick. You will need around 1.3GB on the FAT32 drive for the uncompressed backup.
     
  4. Jun 13, 2007 #24 of 40
    mooch

    mooch New Member

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    Mar 4, 2007
    Okay, finally found the time to give this a go.

    Bought a new Samsung HD400LD and last night used mfsbackup/mfsrestore to copy my existing HD to the new one (same as I did when I did the original upgrade many years ago). Took forever, but worked fine.

    Tried out the new HD and unsuprisingly TIVO still didn't boot.

    Just tried MaveTivoBootable as blindlemon suggested, but still no boot.

    Not sure I got the syntax right as there was no message returned when I did it.

    For some reason (it might have something to do with SATA on my motherboard), my MTB disk mounts as hde, the new TIVO Samsung as hdg and CDRom as hdh.

    MTB instructions say to type:

    MakeTiVoBootable -d /dev/hdX --pk 3 --ak 6 --bp root=/dev/hda4

    so I modified it to

    MakeTiVoBootable -d /dev/hdg --pk 3 --ak 6 --bp root=/dev/hde4

    I'm pretty sure the first option is correct, but not sure about the root= bit.

    Any advice on my next move?

    Cheers.
     
  5. Jun 13, 2007 #25 of 40
    Wonder_lander

    Wonder_lander Image Bank Manager

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    I've PM'd you the image details, maybe try and download that and see if thats better?
     
  6. Jun 13, 2007 #26 of 40
    mooch

    mooch New Member

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    Mar 4, 2007
    Thanks Wonder_lander.

    I'd like to test the backup you gave me on a small HD I have spare to check that the rest of my TIVO hardware is still working okay.

    Can I use this command to restore? (bearing in mind, its only a 15GB hard disk)

    mfsrestore -r 4 -s 127 -bzpi /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdb

    Hinsdales instructions say:

    Note: Remove the "-s 127" from the following command line if restoring image to the original TiVo A drive (otherwise the image will not fit)

    Should I remove? Will this even work with a reduced capacity HD?
     
  7. Jan 23, 2008 #27 of 40
    mooch

    mooch New Member

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    Mar 4, 2007
    Back again to ask for more help.

    Never did get round to fixing my tivo and on the basis that I never will find time to do it, I bought a new preconfigured HD from tivocentral this week.

    Just installed it and annoyingly, my tv still shows nothing.

    New HD (set to master by default) boots up, makes it clunk noise, psu fan spins, green light comes on, but nothing beyond that.

    So, I figure I've got a hardware problem. Swapped out IDE cable, but no affect. Checked all other connections.

    Read about the dead modem problems, so got my old tivo hd out and renamed the modemtest file, but no difference. Hesistant to mess with the new drive from tivocentral until I sought out advice.

    Any ideas appeciated.
     
  8. Jan 24, 2008 #28 of 40
    mesaka

    mesaka travelling member

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    Sep 27, 2002
    time for some more basic suggestions (and sorry if I am teaching my Grandmother to suck eggs :)...

    1/. Have you tried playing around with your connections to the TV? swap the scart leads perhaps?

    2/. Try taking the normal video output to the TV rather than the normal TV output (checks if the scart connector is damaged).

    3/. tried a different TV (I guess the scart connection on the TV could be faulty)?
     
  9. Jan 24, 2008 #29 of 40
    mikerr

    mikerr TiVoCentral.co.uk

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    Reading back though this thread you have tried most common things (including replcing the IDE cable)..hmm

    Watch the green light carefuly for the first 30 seconds ..
    does it briefly change to orange 10-15 seconds after switch on ?

    I'd also try mesaka's suggestion of using the RF out connection (Channel 60) as I've seen a few tivos with dead scart sockets (and scart leads themselves can go faulty).

    Could still possibly be PSU, and they are cheap to replace.
    Check if you have 12V accross yellow/black and 5V accross red/black on the hard drive plug.
     
  10. Jan 24, 2008 #30 of 40
    6022tivo

    6022tivo A Happy Member

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    No starting up message, could be the HDD is not being seen.

    Silly I know, but IDE cable on the wrong way, I think it is keyed on the drive, but not on the system board??
     
  11. Jan 24, 2008 #31 of 40
    Pete77

    Pete77 New Member

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    Correct. I nearly had heart failure after my hard drive upgrade when things stuck at the Powering Up screen. However it was simply that I had refitted the cable on the system board the wrong way round.
     
  12. Jan 24, 2008 #32 of 40
    6022tivo

    6022tivo A Happy Member

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    Not picking, but if the cable was on the wrong way round you would of got the blank screen, and not a POWERING UP screen. You get the powering up screen after the tivo HDD has been detected, if it sticks on this, your HDD is missing the boot and operating system (or corrupt). If you get to, nearly there, a few more seconds please, then it is booting the OS.

    No HDD, or incorrectly wired HDD will give you a blank screen only.


    EDIT: Can't you tell I am in a bad mood.. Right I am off to get my lifetime £200 refunded as I am not getting x-league tv guide data, hence breach of contract..

    http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=382388
     
  13. Jan 24, 2008 #33 of 40
    Pete77

    Pete77 New Member

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    You expect to get your £200 back after 7 years use.

    Well good luck is all I can say.;):p
     
  14. Jan 25, 2008 #34 of 40
    mooch

    mooch New Member

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    Mar 4, 2007
    thanks for all the replies.

    I've :

    - checked scart cable
    - used different scart cables
    - tried tv output and video output
    - tried rf output
    - tv scart socket works - use it with sky all the time

    nothing coming up on tv.

    left green light comes on and stays (no orange).

    don't have the equipment to check the voltages, but could it still be a PSU problem if the HD powers up, the fan spins and the light comes on?

    old maxtor HD makes clunk noise on startup, new samsung HD makes more of a bzzzt noise instead.

    open to any other suggestions.

    one other thing. when i'm testing I just plug in the power cable and the scart, no scart input, or telephone line. I assume that's enough to get the screen up?
     
  15. Jan 25, 2008 #35 of 40
    6022tivo

    6022tivo A Happy Member

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    Power cable and scart are fine like this to get up and running.

    Reading back it appeared you had a power cut/surge.. With this info and the checks and changes you have done, maybe a PSU change is on the cards.

    Are you local??
     
  16. Jan 25, 2008 #36 of 40
    ColinYounger

    ColinYounger It wasn't me.

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    ISTR no scart INPUT can cause TiVo to act strange - Automan, are you listening? Wasn't it you that discovered the problem?
     
  17. Jan 25, 2008 #37 of 40
    Cainam

    Cainam Tivo Evangelist

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    Chester-le-S...
    I seem to remember it was IanKB...something to do with booting up without the freeview box attached to the scart socked when that was configured to be input source...

    Could be wrong though!
     
  18. Jan 25, 2008 #38 of 40
    mooch

    mooch New Member

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    Mar 4, 2007
    London. So, it may be the PSU even though everything powers up? If I was able to test the voltages would that give me a definitive answer? (to save myself ordering another PSU in case that's not the problem)

    Just tried it with the SKY scart in AUX input and no change.
     
  19. Jan 29, 2008 #39 of 40
    mooch

    mooch New Member

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    Mar 4, 2007
    Any suggestions for what my next move should be? should i order a new PSU? if that doesn't work, what options does that leave me?
     
  20. Jan 29, 2008 #40 of 40
    blindlemon

    blindlemon tivoheaven.co.uk

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    Malmesbury, UK
    Even Samsung drives make a slight "clunk" a few seconds after you apply power. If you're not hearing that then the drive may be dead or the IDE cable may be faulty/disconnected/reversed.

    Have you tested the drive in a PC to make sure it's OK? NB. DON'T boot into Windows with it connected - boot from the Samsung HUTIL diagnostics CD instead and use that to test the drive. The test is non-destructive (unless you choose the "erase HDD" option!) so testing it will not affect the configuration.
     
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