Welcome/powering up screens don't appear

Folks,

While troubleshooting the often mentioned gradual slowing down and then eventual rebooting of the Tivo 3 after installing a ESATA drive, I realized that I never see the the "Welcome Powering up," or other screens associated with the addition or attempted removal of the external drive. The first indication I get that the Tivo is actually alive is when the THX swoop hits, and the Tivo guys slides in. This has been the case since the arrival of the 3. I simply "assumed" (yeah ... I know) that the Welcome and Almost there screens had been removed from this new generation box.

Since the drive expansion is recognized, I'm assuming this has something to do with resolution choices specific to my Sammy HLN437. I'm using component connections to Component input #2 on the Sammy which supports 480p/720p/1080i. The Tivo3 is set to output 720 fixed (as this is the native resolution of the TV).

Is there a known specific choice of output resolution and/or HLN input choices to have these screens appear on Samsung DLP HDTVs? Any other ideas?

Thanks in advance

Steve