[fiveolddogs]

On boot up,

Green light is on throughout this process. It shows the Welcome screen (amber light flickers a bit after a moment but never does again) -> briefly black -> Welcome (this repeats three times) -> Almost there -> black -> no signal -> black (this repeats many times). Then nothing.

I tried replacing the HD, but there was no change. I put the original drive back in. Same problem as expected. I unplugged/plugged it in to run through the cycle many times, trying to understand what was going on. After many times, it miraculously booted up and showed me several random five year old recordings (including the Bionic Woman and He-Man in Spanish!). I played around with the UI and played back some of the recordings. Everything worked great.

I decided to take the opportunity to do my factory reset (smart or dumb?) thinking between finally booting up and then a factory reset, the OS would have returned to proper operation. The reset appeared to go well, although not having ever reset a Tivo, I'm not sure if all the reboots and time it took were normal. It did boot into the setup process, asking for zip code and Wifi password. Then it wanted to download guide info. This seemed to hang on "Loading Info" and the Tivo abuptly rebooted. This happened several times. I went to bed.

Today I find it will not get past the "Almost there" screen, but the screen looks different than it did before I attempted the reset. The colorful Tivo logo has been replaced with a white silhouette logo. I have attached photos of both to show the difference.

I am using the power supply that came with the Tivo, but I did also try a laptop power supply previously and got the same results.

 

[JoeKustra]

I think your software is too old to get guide data from the Rovi format. I don't have any better advice. Perhaps someone will chime in. I think 20.7.1 is needed to start.

When running setup, the step where it asks for you to choose a country, hit the remote's Info button. That will display the current software.

That's the new logo. You still can see the old logo on a power up. Once.

BTW, a "factory reset" or Clear and Delete Everything will brick the drive. If that's what you did, pull the drive and format it on your PC or try a KS 57.

TiVo Kickstart Codes and Information

 

[ThAbtO]

Try the KS 76543210, as its undocumented in that kickstart codes list.

 

[fiveolddogs]

BTW, a "factory reset" or Clear and Delete Everything will brick the drive. If that's what you did, pull the drive and format it on your PC or try a KS 57.
TiVo Kickstart Codes and Information

Thanks for the replies!
Wow. The Tivo's own built-in reset will brick the drive? What is that about?
I did a Clear & Delete. It did initially boot into the guided setup after the Clear & Delete. Is that consistent with a bricked drive?
According to the Kickstart info in the link, Kickstart codes are not possible on Tivos stuck in Welcome loops.
Hoping I don't have to open it again and remove the drive.

 

[JoeKustra]

Thanks for the replies!
Wow. The Tivo's own built-in reset will brick the drive? What is that about?
I did a Clear & Delete. It did initially boot into the guided setup after the Clear & Delete. Is that consistent with a bricked drive?

See "Known Issues" web page at: Tivo Customer Support Community

 

[fiveolddogs]

Well I was able to try a few KS codes including 57 (it took several attempts but I could tell it worked due to the green screen) and 56 (I tried this many times, and it gave no indication that it workes). Somehow (maybe the KS 56?) I got it to update to softer 20.7.4b.RC3-846-6-846, and eventually I did get it to boot up and complete guided setup. I rebooted the device several times successfully, although the bootup time varied from one to the next, taking anywhere from 2.5 minutes to 5.5.

At this point I thought I was all good. I left it on overnight, and the next morning it would not respond to the remote. So I unplugged/plugged it in and I am right back where I started - stuck in the repeating Welcome followed by black screen.

I'm starting to think ram or something else on the motherboard is defective, as there is no consistency in the behavior.