[kellison]

I upgraded the hard drive in my Roamio TCD846500, thinking it had failed. When that didn't solve the problem, I thought it might actually be a bad wall wart. Now I'm not sure what's going on. Please excuse the long post, but I want to thoroughly explain my process in anticipation of the questions that might arise.

Over the past year or so, I experienced periodic pixelation and unexpected reboots with my 3TB WD30EURX. I ran Kickstart 54 & 57, but it seemed yield little improvement. When it rebooted and got stuck in a reboot loop a couple of weeks ago, I thought the drive had finally encountered an unrecoverable error. I reinstalled the original 500GB Tivo HD and everything started up normally, which made me think again it that the 3TB HD was causing the problem.

I purchased a WD Red WD40EFRX 4TB, ran the full WD diagnostic test with no errors found, installed in the Roamio to grab the OS, then ran MFSR to gain full access to the 4TB capacity. I went through the entire guided setup and checked account info to confirm I had 638 hours HD capacity.

As expected, I had cable card pairing and tuning adapter issues, so after some time on the phone with a Charter/Spectrum tech, she scheduled a tech to come out the next day. Prior to the arrival time, I moved the Roamio from my workbench to my TV location. When I plugged it in, the whole reboot loop started again. I tried everything in the short time available, but could never get out of the loop.

I found two other issues in various threads that referred to the reboot loop: (1) a software update a couple of years ago that caused a loop when connected to Ethernet, solved by another software update a short time later; (2) stock Tivo Roamio wall wart going bad (seems to be a lot of controversy about this), and/or not being able to supply enough current for larger drives.

Today, I tried a new 12V 2A wall wart from another device, but still had the loop. I then unplugged the USB cable for the tuning adapter and the Ethernet cable and the Roamio booted to the "no tuning adapter" screen. I cleared that and had access to live TV, minus premium channels. Connected USB & Ethernet and no go. I re-checked all SATA and ribbon cable connections on the motherboard.

Next I pulled a 12V 4.16A brick from another device, plugged in with USB & Ethernet and went into the loop. I disconnected the Ethernet & USB, reconnected power and Roamio booted right into My Shows with live TV in the upper right. I connected Ethernet & checked Network menu, which showed connection in progress Loading Info. When that finished, the Guide info was up to date. Many, but not all, premium channels are now available. I've not yet connected the tuning adapter USB, but that's where I am now.

I'm on software version 20.7.4.RC18-846-6-846. I've done a search, but have not found what the current version should be. Should I force a software update? If it downloads new software, will I lose my expansion to 4TB and have to run MFSR again?

At this point I'm stumped. I thought the beefier power supply would be the fix, but apparently not. Any thoughts, comments or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[JoeKustra]

I'm on software version 20.7.4.RC18-846-6-846. I've done a search, but have not found what the current version should be.

All I can say is that is the current software for a non-Hydra system. As for the rest, you have my sympathies.

https://support.tivo.com/articles/Essential_Summary/TiVo-Software-Version-Information

 

[ClearToLand]

...Today, I tried a new 12V 2A wall wart from another device, but still had the loop. I then unplugged the USB cable for the tuning adapter and the Ethernet cable and the Roamio booted to the "no tuning adapter" screen. I cleared that and had access to live TV, minus premium channels. Connected USB & Ethernet and no go. I re-checked all SATA and ribbon cable connections on the motherboard.

Next I pulled a 12V 4.16A brick from another device, plugged in with USB & Ethernet and went into the loop. I disconnected the Ethernet & USB, reconnected power and Roamio booted right into My Shows with live TV in the upper right. I connected Ethernet & checked Network menu, which showed connection in progress Loading Info. When that finished, the Guide info was up to date. Many, but not all, premium channels are now available. I've not yet connected the tuning adapter USB, but that's where I am now.

I'm on software version 20.7.4.RC18-846-6-846...

...Any thoughts, comments or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[THINKING OUT LOUD MODE]

I have no experience with Tuning Adapters, but just from reading your pretty thorough post, it 'sounds' suspect to me. [I highlighted the relevant portions of your post above.] What I don't know is how YOUR Tuning Adapter is powered - other posts I've read on the topic, IIRC, talk about putting them on a timer to power cycle them on a regular basis. That would inidicate to me that they're 120VAC. But, I'm also aware that USB sockets have a 5VDC pin.

If you own a DVM, I would go back to the original walwart w/500GB HDD and check the 5VDC and 12VDC lines in your TiVo with and without the TA. While the 12VDC line may not indicate excessive voltage drop (due to current drawn) regardless of the walwart used, maybe the 5VDC is being affected by plugging in the TA if somehow the TA is drawing more current than the TiVo's 5VDC regulator can supply (i.e. many USB sockets are only rated to supply 500ma).

Just a 'stab in the dark' until someone more knowledegable on this topic of TAs responds...

P.S. You're on the correct / latest Gen3/Encore software version. :thumbsup:

P.P.S. Both the WD30EURX and WD40EFRX (at 5400rpm) should be fine with the original walwart - many folks here use them successfully.

 

[kellison]

All I can say is that is the current software for a non-Hydra system. As for the rest, you have my sympathies.

https://support.tivo.com/articles/Essential_Summary/TiVo-Software-Version-Information

Thanks, for the reponse on the software version and pointing me to the Tivo support section regarding such; I didn't know it existed.

 

[UCLABB]

So, if I have this right, your TiVo works perfectly except when the tuning adapter is connected. What happens when, where you are now with a working TiVo, you connect the usb cable from the TA? Have you tried using the other USB port on the Roamio?

You do need to get the card paired again. I’ve had luck just calling and getting automated voice and saying “cable card pairing”. Got a very knowledgeable agent who paired it up in a minute. You need to have the number off the card itself and the host ID. He should unpair it and then pair it.

 

[kellison]

[THINKING OUT LOUD MODE]

I have no experience with Tuning Adapters, but just from reading your pretty thorough post, it 'sounds' suspect to me. [I highlighted the relevant portions of your post above.] What I don't know is how YOUR Tuning Adapter is powered - other posts I've read on the topic, IIRC, talk about putting them on a timer to power cycle them on a regular basis. That would inidicate to me that they're 120VAC. But, I'm also aware that USB sockets have a 5VDC pin.

If you own a DVM, I would go back to the original walwart w/500GB HDD and check the 5VDC and 12VDC lines in your TiVo with and without the TA. While the 12VDC line may not indicate excessive voltage drop (due to current drawn) regardless of the walwart used, maybe the 5VDC is being affected by plugging in the TA if somehow the TA is drawing more current than the TiVo's 5VDC regulator can supply (i.e. many USB sockets are only rated to supply 500ma).

Just a 'stab in the dark' until someone more knowledegable on this topic of TAs responds...

P.S. You're on the correct / latest Gen3/Encore software version. :thumbsup:

P.P.S. Both the WD30EURX and WD40EFRX (at 5400rpm) should be fine with the original walwart - many folks here use them successfully.

Thank you for the suggestions. I do own a DVM, but I'm not sure at what points within Tivo to best test the 12 and 5 volt power lines.

The tuning adapter does have a 12V 2A wall wart that at least powers it's own power indicator light. As an update, the problem does seem to be something related to the TA. The Tivo has been happily running four days with only the Ethernet cable connected. Today, I connected the tuning adapter while watching live TV, the image on the screen froze briefly, then rebooted several times until I unplugged the usb cable from Tivo during the Welcome screen; from there, it finished booting into Tivo Central with live TV in the upper right. I should also point out that the reboot situation occurred with another tuning adapter of the same model (Motorola MTR700). This box, along with two others, has worked with these same tuning adapters for several years. One of the two (Tvio HD) is down with a bad HD right now, but a Premier continues to work in the same setup. That makes me wonder if: (a) a Tivo software update "broke" something having to do with the tuning adapter usb connection on the Roamio; (b) Charter/Spectrum pushed a firmware update to the TA that broke things; (c) something within the Roamio's usb circuit has malfunctioned and is causing the problem.

Over the past several days, I've run it pretty easy. It does show up on my wired network and I've successfully transferred over a dozen shows from my Premiere. As it seems to function without the TA (only missing a few premiums channels), I plan to tax it pretty heavily, recording a lot of shows on various channels and see what happens without the TA. A post from 2014 from outside my region mentioned Charter did an firmware cable card update and a Charter CS rep told the guy he had to give him the TA, but he wouldn't need it.

There's seems to be a lot of disagreement among the Charter service techs about how the TAs should be connected. I've had several who ran the coax to the TA and looped out to the Tivo, with no usb connected. Others, including the one who responded to my service call last week, added the usb cable and ran coax to a two-way splitter which fed the TA and Tivo.

 

[UCLABB]

Your last setup with the splitter is correct. Did you try the other USB port as I asked earlier? Try a different usb cable? Did you say that the TA works with the Premiere with the same usb cable? If so, that points to the Roamio, either the port or something in the circuitry.

You can’t increase the “tax” on the TiVo. All four tuners are writing all the time whether you have recordings scheduled or not.

I have never heard of Charter not having some channels SDV thus requiring a TA to get them. In my case it’s just a handful, but still needed and you never know they could change the SDV channels just when you don’t think you need a TA for the channels you watch.