[Vidgames]

I'm afraid I can't give a lot of background on this at the moment, because I'm at work and my wife told me about this over IM. As far as I know, she's tried restarting the system a few times since having it hang on the start-up sequence.

What I can say is it's a Series 2 TiVo wirelessly networked in our house. I would guess that it got the update, because she said it was on an system-updating screen (whatever it shows when it's in the process of installing the update) yesterday, and then the next time she looked at it, it was on a "This could take an hour or more..." screen. Then today she turned it on again and it was still on that screen. She manually restarted it, and now it won't go past the "Just a few more minutes..." screen.

We have another TiVo in the house, and the first one isn't showing up on the second system's list.

Thanks in advance for any info and advice, and I'll add to this thread if I get any other info to post after I get a look at it.

A E

 

[ZikZak]

Time for a new hard drive!

 

[dwit]

This also happened to me...sort of.

My S2 540040 which I modded to 2x300g drives 7 months ago spends about 15 min in the "powering up" / "a few min more" stage, then it will change to the "you have received a service update" screen, but then immediately go back to powering up and on and on....

I retrieved the original 40g drive and it updated quite nicely.

I ran the diagnostic utilities for the 2x 300g replacement drives, (one seagate, one westen dig.), and they both passed with no errors.

Maybe something got corrupted during the download, or maybe that little switch that sequentially starts the drives on power up is failing. Or maybe it was that old, funky dliink wireless b adapter caused corruption.

Also, it was transferring shows to the pc at the time of update, so maybe that had something to do with it.

Gonna re-image the two big drives with instant cake and give them another shot. Hate losing all my Star Trek Voyager and original Twilight Zone shows. Had virtually the complete series of each.

My S2 Toshiba sdh400, modded to a 400g hd, hardwired adapter, received the service update quite nicely.

 

[dwit]

Each machine has to receive the update in order to transfer shows.

 

[tootal2]

I just had that problem. It was stuck there all night on my s2 after the 9.1 update.
I unplugged it about 3 times. Then unpluged it for 5 min. and plugged it back and it started working

I'm afraid I can't give a lot of background on this at the moment, because I'm at work and my wife told me about this over IM. As far as I know, she's tried restarting the system a few times since having it hang on the start-up sequence.

What I can say is it's a Series 2 TiVo wirelessly networked in our house. I would guess that it got the update, because she said it was on an system-updating screen (whatever it shows when it's in the process of installing the update) yesterday, and then the next time she looked at it, it was on a "This could take an hour or more..." screen. Then today she turned it on again and it was still on that screen. She manually restarted it, and now it won't go past the "Just a few more minutes..." screen.

We have another TiVo in the house, and the first one isn't showing up on the second system's list.

Thanks in advance for any info and advice, and I'll add to this thread if I get any other info to post after I get a look at it.

A E

 

[Vidgames]

I just had that problem. It was stuck there all night on my s2 after the 9.1 update.
I unplugged it about 3 times. Then unpluged it for 5 min. and plugged it back and it started working

That's good to hear...I was hoping someone else had a similar problem. I wouldn't be surprised if the drive crapped out given how hard a TiVo hammers them, but it seemed too coincidental that it was at the same time as the update and there weren't any other signs of an HD failure coming (not that it's a necessity, but as someone who's had PC drives go out, many times there are data errors and/or audible changes to the drive sound that come ahead of a full-out failure).

I didn't get out of the office last night until after midnight, and therefore didn't get a chance to look at the TiVo until this morning...and it was still on the "Just a few more minutes" screen, but I cycled the power again and I'll cross my fingers that it'll, at some point, decide to complete the update process and get on with its work-horse status. (hehe) Short of that, there wasn't anything really critical on it, as it is our secondary "support" machine, and we've been about to pull the trigger on getting a new TiVo HD unit, so this will probably accelerate that a bit.

Thanks all for the feedback...

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[ZikZak]

It's not coincidental; when system updates are pushed, the number of drive failures on this board rockets. This is because the new software is installed on a previously inactive partition. If there's a failure in that partition, it won't be noticed until the next update. But good luck if you can get it working with a simple reboot.

 

[dwit]

It's not coincidental; when system updates are pushed, the number of drive failures on this board rockets. This is because the new software is installed on a previously inactive partition. If there's a failure in that partition, it won't be noticed until the next update. But good luck if you can get it working with a simple reboot.

Good to know it's probably not my drives. Even though diagnostics found no errors, I was still worried. Mine started back up after IC re-imaging, albeit with an old software edition.

Hope it will boot after the next service update attempt.

 

[Vidgames]

It's not coincidental; when system updates are pushed, the number of drive failures on this board rockets. This is because the new software is installed on a previously inactive partition. If there's a failure in that partition, it won't be noticed until the next update. But good luck if you can get it working with a simple reboot.

I don't know as much about the data partitioning and such, but would there be an inactive partition if it's constantly recording new shows, desired or undesired? Or is there a section devoted to system data that might not be written to unless there's an update?

I'm hoping to get a look at the system during start up and see if there are any other indications.

A E

 

[tootal2]

I hope it dont go bad. I added 160 gb drive to it a year ago. I guessed i should of replaced the tivo drive instead. If i replace the tivo harddrive the added drive wont
work(i think) I also have the tivo hd

That's good to hear...I was hoping someone else had a similar problem. I wouldn't be surprised if the drive crapped out given how hard a TiVo hammers them, but it seemed too coincidental that it was at the same time as the update and there weren't any other signs of an HD failure coming (not that it's a necessity, but as someone who's had PC drives go out, many times there are data errors and/or audible changes to the drive sound that come ahead of a full-out failure).

I didn't get out of the office last night until after midnight, and therefore didn't get a chance to look at the TiVo until this morning...and it was still on the "Just a few more minutes" screen, but I cycled the power again and I'll cross my fingers that it'll, at some point, decide to complete the update process and get on with its work-horse status. (hehe) Short of that, there wasn't anything really critical on it, as it is our secondary "support" machine, and we've been about to pull the trigger on getting a new TiVo HD unit, so this will probably accelerate that a bit.

Thanks all for the feedback...

A E

 

[dwit]

Good to know it's probably not my drives. Even though diagnostics found no errors, I was still worried. Mine started back up after IC re-imaging, albeit with an old software edition.

Hope it will boot after the next service update attempt.

Well, successfully rebooted after the service update 9.1 this time.

Too bad I had too re-image and lost over 300 hrs of my favorite shows.

At least the drives appear to be good, for now.

 

[ZikZak]

I don't know as much about the data partitioning and such, but would there be an inactive partition if it's constantly recording new shows, desired or undesired? Or is there a section devoted to system data that might not be written to unless there's an update?

Yes, there is a disk partition devoted to receiving system updates. When an update is received, it is written to this partition, which then becomes the system partition. The former system partition becomes the inactive partition.

 

[Vidgames]

Yes, there is a disk partition devoted to receiving system updates. When an update is received, it is written to this partition, which then becomes the system partition. The former system partition becomes the inactive partition.

And there's nothing in its operation that checks partitions for read/write usability? I thought that was a somewhat standard procedure in using a hard drive.

A E

 

[Vidgames]

Well, miracle of miracles, I had a happy resolution also. It was Thursday since the last attempt to reboot--I told my wife to unplug it for a while, then plug it back in, in hopes that there might have been some difference from letting it cool down or whatever. Today, I turned it on to look at it, and it was still at the "a few more minutes" screen, as it has done the last few times we cycled power on it. While I'm talking to my wife, I decide to unplug it one more time, for no other reason than to try it again (seeing that "Tootal2" had to restart it a few times before it worked for him). It went through the "Welcome...Powering up" screen, then to the "a few more minutes" screen...then, after a few minutes, got past it to normal operation. And the message about the update was waiting in the queue. Bizarre...

I don't know how to explain it, and while the issue might be a sign of an impending hard-drive demise, it's working now and I have a little more time to order the TiVoHD that I'm planning to use to replace it anyway.

If anyone else happens to read this thread, I wouldn't immediately assume that the drive is going bad, because a few of us have been able to successfully get the system updated after repeated attempts to power cycle. It's strange how it turned out this way, but seems to be working fine now--no lost programs and no other signs that it lost its mind for most of the week (other than not operating/recording since Monday).

A E

 

[xander2007]

Hey, had the same thing happen to my S2 w/ Lifetime. I was freaking out!

Fortunately after 2 reboots it came back online and all is well. Except now I have a little "_tivo-videos dvr" at the bottom of my now playing??? Whats up with that?

 

[tootal2]

Hey, had the same thing happen to my S2 w/ Lifetime. I was freaking out!

Fortunately after 2 reboots it came back online and all is well. Except now I have a little "_tivo-videos dvr" at the bottom of my now playing??? Whats up with that?

I was freaked out to when it happned. I dont use my s2 much since i got the tivo hd. But i want to use it in another room and its a lifetime tivo.

I have tivo-videos dvr at the bottom of my playing list to. Its Not on my tivo hd.

 

[DamoRulez]

My girlfriend's S2 has a similar problem. After being stuck on an all white screen for hours, I unplugged it. For three days it has been on the welcome screen. tried leaving it off for a night as well as unplugging it and plugging it back in right away. No luck. Any suggestions?

 

[Vidgames]

My girlfriend's S2 has a similar problem. After being stuck on an all white screen for hours, I unplugged it. For three days it has been on the welcome screen. tried leaving it off for a night as well as unplugging it and plugging it back in right away. No luck. Any suggestions?

I don't know why, but it took a bunch of unplugging/replugging in the unit before it completed the update. After reading up on this on various forums, there's also a process called a "kickstart" that I think can be used to force the TiVo to relaunch the update download and install. I don't know enough about it, because I didn't have to use it (it would have been my next step before replacing the unit), but maybe someone else can advise you.

Don't give up...it might not be a lost cause, as some of us have found out.

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[andersea]

I'm having the same issue. I have 2 S2's. One non-modified Tivo received update just fine. The other, modified with instantcake with relatively new hard drive is stuck on "Just a few minutes more..." I tried rebooting several times, no change. I tried leaving the unit powered off for 20 minutes, then rebooting, no change. When the unit boots up, one of the LEDs flashes yellow briefly within the first minute.

What is the "kickstart" process referred to above? Is this something I should try before attempting to reimage the old drive, or putting an image on a new drive?

 

[Joe Smith]

I don't know as much about the data partitioning and such, but would there be an inactive partition if it's constantly recording new shows, desired or undesired? Or is there a section devoted to system data that might not be written to unless there's an update?

The latter. There are two sets of partitions used for booting: one set of three is the current bootstrap+kernel+root, the other set is where upgrades go. In case of a failed upgrade, the system can fall back to the previous set.

=[joe-tivo:root]-# uname -a
Linux (none) 2.1.24-TiVo-2.5 #8 Wed May 8 15:38:27 PDT 2002 ppc unknown
=[joe-tivo:root]-# pdisk -l

Partition map (with 512 byte blocks) on '/dev/hda'
 #:                type name                     length   base     ( size )
 1: Apple_partition_map Apple                        63 @ 1       
 2:               Image Bootstrap 1                4096 @ 64       (  2.0M)
 3:               Image Kernel 1                   4096 @ 4160     (  2.0M)
 4:                Ext2 Root 1                   262144 @ 8256     (128.0M)
 5:               Image Bootstrap 2                4096 @ 270400   (  2.0M)
 6:               Image Kernel 2                   4096 @ 274496   (  2.0M)
 7:                Ext2 Root 2                   262144 @ 278592   (128.0M)
 8:                Swap Linux swap               131072 @ 540736   ( 64.0M)
 9:                Ext2 /var                     262144 @ 671808   (128.0M)
10:                 MFS MFS application region  1048576 @ 933952   (512.0M)
11:                 MFS MFS media region       42015744 @ 1982528  ( 20.0G)
12:          Apple_Free Extra                       928 @ 43998272
=[joe-tivo:root]-# df -h
Filesystem            Size  Used  Avail  Capacity Mounted on
/dev/hda4             124M   16M   102M     13%   /
/dev/hda9             124M   33M    84M     28%   /var

After an upgrade, this Series 1 system would being using hda7 as root instead of hda4.