Series 3 lockups using OTA, Same problem on 2 boxes

2569 Views 12 Replies 7 Participants Last post by lpwcomp, Aug 8, 2011

jasel

Discussion Starter · Aug 4, 2011

I've read through a bunch of threads, but am not finding issues that match mine.

I have 2 Series 3 boxes that are several years old. In the past, once I got the CC's running I was good. Until recently. I have removed all CC's and only using OTA inputs. Since I did that I am experiencing frequent lockups on both boxes.

It happens (usually) when I am playing back or not watching live. What happens is when there is a glitch in the signal (e.g. pixellation, artifacts) the box will freeze. Sometimes it will try and struggle past the bad spot, but if it can't will not respond to input and eventually reboot.

A related issue is the audio will stop. If I hit the 8 second replay, the audio returns.

My feeling is this is not a hardware issue as it happened to 2 machines both after removing the CC's and switching to OTA.

Can anyone help me, or point me to a thread that is relevant? I hace been using TiVo for more than a decade and other than incompetent cable installers, have never had a serious problem. Until now. It's exasperating to be recording a show and have a big chunk gone, either because it freezes or reboots.

Thanks,

jas

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1 - 13 of 13 Posts

rayik

· #2 · Aug 4, 2011

I use a Series 3 (OLED display) only for OTA. I never installed CCs. Have had no problems with lock ups at all.

It may be your hdd starting to go bad. If the glitch / pixelation did not appear on the live broadcast, but appears on the recording, it's definitely the hdd.

If you don't mind losing everything you could run a clear and delete all to be sure the CC settings are not causing any problems.

My suspision is the HDD starting to go bad.

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lpwcomp

· #3 · Aug 4, 2011

Before the OP points out that he is having the same problem on two TiVos therefore doesn't think it is a h/w problem, it is entirely possible that both drives are going out at the same time. My suggestion would be to run Kickstart 54 on both TiVos.

Of course, if it is happening to both TiVos at the same time on the same channel, then the OP is probably right and there is something else going on.

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dwit

· #4 · Aug 4, 2011

Take a look at signal strength/quality issues here also.

Did you use ota, also, when you had cable? How would you rate your ota reception(other devices, antennaweb.org , etc)?

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jasel

Discussion Starter · #5 · Aug 4, 2011

Add this factor to your conclusions: It happens more often on weaker stations.

I'd be really surprised if it was h/w.

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shwru980r

· #6 · Aug 5, 2011

jasel said:
Add this factor to your conclusions: It happens more often on weaker stations.

I'd be really surprised if it was h/w.

Try rescanning all the channels. Uncheck the weak channels from your channel list.

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atmuscarella

· #7 · Aug 5, 2011

If the units have the original hard drives and not external drives I would upgrade one of them to see if that fixes the problem. It will only cost the price of a 1TB drive which is pretty cheap and some time. Even if the drive isn't bad they are getting old, plus you end up with more storage.

If the units have external drives attached I would look to see if you have connection problems. My Series 3 has a 1TB external drive attached and any movement of the drive or the Series 3 pretty much guarantees a reboot.

Good luck,

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jasel

Discussion Starter · #8 · Aug 6, 2011

atmuscarella said:
If the units have the original hard drives and not external drives I would upgrade one of them to see if that fixes the problem. It will only cost the price of a 1TB drive which is pretty cheap and some time. Even if the drive isn't bad they are getting old, plus you end up with more storage.

If the units have external drives attached I would look to see if you have connection problems. My Series 3 has a 1TB external drive attached and any movement of the drive or the Series 3 pretty much guarantees a reboot.

Good luck,

They have external drives. And they do reboot because of them, but come up as 'External storage missing'. One had a Seagate, which failed and was replaced by a WD. If I unchecked every channel that has a glitch, I'll be watching a blank screen.

Set TiVo back about a minute and watched TV directly. When it lost signal for a second, I switched to the box. There it was. So I have verification of my theory. Not H/W.

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Series3Sub

· #9 · Aug 6, 2011

TiVo S3 for OTA only is EXTREMELY reliable and trouble-free. Perhaps the CC's infected it

. The point is, your TiVo's should be operating like a dream with OTA only. Something is up. Please try whatever you can to get thins running right with OTA only. TiVo's problems are almost all due to the stupid CableLabs crappy Cable Card and Switched Digital Video and the crappy tuning adapters. Don't give up on your TiVo for OTA yet. If you can get it working as it should, it will bring you great use and joy.

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shwru980r

· #10 · Aug 6, 2011

jasel said:
They have external drives. And they do reboot because of them, but come up as 'External storage missing'. One had a Seagate, which failed and was replaced by a WD. If I unchecked every channel that has a glitch, I'll be watching a blank screen.

Set TiVo back about a minute and watched TV directly. When it lost signal for a second, I switched to the box. There it was. So I have verification of my theory. Not H/W.

Try divorcing the external drive and run with the internal drive only.

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jasel

Discussion Starter · #11 · Aug 8, 2011

shwru980r said:
Try divorcing the external drive and run with the internal drive only.

Then I lose all my programming. I did that when the Seagate took a dive. It wasn't pleasant losing almost everything.

I really don't think this is a hardware issue. I'm about 50 miles from the transmitters, and it doesn't seem to take much. Just a second of dropped signal and TiVo stops and creeps forward. Sometimes staying on one frame for minutes. At a points it's had enough and reboots. Play it back and it will freeze again.

Which it just did, so I think I'll try a kickstart to be sure.

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jasel

Discussion Starter · #12 · Aug 8, 2011

Oops. Kickstart 54:
Fail
Fail 4
Fail 4
Fail 4
Offline scan running est. 128 minutes

Secondary drive passes.

Where do I go from here? How hard is it to format a bare drive using Windows Vista 64 or 7 64bit? I have an eSATA port and a box that I can slip a bare drive in in 2 seconds. But can I access it without Windows?

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lpwcomp

· #13 · Aug 8, 2011

You can't format a drive for a TiVo using Windows at all. If it is the internal drive, you have to get the TiVo s/w onto it. See this thread for instructions.

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