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Series 3 - Please Help

3K views 39 replies 10 participants last post by  capitolm94 
#1 ·
Hey all - I'm brand new to these forums; hopefully I won't repeat any issues listed on TiVo Community. Alright, here's the gist...
I have a Series 3 HD TiVo. Worked great from early January through mid July, with no problems whatsoever. (It was never moved from its shelf, where it's sitting all alone - nothing stacked on top, plenty of ventilation, and not near any subwoofers or anything that would cause interference.) All of a sudden, it started freezing ONLY during recorded programs. Live TV plays just fine, it's just playback of recorded shows. (Menus also "stutter" and respond slowly, from time to time.) The picture freezes, plays for half a second, freezes again, and repeats for about a minute, when it suddenly "snaps out of it" and plays for another five minutes, when it freezes again. It's unwatchable, to say the least.
Called up TiVo in July, and of course I restarted, resetted, and cleared and deleted everything... removed the power cable - nothing worked. So, they sent me a new one (after charging my credit card), and I sent mine back (and was reimbursed for the charge). Brand new TiVo - no worries, right?
Wrong. It had the SAME issue. Not a similar issue, but the SAME freezing problem, and ONLY on recorded programs.
So, I've tried contacting them multiple times, with no answers (in fact, they just have me repeat the same steps as before, to no avail.) I find it hard to believe that two Series 3 boxes would have the same problem, but there you go.
In terms of my setup, I'm using two Scientific Atlanta CableCards, courtesy of Time Warner Cable in Manhattan, the TiVo is connected via HDMI to my HDTV (video settings are at 1080i fixed), network is connected via ethernet, and the power cable is hooked up to one of those giant Monster Cable surge protectors (so no worries about electrical surges that would damage the TiVo.)
The only thing I can think of, which I've suggested to TiVo, is that this is a CableCard compatibility issue. Again, Live TV is perfectly fine, and I'm getting all my channels loud and clear, but still... I used the same CableCards in the old Series 3 as I do now in the new one, and I have the same issue. I've seen mention on the forums of "S model" and "M model" CableCards... If the CableCards ARE the issue, which model should I use? Is there a firmware update for the CableCards? Am I on the right track at all?
Does anyone else have this issue and/or suggestions of how to fix it? TiVo doesn't seem to think it's the CableCards - in fact, their latest suggestion was to cover the front of the TiVo, in case there's IR intereference. (Which seems silly to me, because if it was receiving a "pause" command from another remote, wouldn't the pause menu pop up on screen?) At any rate, I tried covering the IR port on my Series 3, and it didn't work. I even tried disconnecting ALL other nearby appliances, EXCEPT for the HDTV and Series 3, and it STILL has the freezing issue. And, TiVo doesn't want to send me a new box because they can't believe that two Series 3's would have the same issue, but they also aren't making any suggestions that actually work.
Again, my TiVo is well-ventilated, surge-protected, never moved from its shelf, and nothing is stacked on top of it... I've kept up with all the service updates, and I have NOT modified it at all with external eSATA drives, etc. What could the issue be?
Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for reading this super-long post, but I thought I'd be thorough in my description of the issue. Take care, and I look forward to hearing from you~
 
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#27 ·
Yeah, I hard booted after switching to component video - no worries, man. I was typing quickly and don't think I ever wrote that clearly... LoL.
As for a few updates... I tried the USB networking instead of ethernet, and again... no luck. Even tried having the TiVo not connected at all, and still nothing.
I couldn't seem to get the Kickstart 57 to work. I unplugged the TiVo, waited 15 seconds, plugged it back in, immediately held the pause button on the remote (aimed directly at the TiVo), and waited for the so-called "orange light", but nothing noticeable ever happened. Tried multiple times, but didn't get anything. Am I doing something wrong?
And last but not least, I waited on hold for 30 minutes with TiVo tonight (I know the "put on hold" music by heart now), and was told that, a) engineering had nothing new for me, and b) TiVo IS releasing an update later this month that will address macroblocking issues (which isn't exactly my issue) - they said that since my issue is, quote, "similar", it might be "best" to wait for the update.
Swell. So now my TiVo (and because I'm using CableCards, my TV) is gonna stay broken for a month.
...I'm really starting to get pissed here.
 
#28 ·
persona1138 said:
Yeah, I hard booted after switching to component video - no worries, man. I was typing quickly and don't think I ever wrote that clearly... LoL.
As for a few updates... I tried the USB networking instead of ethernet, and again... no luck. Even tried having the TiVo not connected at all, and still nothing.
I couldn't seem to get the Kickstart 57 to work. I unplugged the TiVo, waited 15 seconds, plugged it back in, immediately held the pause button on the remote (aimed directly at the TiVo), and waited for the so-called "orange light", but nothing noticeable ever happened. Tried multiple times, but didn't get anything. Am I doing something wrong?
And last but not least, I waited on hold for 30 minutes with TiVo tonight (I know the "put on hold" music by heart now), and was told that, a) engineering had nothing new for me, and b) TiVo IS releasing an update later this month that will address macroblocking issues (which isn't exactly my issue) - they said that since my issue is, quote, "similar", it might be "best" to wait for the update.
Swell. So now my TiVo (and because I'm using CableCards, my TV) is gonna stay broken for a month.
...I'm really starting to get pissed here.
Well, we've never heard a timeframe for the coming update...so that's a bit of big/good news. I might agree that it may cure your ills, but it's lousy for you that they told you to just wait. :mad:

If you're following the Kickstart 57 directions it's a worry that it's not working. When you say nothing noticeable ever happens…do the two lights to the left appear and go away during the boot up? If not, and without piling on, there may be more to this than meets the eye here. It sounds like you've got it down and not questioning that you do, but are you sure you're following the directions exactly?

Kickstart 57:

1. Unplug TiVo and wait 15 seconds.
2. Plug TiVo in, get the TiVo remote and aim it at TiVo.
3. Press and hold the pause button until the orange light comes on.
4. Immediately type in the numbers 5 and 7 on the remote (you have about 10 seconds to do this step).
5. TiVo will reboot and the GSOD screen will come on saying TiVo has encountered a serious error. It will then run the disk management tool which can take from 10 minutes to 3 hours to complete. During this time it will look for and correct configuration problems as well as isolating any bad sectors on the hard drive so they can no longer be used (but that's probably not an issue here).
6. TiVo will automatically reboot again and hopefully things will return to normal.

There's really no reason that shouldn't work. On reboot the two lights to the left should come on then go off and then the orange light to the right should come on if you're holding the pause button down. (You actually don't have to push the pause button until the first two lights come on, but it's fairly quick, so holding it down throughout the boot up ensures you don't miss that little window.) When the orange light appears you should release the pause button and press the numbers “5” and “7”. That should do it…TiVo should reboot to the GSOD and do its thing, then reboot to normal again.

Hmmm...will have to put the thinking cap back on for that one! :confused:
 
#29 ·
Yeah, it's weird, I'm following the directions to a tee. When my Series 3 starts up, though, 2 lights on the left, and 2 lights on the right (including the orange light) light up simultaneously. I hold down the pause button immediately after I've plugged in the TiVo... but the lights don't change. Tried it 5 times, with no luck.
Also, it's official... I have another issue... my Now Playing list doesn't load. I can go to Live TV just fine, or move through the TiVo menus (except for "Now Playing"), but going to the "Now Playing" list just freezes up the TiVo.
This sucks.
 
#30 ·
persona1138 said:
Yeah, it's weird, I'm following the directions to a tee. When my Series 3 starts up, though, 2 lights on the left, and 2 lights on the right (including the orange light) light up simultaneously. I hold down the pause button immediately after I've plugged in the TiVo... but the lights don't change. Tried it 5 times, with no luck.
Also, it's official... I have another issue... my Now Playing list doesn't load. I can go to Live TV just fine, or move through the TiVo menus (except for "Now Playing"), but going to the "Now Playing" list just freezes up the TiVo.
This sucks.
Yeeow! :eek: Even though it's a new replacement IMHO there is something (or more than one something) flat out not right with your TiVo. None of this makes any sense.

Were I you I would get back on the phone with TiVo customer support and read the laundry list of what it does and doesn't do and get yet another box...you’ve gotten a lemon it would seem. I know it's hard to believe that two in a row would flame out like that, but with all you've gone through there's just no other explanation that I can think of.

It seems incredible to read a story like this about TiVo, but when we went to the Dark Side for a short time and used a Comcast Motorola HD DVR we ended up going through four of them in a period of two months! Comcast thought nothing of it...but we did! :mad: That's when we bought an S3 and never looked back.

I’ve always said that us “old timers” – people that have had TiVo since the early days of the S1’s – have been spoiled by the original’s simplicity and bullet-proof like reliability. S3’s now have to do more work than any S1 or S2 could have imagined and we expect them to perform as flawlessly as they did in the past. It’s just not practical to think in those terms now I suppose. The new TiVo’s are complicated devices with a lot of offerings causing a lot of demands (and perhaps more than the current hardware and/or software can handle sometimes) so we shouldn’t be too surprised when they don’t always live up to our expectations. Heck…I would have thrown mine through the window if it ever acted as poorly as my PC does sometimes! Mac users need not comment. ;)

So you’re another soldier due a ribbon for bravery and going above and beyond! :up: :up: Let us know how you get on.
 
#31 ·
Thanks for the support, man. I'm just done with this whole situation.
And, it's official: my TiVo is dead. The Now Playing list would never load last night, so after unplugging the TiVo and restarting it, now it keeps rebooting itself at the "Welcome! Powering Up..." screen. It loads up the screen, waits five minutes, and then reboots itself again, and again, and again. I can't even get to TiVo Central now.
So, I'm gonna try disconnecting the CableCards (yet again... although, I haven't tried that since our first box), and see if that works. If the TiVo reboots (and plays back) just fine, then we're golden. If not, then it's the TiVo, and they said they'd send me a new one.
I'm at work now, so I'll be trying that out tonight... Keep your fingers crossed.
 
#32 ·
I started having similar problems with my TiVo recently and came straight to the Community forum to see if there were others and lo and behold, I found this thread.

Since my problem seems to mirror persona1138's, I thought I would share my experience to show that it is affecting more than just him, and to see if we can figure out what the problem is (I'm on hold with TiVo customer support as I write as well):

We bought our S3 back in January thru Amazon and it was working like a charm up until a few days ago. All of a sudden, the TiVo would stutter (freeze for 5-10 seconds, play a second or two, freeze again, play, etc.) in the middle of recorded programs. At first, I thought it was just caused by a bad signal that affected one program. But we noticed this over and over again, for both recently recorded programs and for much older recorded programs. Don't watch much live tv, but it doesn't appear to be a problem then.

When this happens, my S3 becomes unresponsive to the remote or any buttons I press on the unit itself. A few times yesterday, my TiVo actually rebooted itself twice when it was frozen.

I'm afraid that it's a hard drive issue, but am hoping it's something less serious.

Persona - I'll keep you posted on what I hear from customer support.
 
#33 ·
ibergu said:
I started having similar problems with my TiVo recently and came straight to the Community forum to see if there were others and lo and behold, I found this thread.

Since my problem seems to mirror persona1138's, I thought I would share my experience to show that it is affecting more than just him, and to see if we can figure out what the problem is (I'm on hold with TiVo customer support as I write as well):

We bought our S3 back in January thru Amazon and it was working like a charm up until a few days ago. All of a sudden, the TiVo would stutter (freeze for 5-10 seconds, play a second or two, freeze again, play, etc.) in the middle of recorded programs. At first, I thought it was just caused by a bad signal that affected one program. But we noticed this over and over again, for both recently recorded programs and for much older recorded programs. Don't watch much live tv, but it doesn't appear to be a problem then.

When this happens, my S3 becomes unresponsive to the remote or any buttons I press on the unit itself. A few times yesterday, my TiVo actually rebooted itself twice when it was frozen.

I'm afraid that it's a hard drive issue, but am hoping it's something less serious.

Persona - I'll keep you posted on what I hear from customer support.
Misery loves company. ;) It does indeed sound like a failing hard drive. Have you tried to run Kickstart 57 on it? Just curious. Let us know what Mother TiVo had to say. :up:
 
#35 ·
persona1138 said:
Thanks for the support, man. I'm just done with this whole situation.
And, it's official: my TiVo is dead. The Now Playing list would never load last night, so after unplugging the TiVo and restarting it, now it keeps rebooting itself at the "Welcome! Powering Up..." screen. It loads up the screen, waits five minutes, and then reboots itself again, and again, and again. I can't even get to TiVo Central now.
So, I'm gonna try disconnecting the CableCards (yet again... although, I haven't tried that since our first box), and see if that works. If the TiVo reboots (and plays back) just fine, then we're golden. If not, then it's the TiVo, and they said they'd send me a new one.
I'm at work now, so I'll be trying that out tonight... Keep your fingers crossed.
You know what...I think it's a blessing in disguise that it finally died. RIP.



Now you won't have to deal with it and can start anew. It'll be tough to go without for a few days...but have a drink and hang in there. :up:
 
#36 ·
Persona1138 - Sorry to hear that your TiVo is dead. It appears that mine is too. 7 months seems way too short of a lifespan for a $800 piece of high tech.

When I spoke with TiVO customer support today, they asked me to power cycle the DVR and after doing that it got stuck at the "Welcome! Powering Up...." screen. They're going to do an exchange where they send me a refurb in ~ 5 business days, but it's going to cost me $49. I guess it's better than having to buy a brand new one. Per the TiVo rep, it's likely due to a hard drive failure, but they won't know for sure until they actually look at the unit.

richsadams - Thanks for the suggestion about kickstart57, but I think it might be too late for me. LOL on the dead TiVo pic!
 
#37 ·
ibergu said:
Persona1138 - Sorry to hear that your TiVo is dead. It appears that mine is too. 7 months seems way too short of a lifespan for a $800 piece of high tech.

When I spoke with TiVO customer support today, they asked me to power cycle the DVR and after doing that it got stuck at the "Welcome! Powering Up...." screen. They're going to do an exchange where they send me a refurb in ~ 5 business days, but it's going to cost me $49. I guess it's better than having to buy a brand new one. Per the TiVo rep, it's likely due to a hard drive failure, but they won't know for sure until they actually look at the unit.

richsadams - Thanks for the suggestion about kickstart57, but I think it might be too late for me. LOL on the dead TiVo pic!
Yep, something is better than nothing. We bought a refurb S2 a while back...actually it ended up being free after rebate...and it's still running just fine. I think they throw in a new drive and bench test them to ensure everything else is good. Refurbs carry the same 90 day warranty if I'm not mistaken.

Another option would be to buy a new, larger drive from the TiVo Community Store and pop it in. They're very easy to install. Or if you're handy with the P.C. imaging a "store bought" drive is quite easy as well. Hard to say if there's a hardware problem though so it might be risky.

Keep us posted! :up:
 
#38 ·
Yep, mine's buried, kaput, sleeping with the fishes.
It's dead as a freakin' doornail. And after spending a day on the phone with TiVo Customer Support, they're FINALLY sending me a new one. Straight from the factory, no more refurbished units... I'm having Time Warner Cable come by with two new cable cards, and I'm buying myself a TiVo Wireless Network Adapter (no more ethernet, just in case). So, starting from square one again.
Thank God.
And thank you guys for all your advice... Ultimately, we never found out what the problem was for sure (hard drive looks to blame, I agree), but at least it's over with, and we gave it the ol' college try.
Believe me, I'll be a regular poster now on this site... It's nice to see a forum of really helpful, knowledgeable folks, and it's a pleasure to be a part of the online community here. Sorry to hear about more TiVo troubles, but don't worry... If you stick to Customer Support like glue, they'll eventually give you a solution.
Anyhoo, that's the end of the story (on my end)... Anyone else who experiences similar issues - my advice is: pray. And get a new TiVo. 'Cuz that's all that can help you now.
 
#39 ·
By the way, ibergu... Sorry I haven't responded sooner, I've been busy the last few days, and it's both nice and unfortunate that someone else has been sharing my same Series 3 issues.
Be sure to triple check your refurbished unit, 'cuz I got two lemons (between my first Series 3 and the refurbished unit the sent to replace it)
 
#40 ·
persona1138 said:
Hey everyone, thanks for the myriad of new suggestions. Believe me, I'm willing to try anything.

capitolm94: That's awesome to know about the LNS4095D. Right now, I'm using component (in which case HDCP shouldn't be the cause of my TiVo issue), but that's really cool to know. I'm pretty sure I've got the older firmware.
Out of curiosity, I contacted Samsung to ask them about getting the firmware update (I have a Mac and can't use .exe files to put on a USB flash drive to install the new firmware), and they said that they don't have record of a firmware update for our HDTV model. Is this firmware update legit? Or did I just get a crappy Samsung representative on the phone?
My understanding from the post is that this update enables 24fps HD video on the TV (and the 1:1 pixel mapping thing). Being that I've got a growing collection of Blu-Rays and HD-DVDs, this would be great to have.
I am sure you could find someone with a PC to do it for you. If you choose to update the firmware yourself, that is. Be sure you use a clean, freshly formatted FAT16 usb stick.

That thread on AVSforum is very long, but alot of people have had problems getting samsung to help with it. Basically, it seems you can get a tech to install it for you, and they can download it from the samsung internal tech. Alot of CSRs may not know about it.

I would recommend doing it yourself, it took a grand total of about 3 minutes for me. However, I believe that it caused some extra video processing time, causing minor lip sync errors. No one else has reported this though, and while I realize that I am extremely sensitive to this, if it was not just me I would imagine someone else would have mentioned it.

It allows 1080p24 and 1:1 pixel mapping, thats correct. Apparently there is some problem with a funny colored line on the right hand side of the screen with 1080p60 sources only, but I dont have such a source so cant check. Good luck.
 
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