[Zaph32]

At least, one of them did.

I was getting "lost" digital channels that just tuned to black.

I decided to clear and delete everything as a troubleshooting
step and...well, he didn't make it.

He stuck at the "almost" screen.

I returned it for replacement at circuit city,
no hassle, and authed the card to the new
box. I had hopes that the card might
"just work" in the new unit but no luck.
All is well so far.

 

[tootal2]

My tivo hd locked up again last night. This is the second time it has locked up. Are they working on a fix for this? I had to unplug it and plug it back in to fix it.

 

[Zaph32]

I think it's simply indicative of a bad hard drive. I've owned Tivos of one sort or another for 7-8 years, and I have seen this happen sometimes on new units.

You can -sometimes- get the box reliable by Clear and Delete Everything. If that files, you gotta swap it out.

 

[TiVotion]

Recently I did a clear and delete on a S2 DT box because I was going to give it to a friend to activate. When I called TiVo CS to have the account cancelled, the guy told me I shouldn't have done clear and delete because it runs a diagnostic of some type and if the box has issues, it may fail to fully boot. He said I could have just deleted everything from Now Playing and my Season Passes and the new owner could re-run guided setup.

I think what happens with new software updates is that it throws the new software on a different partion of the hard drive, and if that part of the hard drive has errors for any reason, the box won't boot again. I had this happen to me on an older S2 box; I replaced the hard drive and ran Instant Cake on it to restore it. I could be wrong about that theory - and I'll stand corrected if I am.

I wonder if some of the box lockups are happening with or without cable cards? And when the boxes lock up (live TV appears frozen), can you get to the TiVo menu by hitting the TiVo button, or do you have to pull the plug?

 

[jfh3]

When I called TiVo CS to have the account cancelled, the guy told me I shouldn't have done clear and delete because it runs a diagnostic of some type and if the box has issues, it may fail to fully boot.

Ummm, no. It is perfectly reasonable to do a CADE for what you were doing.

He said I could have just deleted everything from Now Playing and my Season Passes and the new owner could re-run guided setup.

True, but then the new owner would have a Tivo recommending shows based on your past preferences.

I think what happens with new software updates is that it throws the new software on a different partion of the hard drive,

Yes, each software release is causes the boot partition to be alternated.

and if that part of the hard drive has errors for any reason, the box won't boot again.

Sort of. Many people associate problems with new releases of software when it's really just the exposure of a latent disk drive problem (e.g. normal hardware failure).

 

[jfh3]

At least, one of them did.

I was getting "lost" digital channels that just tuned to black.

I decided to clear and delete everything as a troubleshooting
step and...well, he didn't make it.

He stuck at the "almost" screen.

I returned it for replacement at circuit city,
no hassle, and authed the card to the new
box. I had hopes that the card might
"just work" in the new unit but no luck.
All is well so far.

This also explains some of the other problems you described about a week back. Sounds like you had a defective hard drive from the outset.

 

[Zaph32]

This also explains some of the other problems you described about a week back. Sounds like you had a defective hard drive from the outset.

The scary thing is, the Tivo that I had problems with last week (the sticking during reboot after the software update) is not the one that died this week. So I may have another pending death.

 

[blubdog]

My Tivo HD starting having lockup problems about an hour after installing two Motorola cable cards from Charter. It hung with a buzzing noise and I had to pull the plug. After that it wouldn't boot, it kept cycling from the booting, to the almost-there screen, and then reboot again.

I pulled both cablecards, and it booted. I reinstalled both cablecards and it hung again in the same way after about an hour. I then power cycled, only installed one card, and it's been running for about 12 hours now.

I called tech support and they said it was the software, and there should be a new release out "soon", but he had no idea what "soon" meant.

I started another thread here describing my problem in more detail, before I saw this thread.

 

[WeBoat]

I am on my third HD.... This one seems to be fine except for the pixelation issue. It did reboot on it's own during the evening news last night though....

 

[Zaph32]

Maybe a bad batch of drives in the initial production run. I'm not too stressed about it, we have warranty, but getting the cablecards re-paired after a box swap will be fun..

 

[jfh3]

Maybe a bad batch of drives in the initial production run. I'm not too stressed about it, we have warranty, but getting the cablecards repaired after a box swap will be fun..

And, just so people aren't confused, you mean get the cablecards re-paired, not repaired.

If you do need to get them repaired, DO NOT let any CSR tell you they need a truck roll to do it. Keep calling back until you can get someone to update the data id value (host IDs shouldn't change) over the phone.

And, if you don't have one already, make sure your new Tivo is on a UPS.