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TiVo randomly reboots after about 15 mins of TV watching

7314 Views 18 Replies 10 Participants Last post by  unitron, 
vitos
Scoured the forums for a solution, but couldn't find anything... :(

All of a sudden, my TiVo HD box will reboot at random. It never hangs at the "Welcome Screen", nor does it constantly loop. It simply works for about 15 mins while watching live TV, then reboots again.

Any thoughts as to what the problem might be? :confused:
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L
Probably the drive going bad, especially if it freezes momentarily before it reboots. I would suggest running kickstart 54.
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T
I think your drive is going bad

vitos said:
Scoured the forums for a solution, but couldn't find anything... :(

All of a sudden, my TiVo HD box will reboot at random. It never hangs at the "Welcome Screen", nor does it constantly loop. It simply works for about 15 mins while watching live TV, then reboots again.

Any thoughts as to what the problem might be? :confused:
Click to expand...
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dlfl
Also suspect your HDMI connection, if you're using that type. Reseat the cable at both ends; even better swap in a new cable; even better switch to component cable connections.
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A
Could also be your power supply. Mine experienced a few reboots after watching content. Eventually there was no drive spin up or fan spin. The lights in front blinked momentarily when you plugged it in.
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V7Goose
Do you have an external drive? If so, the eSATA cable does often cause similar problems (all of the above ideas are good also). If you have an external drive, shut everything off and re-seat both ends of the cable several times to clean the contacts. Then make sure the cable end is straight and there is no sideways tension on it from the stiff cable.

I also recommend that you run all of the kickstart codes when you turn it back on - test for HDD problems and DB problems.
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Joe01880
Run Kiclstart 54 on your TiVo and see what it says about your Hard Drive(s). (Instructions here) If you get a fail you know. Sometimes a KS54 breaths life back into a dying HDD.
If the drive is bad or leaning that way look at it as an opprotunity to upgrade to a larger one.
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C
Joe01880 said:
Run Kiclstart 54 on your TiVo and see what it says about your Hard Drive(s). (Instructions here) If you get a fail you know. Sometimes a KS54 breaths life back into a dying HDD.
If the drive is bad or leaning that way look at it as an opprotunity to upgrade to a larger one.
Click to expand...
I didn't know about the kickstart codes (I didn't have a serious problem until recently).

My green LED doesn't blink. When I plug in tivi, it comes on solid.
I don't have any time to press pause, because there is no blink.
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L
cappy said:
I didn't know about the kickstart codes (I didn't have a serious problem until recently).

My green LED doesn't blink. When I plug in tivi, it comes on solid.
I don't have any time to press pause, because there is no blink.
Click to expand...
From the kickstart instructions:

TIVO HD / TIVO HD XL:

... (If you are unable to catch the timing, you may also hold the PAUSE button down continuously during the restart until the yellow and red LEDs come on.)
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lpwcomp said:
From the kickstart instructions:

TIVO HD / TIVO HD XL:

... (If you are unable to catch the timing, you may also hold the PAUSE button down continuously during the restart until the yellow and red LEDs come on.)
Click to expand...
I Held the pause button down for long time.
Nothing happened
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dlfl
Here's a link to a different set of KickStart instructions, located on this forum:
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=5643823#post5643823
I don't know whether they're better than the weakness.com versions previously linked, but look for any differences and they might be a clue to getting KS54 going.
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V7Goose
cappy said:
I didn't know about the kickstart codes (I didn't have a serious problem until recently).

My green LED doesn't blink. When I plug in tivi, it comes on solid.
I don't have any time to press pause, because there is no blink.
Click to expand...
It sounds to me like you are not reading the instructions carefully. The following comment should help you understand it better, but it is NOT intended to be fully detailed and accurate or to replace the documented instructions referenced in other replies:

When you first plug in the TiVo, all the dash lights will come on for a wile (seems like a minute or two), then they all go off and only one light comes on for about 5 seconds - THAT is the time when you need to hit the pause button (or if you are holding the pause button from the start, you need to keep holding until then). On the S3 box, that one light is amber - I'm not positive about the THD, but I think it too is just one amber light. It really does not matter when you START pressing the pause button, as long as it is released sometime while that single amber light is on.

After you release pause and type in the KS code, wait patiently for a few minutes - often it does not look like anything is happening for a while untill the reboot cycle starts over by itself.

With the type of problem you described, you will wan to run the KS57, KS54 and KS58 before you finally let the thing go back into service to see if your problem is gone.

You never did say if you had an external drive connected or not - if you do, follow my instructions on reseating the eSATA cable before you waste time on the Kickstart codes.
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V7Goose said:
It sounds to me like you are not reading the instructions carefully. The following comment should help you understand it better, but it is NOT intended to be fully detailed and accurate or to replace the documented instructions referenced in other replies:

When you first plug in the TiVo, all the dash lights will come on for a wile (seems like a minute or two), then they all go off and only one light comes on for about 5 seconds -
Click to expand...
Those were not the instructions I read last night.
They must be for a different box.
Only the green light comes on after plugging in power.

Anyway, I've already setup the RMA
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T
I tried the KS54 this morning for the first time after I had a spontaneous reboot yesterday for the first time. I have a replacement 1TB HD (WD10EVDS) that I put in about a year ago and I followed the instructions specifically (hard not to do correctly IMO) and nothing happened to my TiVO HD aside from it starting up.
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Joe01880
Be advised, a kickstart 54 can take a really long time to finnish. I had one take 8 hours and another not finnish after 12 but that one spit up Fail all over the place. If it pops up a bad drive it might not finnish at all.
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T
I never saw a menu item noting that a program was running. It appeared to run through the normal boot process.
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V7Goose
teasip said:
I tried the KS54 this morning for the first time after I had a spontaneous reboot yesterday for the first time. I have a replacement 1TB HD (WD10EVDS) that I put in about a year ago and I followed the instructions specifically (hard not to do correctly IMO) and nothing happened to my TiVO HD aside from it starting up.
Click to expand...
You should try the boot/kickstart again - the timing is critical. you must press/release pause while the single light is on, and you must type in the KS code within a short period of time. When you are intent on watching the lights and trying to hit the right number buttons, it is easy to have the remote pointed wrong by accident. If you do it right, the TiVo will NOT continue booting normally.
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T
Thanks, I'll try it again. No issues yesterday so maybe just a gremlin on Saturday.
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unitron
vitos said:
Scoured the forums for a solution, but couldn't find anything... :(

All of a sudden, my TiVo HD box will reboot at random. It never hangs at the "Welcome Screen", nor does it constantly loop. It simply works for about 15 mins while watching live TV, then reboots again.

Any thoughts as to what the problem might be? :confused:
Click to expand...
I'd be equally suspicious of both drive and power supply.

You could try powering the drive (and only the drive) from an external source, like a computer or external enclosure, and then, after it's spun up, plug in the TiVo's power cord and see if it behaves.

If it does, you've got a power supply (in the TiVo) that's become marginal and not going to get any better.

If it doesn't make a difference, then both are still suspect.
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