# Reboots on TiVos Series 2



## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

All my Series 2 TiVos reboot at the same time or randomly by themselves at least once a day. I have spent well over $400 replacing equipment to correct this problem and have found out that the problem is caused by the current software version 6.3e-01-2-381. A couple of weeks ago, I activated a Samsung 4040 Series 2 and when I checked the software version it was 3.13... Never rebooted. Two days ago the 6.3 version was downloaded and now the Sammy is rebooting along with the rest of them.

No cable or multiswitch problems, strong signals and two separate dishes. Can only be the software. Called D* about it and they are "sort of aware" of the problem, so they are sending a tech out to "fix your software". HOW DUMB CAN the CSRS BE? It's like talking to a wall. And I went up a couple of levels of CSRs and supervisors yesterday and still could not get them to admit there is a problem.


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## chuckg (Sep 15, 2007)

Both my Samsungs have worked flawlessly since dumping the contaminated Seagate DB35s with 6.3e for the original 40GB drives with 6.2a


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## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

chuckg said:


> Both my Samsungs have worked flawlessly since dumping the contaminated Seagate DB35s with 6.3e for the original 40GB drives with 6.2a


So, you were having the same problem with constant daily rebooting? I know that if I put an HD in with an older software version the problem goes away, but look at the storage space you lost. Don't want to do that. Most of my TiVos have huge HDs.


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## gully_foyle (Jan 18, 2007)

rich584 said:


> So, you were having the same problem with constant daily rebooting? I know that if I put an HD in with an older software version the problem goes away, but look at the storage space you lost. Don't want to do that. Most of my TiVos have huge HDs.


Having no problem with 6.3e on a large Maxtor drive. Can't recall the model number, but it's the one they made for DVRs. Alas, Seagate bought them. Don't think it's the software by itself.


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## BruceS (Sep 23, 2006)

It may depend on how you installed your larger hard drives.

Instant Cake seems to set an UPGRADESOFTWARE=FALSE flag that prevents upgrades to newer versions of the tivo software. This may not be true for all boxes or all version of Instant Cake, but it certainly is for mine, which was installed along with PTVNet on my HR10-250.

Of course you can always just unplug your phone line and put up with the messages this generates.


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## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

kcmurphy88 said:


> Having no problem with 6.3e on a large Maxtor drive. Can't recall the model number, but it's the one they made for DVRs. Alas, Seagate bought them. Don't think it's the software by itself.


What else could it be? Six TiVos, all with the same version of software and some on a dual LNB dish and some on a 5 LNB dish. And they all reboot at least once a day. That Samsung I had with the 3.1 software was right out of the box. As soon as it downloaded the 6.3e, the rebooting started.

How do you know your TiVos aren't rebooting? The only way I can tell, except when watching one and it reboots, is by the 30 second skip reverting to it's default setting. I've had many, many TiVos over the last 6 years and this has never happened before.


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## jake14mw (Oct 5, 2007)

If you look over at TivoCommunity forums, there are many threads about it. Sure looks like a software issue. I can't post a link here yet, add the www on the front.

tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=7


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## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

jake14mw said:


> If you look over at TivoCommunity forums, there are many threads about it. Sure looks like a software issue. I can't post a link here yet, add the www on the front.
> 
> tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=7


Thanx for the link. TiVos have not rebooted in two days now. Maybe they fixed the problem.


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## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

Another 24 hours passed and no reboots on any of my six TiVos. Does anyone still think it was not the software?


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## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

rich584 said:


> Another 24 hours passed and no reboots on any of my six TiVos. Does anyone still think it was not the software?


NUTZ! The TiVo my wife is watching just rebooted. And the TiVo I'm using is still working. I think I will try to contact TiVo Monday. I have talked to a couple of "supervisors" at D* and they put the blame squarely on TiVo and the downloads it provides.

I have a feeling that until the next release comes out we will have to put up with these problems. That's not to say we shouldn't complain to both D* and TiVo. The more complaints, the quicker the fix, hopefully. Perhaps the folks at TiVo will be more receptive.


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## dgordo (Aug 29, 2004)

We are having the same problem with our series 2 tivo. D* insists im the only one with this problem.


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## wipeout (Jul 15, 2003)

dgordo said:


> We are having the same problem with our series 2 tivo. D* insists im the only one with this problem.


I have been having the same issue for the last month with my HR-10. I am also getting partial recording instead of the whole show.


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## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

dgordo said:


> We are having the same problem with our series 2 tivo. D* insists im the only one with this problem.


The SD TiVo I have directly hooked up to the 5 LNB dish rebooted night before last. D* CSRs resort to either hanging up or lying when they can't fix something or can't think of a real answer.


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## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

wipeout said:


> I have been having the same issue for the last month with my HR-10. I am also getting partial recording instead of the whole show.


Is that an R10? If so, that is an SD TiVo and is a software issue.


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## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

dgordo said:


> We are having the same problem with our series 2 tivo. D* insists im the only one with this problem.


I just called TiVo's customer support tech line. I was informed by them that D* sends out the upgrades, not TiVo as a CSR's supervisor told me last week. Yet another lie. D* is sending out the software upgrades not TiVo. TiVo has nothing to do with D* anymore.

For D*'s CSRs and supervisors to keep trying to blame TiVo is unconscionable.


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## Dr_J (Apr 15, 2007)

rich584 said:


> Thanx for the link. TiVos have not rebooted in two days now. Maybe they fixed the problem.


Just had my first-ever spontaneous reboot while watching a pre-recorded program. This has never happened to me before on this SD DirecTiVo box, which has performed nearly flawlessly for almost 2 1/2 years. :nono2:


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## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

Dr_J said:


> Just had my first-ever spontaneous reboot while watching a pre-recorded program. This has never happened to me before on this SD DirecTiVo box, which has performed nearly flawlessly for almost 2 1/2 years. :nono2:


Check your software version, bet it is 6.2 or 6.3e. More D*Hell.


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## Dr_J (Apr 15, 2007)

rich584 said:


> Check your software version, bet it is 6.2 or 6.3e. More D*Hell.


6.3e.


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## Lord Vader (Sep 20, 2004)

My brother has an HR10-250 HD TIVO that has been rebooting like crazy the last three days! It's a "modified" TIVO, if you know what I mean; as such, it doesn't take automatic software updates. However, it's still rebooting, sometimes several times a day.


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## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

Lord Vader said:


> My brother has an HR10-250 HD TIVO that has been rebooting like crazy the last three days! It's a "modified" TIVO, if you know what I mean; as such, it doesn't take automatic software updates. However, it's still rebooting, sometimes several times a day.


The good folks at Weaknees told me that might be a bad sector causing that. I have no idea what that means. Or it could be the same 6.3e problem that is affecting my SD TiVos.


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## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

Dr_J said:


> 6.3e.


Trust me on this. There is nothing you can do about this. At some level D* is aware of this and is working on a resolution. The problem is the software.


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## Lord Vader (Sep 20, 2004)

Rich, he's not on 6.3e. If I recall correctly, he might still be on 6.3 or 6.3a.


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## FarNorth (Nov 27, 2003)

My bone-stock HR10-250 just rebooted while I was watching live TV on channel 722. No recordings were running at the time - 9:58 am local - but I had one scheduled for 10:00 am. It rebooted and then tuned to a channel I had been watching, 715. And then the recording started at 10:02. This, I think, the second reboot in 3 days, it rebooted Friday night in the middle of 2 recordings, resumed both. 

Other info: I have software 6.3d and I have been having a lot of audio troubles, lots of times when the 5 channel surround won't work and I have to change surround modes to hear the dialogue.


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## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

Lord Vader said:


> Rich, he's not on 6.3e. If I recall correctly, he might still be on 6.3 or 6.3a.


Mine is: 6.3e-01-2-101, isn't that the latest version? From talking to people about this problem I have learned that this version is for both SD and HD TiVos. That seems a little strange to me for some reason. Conflicting?

I only have SD TiVos, by the way. And they all have the same version of software and they all reboot randomly and every once in a while, all at the same time. I've had TiVos since D* stopped supporting Ultimate TV and I've never experienced a random reboot that I can remember. Until the last 5 or 6 months.


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## Dr_J (Apr 15, 2007)

rich584 said:


> Trust me on this. There is nothing you can do about this. At some level D* is aware of this and is working on a resolution. The problem is the software.


I was watching live TV tonight when the box locked up tight and became unresponsive. I had to unplug and reboot it. What a shame. This is worse than last year's problem of the Season Passes and WishLists going on the fritz. A previously reliable box has become completely unreliable and essentially useless. Ironically, I've been scheduling it to record programs as a backup to the HR20 because of the previous history of HR20 unreliability. Now it looks like I'll have to do the opposite.

The specs are:

Philips Series2 DSR708
Software version 6.3e-01-2-101.

:nono2:


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## Dr_J (Apr 15, 2007)

I found this in a TiVo forum. Has anyone tried it (the #52 option)?

While booting the power light will change from green to yellow as the line 'checkpanic' in the rc.sysinit gets executed. This happens a few seconds before the screen changes from the startup image to "almost there" and it's your cue to hold down a button (use pause) on the remote to trigger a panic. When the record light changes yellow, key in one of the following sequences:

0 - emergency call to tivo, touchtone dialing
1 - emergency call to tivo, pulse dialing
9 - emergency call to tivo, touchtone w/ 9 prefix
-- I suggest not doing any of these unless explicitly instructed


52 - emergency reinstall
-- this will act like you've received new software but will reinstall the existing software on the alternate root partition and boot it, particularly useful so you don't have to go trolling for backup images when your hacks fail.

56 - software install

57 - mfs check
58 - perform mfs cleanup
-- both of these will cause the green screen and various mfs checks


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## jdmac29 (Jan 6, 2006)

My samsung 4040 has rebooted also at least 3 times last week while watching a program. I purchased it brand new from CC back in August, it never did the reboot one time until 6.3e. I am planning on upgrading the hard drive in the next few weeks to see if it the hard drive but I honestly think it is the software. I here a clicking noise every few minutes though when it is in standby mode.


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## Lord Vader (Sep 20, 2004)

These reboots are getting ridiculous! I was at my folks' house for dinner today--the old man's got an HR20-700 and an HR10-250--we were flipping between the Patriots game and the Bills game--gotta love DLB, people!!!--when whammo! The HR10-250 reboots itself. An hour later, boom! Reboot.

My own one at home rebooted twice today. My brother's three times. And we're all on 6.3a, too!

These things are haunted or something. I've never seen such an annoying problem like this before with these units.


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## Dr_J (Apr 15, 2007)

I set last night's Red Sox World Series clincher for a 6-hour recording session (8 p.m. to 2 a.m.) in order to capture all the postgame celebration. I woke up around 6:30 a.m. and noticed that the record light was still on. I'm thinking it can't still be recording, can it? I go to turn it on, and it's completely unresponsive. I have to unplug and reboot it. When it comes back, it turned out that the recording stopped at 12:10 a.m., just as the on-field postgame interviews were starting. (Because of all the problems I've been having, I scheduled a duplicate recording on the HR20. Who would have thought a year ago that the HR20 would bail out a DirecTiVo?) Not remembering the specifics, I did the Pause-5-2 thing at the appropriate time during the reboot, thinking I would revert back to the old 6.2a software. As it turns out, all that did was reinstall the 6.3e software on the alternate root partition, for all the good that's going to do.

In retrospect, the first ever spontaneous reboot occurred about a week before I said it did. I was watching the NFL Sunday Ticket highlights on the HR20 when I came across a bad recording (Lions/Redskins). About halfway through, the picture started stuttering, breaking up, and finally disappearing. I thought I would see how it looked on the TiVo. Within 5 seconds of starting the recording, the TiVo spontaneously rebooted. I wrote it off as being due to a bad recording and didn't think further of it. In retrospect, could this bad recording have corrupted the software to the point where the box is now useless?

So now I've hit the trifecta: spontaneous reboots, live TV that freezes, and prematurely discontinued recordings with unresponsiveness. I don't know if reinstalling the software on the alternate partition will help or if what was reinstalled is the default version prior to the potential bad recording corruption, or if that whole bad recording thing was just a coincidence. If it's truly bad software, I've lost the use of one TV until, and if, a fix is made. :nono2:


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## RandCfilm (Aug 17, 2006)

There is a thread going at DDB series 2 support, and TCF HD TiVo about this, and this thread here at DBS.


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## Dr_J (Apr 15, 2007)

RandCfilm said:


> There is a thread going at DDB series 2 support, and TCF HD TiVo about this, and this thread here at DBS.


Thanks, but I don't think this is related to my problem.


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## RandCfilm (Aug 17, 2006)

Dr_J said:


> Thanks, but I don't think this is related to my problem.


Started to post my reply before your post, had to answer the phone so I got delayed in posting. I was referring to the random reboots over the last week people have been having thought this might tie some of that together.


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## Dr_J (Apr 15, 2007)

RandCfilm said:


> Started to post my reply before your post, had to answer the phone so I got delayed in posting. I was referring to the random reboots over the last week people have been having thought this might tie some of that together.


I hope it does. I'm just desperate for a fix. I don't want to have to go the R15 route.


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## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

Shame, isn't it? Keep on backing up. This has got to get better. I do the same thing you do. I can get no one at TiVo to say anything but that they have nothing to do with D* and D* tells me that TiVo is working with them to resolve the problem. Some-body's lying. 5 years ago those TiVos were rock solid and now? Just had an HR20 crash and burn the other day. Lost all the recordings. If we had the ability to watch eSATAs within an account on any HR20 it would go a long way to helping, not solving, this problem. You have to remember to check each DVR each day to make sure it is working. During the four game World Series I lost two games. To quote Mr. Clinton, "I feel your pain."



Dr_J said:


> I was watching live TV tonight when the box locked up tight and became unresponsive. I had to unplug and reboot it. What a shame. This is worse than last year's problem of the Season Passes and WishLists going on the fritz. A previously reliable box has become completely unreliable and essentially useless. Ironically, I've been scheduling it to record programs as a backup to the HR20 because of the previous history of HR20 unreliability. Now it looks like I'll have to do the opposite.
> 
> The specs are:
> 
> ...


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## Dr_J (Apr 15, 2007)

I was actually doing fine for the past few weeks since I did the Pause-5-2 thing and reloaded the 6.3e version on the alternate partition, although I've used the DirecTiVo sparingly because I don't trust it anymore. Last night just after 6 p.m., the box was off because I was watching a local station on cable when all of a sudden the box turned on spontaneously and was unresponsive. Oh, no, not again...

I unplugged and rebooted it again twice, both times using Pause-5-2 to get the software to install on the original partition again. Under system information, I noticed a successful call to the mother ship went out at 10:19 a.m. yesterday morning, so clearly there was something in that download that made it go bad again. I was keeping the phone line plugged in so that if a fix came out, it could be downloaded. Now I've unplugged the phone line, and I'll just monitor the forums to see when and if a fix is released.

One question: if I keep my phone line unplugged indefinitely, will I eventually lose my DVR service on the DirecTiVo?


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## Lord Vader (Sep 20, 2004)

If it is not hacked to avoid that, yes, you'll lose some functionality or at least get a persistent nag telling you the unit needs to phone home.


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## Dr_J (Apr 15, 2007)

May as well plug the phone line back in. I was lying in bed today just before 9 a.m. EST when I noticed the green light on. That can only mean one thing--spontaneous reboot. I turned on the TV, and sure enough, it was. The phone line's been unplugged for over two months now, and I disabled the DLB by setting them on XM stations (as recommended by tivocommunity.com), and it still rebooted. God knows how many times it's rebooted without my knowing it. I suspected rebooting might be taking place yesterday when I turned the DirecTiVo on and noticed that both tuners were tuned to the same XM station (which is not how I left it), and the channel banner was almost full screen (which is not how I left it). That always happens with a reboot--both tuners tune to the same channel, and the channel banner resets to the default setting, almost full screen.

Could all this spontaneous rebooting shorten the life of the hard drive?

I'm fresh out of ideas at this point. I could always have DirecTV send me a free R15 since I'm with the Protection Plan, but I don't want to give up my last TiVo yet. I could always try the Instantcake route, but that would mean starting all over from scratch with a fresh hard drive, and I don't want to lose everything I already have on there. I've been holding out waiting for this 6.3f alledged bug fix. When's it going to be rolled out?


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## Richierich (Jan 10, 2008)

One thing that can cause REBOOTING is the POWER SUPPLY operating outside of it's margin. If it is on the low side or high side of the marginal window it causes a reboot of the TIVO thinking that there is a problem.

I had that problem on one of my units and sent it off and they fixed the PS and I was good to go. Didn't lose my recordings either.


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