# I get a "severe error" message (in green )



## amahdi (Sep 30, 2002)

on my SD DVR40 - its a greem screen saying that a I have sereve error and that the receiver will try to fix it for the next 3 hrs and NOT to unplug it. 

Has anyone had this issue and what exactly is it? Is my receiver gone or is there still hope? It's basically rebooting itself every 5 minutes but then it shows the green screen. What should I do?


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## Newshawk (Sep 3, 2004)

It means there's a hard driver error. I hope your phone line is plugged in-the Tivo will try to call out as part of the repair process, IIRC. Oh, and to be safe, give it a full 24 hours.


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## amahdi (Sep 30, 2002)

Newshawk said:


> It means there's a hard driver error. I hope your phone line is plugged in-the Tivo will try to call out as part of the repair process, IIRC. Oh, and to be safe, give it a full 24 hours.


THanks - the problem is that I have Vonage - not a Land Line. What should I do? What is the success rate with this type of problem. Are there any other solutions?

Thanks again.


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## litzdog911 (Jun 23, 2004)

The DVR might be able to repair its hard drive. You'll know if it successfully reboots after the "green screen" process completes. If it's not back within 12 hours, then the drive is probably damaged beyond repair. You'll need to replace/upgrade the drive. You can do it yourself, or buy pre-imaged upgrade drives. Check out these resources ....

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=25

http://www.weaknees.com/index.html

http://tivo.upgrade-instructions.com/

http://www.newreleasesvideo.com/hinsdale-how-to/

http://www.dvrupgrade.com/dvr/stores/1/instantcake.cfm

http://www.9thtee.com/


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## captain_video (Nov 22, 2005)

The GSOD, or Green Screen of Death as it is more commonly known, usually results from a corrupt filesystem. The Tivo goes into the GSOD and attempts to repair the damaged files by rebuilding them. Most of the time it will recover on its own within a short period of time, say 15-30 minutes. Sometimes it may take considerably longer (up to 24 hours or more). 

If it stays in the GSOD for longer than 36 hours then you've got a hard drive problem. You have several options at this point.

1. Run the drive manufacturer's diagnostic program on the drive. This requires that you pull the drive and install it in your PC. Just be careful not to allow the PC to boot into Windows NT, 2K, or XP with the drive attached to the IDE bus or it could write a signature to the boot record which will prevent it from booting up in a Tivo. If there are problems with the drive it will probably fail the diagnostic. If it does, you can attempt a drive repair per step 2 or you can get a replacement drive and install it yourself.

2. Get a copy of SpinRite (about $90 but you can get an evaluation copy via the bittorrent sites; if you like it then buy it!) and run the Data Recovery feature on the Tivo drive. The drive may have developed bad clusters over time and SpinRite will rejuvenate the drive and repair these clusters, if possible. When it's finished, and it will take a very long time to run (possible 24 hours or longer), rerun the diagnostic program from step 1. If it now passes then replace the drive in the Tivo and boot it up. You may still get a GSOD but this time it should recover in short order. The bad clusters will prevent the filesystem from being rebuilt because the clusters have not been mapped as bad and the drive will continue trying to write to them, resulting in an endless GSOD. Once the clusters have either been repaired or mapped as bad, the Tivo can go about the business of healing itself.

3. If neither 1 or 2 fix the problem then it's time for a new drive. You can get a preconfigured drive from Weaknees or 9th Tee, among others, and simply drop it in your Tivo to get up and running again. Note that these drives are way overpriced when you consider that you can get a backup InstantCake image from PtvUpgrade (I think they're called DVRUpgrade now) and install it on any off-the-shelf IDE drive for far less than what they charge. There are lots of tutorials on restoring a backup image to a drive and the Instantcake CD images are fully automated to perform this process.


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## amahdi (Sep 30, 2002)

captain_video said:


> The GSOD, or Green Screen of Death as it is more commonly known, usually results from a corrupt filesystem. The Tivo goes into the GSOD and attempts to repair the damaged files by rebuilding them. Most of the time it will recover on its own within a short period of time, say 15-30 minutes. Sometimes it may take considerably longer (up to 24 hours or more).
> 
> If it stays in the GSOD for longer than 36 hours then you've got a hard drive problem. You have several options at this point.
> 
> ...


Thanks alot for all your help. It actually got fixed! I took it to my neighbor's home and connected it to the phone line (I have Vonage!). I let it be for about 24 hrs and to my surprise - it was working perfectly. It's funny but I was about to get a new receiever - had given up hope!

I have 2 questions however:

1) As I have Vonage, what is the best way to connect for updates? I have done the PPP thing alot of times but it has only worked once. Is that the only way? Any special tips.

2) WHen I called Directv they said if the receiver doesn't work after 24 hrs - they will send me the R15 receievr for free. Is that true? Why would I get it for free.

Thanks again for all your advice.


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