TiVo Series3 Rebooting and Restarting

[WK-Michael]

I'd swap it out. On the chance that you've got a bad hard drive, you might as well take the refurb that's been tested.

[Andrea12]

well I tried the refurb. Did not work. After 2 hours on the phone with Tivo tech support and customer service, it's going back. Hopefully my original keeps running. if not comcast wins.

[WK-Michael]

Then maybe too much attenuation on the cable line? Fluctuating power?

[Andrea12]

We had a few days of rolling brown outs right before the original tivo starting acting up. So far so good on my original tivo. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

[corners]

Read thru this topic and damned if I can figure this out. I have a TiVO HD (with an augmented Hard Drive) from WK and two S cards with Cablevision. No problems until this morning. Now it's in an infinite reboot loop. Sometimes when it hangs it says it is installing an update, or it's installing an update but can't contact the server.

I'm connected via WiFi and the connection has always been good (already checked the WiFi adapter and it's OK, however when it's connected to the TiVO I can only successfully ping it occassionally, and I suspect that's only during the time it has finished a reboot).

Have tried the 51, 52, and 56 kickstarts and get no change in behavior at all. It often actually gets thru the reboot, I see the TiVO animation, sometimes even get a minute of TV (or a black/grey cablecard Screen of Death). But then it always promptly starts the reboot again.

We have had no blackouts but the circuit breaker for the room has tripped several times in the last week--heat wave here and the room has a large AC in it that I believe is the culprit. No outage for at least a day or so prior to the problem beginning, however.

So what's the verdict, is my Hard Drive toast or the power supply? What are my alternatives? Should I try KS 54? What about KS 57? (I've heard the latter can cause more problems than it causes, so I'm reluctant).

I'd hate it to be the Hard Drive but I'm capable of doing the replacement if needed. Not so sure about a power supply, never tried that one.

[WK-Michael]

That's most likely your hard drive, but you should pull the CableCARDs and Wifi adapter and try to boot again to just rule those out.

[corners]

OK, thanks. I have been able to get everything to work for as much as an hour or so before it goes back into reboot mode.

Have already done a reboot without the adapter, had no affect. Just did the SMART tests and they all passed. Doing the overnight test now, and when that's done I'll try pulling the cablecards. (Would be nice if they were the culprit, since it would give me an excuse to get Cablevision out here with an M card to replace the two S cards and save me a few bucks!)

[corners]

Removed the cable cards, but the unit began to reboot again right in the middle of Guided Setup (as it was downloading program info). Presume it's the hard drive. Sigh. Will order an upgrade kit.

I assume I remove the cable cards and set up with the new drive before adding the cable cards back in? THanks.

[kdickinson]

Along with everyone else my series 3 loves to reset!! I bought an original Tivo long ago and had it working for 5 years without issue. Since we wanted to stream netflix we were forced to buy the latest model which lead me to the series 3. Ever since we've had nothing but reset after reset after reset.

The original box was okay for the first 2 months and then started having problems. At first it was a reset here or there and was easy to ignore. Eventually it stopped fast forwarding, would reset more and more and would gray out channels (and the only way to bring them back was to reset). We called Tivo and we got a replacement box.

Replacement box number 1 worked for about a month and then it started having the same issues. I dealt with them for 3 additional months and then couldnt take the resets every 10 to 20 minutes so I was forced to return it and get another replacement box.

Replacement box number 2 worked good for about 2 weeks when I noticed the first reset. And now, 4 months later I cant even watch TV on it because within 5 minutes it resets. Ive contacted Tivo and they have absolutely no advice. Their only suggestion is that the power strip was causing the issues. Well we plugged it straight into the wall and still had issues and then bought an UPS and still had reset issues. We do not use cable cards as they are not needed (we just have basic and expanded cable, no HD channels). I also dont feel its a heat problem as the box sits on top of our entertainment center in the open air and is not in a cabinet...it should have ample air circulation.

I've read post after post in this forum where you say "its probably a bad hard drive", but really can all three of my boxes have had bad hard drives? Any ideas?

[WK-Jeff]

You might want to check with your cable company about the quality and/or strength of your incoming signal. TiVo can help give you an idea as to whether your signal is too high or too low.