S3 reboot loop

After years of no problems, my S3 started the dreaded reboot loop. We did have a power outage recently although it has survived several others in the past w/o issue. It was working fine since the power outage, but then slipped into the reboot loop about 36 hours later.

My reboot does not happen until after the OLED displays READY, SET, TIVO and the screen has been showing the Almost there message. It passes the initial powering up screen. It seems to be rebooting very close to the final moment before the THX logo and sound come up.

I can successfully boot with no cable cards and with just one cable card inserted (either one), but not both. I have tried multiple times to repeat guided setup with no cards, and one card inserted and still it ends up in the reboot loop if I have both cards inserted.

Any suggestions?

- I am assuming it is not the HD or Power Supply since I can boot with one cable card and everything seems fine except only one tuner of course.

- I assuming the cable cards are fine since either one works by itself, just not when both are inserted. TWC is pain about cable cards, but I am thinking of scheduling them to come out and swap them. They won't let me do it myself.

- Is it normal for the TiVo to reboot when you insert a cable card. I don't recall that happening in the past, but it has been a long time that I messed with the cable card.

- additionally I have a Tuning Adapter connected, but that does not seem to make a difference

Thanks,
--mike

That does sound like a bad drive. We can try to get the data, but there are no guarantees, and the more you use it, the less likely we'll be to get the data.

You may also have a bad power supply. You can get a good idea about that by comparing your power supply to the pictures here:

http://www.weaknees.com/bps

Hi-

My S3 HD with an external drive started spontaneously rebooting yesterday, after freezing at what seemed to be in the same spot in certain recorded shows.

Came home tonight to find it powered down. Got stuck on a grey screen during reboot, but came up fine the second time. Playback of the show that gave me trouble last night was fine, but a few hours later it started rebooting during live TV.

Ran the kickstart 54 SMART tests - passed the first two (initial and short) but got "no start" on the remaining tests (though I did get "no start" on the primary drive the first time I ran it.)

Got the grey screen during the past 3 attempts at rebooting - ominously, the grey screen was preceded by a click.

Do you think this is a bad drive, a bad power supply, or both? (Haven't had a chance to test the cablecard trick yet with the reboot issues.)

If it *is* a bad internal drive, is it possible for you to recover the shows on it and the external? Or at least the season passes?

Thanks,
John

Sounds like a bad power supply.

Often, a bad power supply happens along with a bad drive. The power supply hurts the drive as it's failing.

Replacements are here:

http://www.weaknees.com/tivo-power-supply.php

Completely dead, no lights, no fan, no video, nothing. I know that the power cord has power because I tried it on another tivo stacked right below it.

Do you get any lights on the unit? Do you get any video out now?

I ran the S.M.A.R.T. test and it passed. I will run the other one to see what it comes up with.

I did some reading and some have had the same issue and replaced the power supply and it was fixed...

Ok, I just tried running the other test and the tivo was not responding so I unplugged it and not it won't turn back on. I'm gonna have to say power supply is the issue here. Would you agree?

You should try the overnight kickstart tests:

http://www.weaknees.com/54

Ok, so I have new cable cards and this is still rebooting. I get to the "Welcome! Powering Up" screen and it keeps restarting. I know that these cards work because I got past the "Welcome! Powering Up" screen in a different tivo.

This is driving me nuts, what should my next move be?

same problem, maybe?

I have a series 3HD, which has worked great for 4 years minus a little pixelation every now and then. Suddenly, last week, menus were very sluggish and the picture often froze until it restarted on it's own. Had verizon come to check the fios signal which according to Tivo support was a little hot at 100 steady instead of 90/95. SNR was 37 steady. In 1 of 4 tests the fios tech found some errors which he corrected on the line by replacing a splitter. This did not help my tivo problem however. Then tivo suggested trying the device without the cable connected—which worked. The tivo menus behaved normally and recorded programs were fine—except when the cable was connected. So on a second appointment Fios came and brought 2 new cable cards, which may not have been paired properly, but i had to run out of town so ran a kickstart 54 and left. I came back, the drive had passed all tests, so i unplugged to restart the device, now it's stuck on a Welcome! Powering Up loop. I hope I haven't compounded one problem with another. I tried restarted without cable cards and it's still stuck in the welcome loop. Help? Please!

thanks

Charles

6 hours later... still working normally...

Back from Europe

Hi hi, back from vacation (and wishing I could watch shows...) Strange but it was plugged in to a power strip when I got back but totally black. I unplugged it and plugged in another power source, now its powering up.

On "Welcome! Powering Up" screen I have the tivo symbol in the center with two red lights placed vertically on the left side of the tivo symbol and a blue light above an orange light placed below the blue light.
On "Almost there. Just a few minutes more..." I have no lights.
On Connecting (for Internet updates and program information) I have the time - greyed out- as it usually looks.

Then I see live TV, and I choose Tivo from my universal remote and get the THX screen with their music, and then the now playing.
That is odd in itself... isn't it?

Now behaving normally.
I see no lights, I hear no clicking.
But it's only been about 15 minutes.

Looks like you have a bad drive.

Ok. So now I'm at the TiVo Powering up screen followed by a reboot so I decided to do the extended drive test via the WD tools.
It had passed the SMART quick drive test earlier and when I ran it again for this session.

Oh well...
*************************
Test Option: EXTENDED TEST
Model Number: WDC WD2500BS-55RPB1
Unit Serial Number: WD-WCANK6081716
Firmware Number: 10.02E01
Capacity: 250.06 GB
SMART Status: PASS
Test Result: FAIL
Test Error Code: 08-Too many bad sectors detected.
Test Time: 20:02:26, August 20, 2011

Purchase Jan 07.