Just in case

I called RCN (you know how frustrating that is) and the good news is that they are sending someone on Monday who supposedly will bring new cards.
The bad news is that they'll charge me $50 if they think the problem is not my cable cards.
Oy.

Not sure if that will help, but there's new info about these issues here:

http://blog.tivo.com/2011/08/new-fcc...to-cablecards/

Well the RCN guy was here and tried the stuff on the first page and everything just went black, He said he heard a clicking sound coming from the Tivo Box when it had power and not when it was without. So seems to have died on the spot.

I leave the country in a few hours so not much I can do.

I wonder if i can salvage any of my recordings?

Drat, can't even slingbox

Then that sounds like a bad power supply. Recordings might be salvageable.

Any lights on the front?

Replacement power supplies are here:

http://www.weaknees.com/ps

When i get back

I was already on the way to the airport...
When I get back I will check the lights- many thanks for help.

I'll be back late on September 2nd.

Ok. So I've been having the reboot loop.
Nothing has fixed it so far.
I ran the kickstart routines.
Tested the drives.
Replaced the power supply (via weaKnees).
Removed my external storage.
Removed cable cards.

Any other thoughts?

You might try checking the signal levels of your cable signal coming into the TiVo. You can also pull the cable signal and see if it still reboots.

Did. But will try again. Just tried switching from the RGB to HMDI.

Lifetime service on my S3.
Service options?

Purchase Jan 07.

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

Looks like you have a bad drive.

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.

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

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

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?