We do have a return program for parts that aren't needed. Info is here:

http://www.weaknees.com/payment.php

You should try plugging your unit directly into the wall, and not through a UPS (which we generally recommend) or through a surge suppressor.

Next, this really sounds like a bad drive to me, despite the fact that another drive rebooted in the unit. Have you tried running a kickstart 54 overnight test on either drive?

Hey there. I have a Tivo Series 3 with a Western Digital DVR Expander. I'm using Time Warner NYC with two cable cards. Over the last few months, my TiVo has started the random reboot thing. Once or twice the reboot has gone to a green screen of death, saying it would take 3 hours to repair if even possible, but it's always just rebooted a couple of minutes later. Generally, though, it just reboots cheerfully, completing the cycle in about 7 or 8 minutes. It seems to happen randomly, as many as a couple of times a day, but there is one odd thing: fairly frequently, it reboots between about 6:20PM and 6:40PM. I have a Season Pass for the news at 6:30PM, don't know if that has anything to do with it. Aside from the reboots, it's working perfectly, with no freezes, pixelation or other image issues in the recordings.

Any thoughts?

When I hear about a regular daily reboot like that, my first thought is that there is something else on the power circuit that is drawing enough power off the circuit to force a brownout. So if your lights outside go on automatically at 6:30, or if someone uses a toaster or hair dryer right then, that could be the trigger.

Assuming that's not it, a reboot is most likely to be a bad drive, and the green screen adds more evidence.

Frankly, we really don't like the WD DVR Expander drives because they have no fan, and we see them fail all the time.

In any event, if/after you rule out the first option of the power problems, try a Kickstart 54 and see that the TiVo reports on the condition of the drives:

http://www.weaknees.com/54

Thanks, Michael. My building is an old loft, a former carriage garage and stables; the electrical supply here is always a bit iffy. I run my TiVo through a... uh, line conditioner? It shares that conditioner with several other devices; I'm wondering if I should just try plugging it directly into the wall socket. I can't think of any electrical events that kick in at that time. Trying to remember if I was cooking my dinner at that point.

And this is, btw, my second WD DVR Expander.

Definitely try going directly into the wall. Even with flaky power, we often see failures with power strips and similar devices.

I'll give it a try. This isn't a powerstrip, but some semi-fancy solid looking thing. But the electricity in this building is still so wonky that that might be the problem.

If I end up switching out the internal drive, I assume you have no way of recovering files that are split between the TiVo HD and the WD Expander, right? Also, is there any apparent difference in reliability between a 1TB internal drive and a 2 TB internal drive? I'm worried about demanding too much HD space, and being punished by the Gods for it.

If the problem is a drive, then copying data is not typically possible. If your drives are truly fine (not likely given the green screen), then copying from 2 drives to a single larger drive is possible.

You should choose 1TB vs 2TB based on price and space need...reliability differences should not enter the equation.

My late 2006 S3 has worked mostly flawlessly until today, it froze and on power cycle went into the endless reboot loop. I followed the instructions exactly as stated in post #1 on this thread and all is restored. Thanks WeakKnees.

Glad to hear it, although these days, most rebooting problems are actually bad hard drives.

Tell us if you run into the rebooting issues again.

Hi All, Just wanted to let the admins know that I was having reboot and the GSOD issues w/ my S3 HDXL. Performed the procedure from the beginning of this sticky....and voila! Tivo is once again stable and running smoothly. Thank You!

I was just about to take my TiVO out to ship it to you, when I saw troubleshooting comments regarding the removal of the CableCard. I removed it, but it's still rebooting. I would have kicked myself if I had shipped it out without having checked that out! Imagine getting it to you, only to find out I had a bad CableCard! It must be something else though. I hope the hard drive is salvagable however, I have hundreds of hours of shows and movies that I still haven't watched yet! :-(

We'll certainly try!

Need some help diagnosing what needs replacing in a Series 3 HD; hard drive or power supply. Trying to post a couple .JPG pictures of a suspect capacitor, but they fail to upload every time. Can I e-mail them to someone at WeakNees?

Background:
I retired the unit a couple years ago (but it still has active lifetime service) and replaced it with a TiVo Premier. I decided that I should take it out of the closet, try to diagnose the problem and repair it, because I am currently paying a monthly fee on another active unit (an old Series 2 that won't last much longer). To my surprise, after telling it to ignore the external hard drive that was no longer connected, the Series 3 seemed to work flawlessly (as far as I know) for a couple months, so I assumed it had something to do with the external hard drive (but I am now using that same drive with no problems on my Premier, so maybe not). Then after the power went out for a couple hours one morning, it started an endless cycle of rebooting. At first it seemed it would complete rebooting and work for a little while before rebooting, then there was much pixelation while watching TV and the system became completely unresponsive to any remote control or front panel input; only pulling the plug reset it. After that it would just barely finish completing the reboot and start to show the TiVo Central screen (you could see the TiVo man and the screen background, but the text/menu never came up) and then immediately start rebooting over again. It now just continues this cycle of just barely completing a reboot and then crashes & starts to reboot again. (NOTE: There are NO Cable Cards in this device and it is not hooked up to an antenna (although it used to be), only BrightHouse Basic cable.)

After reading many posts on how this issue could be either the hard drive or the power supply, I opened the unit to check the power supply and noticed one capacitor had a very slightly domed top, but I'm not sure if it is damaged. There is no other sign of damage to any power supply component (no browning, leaking, etc.). I have a couple annotated pics of the capacitor but cannot seem to upload them. If I can avoid it, I would obviously prefer to not spend $100 replacing the power supply only to find out it was fine and that the issue is actually the hard drive.

Thanks!

Sure - email us at [email protected]. Huge attachments won't come through, but for pics, you should be able to scale them down without a problem.

That said, I think you do have at least a bad power supply. Any bulge at all means you have problems, definitely.

But you probably also have a bad drive. Rebooting like that is probably a bad drive in 95% of the cases.

It's definitely possible in your situation that the bad power supply damaged the drive. But, whatever the case, you do probably need both parts.

Hello,

I'm about ready to give up on Tivo. I've had my second Tivo, the Tivo Series 3 HD XL, for about 4 years now. I am having a similar problem as others in this thread. My Tivo constantly reboots itself. It happens so often that I can't link it to any one action. Sometimes it's when I'm playing something back, sometimes it's when the TV is off, sometimes it's when I hit the Tivo button. Some days it will reboot as often as 5x per hour, other days it won't reboot at all. I've read through this post and have tried the following (in order):

-Replaced the hard drive with one purchased from WeaKnees
-Replaced the power cord (a cheap one off eBay)
-Followed the steps outlined in the first post
-Replaced the CableCard (Comcast)

Nothing has solved my problem. This just began happening about 6 months ago and I can't think of anything else in my set up that has changed. Do you have any other suggestions for me? Are there any other steps you recommend I try before ditching my Tivo? With the Lifetime Membership I paid about $900 for this thing and it only lasted 4 years.

Thanks for any suggestions.