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New software download killed my S3 TiVo!

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  • #1

    New software download killed my S3 TiVo!

    This morning, we turned on the TV and my 17-month-old 750GB Series 3 TiVo was in the middle of a reboot; the "ready in a few minutes" message on screen. Then it did the THX logo, the TiVo guy, then displayed a message that "The Summer 2008 Software Upgrade" had just been downloaded and described the new functionality.

    As I was reading this, the Tivo box rebooted without my touching anything. And, to make a long miserable story short, it's been doing that now for several hours. It lasts from 30 to 90 seconds between completing one reboot to starting another.

    Calling TiVo Customer Support was a dead end. They told me to quickly go to Settings and try to connect to the TiVo Service, but it always reboots during the time it is "preparing" to connect. I even changed from a wireless connection by running Ethernet cable direct to my cable modem to no avail.

    Tivo's only answer is for me to send in the unit and they'll replace it with another unit. But I lose all my recorded programs (literally hundreds of programs) not to mention a week or 2 of no TiVo.

    I have no CableCards installed and I connect to TiVo via Internet. The only thing unique is that I bought the unit from WeaKnees pre-upgraded to a 750GB drive. Because of this, I have no "factory drive" to try.

    Does anyone have any ideas for me to try? Will WK be able to replace my unit and preserve my recordings? Could they talk me through it (I'm pretty technical; I did a couple of S1 disk upgrades) without my having to ship my TiVo across the country? Help!
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  • #2
    It sounds like the drive in your unit may have had some errors, and when the new OS loaded to the alternate boot partition, it loaded over some errors. So now it can't boot.

    Sorry to say, it sounds unlikely that we (or you) would be able to recover the shows on the unit.

    How old is the unit? Did you get an extended warranty? If you want to post your original order number, we can get you the best info.
    Been here a long time . . .

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    • #3
      The unit was shipped to me 2-23-07 on Order# 410278. I did not purchase an extended warranty.

      Three questions:
      (1) How can I test the drive? The Troubleshoot Guide said I couldn't use PowerMax with an WinXP PC (which I have) and Seagate's site doesn't even show PowerMax as a current product. I do have a Vista laptop but I don't know how I could physically connect the suspect drive unless you know of a USB adapter product I could use.

      (2) If I order & successfully install one of your disk replacement products for my TCD648250B Series3 (e.g. the 750GB drive for $299), is there a possibility that I could ship my old disk to anyone who could pull the video files off and convert them to mpg's like TiVo desktop does?

      (3) If I order the replacement disk and the exact same rebooting cycle continues, where do I go from there? Power supply testing? Get real mad at TiVo for faulty software (again)?

      Thanks, Michael, for any aid you can provide.

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      • #4
        1 - We don't know about USB adapters, but you can test it in DOS (that's what we do here) with the Seagate utilities.

        2 - Not really, given the circumstances. Also, if it were possible, it would require your full unit, since the files are encrypted and can only be unlocked with your motherboard.

        3 - Unlikely, but yes, a power supply would be the next part to try. But that's fairly rare, and if the power supply is bad, it usually stops booting entirely (meaning no video), at least soon after problems begin.
        Been here a long time . . .

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        • #5
          Just discovered something! I caught it right when it finished the boot and took it immediately to play a recording and it continued without crashing & rebooting. Did I just force it to avoid connecting to TiVo and could that therefore be the culprit?

          Then after an hour or so, I took it to settings and had it connect (via Ethernet direct connection) and did a download. After it "loaded" everything, it has worked fine ever since.

          What do you know?

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          • #6
            Can't explain it, but knock on wood and enjoy.

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