I have TivoHD with the WD Expander for just over a year. It too has been freezing and randomly restarting over the last week. Sometimes during recorded shows, sometimes during Live TV. I've tried KickStart 54 - but the machine just freezes when I try to run the SMART Hard Drive Tests. So, I cant test the drives. I suspect that something is wrong with the Expander. In fact, I originally had an Expander for a week or two when I first bought the TivoHD and it crashed (wouldnt even start up) - so I returned it. This one has been working just shy of a year and given my past experience - I think its the culprit. I've already RMA'd the drive with WD and am waiting for the new one to arrive before sending my current one back. In no rush to loose all my programs, but this is very annoying. Any thoughts from anyone on my theories or similar experiences? Anyone else not able to run the Kickstart 54? I figure if the restarts continue once I've added the new Expander - then its likely the internal drive. Any help, thoughts, advice appreciated. Thanks.

You've really got it right - if the restarts continue with a replacement, then it's likely that the problems are with the internal.

You should also consider swapping out the eSATA cable. We've seen some that can cause some problems.

Constant restarts as well.......

I'm in a similar boat with Twich. I have a Series 3 with WD Expander and Charter cable cards. The expander has been in use for about a year and a half. I've never had one problem since I bought my series 3 a month after it was released for sale to the public. About three weeks ago, the Tivo started freezing then restarting. I've tried to find a pattern/trend to this, but so far have been unable to. It occurs at any given time, though it occurs more frequently when I'm fast forwarding my recorded shows. It's so bad that the Tivo is pretty much unusable. The picture is clear with no missing pixels or haziness. The picture is crystal clear. I called customer service and they weren't much help. He said that they hadn't heard of this problem. I asked him about the kickstart 54 procedure and he said to try it and call them back with the results. I performed some of the procedures and here's what I've found so far: The short automated tests passed. The Hard drive S.M.A.R.T. tests had these results: Initial state - Primary and secondary passed, Short test - Pri & sec passed, Conveyance test - Primary passed, Secondary said no start. Extended test - Primary passed, Secondary said no start, Off Line Scan - Primary passed, Secondary said no start. When trying the "Test/dev/hda" quick test sequence, it passed. However, when I tried the same test on dev/hdc it restarted during the test. I then waited a day and tried it again. It restarted again.
Is this indicating that I have a defective expander? Also, all of the hdb tests stated that they failed due to "drive not present or not responding". Is this because there is no hdb drive on my Tivo?
I'm running the "Overnight Automated Hard Drive Performance Test" today and should see the results when I get home this evening.
I've tried to back up my recordings onto my networked PC using the Tivo desktop, but wasn't fully successful. The Tivo seemed to restart constantly during this. Only 40 of the 300 shows transferred 100% properly.
Sorry for my "newbie lack of knowledge". I just want my Tivo to work again and found that this forum is the place to go for answers. Any help would be greatly appreciated and I'll respond back with any results, positive or negative that I achieve.

Thank you! Bob

Hi Jeff,
What did you ever find out about pninen's Tivo that he sent in to you for repair? repair number he listed was R207441. Just curious to know what you found.
Thanks!
Bob

It's so long ago that I can't really tell what the diagnosis was, but we swapped out the unit, and the customer has been happy since.

That all does sound exactly like a bad Expander. You could remove the Expander (you'll lose most shows) and see if the problems disappear.

Thanks Michael. I'm going to see what I get for the results of the overnight automated test. I'm also going to try to transfer a few more shows to the computer. At that point, I guess I'll have to disconect the external drive and see how it works without it. If it works, I'll buy a new external drive, unless you recommend a new internal, I'm just worried about any warranty I may have with Tivo once it's modified. I've heard stories about Tivo not even wanting to talk to you if you don't use their parts. The external seems perfect for me but I was worried about some verbiage on your website. Under the infor for "add/replace" it states that "When we make "ADD" kits, we use a different set of upgrade tools to prepare the drive. Years ago, some claimed that these older tools can cause some performance slowdown in very large capacity TiVos. After many years in the business, and with countless TiVos upgraded with second drives, we do not consider this claim to be accurate." Isn't this add on drive (external) the same (similar) as the Tivo WD Expander? I definitely don't want to slow down my Tivo if I add a Weaknees 1TB external.

Thanks again! Bob

Update: Well the Tivo passed the overnight automated test. I tried watching a recorded show again and it restarted within a few minutes. I allowed it to restart, but when it did; the external drive was no longer detected. I unplugged both, restarted them and it recognized it this time. I tried to watch another show and again, as soon as I fast forwarded the show, it froze. Now after 5 restarts, the external drive is no longer detected no matter what I do. I don't have a spare e-sata cable around, only one for internals, so it looks like I'm going to wait until I can try a chemical I use at work for enhancing computer contacts. I'll update everyone when I try the new cable.
Bob

Another update: I tried a chemical called Stabilant 22 on the eSata cables and it now recognizes the external drive, however it still freezes when watching programs and fast forwarding them. The chemical is a substance I use as a biomedical technician for enhancing low voltage computer connections on dialysis machines. It works wonders!
I went ahead and divorced the drive last night and I was able to watch a full hours worth of shows. I had hoped I hadn't lost the episode of Heroes that I had been watching because it froze every time I tried to watch it around the 31-34 minute mark in the program. This would have been a good test. Sadly most of my shows are gone, but so far it seems like Tivo is working again. I'm going to check into a new external drive today and continue updating on my progress.
Bob

Bochco -

It really does sound like a bad external, given all of the test results.

Appears to be bad Expander

An update... I removed my expander Sunday night and haven't had an issue with the Tivo restarting or freezing since. At least not that I'm aware. I RMA'd the WD Expander drive and the replacement drive has been shipped. Hopefully this new expander will last longer. If not I'll ditch the sucker and just get a larger internal drive from weaknees. Thanks for the input Michael! Highly recommend divorcing your Tivo from the expander if you have issues similar to mine. Seems to have solved the problem. WD warranty return program is also very easy, so would highly recommend doing a warranty return if you are having problems like mine and your expander is still within the 1 year warranty.

Just make sure to get a new eSATA cable for the unit also. Those can be the source of problems, too.

Already checked the new SATA cable for my former expander. Didn't solve the problem. Will keep it for the new one. Thanks!

I agree and thanks for your expert advise. I ordered a new 1TB external drive from WeaKnees today. It should arrive this Friday. (Next day was $40. It's too soon after Christmas to splurge!) I didn't want to lose the few programs that were spared when I divorced the defective WD Expander drive. I'd rather had a new internal right now, but didn't want to have to send the entire Tivo in to you down the road when I could afford another expander. This seemed to be the easiest fix for me at this time. Maybe in the future I'll send it to you to have a new 5TB hard drive installed. I'll update everyone on how my new external drive works out. Thanks again for all of your help.
Bob

The new 1TB expander arrived from WeaKnees Friday, right on schedule. It was expertly and very safely packaged, had excellent instructions and was very easy to hook up. Sadly, I had the flu for 4 days and didn't get to hook it up until 2 days ago, but the drive is working great! The only complaint I have (if you could call it that) is that the two blue LEDs on the front are excessively bright. While watching a movie in the dark on my 65", they were a little annoying. All I did was carefully turn the unit sideways in my cabinet and it took care of the problem. I now have a total of 179HD hours and 1565SD hours of capacity. That should be enough for now. Having the extra space of the larger drive is allowing me to record a lot more shows in HD than I could before without worrying about other shows getting deleted due to available space.
I do have one more question. Is there a way to determine how much available space I have left on the drive for recording shows? This would be similar to clicking on "properties" for the "C" drive on a PC to get a pie graph of used/available space. I realize the buffer is always going to be taking up a variable amount of space, but it'd be nice if I could see approximately how much space I have left.
Again, thanks WeaKnees for the expert advice and great product. I'll be coming to you for all of my future Tivo needs!

Bob