You should try the overnight kickstart tests:

http://www.weaknees.com/54

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?

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

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.

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

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

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

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

My guess is that you have a bad drive. Having two cards in the unit means that the unit is buffering two shows at once, so that's a lot of work for the drive. It may be able to buffer one show, but just not two.

You can have the TiVo check the drive - see these kickstart tests:

http://www.weaknees.com/54

Thanks for the suggestion Michael. I will give that a try.

By the way I should have mentioned that with no Cable Cards inserted it was able to boot and was buffering two shows at once.

But it is probably still worth a testing out the Kickstart 54.

Mike & Johnny,

I had the exact same problems with my S3 the past week. First, it wouldn't boot past the initial screen. So, figured hard drive was bad. Ordered new drive and replaced it. After that, it would boot but NOT with cable cards in it. I could sometimes get it to boot with 1 cable card but not all the times. It would start to boot then go into a cycle of rebooting like you described. When I upgraded the drive, I also purchased a new slide remote. The slide remote had has a USB bluetooth dongle that plugs into the back. When I started the boot process, I would notice that the blue light would be flickering/fading, which isn't normal. So, I took a gamble and ordered a replacement power supply. I installed it last night and VOILA! The device booted up perfectly with both cable cards perfectly and with no problems.

So, I would suggest buying a new replacement power supply. It was a piece of cake to change out in the S3. I don't know if it was both the hard drive or power supply. But, that combo worked perfectly and its been running with no problems for 24 hours now.

I hope this helps.

Thanks for the suggestion Kicker3. That may just be the right idea.

My HD passed all the S.M.A.R.T. test and the Overnight test on Kickstart 54, so I am thinking my HD is OK.

My S3 consistently boots with zero or one cable cards inserted and functions as you would expect give the config. And it consistently reboots when two cable cards are inserted at the final stage of the boot sequence.

Would two cable cards put more strain on the power supply than one? Could my power supply be the problem? Keep in mind that with no cable cards it is able to record two HD shows at once without any problems from networks which TWC here does not encrypt. So the powers supply has no problem with recording off both tuners with no cable cards. Do the cable cards increase the power requirements? Maybe they draw more power to do the decryption of the signal and two at once pushes the limit of my power supply which could be partially damaged. Does that sound like a reasonable theory?

Is it normal for the Tivo to reboot when inserting a cable card? Even when I go from running with none to inserting just one cable card it instantly triggers a reboot. I don't recall that being the case, but it has been a while. Could that be another sign that it is indeed my power supply is faulty?

Thanks,
--mike

Sure - a second CableCARD will draw more power. The difference is probably pretty slight, but there's always the straw that broke the camel's back.

My Series3 has also started the dreaded reboot cycle...trying to determine if it is the hard drive, power supply, or both. (It's a lifetime box, so would like to repair rather than replace it.)

First came the pixelization and freezing. By the next morning the box was into the reboot cycle. Ran the SMART tests, one test (conveyance?) failed, with an "07" code.

Removed the cable cards (2 old single stream). Have re-run SMART tests with no cable cards in - drive has passed all tests.

When the box reboots, it makes it through the "powering up", "just a few minutes more", and THX screens...all the way to the Tivo Central menu screen. Sometimes the menu text comes up eventually, sometimes it doesn't and only the background appears...either way, the box reboots again from that screen after a couple of minutes.

Any thoughts which component is causing this? I am leaning toward power supply (since the drive is passing the SMART tests without the cable cards), but am not at all certain.

Having the CableCARDs in shouldn't have any effect at all on a SMART test. So I'd guess your drive is just failing intermittently.

Try the SMART tests a few more times and see what you get.