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  • #1

    Rebooting issues and cablecards

    Originally posted by WK-Jeff View Post
    We have had a number of inquiries from Series3 owners reporting frequent rebooting and restarting. This problem sometimes occurs after a power outage or after the Series3 has been powered down. It sometimes happens with units that have off-air antennas attached. Here are some suggestions for solving the problem; please post your experiences.

    1) If your TiVo has CableCARDs, and if it has been working fine but suddenly starts rebooting/restarting, please try the following:

    A. Unplug the TiVo and remove the CableCARDs. Be sure to note which card came from which slot. The cards are NOT interchangeable.

    B. Power up the TiVo without the CableCARDs installed.

    C. The TiVo will display a message saying that your setup has changed. Go to the messages and setup / system reset menu and choose Repeat Guided Setup. Set up the TiVo with cable WITHOUT CableCARDs.

    D. Insert CableCARD one onto the bottom slot and navigate to the CableCARD configuration screen. Once your CableCARD is authorized (or once you are able to see a digital/scrambled station in LiveTV), repeat the process for card 2.

    E. Once you have both cards authorized, then repeat Guided Setup, telling the TiVo that you have cable with CableCARDs.

    2) If you have an off-air antenna and your unit reboots (especially if the rebooting occurs with specific channels), you might try unplugging the antenna and see if the problem resolves itself.

    Jeff
    Hi - I've had a Tivo Series 3 for about 4 years now (bought from Weaknees!). I have added a WD My DVR Expander, and Time Warner provided me a Tuning Adapter. Everything has been wonderful until a few days ago, when I noticed the Tivo constantly rebooting and never getting past the "Welcome - Powering Up" screen. I tried unplug/plug to no avail, then found this thread which seemed to address my problem. Sure enough, after going through all the steps, after the final Guided Setup, everything was back to normal! Well, for about 3 hours that is. Then it started rebooting all over again. Repeat process: good for about a half hour, then rebooting. Aargh!

    My question: it seems I may have a hard drive issue (I've already replaced/upgraded the HDs on my other 2 older Tivos), but in the meantime I'm transferring all my content to my PC so I can access it when/if the HD is replaced. I can only maintain network access to the Tivo if I leave the cablecards OUT and run Setup as Cable Only - no reboots but obviously limited channel availability. So could the problem be with the cablecards? Before I waste a day (or more) dealing with Time Warner, has anybody ever had bad cablecards that cause reboot issues? Thanks!
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  • #2
    There is a way to test your drive from within the TiVo. See the Kickstart 54 code here:

    TiVo Kickstart Codes

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    • #3
      Nope - that's still almost definitely a hard drive. When the CableCARDs are in place, the unit is buffering two streams of incoming video, so that taxes the hard drive, and if the hard drive can't handle it, the unit reboots.

      When you take out the CableCARDs, you stop the buffering.

      We recommend NOT getting a stock drive and reusing the external (which is the only way the external will work) but getting a larger internal drive and skipping the external entirely.
      Been here a long time . . .

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      • #4
        Originally posted by WK-Jeff View Post
        There is a way to test your drive from within the TiVo. See the Kickstart 54 code here:

        TiVo Kickstart Codes
        Thanks - I'll give it a try.

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        • #5
          Thanks for the tips. I finally had a chance to run the kickstart 54 procedure and checked the HD - all the tests passed. After trying once again to get the cablecards in, I got the rebooting issues as soon as I put the second card in. It seems to work fine with just one however. Two other interesting observations: during the reboot process, the "Almost there" screen is the wrong color (purple instead of black) right up until the screen changes to the next step. Also, during setup, the process of connecting to my wired internet connection takes forever - up to 4 hours at the "Preparing to Connect" stage; once it finally connects it takes only a minute or so to dl the data and install. Is this normal? Are we still sure it's a HD failing before I drop a couple of C's on a new one?

          Lastly, regarding Michael's tip to forgo the external e-SATA drive, is that based on reports of problems using the unit? I hate to give up the added space, but if there are issues I should be aware of let me know.

          Thanks again!

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          • #6
            Michael is suggesting eliminating whatever points of failure that you can. However, if the drive passed, if you pull the external, and still the only time you have a problem is when you insert a card, then I think it's a good bet that the problem is not with the drive, and instead is with the CableCARDs, the CableCARD settings or the unit itself.

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