Help Needed - Series II - 60 Reboot Loop

[adnyla]

Machine: TiVo Series II - 60 Hour (upgraded with 2 Maxtor 120s)

Three days ago I noticed some strange stuff on Now Playing. I had a group (of Star Trek: Enterprise) that said it had 5 recordings in it, but if I clicked on this, it took me to another group (also of Enterprise) that only had 2 recordings. I thought maybe a reboot would help, so I hit the restart sequence.

After that all hell broke loose. Now I just can alternate between "Welcome. Powering Up" and a few more seconds/minutes. I took the 2 120's that were in the system out. They were both Maxtors, so I PowerMaxed them and found that the older of the two had problems. Thinking this was the issue, I setup an Advance RMA for it and will be sending it back soon.

I took the other 120 and tried imaging it with my old image. That CD was corrupt. Crap. Okay, found a 4.0 image and tried that on the 120 drive. Same thing. Tried a 3.2 image. Same thing. Tried a 3.0 image. Same thing. Have tried just about every combination of -xbvpi that made any sense to try. Have tried with and without -s 127. Re-ran PowerMax on the remaining drive. No problems again. Thought maybe there was still a drive problem. Went and fetched the original WD 60 from my PC and copied the PC data off of it. Re-imaged it with 3.2. Same problem.

Now, I know the images are at least partially working because I get the "few more seconds" grey-to-black screen with the 3.0 or the 3.2 image, and the pure greay "few more minutes" screen with 4.0.

I have been connecting via a USB dongle for a year or so, since the #,401 days. I tried removing that and hooking up th ephone line. No help. One time I had a glimmer of hope. I got the 3.0 image to run. I figured that I needed to do a Clear and Destroy Everything in order to start rebuilding the system, download the new software, etc. It took about an hour to do that, but then when it restarted afterwards, back to the same loop. I tried putting that image back on the drive, but it won't work a second time.

I am at my wit's end here. I am missing my TiVo. I am sad that a unit I lifetime subbed may have only lasted 13 months. Since it's the same problem with multiple images and multiple drives, I'm feeling it has to be the unit itself. I've made sure both the front side and right side (motherboard power) white ribbon cables are seated well. I've tried hitting PAUSE when the left yellow light comes on and triggered all three kinds of panic (52; 57; 58) but not the emergency call ins.

I would really appreciate some help if anyone has any suggestions at all! Are there any sort of logs I could get from the drive if I put it back into my PC? Who even fixes these things if it is a hardware issue?

Thanks,
Andy in Alaska

[captain_video]

Try downloading a fresh image from one of the sites in David Bought's first post in this (http://www.dealdatabase.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=25969) thread.

[adnyla]

Originally posted by captain_video
Try downloading a fresh image from one of the sites in David Bought's first post in this (http://www.dealdatabase.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=25969) thread.

I'm not sure that any of those actually work on my unit. In any case, someone was kind enough to tell me of a site with fresh images specifically for 60 Hour Series II machines. I've tried 3.0, 3.2, and 4.0 and it's all the same, on both drives.

Andy in Alaska

[NutKase]

Post your serial output or kernel log.

NutKase

[NutKase]

Originally posted by adnyla
I'm not sure that any of those actually work on my unit. In any case, someone was kind enough to tell me of a site with fresh images specifically for 60 Hour Series II machines. I've tried 3.0, 3.2, and 4.0 and it's all the same, on both drives.

Andy in Alaska

3.0 to 4.01 monte works. You shouldn't need any images but the 3.0.

NutKase

[adnyla]

I am not trying to do anything drastic to the TiVo. There is no attempt to monte or otherwise interact with any of the scripts. The first unit had been upgraded twice. First, I removed the stock 60 and replaced it with a 120. Second, I added a second 120. It was connecting via a USB dongle to my home network. That's it. Nothing special, other than GCI's damn digital cable box with version 7.53! [One one-hundredth from working with serial control! ;-) ]

I tried putting different images on both of the 120s and on the original 60. (No, I wasn't smart enough to just put that on the shelf, I had re-cycled it into a PC. But I pulled it back out and re-imaged it.) I couldn't use "my" image, because the CD that I'd burnt it to had gone bad. But I tried 3 different ones, 3.0, 3.2, and 4.0. So I gave up. (Did find that one of the 120s had some bad sectors on it, so I shipped that back to Maxtor.)

I called TiVo and did an Advance Exchange. As I've had the unit for over a year, it was an out-of-warranty exchange anyways. I was upfront with them about having swapped the drives. They said that just made it an out-of-warranty exchange and it would cost me $149. So, they shipped me a new (refurbed, I think) 60 hour series 2.

I did nothing but plug it in. I did not try to monte it. I did not change drives. I did not remove the cover. I did not plug in any cables but video in, video out, and power. The first time powering up it hung on Powering Up. After a few minutes, there was no drive activity. Waited 15 minutes. Pulled the power. Waited 15 seconds. Put the power back in. Then it started alternating between "Powering Up" and "Almost There". Let it do that for half an hour to convince myself it wasn't going to recover.

Then pulled the plug and let it sit overnight. The next morning, plugged it in cold. "Powering Up" and nothing else. Hard drive not moving. Called TiVo. Let it sit on that screen for the 25 minutes I was on hold. Person on the other end told me to unplug it. I did. Alternates between "Powering Up" and "Almost There". Worked on setting up a second exchange, but ran into a problem because there computers hadn't yet updated to show that I had this unit yet. Were told that they'd have a supervisor call me back that day (Thursday).

Thursday night at 6:00 AST (7:00 PST) I decided they'd had there chance to call me back and I'd call them back. Asked to be escalated to a supervisor. He said to plug it in with a different power cord. Found another cord and did that. Hung at "Powering Up". Powercycled. Then it would alternate between the two screens yet again. (It's consistent at least). He promised to make the exchange happen the next day. Hung up. He called back 5 minutes later to let me know that there computers were now willing to make the exchange happen now, and they'd even pay the shipping.

So, now I'm waiting for the second replacement. I've sent my original unit back to them. I'm not going to crack the case of the first replacement. I can't fathom what I'm doing wrong. I will be buying a UPS for the unit before even plugging it in this time. I think I just got really unlucky and was shipped a defective replacement unit or the UPS driver dropped it or something like that. The long and the short of it is that, completely unmodified, it just didn't work.

So, NutKase, got a spare TiVo I can borrow to record the Pittsburgh Steelers game tomorrow? I'll meet you at Jitters! ;-)

[I think I'll borrow a VCR from someone and see if I remember how to use those things. Ack.]

Andy in Alaska

[NutKase]

Originally posted by adnyla
I couldn't use "my" image, because the CD that I'd burnt it to had gone bad.

I'm not going to crack the case of the first replacement. I can't fathom what I'm doing wrong.

I think I just got really unlucky and was shipped a defective replacement unit or the UPS driver dropped it or something like that.

1. Sounds like your mfs database got corrupted - Next time try 'Clear and Delete Everything' before reimaging without a known 'good' image.

2. You had the bad luck of a 'bad' cd burn.

3. I agree that you just happened to get a 'bad' replacement.

What would I do? I'd crank up the 'arriving' tivo. If it works (even boots to the 'Guided Setup') pull the drive and back it up. Then do the guided setup which should take you to 4.0, pull the drive and back it up. Then let the 4.01 software version come down, force a reboot, and pull the drive and back it up.

Then add bigger drives, surely basic and 60hrs can't be enough for anyone. :)

NutKase