HDVR2 Won't acquire Satellite signal

[Majestyk]

HI all,

I recently installed a new 80GB hard drive into my DirecTivo (HDVR2)
after reimaging it with the InstantCake 6.2 image and using the PTVNet
Utility. I put the drive in the unit and booted it up and everything seemed
to be working fine. But after about 5 mins, the unit popped up the
'Searching for signal on: Satellite In 1, Satellite in 2' message.
If I go into the Setup and check the signal strength, it shows no satellite
signal on either. If I change the transponder from 26 to 27 both signals
jump to over 90%. However, when I go back to the TV screen, the same
message pops up again.
The unit always defaults to transponder 26 which has no signal. Can
anyone tell me what the issue is? It works fine with the original hard
drive and only looses signal on the newly reimaged one.
I ran through the guided setup and it connects and downloads info
from the satellite just fine.
Can I force the Tivo to use a different transponder? Why is it so hooked
on using 26, the only one that has no signal at all? Any help would
be greatly appreciated.

-Majestyk

[cheer]

It needs them all. So are you saying that if you put your original HD back in that the problem goes away? This is almost always a loose cable or somesuch.

[Majestyk]

It needs them all. So are you saying that if you put your original HD back in that the problem goes away? This is almost always a loose cable or somesuch.


Nope, not a loose cable. The unit powers up fine, all menus and the guide
work fine. The guide updates the programming properly but both
tuners won't acquire any signal. I can run through the Guided setup
and it detects both satellites and configures properly. The only time I
run into problems is when I actually try to watch TV. Swapping the
orig. HD back into the unit and everything works perfect as before.
The problem lies somwehere else.

-Maj

[Majestyk]

Here's an update...

The reason I originally ran the Guided setup when I first put in the new
hard drive was because apparently the 6.2 image I purchased was
made from a unit in Chicago. Therefore when I tried to watch my
local channels, I was getting Chicago stations instead of my Los Angeles
stations. It was after the Guided setup, after I changed my zip code
that the tuners went out.

Sooooo... I reimaged the drive again and started over. As before, the
unit came up fine and everything worked, except I was still getting the
Chicago local channels.

But this time, I just made a quick call to DirecTV and told them that
for some 'strange' reason I was getting Chicago locals instead of LA.
DTV said that was odd and told me they would refresh that box.
2 seconds later the 'Aquiring info from satellite' screen popped up and
after about 2 minutes *poof* there were my local channels.

I don't know why the tuners would have went out but everything seems
fine now. Looking forward to getting my DTivo's on the network so stay
tuned... I may be back with more questions!

- Maj

[PlainBill]

I would say the problem is solved. The problem was due to incorrect locals; the TiVo was looking for a spot beam that is not active in your area.

A couple of points: This problem was due to the 'foreign' Instantcake image you used. As I have pointed out repeatedly, it would have been easier to use an image of the original drive, rather than purchasing Instantcake. In addition, you would have retained your recordings.

Instantcake is a useful product if you need an image for a specific model and don't want to take time to locate one. It is not very useful if you want to hack a system. And PTVnet is a $20 tool to do a $1.00 job.

PlainBill

[Majestyk]

Actually, I purchased the image because I was unable to make a backup of my original drive on to an NTFS partition. Frankly, I looked all over the site for a way to back up the drive and preserve my recordings but there was so much stuff to go through I never found it and opted to simply buy the stuff.
I used the PTV disk because it has a script that just runs through the installation of mods without me having to know linux so it was much quicker and i was able to get the features I wanted, Including the ability to download my movies to my pc.

However, I DO still want to get my movies off the original drive. I have no problem wiping out the new drive again if I can accomplish this. Do you think you can point me in the right direction for this. The hindsdale method didn't work for me due to only haveing NTFS partitions on which to back up to.

-Maj

[PlainBill]

Actually, I purchased the image because I was unable to make a backup of my original drive on to an NTFS partition. Frankly, I looked all over the site for a way to back up the drive and preserve my recordings but there was so much stuff to go through I never found it and opted to simply buy the stuff.
Linux cannot write to an NTFS partition reliably. While it might be possible to create an image of a drive including recordings, that image will be huge - the size of all your recordings. FAT32 has a 2 (4?) gig file size limit and can't hold that large an image. A Linux ext2 partition might work, but that requires a dedicated drive.

I used the PTV disk because it has a script that just runs through the installation of mods without me having to know linux so it was much quicker and i was able to get the features I wanted, Including the ability to download my movies to my pc.
The fallacy of this approach is you don't learn anything. Yes, you have a hacked drive, and you can extract recordings. But unless you know a little linux (very little, actually) you will never be able to extract your old recordings.
However, I DO still want to get my movies off the original drive. I have no problem wiping out the new drive again if I can accomplish this. Do you think you can point me in the right direction for this. The hindsdale method didn't work for me due to only haveing NTFS partitions on which to back up to.

-Maj

You were using the wrong technique. Hinsdale does have the information, and the information is posted here repeatedly. Since an image which included recordings would be huge and require an entire drive, simply pipeline the output of the backup command to the restore command: mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hdc | mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi - /dev/hdd

PlainBill