Internal Error 4?
 

I have MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann on a Season Pass, keep 1
episode, delete as space needed. The program did not record tonight
(21 April) and the log said the reason was Internal Error: 4. I've
never seen that kind of thing before. It was the first time that
either of my SAT-T60s had failed to record a program due to an internal
problem, and I've had them for three years.

I did a search in TiVo Community and found a lot of guesses, but few if
any facts. The thought seems to be that an Internal Error 4 means that
guide information was missing at the time of the broadcast. However,
all the guide information for MSNBC and everybody else was there at
9:10, shortly after the broadcast was over, so I'm not persuaded.

The old reliable "failing hard drive" was also cited, but with no
evidence. There were also guesses that the "acquiring" bug caused the
error.

While a number of people said rebooting the TiVo would fix the problem,
several said that their Internal Error 4s were continuing.

It seemed to me than an Internal Error 4 might mean any of several
things. Does anybody know what an Internal Error: 4 really is, or can
you point me in the right direction to find out? Thanks.

In article , Dr. Personality
wrote:

I have MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann on a Season Pass, keep 1
episode, delete as space needed. The program did not record tonight
(21 April) and the log said the reason was Internal Error: 4. I've
never seen that kind of thing before. It was the first time that
either of my SAT-T60s had failed to record a program due to an internal
problem, and I've had them for three years.

I did a search in TiVo Community and found a lot of guesses, but few if
any facts. The thought seems to be that an Internal Error 4 means that
guide information was missing at the time of the broadcast. However,
all the guide information for MSNBC and everybody else was there at
9:10, shortly after the broadcast was over, so I'm not persuaded.

The old reliable "failing hard drive" was also cited, but with no
evidence. There were also guesses that the "acquiring" bug caused the
error.

While a number of people said rebooting the TiVo would fix the problem,
several said that their Internal Error 4s were continuing.

It seemed to me than an Internal Error 4 might mean any of several
things. Does anybody know what an Internal Error: 4 really is, or can
you point me in the right direction to find out? Thanks.


Replying to myself: Countdown recorded correctly four hours later, at
midnight, but failed to record again at 800p ET tonight (22 April).
Deafened by the silence which greeted my question here, I stopped
wondering if this was a general problem (as was the Sex and the City
glitch early this year, q.v.) and decided to concentrate on a local
solution.

Rebooting the TiVo, as often suggested, did not work at all.
Cancelling the Season Pass for Countdown and setting up a new one did
work -- or, at least, the TiVo began recording the 800p Countdown (then
in progress at 855p ET). Therefore, Internal Error: 4 must refer, at
least sometimes, to a Season Pass problem. I expect Countdown will
record correctly tomorrow. If not, well, back to the drawing board.

Anyway, there you are, for future Googlers.

"Dr. Personality" writes:
I have MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann on a Season Pass, keep 1
episode, delete as space needed. The program did not record tonight
(21 April) and the log said the reason was Internal Error: 4. I've

[snip]

It seemed to me than an Internal Error 4 might mean any of several
things. Does anybody know what an Internal Error: 4 really is, or can
you point me in the right direction to find out? Thanks.

It is possible, even probable that the 4 refers to:

#define EINTR 4 /* Interrupted system call */

For a user to see this is generally a programming bug (either
the signal generating the EINTR didn't have the SA_RESTART
property or the code which calls the system call which is being
interrupted is not properly handling the error return).

Note that this could be due to a SIGSEGV/SIGBUS/SIGILL signal being
delivered where one isn't expected (for example because of an uncorrected
memory parity/ECC error or other hardware error).

In any case, such an error can really only be diagnosed by someone
with access to the source code and if it isn't occuring for a fairly
significant base of subscribers, is likely hardware related.

scott

Internal Error: 4 pops up infrequently and appears to be a pointer / out of
memory error of some kind. They tend to come in clusters, but rebooting the
TiVo appears to get rid of them.

In article , Scott
Lurndal wrote:

"Dr. Personality" writes:
I have MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann on a Season Pass, keep 1
episode, delete as space needed. The program did not record tonight
(21 April) and the log said the reason was Internal Error: 4. I've

[snip]

It seemed to me than an Internal Error 4 might mean any of several
things. Does anybody know what an Internal Error: 4 really is, or can
you point me in the right direction to find out? Thanks.

It is possible, even probable that the 4 refers to:

#define EINTR 4 /* Interrupted system call */

For a user to see this is generally a programming bug (either
the signal generating the EINTR didn't have the SA_RESTART
property or the code which calls the system call which is being
interrupted is not properly handling the error return).

Note that this could be due to a SIGSEGV/SIGBUS/SIGILL signal being
delivered where one isn't expected (for example because of an uncorrected
memory parity/ECC error or other hardware error).

In any case, such an error can really only be diagnosed by someone
with access to the source code and if it isn't occuring for a fairly
significant base of subscribers, is likely hardware related.

scott


Thank you, Scott. This may be the case, but it seems related to a
Season Pass problem, at least in my case. I've already posted the
particulars.

In article , ZikZak wrote:

Internal Error: 4 pops up infrequently and appears to be a pointer / out of
memory error of some kind. They tend to come in clusters, but rebooting the
TiVo appears to get rid of them.

Thank you, ZZ. Rebooting did not work for me, though. The error seems
to have been caused by some sort of glitch in my Season Pass for that
particular program at that particular time -- the 8 p.m. version would
not record due to that error, but the midnight repeat recorded
correctly. It happened two days in a row. Cancelling and re-entering
the Season Pass fixed the problem, as I posted at the time. As of
date, the problem has not reoccurred.

I saw nothing like my particular problem discussed when I googled for
it, and a search at TiVoCommunity.com turned up little but suggestions
to reboot. I know my problem was on my end, but I don't think it's
hardware. Can't prove it absolutely, though. I hope somebody finds
all of this useful someday.