S2 TiVo hangs at "starting up" screen

This morning I turned on the TV and my 7 month old Tivo was
surprisingly at the "Please Wait, Starting Up" screen. This was odd
since I ahven't changed anything on it in the last several months,
and had no power failures recently.

I hard rebooted it by unplugging and replugging in the power source.
It just goes back to the starting up screen. Has been there about 3
hours at last count.

Any suggetions?

In article ,
E.L. Lambert wrote:

This morning I turned on the TV and my 7 month old Tivo was
surprisingly at the "Please Wait, Starting Up" screen. This was odd
since I ahven't changed anything on it in the last several months,
and had no power failures recently.

I hard rebooted it by unplugging and replugging in the power source.
It just goes back to the starting up screen. Has been there about 3
hours at last count.

Any suggetions?

That's a pretty good indication of a hardware failure of some sort.
Commonest cause is a failed hard drive. It's also possible that some
other component in the system has frotzed.

--
Dave Platt AE6EO
Hosting the Jade Warrior home page: http://www.radagast.org/jade-warrior
I do _not_ wish to receive unsolicited commercial email, and I will
boycott any company which has the gall to send me such ads!

In article ,
E.L. Lambert wrote:

This morning I turned on the TV and my 7 month old Tivo was
surprisingly at the "Please Wait, Starting Up" screen. This was odd
since I ahven't changed anything on it in the last several months,
and had no power failures recently.

I hard rebooted it by unplugging and replugging in the power source.
It just goes back to the starting up screen. Has been there about 3
hours at last count.

Any suggetions?

That's a pretty good indication of a hardware failure of some sort.
Commonest cause is a failed hard drive. It's also possible that some
other component in the system has frotzed.

--
Dave Platt AE6EO
Hosting the Jade Warrior home page: http://www.radagast.org/jade-warrior
I do _not_ wish to receive unsolicited commercial email, and I will
boycott any company which has the gall to send me such ads!

On Fri, 27 Aug 2004 05:35:40 -0700, E.L. Lambert wrote:

This morning I turned on the TV and my 7 month old Tivo was
surprisingly at the "Please Wait, Starting Up" screen. This was odd
since I ahven't changed anything on it in the last several months,
and had no power failures recently.

I hard rebooted it by unplugging and replugging in the power source.
It just goes back to the starting up screen. Has been there about 3
hours at last count.

Any suggetions?

If you listen real closely... do you hear a 'clicking' sound? I'm
guessing that your Harddrive is dead/broke ( indicated by a clicking
sound a lot of times ) and your pretty much hosed.

If you have a second Tivo, you could remove the 'bad' drive and see if
it boots in your other Tivo. If so... it's not the drive but the tivo
motherboard which is even worse. You can always put in a new drive (
if you can get some software on it ) if your hard drive is dead...
you can't do much if it's a motherboard issue.

jack

On Fri, 27 Aug 2004 05:35:40 -0700, E.L. Lambert wrote:

This morning I turned on the TV and my 7 month old Tivo was
surprisingly at the "Please Wait, Starting Up" screen. This was odd
since I ahven't changed anything on it in the last several months,
and had no power failures recently.

I hard rebooted it by unplugging and replugging in the power source.
It just goes back to the starting up screen. Has been there about 3
hours at last count.

Any suggetions?

If you listen real closely... do you hear a 'clicking' sound? I'm
guessing that your Harddrive is dead/broke ( indicated by a clicking
sound a lot of times ) and your pretty much hosed.

If you have a second Tivo, you could remove the 'bad' drive and see if
it boots in your other Tivo. If so... it's not the drive but the tivo
motherboard which is even worse. You can always put in a new drive (
if you can get some software on it ) if your hard drive is dead...
you can't do much if it's a motherboard issue.

jack

That's a pretty good indication of a hardware failure of some sort.
Commonest cause is a failed hard drive. It's also possible that some
other component in the system has frotzed.


Wonderful. I had the 160 hour unit and paid the $300 for a lifetime
product license. I guess now that my piece of crap TiVo has only
lasted 7 months, I'm SOL on the $600 for the product and service and
would have to buy everything new?

Well forget that; the Tivo was a nice useful product but I don't have
the bucks to shell out $600 twice a year. In the garbage bin it goes,
and I'll sign up for the cheap DVR service from my local cable
company... and be sure to tell all my friends and coworkers not to
buy a Tivo.

Grumble, grumble, grumble.....

That's a pretty good indication of a hardware failure of some sort.
Commonest cause is a failed hard drive. It's also possible that some
other component in the system has frotzed.


Wonderful. I had the 160 hour unit and paid the $300 for a lifetime
product license. I guess now that my piece of crap TiVo has only
lasted 7 months, I'm SOL on the $600 for the product and service and
would have to buy everything new?

Well forget that; the Tivo was a nice useful product but I don't have
the bucks to shell out $600 twice a year. In the garbage bin it goes,
and I'll sign up for the cheap DVR service from my local cable
company... and be sure to tell all my friends and coworkers not to
buy a Tivo.

Grumble, grumble, grumble.....

That's a pretty good indication of a hardware failure of some sort.
Commonest cause is a failed hard drive. It's also possible that some
other component in the system has frotzed.


Wonderful. I had the 160 hour unit and paid the $300 for a lifetime
product license. I guess now that my piece of crap TiVo has only
lasted 7 months, I'm SOL on the $600 for the product and service and
would have to buy everything new?

By no means.

If your system fails, and you return it to the manufacturer for
repair, one of two things will happen:

- If they repair it and return it to you, the lifetime service is
retained.

- If they declare it unrepairable, and exchange it for an equivalent
unit, the lifetime service will be switched over to the replacement
unit.

Go to www.tivo.com, click on "What is TiVo?", "TiVo Service", then
"Service FAQs" over at the right, then "What does a product lifetime
service mean?", and then on the "product lifetime" description link.
Also, read through the warranty information which came with your
system.

Note that this all requires that you go through the manufacturer's
repair process. You cannot simply go out and buy a new recorder and
then ask TiVo to switch the service over.

Third-party repair/replacement/extended-warranty service may or may
not cover a service transfer - you'd have to ask the third-party
service provider about this.

Well forget that; the Tivo was a nice useful product but I don't have
the bucks to shell out $600 twice a year. In the garbage bin it goes,
and I'll sign up for the cheap DVR service from my local cable
company... and be sure to tell all my friends and coworkers not to
buy a Tivo.

Grumble, grumble, grumble.....

You grumble too soon, I think. TiVo's policy already covers your
situation, in a way that I think you'll find to be quite equitable.

--
Dave Platt AE6EO
Hosting the Jade Warrior home page: http://www.radagast.org/jade-warrior
I do _not_ wish to receive unsolicited commercial email, and I will
boycott any company which has the gall to send me such ads!

That's a pretty good indication of a hardware failure of some sort.
Commonest cause is a failed hard drive. It's also possible that some
other component in the system has frotzed.


Wonderful. I had the 160 hour unit and paid the $300 for a lifetime
product license. I guess now that my piece of crap TiVo has only
lasted 7 months, I'm SOL on the $600 for the product and service and
would have to buy everything new?

By no means.

If your system fails, and you return it to the manufacturer for
repair, one of two things will happen:

- If they repair it and return it to you, the lifetime service is
retained.

- If they declare it unrepairable, and exchange it for an equivalent
unit, the lifetime service will be switched over to the replacement
unit.

Go to www.tivo.com, click on "What is TiVo?", "TiVo Service", then
"Service FAQs" over at the right, then "What does a product lifetime
service mean?", and then on the "product lifetime" description link.
Also, read through the warranty information which came with your
system.

Note that this all requires that you go through the manufacturer's
repair process. You cannot simply go out and buy a new recorder and
then ask TiVo to switch the service over.

Third-party repair/replacement/extended-warranty service may or may
not cover a service transfer - you'd have to ask the third-party
service provider about this.

Well forget that; the Tivo was a nice useful product but I don't have
the bucks to shell out $600 twice a year. In the garbage bin it goes,
and I'll sign up for the cheap DVR service from my local cable
company... and be sure to tell all my friends and coworkers not to
buy a Tivo.

Grumble, grumble, grumble.....

You grumble too soon, I think. TiVo's policy already covers your
situation, in a way that I think you'll find to be quite equitable.

--
Dave Platt AE6EO
Hosting the Jade Warrior home page: http://www.radagast.org/jade-warrior
I do _not_ wish to receive unsolicited commercial email, and I will
boycott any company which has the gall to send me such ads!

(E.L. Lambert) shaped the electrons to say:
Wonderful. I had the 160 hour unit and paid the $300 for a lifetime
product license. I guess now that my piece of crap TiVo has only
lasted 7 months, I'm SOL on the $600 for the product and service and
would have to buy everything new?

That's a pretty silly thing to presume.

You can have it repaired and maintain the lifetime service.

Or you can just repair it yourself, if it is the drive. Re-imaging
and/or replacing a drive is very easy. Or you can buy ready made
drives that you just drop in. Weaknees.com and PTVUpgrade.com sell
upgrade and repair kits, and PTVUpgrade.com also has the InstantCake
CD which is a bootable CD with all the tools and the image needed to
image a new drive.

If you're going to dump the unit I'll take it and even pay the
shipping. A few minutes work and I'd have another unit. :-)

-MZ, RHCE #806199299900541, ex-CISSP #3762
--
URL:mailto:megazoneatmegazone.org Gweep, Discordian, Author, Engineer, me.
"A little nonsense now and then, is relished by the wisest men" 508-755-4098
URL:http://www.megazone.org/ URL:http://www.eyrie-productions.com/ Eris