Frozen TiVo

[David Stott]

I have two TiVos. One is still working fine but one has frozen. Ie it doesn't respond to any commands at all. I have rebooted it twice and it happily does that (once by pulling power plug and once using Putty), but then comes up with main page and just sits there. I have two remotes that will control it so it's not the remote. After a while, it returns to playing TV but remotes still won't control anything. It also appears to be recording the correct program when supposed to (ie it switched channel on Freeview and red recording light is on).

Recent history is that both TiVo's did not convert correctly to daylight saving yesterday morning so I used Putty and Settime on both and both seemed happy with that. I was able to access both last night. But today one TiVo continues to work fine while the other does not respond.

I can use Putty, WinSCP, and TiVoWebPlus to access it. Using latter to look at /var/log/tclient doesn't seem to show any errors (but what would I know) except for this exchange this morning:

Apr 6 21:08:33 (none) tcphonehome[155]: Error statting file /var/log/http: No such file or directory (errno=2)
Apr 6 21:08:33 (none) tcphonehome[155]: Error statting file /var/log/Ohttp: No such file or directory (errno=2)
Apr 6 21:08:33 (none) tcphonehome[155]: Timesync not found - TIMEWARP!
Apr 6 21:08:33 (none) tcphonehome[155]: ReschedCall: reason = 7, secSinceLast = 1, numFails = 0
Apr 6 21:08:33 (none) tcphonehome[155]: Schedule call after timewarp
Apr 6 21:08:33 (none) tcphonehome[155]: setting next attempt at 1239053553 (Mon Apr 6 21:32:33 2009 )

1. Any ideas beyond a hardware failure?

2. If I need to reimage, can I use WinSCP to save program data to my PCs harddisk and copy back again later? If so, where is the data stored. I couldn't find anything that looked big enough to be data anywhere on file.

Thanks

David

[Skolink]

Are you sure it's not because it has the remote ID set to a different number? Perhaps you were in the system information screen and pressed a button on the remote for your other TiVo, which would set the ID of the 'frozen' TiVo to the other remote. Try setting the ID of your remote to 0 and see if it will control it (cover your other TiVo though) as all TiVos respond to remote ID 0.

[petestrash]

I think Skolinks diagnosis is the most likely.

To check the remote code of the non responsive TiVo, open mfs using TWP.

Click on State, then GeneralConfig.

This should give you a screen showing a number next to RemoteAddress.

See if this is the same as the other TiVo.

Also WRT your original problem, using settime will not last beyond the next daily call (assuming the daily call to the time server is successful).

Have you followed the other daylight savings threads?

Peter

[David Stott]

Many thanks Sko and Pete. That's exactly what's happened. I had woken up this morning with exactly the same conclusion so delighted to see your posts confirming that. But I had forgotten how to test it (thanks Pete for the commands - my version of TWP is 1.2.3 and I needed to select "more" and "MFS" before "State") and had no idea how it could have happened (thanks Sko).

Yes, I had checked the threads on daylight saving. Because I had an old file, my daylight saving got turned on some weeks ago on the old date and I had the TiVo's resetting their time each day. So I went to the other links and found the reason, copied the new version of the file in, and the time stopped resetting. Got up on Sunday morning to check that times now in sync and found that they were not. So I reset the times to the new daylight saving time.

Checked on Monday morning (and again this morning) and the times have remained correct, ie they had NOT reset themselves overnight. The Monday morning check must have been the point where I pushed the wrong button in System Information though still not sure how as I use a Harmony 880 to control everything. The original remotes are stored in another room, so couldn't have used the wrong one accidentally.

Now I just need to find out again how to change TiVo code set to 2 and I know it's on the forums somewhere (and I must have done exactly that on Monday to have set the code to 1) but haven't been able to locate it yet. I must keep a separate document on how to do these occasional things :-) since my memory has always been appalling but is starting to move beyond even that now.

Again thanks

David

[David Stott]

And found instructions.

http://www.oztivo.net/twiki/bin/view/IR/ControlTwoTiVosInSameRoom

However, following steps 9, 10 and 11 appears to work (remote address on the screen changes to 2) but the remote still fails to work and when I refresh the screen the code has reset to 1. Tried a couple of times, and kept resetting to 1.

Surely I don't need to do a reboot?

And of course, there is no way I acidentally did this yesterday when problem first manifested (hold down pause and Tivo for five seconds, etc). Sounds like something more fundamental that is wrong?

David

[David Stott]

God I hate technology at times.

In order to stop TiVo 1 from responding while I tried to get Tivo 2 to do the right thing, I pulled the power plug - as I've done many times in the past. Some time later (ie way more than the recommended minimum of 20 seconds or so) I put the plug back in. Tivo 1 now refuses to boot. The screen hangs on "Your recorder is starting up. Please wait a moment ...". Tried it again and no change. Putty can't access it, etc.

And this is the unit with the new 750GB hard drive! It's been working fine for months although I have noticed that it often seems to hang for a long time when I ask it to record a new programme. Sometimes as much as 20 seconds before accepting.

David

[David Stott]

Sigh.

OK. Tivo 2 now prepared to accept Code 2 commands via my Harmony. Seems the order of holding down Pause and Tivo may have had something to do with it (Pause first?) or maybe the speed with which I pushed the Right button (while red LED still flashing). Whatever TiVo 2 now correctly responds to the Harmony remote and Remote Address is staying on 2. Great. (Still seems strange that screen changed to 2, confirmed by using TWP, but reverted to 1 as soon as I sent any IR command.) However . . .

The Tivo 2 remote itself (which I used to reset Tivo 2 as above) immediately stopped working on Tivo 2. So went through above sequence with remote now pointed away from Tivo (and also Tivo not on System Information screen), pressed 2, let LED flashes finish, and Tivo remote now works. So Tivo 2 all working as should do with both Tivo and Harmony remotes set to code 2.

Now only remaining problem is Tivo 1 appearing to have died. Just hangs on reboot. Should I try reimage the disk or is something else recommended first?

David

[Skolink]

The most common cause of the error you have on TiVo 1 is the HDD power or data cable being unplugged. Maybe it was loose and only just making the connection prior to you replugging the AC cord.

[David Stott]

You beauty Sko. That did the trick. I have to say that I couldn't really feel any appreciable movement in the cables as I pushed hard on them, but Tivo 1 promptly came back up on reboot.

Many thanks.

David