Tivo service unavailable - needing activation?

[Brucep]

Hi All,

I have modded quite a few Tivo's for friends and family.....they all went flawlessly, and am truly grateful for the amazing efforts of Darren, and the army of guys behind the scenes.
As is the way...I finally got around to doing one for myself on the weekend, but have struck a problem that I have not encountered before.
It's a TCD663320 model, running software version 11.3b8-01-2-663.
Hard drive has been patched, and mod chip installed. Powered up fine, and did a clear and reset everything, after that finished I did guided setup with postcode 3000, which went fine also (about 3 or 4 hours to load everything). After a reboot I get a message saying tivo needs to be activated every time you press live TV.....the program information simply says "Tivo Service Unavailable". Waited overnight, and this morning it's the same. I read others have had a similar problem (on the whirlpool thread), and that doing a manual connect 3 or 4 times generally seems to sort out the activation. I've tried that, and also a clear program and to do list just now....but to no avail. The tivo is connecting fine, and downloading ok....loading....indexing etc. The system is saying boat anchor mode = true, as if it has not registered a network connection.
I am wondering if this particular software version may not be compatible, but found references to either 11.3b8 or 11.3b10 being OK to mod?
Is there something I have missed, or would I be better trying to find an updated disk image and redo the disk at the version 11.3b10 level?

Edit: I also changed the backup battery on this unit, which I have not done before.....could that have any impact?

Any advice greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Bruce

[Darren King]

Hi Bruce

When the TiVo is starting up with 11.3b8 software you will see either a message in white saying "Loading Ticketmaster" or a red message saying "Not Loading Ticketmaster". I bet you are seeing the red one given your description. You do not see this message on the last software release which happened if a TiVo was connected to the TiVo servence between October 25 and November 15 as 11.3b10 as Ticketmaster is no longer required.

The simple fix that seems to work every time is to "clear thumb ratings" and reboot, however given you have done a "clear and delete everything" there is absolutely no value in keeping 11.3b8 and I would recommend reloading the hard disk with a fresh copy of 11.3b10. If you need the software send me an email.

[Brucep]

Thank's for the fast reply Darren,

I have taken your advice, and re imaged the drive with the 11.3b10 software......I have just done the clear and reset, and about to start guided setup.
Hopefully later tonight it will be up and running.

Thanks again,
bruce

[Darren King]

If you've got that far you'll be fine!

[Brucep]

Happy to report that the unit is fully functional this morning, so thank you once again Darren for your help and advice.

Cheers,
Bruce