I feel the need... the need for speed...

Hello all - my TiVoHD 320GB unit is +- 2yrs old, I upgraded with the "approved" Western digital 1TB external HDD unit +- 1 year ago, and I have started to experience sluggish response since late last week. I have restarted the unit twice with no luck fixing the issue.

I am experiencing a 3-5 second delay between navigating menu items and starting or stopping playback of shows.

A general "Google" shows that a lot of recorded shows on an upgraded unit could cause slow response and there are third party memory upgrades which supposedly fix the issue, but soldering surface-mount memory chips to the TiVo's motherboard is too much hassle for something if it's not working as advertised.

Any advice as to what else I could look at? I am loathe to delete a bunch of shows or reformat the HDD just to see if the unit speeds up...

I have emailed a similar query to TiVo support, I couldn't phone since they've discontinued phone support. I don't hold out much hope for a speedy or meaningful response from them but will post here if I am pleasantly surprised and get a response which resolves my issue.

Thanks in advance.

TiVo is basically a computer, computers slow down as their hard drives fill up and the drives need to do more work finding places to store files.

TiVo was never meant to be a place where programs are held long term, so it does not run routines like defrag to clean up the hard drive.

Menus are loaded from the hard drive so that is why they have slowed down.

Delete all of your suggestions, then all of your deleted items and see if that improves your speed.

Peter.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by petestrash

TiVo is basically a computer, computers slow down as their hard drives fill up and the drives need to do more work finding places to store files.

TiVo was never meant to be a place where programs are held long term, so it does not run routines like defrag to clean up the hard drive.

Menus are loaded from the hard drive so that is why they have slowed down.

Delete all of your suggestions, then all of your deleted items and see if that improves your speed.

Peter.

---

Many thanks Peter, it would be great if the unit did have some routine maintenance tasks which it ran automatically or could be initiated through the menus.

I had 110 suggestions which I deleted and then re-deleted from "Recently Deleted" - unfortunately the response is still slow.

Have you done a reboot, since deleting the deleted files?

Peter.

Hi - I hadn't but now have and it's still slow.

Hopefully it will improve as you start watching and deleting recordings and the new ones fill the space you have freed up.

Other than that, the only option is a clear and delete which resets your TiVo to as new, but also deletes all your shows.

Peter.

Hi - I have received the following from TiVo support:

"Apologies for the difficulty you are experiencing. Please try the following steps (if you haven't done so already):

- Perform a hard reset, this is when the TiVo is unplugged from the power for at least 6 hours.


- Plug the TiVo Back in with only the power and the av connection to the TV (ie no wireless or ethernet, antenna or expander drive), if possible directly to a wall socket (or a different wall socket) and using the yellow composite video cable.


- Leave the TiVo on for at least 1 hour to see if the TiVo will reach the TiVo Central menus.


We hope this response has been of assistance and as a valued customer we appreciate your feedback.

For any future enquiries related to this issue please reply to this message leaving the reference number in the subject.

Regards,

TiVo Support"


I will try this overnight and post here as to how it goes...

Hi all, just to close the loop...

I was concerned that by taking the course of action advised by TiVo support, that I would lose my recordings - hence I queried with them and they took a while to confirm. their response came through as follows. Basically disconnecting teh expander will delete the recordings, which I dont want to do, so I will continue to watch and delete from most recent in an attempt to finally find the corrupted show. Once I have worked my way through all the shows, if it is still slow, I will then reformat the drive which I am quite sure will fix my issue.

"Hi Peter,

Apologies for the delay, yes if you unplug the Expander drive and run the TiVo without it, it will delete all recordings on the expander drive, unfortunately. If you are not prepared to do this, I would suggest deleting any recent recordings that were made (around the period that the TiVo slowed down) as one may be corrupted and caused the slow down. If this does not work, I'm afraid the only option is to remove the expander drive, which will re-format it. It could be that something has corrupted on the expander drive and this is causing the slowdown. The removal and reconnection will reformat the drive and clear any corruptions that may have occurred - just be sure to watch anything you want before doing so.

For any future enquiries related to this issue please reply to this message leaving the reference number in the subject.

Regards,

Hybrid TV Level 3 Support

On Sat, 28 May 2011 13:02:58 +1000, XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX wrote:
> Hi - could I please have a response to the below?
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
> Sent: Monday, 23 May 2011 8:17 AM
> To: 'TiVo Support'
> Subject: RE: [Enquiry ID #XNL-44467-942] Welcome to the TiVo Support
> Site - Email an Expert Submitted
>
> Thanks - to confirm though, will taking this action - specifically, unplugging the expander and running the TiVo for an hour which will make it record favourites etc. - not cause me to lose the programs already recorded and stored on the expander?
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: TiVo Support [mailto:support@mytivo.com.au]
> Sent: Sunday, 22 May 2011 7:13 PM
> To: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
> Subject: Re: [Enquiry ID #XNL-44467-942] Welcome to the TiVo Support
> Site - Email an Expert Submitted
>
> Hi,
>
>
> Apologies for the difficulty you are experiencing. Please try the following steps (if you haven't done so already):
>
> - Perform a hard reset, this is when the TiVo is unplugged from the power for at least 6 hours.
>
>
> - Plug the TiVo Back in with only the power and the av connection to the TV (ie no wireless or ethernet, antenna or expander drive), if possible directly to a wall socket (or a different wall socket) and using the yellow composite video cable.
>
>
> - Leave the TiVo on for at least 1 hour to see if the TiVo will reach the TiVo Central menus.
>
>
> We hope this response has been of assistance and as a valued customer we appreciate your feedback.
>
> For any future enquiries related to this issue please reply to this message leaving the reference number in the subject.
>
> Regards,
>
> TiVo Support
>
>
>
>
> On Fri, 20 May 2011 05:39:33 +0000, XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX wrote:
> > User: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
> > Email: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
> > Category: Setup and Install
> > TSN: 663 0001 8029 BE56
> >
> > Tivo unit slow
> > Hi - my Tivo unit has gotten really slow for the past 2 days. I have
> > resterted the unit twice and it makes no difference.
> >
> > Navigating the menus is a painful process, I have up to a 5-second
> > delay between selecting a menu item and a transition occurring to
> > the next screen menu.
> >
> > Please advise - there are no articles in your support articles
> > talking to this issue.
> >
> > Thanks, Peter"