Tivo freezes at start up

[Darren King]

Phil,

Unfortunately as I say on my website I am not a software expert so I cannot say regarding if the software failing would cause it. I would say from a non-expert point of view it is highly unlikely, because although it may not add up to you, from a hardware technical perspective (mine) I have not seen a faulty temperature sensor on any TiVo motherboard to date. Furthermore a faulty or misreported temperature sensor due to either the temperature sensor failing at hardware level or a software glitch will not stop a TiVo booting past the Boot PROM screen. A faulty temperature sensor will still allow the hard disk to boot as far as the "Starting Up....." OzTiVo screen (ie the screen AFTER the Boot PROM screen) but will stop the TiVo with the overheating warning message. The fact that yours won't even get past the Boot PROM screen indicates something more serious at a hardware level.

As Zollymonsta said I would be checking that the fan is actually working as a starting point. Further to this you can monitor the temperature yourself either from the "info" page via TiVoWEB or simply in the System Information screen from the TiVo on-screen menus. What temperature does it report?


The point I am making here is that it is pointing to a defective hard drive and the major killers of hard disks is overheating. Given your TiVo has reported an excessive temperature it is all pointing to a temperature related issue to me why youhave had what looks like a premature hard disk failure.

Until you can say the following two things there is not much else I can offer:

1. Does your TiVo temperature report getting anywhere near 60C

2 Does the 6GB hard disk still give bootup problems (and/or temperature warnings) or does it fix your issues?

[Phil_C]

Hello zollymonsta
Yes the fan is spinning

Darren
The TIVO is currently running at 27C. I have never been able to access my TIVO remotely as I have been unable to find its IP address. The IP address reported after each bootup is 0.0.0.0 which is an invalid IP address.
One thing I did notice with the 6gig drive is the menus appear faster and guided setup ran faster. I guess time will tell over the next few days wether or not the 6gb drive works successfully.

Regards

Phil

[Darren King]

I have never been able to access my TIVO remotely as I have been unable to find its IP address. The IP address reported after each bootup is 0.0.0.0 which is an invalid IP address.

Correct. And it is a well documented bug that you can fix:
http://minnie.tuhs.org/twiki/bin/vie...ntImageRelease

One thing I did notice with the 6gig drive is the menus appear faster and guided setup ran faster. I guess time will tell over the next few days wether or not the 6gb drive works successfully.

Indeed time will tell. It is also important you keep an eye on that temperature. 27C is good but it will creep up a little. Anything past 50C with a well ventilated TiVo and the fan spinning is a concern.

Another thing to consider is that if the old hard disk has failed because the bearings are getting tight this will generate quite a bit of heat. If the hard disk is mounted in the bay closest to the motherboard it is almost sitting over the temperature sensor. See the document I linked to in a previous email about where the temp sensor is.

[Phil_C]

Hello All
Well after several days of running the TIVO it is still working perfectly (Except for the noise of the old hard drive ) I checked the temperature of the TIVO several times and it was never more than 29 degrees.

I have finally received a replacement for the failed Maxtor 9 months after a warranty request was submitted. So I will use it in the TIVO.

Regards

Phil