Did VM kill my Tivo.....?

[tinybilbo]

Well not my Tivo....

But my mother-in-laws.

I live out of the country, and my mother-in-law happened to mention about 2 weeks that something was up with my old Tivo that I had given here,
when I left the UK.

I jumped on the 'net and found out about AltEPG, and signed up and waited for my wife to return to the UK for a holiday (last week).

She sends me the serial/number code, and I'm about to fully complete the registration with AltEPG, when I get a call from my wife,
saying that the Tivo froze, and when she rebooted it - it justs sits with a blue screen and makes a a small chiming noise, No GUI or anything onscreen!!!.

My wife phoned up VM ( I assume, although she said it was Tivo), and they claimed that all Tivo lifesubs were finished (which we know).
However when she mentioned that the Tivo was no longer functioning at all, the rep went off for a minute and came back and said that was because the Tivo lifesub had finished, and therefore the Tivo would no longer work at all (he claimed to have talked to engineer)!!!!

Is it true that Tivo's are being "killswitched"...? I find it hard to believe, because surely that would amount to criminal damage!.

Can anyone shed any light on this please...

I imagine that because there is still a bluescreen and some kind of powerlights activity - that the hard drive has failed, coincedently at the same time that I was about to change over to AltEPG, and that VM are just telling my wife any old nonsense, so as to try and get to buy one of their packages.

I am simply go to put the AltEPG image on the 2nd drive in the tivo (I had already upgraded it years ago) and try it again, or just purchase another unit off ebay, because it took my mother-in-law ages to learn it and now she loves it, and hates the sky interface she has in her living room sky+.

Thanks

[SolidTechie]

You'll be delighted to know, it's horsepoo.

Blue screen is unusual though - TiVo has a green screen - if you encounter this, it may take up to a couple of days to sort itself out.

As you have a spare drive - try that to see if it works- but you may want to think about a 1TB drive - they aren't too expensive.

It could also be a power supply issue, but I should hold off a day or so - as someone else may have experienced a blue screen and know what caused it - I personally haven't ever heard of it.

Read the FAQs before you start...

[Furbag]

Yep horse poo ...... quite like that phrase

Sounds like it might just be the drive thats died although as mentioned normally the screen goes green

Did you do a clear and delete everything ?

I'd go for a reboot and see what happens

Furbag

[mrtickle]

It could also be a power supply issue, but I should hold off a day or so - as someone else may have experienced a blue screen and know what caused it - I personally haven't ever heard of it.

I've seen this blue screen, but only because I pulled all the cs22 files off my tivo, converted them and viewed them!

flames.jpg (22.04 KiB) Viewed 4959 times

It's on your tivo in /tvbin/flames.PAL.cs22 and flames.NTCS.cs22 ... more info: http://www.dealdatabase.com/forum/showt ... s.PAL.cs22

My number one, two and three questions for this case are therefore: Is the fan working? Can you hear it? Can you feel air moving if you put your hand at the back of the TiVo? But, re-reading the above - nothing at all onscreen - I think it's just that particular TV's "no input" colour.

[drgeoff]

I think it's just that particular TV's "no input" colour.

That's what first came to my mind on reading the original post but then I noticed the "chiming sound" bit. Is that sound coming from the TV speaker(s) or from the TiVo itself?

[IBP]

I imagine that because there is still a bluescreen and some kind of powerlights activity - that the hard drive has failed

Call me simple, but that sounds like a loose scart connection.

[tinybilbo]

Sorry guys for not getting back to you quicker, realworld intervened..

and thanks for the replies.
I suspected as much... (that it was all "horse poo" )
I guess they were just trying to convince my wife to "upgrade" to Virgin.

I'm not actually in the UK, or near the Tivo, so what I'm relaying to you is kindof secondhand info...
It's a straight blue screen (no writing), which I'm guessing is the tv's default "no picture" output, and the chiming is from the Tivo itself.

I'll have my wife do a check of, the fan, and scart input, and then do a full reset, and see if it clears anything up.

If it does'nt work, It'll have to wait untill I'm in the UK, in a couple of months.
Hopefully it's just a drive, I'll test with the old 2nd HDD (it's an 80gb, I think),
I'm familiar with Linux, having built xbmc, mythtv, and zoneminder boxes, as well as hacking countless other Linux based items (NAS's, iPhones, etc).
So if is just a failed HDD, it should'nt pose too much of a problem.
If I revive it, I'll upgrade it to something larger, as well as throw in a network card.

I'll let you guys know wether it was a hardware or software error, when my wife has had a look at it.

Thanks again

[SolidTechie]

Yes, I think I'm about prepared to put mmoney on the scart lead at this stage - but the blue screen isn't TiVo's no image marker, it's your TV's. If the chiming is the typical TiVo bongs, then you're getting the sound out to the TV but not the picture - a little wiggle of the scart lead should do it.

As a result of your OH turning the TiVo round, to look at the serial number... perhaops?

[tinybilbo]

A quick update after the wife had a look,
It's not a scart issue... unplugged and plugged back in.
The chiming is coming from the TIVO...? and not the TV (the TV's been turned off) - Does the Tivo even have a speaker?
(It could be the modem).
So there's definately a hardware issue.
Thanks for the help guys, I'll have a look at it when I return home for a holiday.

[mikerr]

Hard drives often make a beep when they have died/are dying.

If the tivo is alive and working, the green led on the front will blink when you press a key on the remote...

[SolidTechie]

Are you (is she) sure you have the leads in the right places? Scart lead goes from source to TiVo AUX socket, then TV out to erm... TV?


Good luck with it anyway...

[tekfreek]

May be a silly question, but it can't be the source locked up and holding Tivo in "pass through" can it?

[mrtickle]

May be a silly question, but it can't be the source locked up and holding Tivo in "pass through" can it?

Everything's worth exploring. For tivo to be stuck in passthrough mode, the front yellow LED would have to be on and it would have to not respond to the tivo remote though.

[tekfreek]

It may depend on how and what is cabled in. My set top box locks up and (I think) as it's dual cabled to Tivo (RGB scart) and to the TV (HDMI) that the two "switch over" signals loop through thr TV some how. My only way out when the STB locks up is to hard reset it by disconnesting it's mains and reconnecting. this frees all up. It only happens occasionally so dosent bother me too much.