HR10-250 acting up lately

[AreBee]

After two solid years of perfect functionality, (other than the 6.3a Fox OTA issue) my HR10-250 is getting really flakey.

I've had two instances in the last week where after watching a recorded program, the box would not let me leave the TiVo area to watch Live TV. A message would come up saying that it needed to acquire information from the satellite before I could watch Live TV. I unplugged for a minute and when it powered back up all was well.

I also had one instance last week where the box was locked on one channel. The channel reception was fine and perfectly watchable, but I could not change the channel, nor could I access the guide or menus. Again, unplugging the box for a minute set it right.

My 30 second skip seems to be disappearing a lot lately. I always reset it after unplugging, but it still seems to drop the feature every couple of days.

What could all this be leading up to? A hard drive replacement? A full box failure? Or are these just some of the quirks that I have been fortunate enough to dodge for two years?

[SFNSXguy]

After two solid years of perfect functionality, (other than the 6.3a Fox OTA issue) my HR10-250 is getting really flakey.

I've had two instances in the last week where after watching a recorded program, the box would not let me leave the TiVo area to watch Live TV. A message would come up saying that it needed to acquire information from the satellite before I could watch Live TV. I unplugged for a minute and when it powered back up all was well.

I also had one instance last week where the box was locked on one channel. The channel reception was fine and perfectly watchable, but I could not change the channel, nor could I access the guide or menus. Again, unplugging the box for a minute set it right.

My 30 second skip seems to be disappearing a lot lately. I always reset it after unplugging, but it still seems to drop the feature every couple of days.

What could all this be leading up to? A hard drive replacement? A full box failure? Or are these just some of the quirks that I have been fortunate enough to dodge for two years?


Mine's been a little flakey too. (It's a 400x2 Weaknees upgrade that has been bullet-proof for several years.) Mine needs the 30-second jump reprogrammed several days a week -- which means it has re-booted sometime during the night, and a couple of weeks ago, on two seperate nights it rebooted while watching a recording.

Earl thinks I might have a harddrive issue -- I'm not so sure... gremlins?

[captain_video]

The fact that both of you have had your Tivos for several years indicates that you are probably going to start having hard drive issues. If you want to check the health of your drive you can download the manufacturer's diagnostic software and run it with the Tivo drive installed in your PC. You may or may not uncover any problems with the diagnostic but at least it will tell you if there's anything seriously wrong with the drive.

There's a possibility that there may be bad sectors on the drive which could be causing problems with the software. You could try running a utility called SpinRite that works great for recovering data and rejuvenating drives with surface defects. OTOH, the cost of the software will probably be more than what a new drive would cost so pick your poison.

[AreBee]

The fact that both of you have had your Tivos for several years indicates that you are probably going to start having hard drive issues. If you want to check the health of your drive you can download the manufacturer's diagnostic software and run it with the Tivo drive installed in your PC. You may or may not uncover any problems with the diagnostic but at least it will tell you if there's anything seriously wrong with the drive.

There's a possibility that there may be bad sectors on the drive which could be causing problems with the software. You could try running a utility called SpinRite that works great for recovering data and rejuvenating drives with surface defects. OTOH, the cost of the software will probably be more than what a new drive would cost so pick your poison.

Thanks, I'll check into it. Sounds like I better take care of my unwatched recordings before they're gone forever.

[SFNSXguy]

The fact that both of you have had your Tivos for several years indicates that you are probably going to start having hard drive issues. If you want to check the health of your drive you can download the manufacturer's diagnostic software and run it with the Tivo drive installed in your PC. You may or may not uncover any problems with the diagnostic but at least it will tell you if there's anything seriously wrong with the drive.

There's a possibility that there may be bad sectors on the drive which could be causing problems with the software. You could try running a utility called SpinRite that works great for recovering data and rejuvenating drives with surface defects. OTOH, the cost of the software will probably be more than what a new drive would cost so pick your poison.

Thanks for the input, but I'd be VERY surprised if my reboot issues are a hard drive problem. My guess is it's a software or D* thing. D* isn't too interested in the HR10-250 anymore -- it's their stepchild. Just wanted to make the point to the OP that "stuff" is happening to others.

I still consider my unit to be working perfectly -- it's just that having to reset the 30-second jump every few days is a pain. I'll believe there's a hard drive problem when I see somthing more dramatic.

Thanks for the post though!!

[Earl Bonovich]

Thanks for the input, but I'd be VERY surprised if my reboot issues are a hard drive problem. My guess is it's a software or D* thing. D* isn't too interested in the HR10-250 anymore -- it's their stepchild. Just wanted to make the point to the OP that "stuff" is happening to others.

I still consider my unit to be working perfectly -- it's just that having to reset the 30-second jump every few days is a pain. I'll believe there's a hard drive problem when I see somthing more dramatic.

Thanks for the post though!!

If was a software or guide data issue...
You would probably be seeing volumes of posts at www.tivocommunity.com

Which just haven't been happening.

It "could" still be issolated to the guide data specific for your area.

[AreBee]

I still consider my unit to be working perfectly -- it's just that having to reset the 30-second jump every few days is a pain. I'll believe there's a hard drive problem when I see somthing more dramatic.



Resetting the 30 second skip is not that big of a deal to me, but I've had more lock ups in a week than I have in two years.

On a related note, my Samsung T-160 was locked up when I turned it on Monday morning. I have never had a lock up with that box. No problems with the Hr10 over the last 48 hours though.

[bimplebean]

I had an HR10-250 die recently. It was the hard disk. I replaced it and reimaged it. I've taken to putting the unit in standby every time I stop watching -- for the unit to constantly be recording two streaming buffers of data is needless strain on the hard disk.

[SFNSXguy]

I had an HR10-250 die recently. It was the hard disk. I replaced it and reimaged it. I've taken to putting the unit in standby every time I stop watching -- for the unit to constantly be recording two streaming buffers of data is needless strain on the hard disk.

The HR10-250 continues to spin its hard drive(s) and to buffer -- even in standby. The only thing that occurs in standby is that there is no video output (so signal-triggered switches will work).

[bimplebean]

Ah. So my drive is destined to be overworked no matter what I do. [g]

Thanks for the info.

[GCanada]

Everything on mine works great except when i change the input signal to 720p or 1080i. 720p is rolling lines and 1080i occationally freezes up. Any idea what is wrong and/or how to fix it?

[GCanada]

Everything on mine works great except when i change the input signal to 720p or 1080i. 720p is rolling lines and 1080i occationally freezes up. Any idea what is wrong and/or how to fix it?
anybody?