Looks like my TiVo just died

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old3eyes

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#89047 25-Aug-2011 19:53

Last week when I switched over to it I saw a 4x3 dark gray screen. Robooted and all seemed to be OK
48 hours it did it again. Rebooted OK.
Then it started every 24 hours and now today it won't boot past the Powering up screen and then goes gray. Not a heat problem as the air coming out of the fan is cold. Unpluged for 10 minutes and disconnected the LAN ..

Lucky it's still got 3 weeks to go on the warranty.

Now for the daunting task of contacting TiVo and arrange for a replacement or fix..
After seeing some of the posts here about these things I'm having second thought about buying it though I must say it's been very reliable but to die rite before the RWC. Have to power up the old analog DVD recorder again and now only have a UHF aerial so TV1 is a no no.. The rest come thru ok..

Regards,

Old3eyes

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1081 posts

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#512161 25-Aug-2011 22:33

I seem to recall it is something to do with the tuner, but a search for grey screen of death didn't come up with much.
If it were the HDD you would at least get the sunrise screen which is stored in the bios.
Best of luck with TiVo / Telecom service.

firefuze

510 posts

Ultimate Geek

#512172 25-Aug-2011 23:32

If your TiVo was purchased from a Telecom store and within warranty it can be swapped out on the spot if the store can verify the fault & isn't related to coverage or Ariel. Nice and simple.

What part of the country are you in?

robbyp

1199 posts

Uber Geek

#512179 26-Aug-2011 00:50

old3eyes: Last week when I switched over to it I saw a 4x3 dark gray screen. Robooted and all seemed to be OK
48 hours it did it again. Rebooted OK.
Then it started every 24 hours and now today it won't boot past the Powering up screen and then goes gray. Not a heat problem as the air coming out of the fan is cold. Unpluged for 10 minutes and disconnected the LAN ..

Lucky it's still got 3 weeks to go on the warranty.

Now for the daunting task of contacting TiVo and arrange for a replacement or fix..
After seeing some of the posts here about these things I'm having second thought about buying it though I must say it's been very reliable but to die rite before the RWC. Have to power up the old analog DVD recorder again and now only have a UHF aerial so TV1 is a no no.. The rest come thru ok..

You should be covered by the CGA even if out of warranty, and it shouldn't be any more difficult to get it fixed/replaced

scuwp

3885 posts

Uber Geek

#512198 26-Aug-2011 07:59

firefuze: If your TiVo was purchased from a Telecom store and within warranty it can be swapped out on the spot if the store can verify the fault & isn't related to coverage or Ariel. Nice and simple.

What part of the country are you in?

Unless something has changed, that's not what has been happening, and may take longer (if they will even do it for you). Part of the terms & conditions is that any faults or warranty claims must be made to TiVo who will organise a replacement if they cannot get the issue rectified. They will send one out to you and provide everything for you to send the faulty one back. It's quite painless (well it was for me). Check out the support page on their website.

Lazy is such an ugly word, I prefer to call it selective participation

old3eyes

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#512210 26-Aug-2011 08:42

Did a search on the net and GSOD (Gray Screen Of Death) is well know in the TiVo circles and usually indicates a dead hard disk..

Waiting for TiVo in Ozz to respond with options..

Regards,

Old3eyes

firefuze

510 posts

Ultimate Geek

#512609 26-Aug-2011 17:18

scuwp:
firefuze: If your TiVo was purchased from a Telecom store and within warranty it can be swapped out on the spot if the store can verify the fault & isn't related to coverage or Ariel. Nice and simple.

What part of the country are you in?

Unless something has changed, that's not what has been happening, and may take longer (if they will even do it for you). Part of the terms & conditions is that any faults or warranty claims must be made to TiVo who will organise a replacement if they cannot get the issue rectified. They will send one out to you and provide everything for you to send the faulty one back. It's quite painless (well it was for me). Check out the support page on their website.

Yep, things have changed slightly to provide a better customer experience with such issues as mentioned by the OP. 0800 MY TIVO should be your first option for troubleshooting. And should be able to arrange a replacement if needed also.

But for a more serious and obvious fault like this, a Telecom store can also verify the fault then replace,(if no damage, is in warranty and was purchased from a Telecom channel) providing the store carries stock and has a demo unit instore so they can swap out and test on screen with yours. But yes 0800MYTIVO is the first point of contact. :)

old3eyes

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#513419 29-Aug-2011 12:49

Update to this.

TiVo in Ozz sent me a whole heap of things to try which basically involved unplugging every thing and leaving over nite.

Saturday morning I powered it up again and it came back, rescanned the channels to get rid of the lineup nag message every day but by about 5.30PM I got the GSOD again.

Left over nite again and on Sunday morning did a factory default but once again by about 6.00 pm GSOD.

Now waiting for further instructions from them..

Regards,

Old3eyes

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Jaxson

8042 posts

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#513421 29-Aug-2011 12:54

old3eyes: Update to this.

TiVo in Ozz sent me a whole heap of things to try which basically involved unplugging every thing and leaving over nite.

Saturday morning I powered it up again and it came back, rescanned the channels to get rid of the lineup nag message every day but by about 5.30PM I got the GSOD again.

Left over nite again and on Sunday morning did a factory default but once again by about 6.00 pm GSOD.

Now waiting for further instructions from them..

After all that I think I'd be giving instructions to them!

old3eyes

9119 posts

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#513603 29-Aug-2011 18:47

Got an email from wanting an address to send the replacement to..

Regards,

Old3eyes

old3eyes

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#516217 3-Sep-2011 19:12

My replacement arrived yesterday and so far so good..

Regards,

Old3eyes

old3eyes

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#516926 5-Sep-2011 15:45

One thing I did discover hidden away in the setup menu was the ability to turn on the front panel display. I found that my output was set to 576P. I set it to 720P.

I asked TiVo support and they said.

"The 576p setting is what the TiVo is shipped set to, but we recommend changing it to whichever setting is native to your TV (720p should be fine). "

Kind of strange it doesn't do some sort of handshake with the TV when it's first set up..

Regards,

Old3eyes

Skolink

1081 posts

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#517368 6-Sep-2011 10:41

I leave mine on 'native' so that supposedly it will send it to the TV in whatever resolution (probably 720p or 1080i) it is recorded in. I assume the TV would do a better job scaling. Not sure what resolution it displays the menus in, I thought it was 1080i, but I didn't notice the TV notifying of a resolution change on non-HD recordings.

gjm

808 posts

Ultimate Geek

#517394 6-Sep-2011 11:22

I went to buy a Tivo on the weekend but got talked out of it by the sales person at the telecom shop who was vaguely aware that they sold them, didnt know much about them, tried to tell me they were analogue (no freeview included here) and that they may or may not be supported in the future. They also added that if we had any problems with it after we bought it then we were not to bring it back to the shop as they didnt support them at all.

No wonder these devices havent taken off if this is the approach the sales reps take.

I now have a shiny new panasonic recorder which seems to be doing the trick quite well and also has epg for prime and maori tv :)

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Skolink

1081 posts

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#517439 6-Sep-2011 12:20

Yeah, I've changed my forums signature and I'm about to change my profile picture, as I've given up trying to promote TiVo. Also now that the TiVoHD is here, it's not such a geek-cool thing to own a TiVo (series 1), and the TiVoHD has bugs whereas the TiVo s1 had the best user interface ever invented.
I've used MySkyHDi and it's alsmost as good as TiVo, I haven't tried any other DVRs in ages.

You'd think by now Telecom staff would know what a TiVo is. At the start there were certainly people being told they could play DVDs.

robbyp

1199 posts

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#517456 6-Sep-2011 12:42

Skolink: Yeah, I've changed my forums?signature and I'm about to change my profile picture, as I've given up trying to promote TiVo. Also now that the TiVoHD is here, it's not such a geek-cool thing to own a TiVo (series 1), and the TiVoHD has bugs whereas the TiVo s1 had the best user interface ever invented.
I've used MySkyHDi and it's alsmost as good as TiVo, I haven't tried any other DVRs in ages.

You'd think by now Telecom staff would know what a TiVo is. At the start there were certainly people being told they could play DVDs.

They were good value at $360 for telecom customers but I am not sure if they are still selling them at that. Telecom will need to support them for several more years at least as they have many customers who purchased them. Not sure what a reasonable life for a TiVo would be but probably somewhere between 3 to 5 years based on their initial price of around $800

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