Tivo 2 Hell

December 3, 2010 8:47 AM

I have a Series 2 Tivo and yesterday, inexplicably, most of the buttons have stopped working.

I have tried changing batteries and trying combinations to get it working, but no luck. It looks like it's recording shows I requested or have a season pass to, but it won't let me play any past recorded shows, record on demand, go live tv, or see the channel guide. The red light flashes to show that I am pushing the buttons, but nothing happens. Other than apparently recording shows I requested and changing channels, nothing else is happening. HELP.

posted by HeyAllie to media & arts (21 answers total)

I think they have a little slider switch that would allow you to control two different Tivos in the same room. (right above the number pad in this picture.

Could that be the culprit? (switch moved accidentally?)
posted by dforemsky at 8:55 AM on December 3, 2010

If that doesn't work, I have found the #1 tech help answer to be of use here. Restart the Tivo. Which is to say, unplug it, and plug it back in, since there is no restart button. Oh, and then wait the ungodly 15 minutes or whatever for it to finish booting up.
posted by Grither at 9:02 AM on December 3, 2010

Nope, that's not it. Tried that too. Thanks for the picture of the remote. It basically helps to show that everything above that slider switch does not work, but everything below (basically just changing channels) does work. When you press any of the buttons above that slider switch, the red light on the remote flashes to show that I did ask it to do something, but then nothing does happen.
posted by HeyAllie at 9:04 AM on December 3, 2010

Grither - I might have to do that, but was hoping to avoid doing that if possible.
posted by HeyAllie at 9:05 AM on December 3, 2010

It doesn't reset the information if you unplug it (you don't lose your recording preferences or season passes or anything), it's just slow to start up -- find 15 minutes where you don't need to be watching TV and unplug it -- if it doesn't work, you won't have lost anything.
posted by brainmouse at 9:28 AM on December 3, 2010

Yeah, this happened with my TiVo a couple of times. A reboot fixed it.
posted by sharkfu at 9:33 AM on December 3, 2010

Yeah, this happened with my TiVo a couple of times. A reboot fixed it.

I've had this problem happen on several generations of Tivo. It's one of those times when you call into tech support, hoping they've got something nice and unix-y like "telnet to this IP/Port and issue a command to restart the IR daemon", but all they will suggest is a full on hard boot.

For all that it's kind of scary to just unplug a computer that you know is constantly reading and writing to the hard drive, they use a very good journaling filesystem underneath it all and it will recover quite well, though it does take some time, as others have mentioned.
posted by nomisxid at 9:51 AM on December 3, 2010

Yeah, I concur on rebooting the device. Just make sure you don't have any recordings going on or upcoming in the next 15 minutes or so.

Also, TiVos don't write to the HD when it's not recording anything, at least that was my experience.

So, you should be fine.
posted by reddot at 10:31 AM on December 3, 2010

It's happened to me too. A reboot fixed it. I also made sure to reboot while I wasn't recording, so nothing is (or shouldn't be) writing to the drive. It's a long 15 minutes while it restarts, but if your remote is toast it's worth a try.
posted by cgg at 10:31 AM on December 3, 2010

I love how MeFites came over so quickly and were so helpful.

Over at the Tivo help forum, I just heard crickets.

Will try rebooting it at lunchtime and see if that will work and will report back.
posted by HeyAllie at 10:43 AM on December 3, 2010

I have a half hour lunch break, so I ran home and turned off everything for about 10-15 minutes. Turned it back on and Tivo didn't reboot itself, so maybe it needs to be turned off for a lot longer. Turned it off again and will return in three hours - maybe by then stupid Tivo will get the hint.
posted by HeyAllie at 2:13 PM on December 3, 2010

This happened to my Series 2 last year, and nothing worked to fix it. I just had to buy a new remote, which was about $50 at Best Buy.
posted by candyland at 4:21 PM on December 3, 2010

TiVo remotes do break sometimes. They sell replacements on TiVo.com, Ebay, Amazon etc.
Note that the sexy new TiVoSlide remote is designed for Series 3 and up.
posted by w0mbat at 6:20 PM on December 3, 2010

Yeah, it didn't reboot even after being turned off for several hours. So it seems to be more than just a remote problem... Any more ideas of what to do? How else to force a reboot?
posted by HeyAllie at 10:34 PM on December 3, 2010

HeyAllie: "Yeah, it didn't reboot even after being turned off for several hours. So it seems to be more than just a remote problem... Any more ideas of what to do? How else to force a reboot"

So, just to be clear, you pulled the power cord from the wall and when you eventually plugged it back it the TiVo isn't rebooting? As in you're seeing a black screen and none of the usual dancing TiVo animation? Or did you plug it back in, saw the animation, but when it finished loading the remote is still not working?
posted by sharkfu at 1:13 AM on December 4, 2010

After pulling the plug, the TiVo didn't do its dancing routine.
posted by HeyAllie at 7:56 AM on December 4, 2010

HeyAllie: "After pulling the plug, the TiVo didn't do its dancing routine"

If you're seeing just a grey/black screen after powering it off and then on, then you obviously have more grave problems than just a bad remote. It could be a power supply issue, the hard drive might need to be replaced (with a reinstall of the correct version of the TiVo operation system) or you might just have yourself a dead TiVo. If it's out of warranty, a company called Weaknees sells replacement hard drives or has a repair "flat-fee service".

If you saw no change on screen from removing power, then I propose maybe you're accidentally unplugging the wrong cord. This has happened to me before when I have a ton of cables and power cords in one spot. I haven't seen the new TiVo Premiere in person, but every other TiVo I've owned has had a restarting animation like this or this. It appears the Premiere startup is this. I'm just trying to consider every possibility.
posted by sharkfu at 10:36 AM on December 4, 2010

No, when I unplugged TiVo, the tv worked fine. TiVo didn't reboot and shows are recording as requested. I'm stumped
posted by HeyAllie at 12:37 PM on December 4, 2010

HeyAllie: "No, when I unplugged TiVo, the tv worked fine. TiVo didn't reboot and shows are recording as requested. I'm stumped"

I'm sorry, I am stumped as well. I'm sure you've already seen this, but it the off chance you haven't, some TiVo suggestions for possibly fixing this. They mention some global resets for the remote that we haven't discussed in thread. Good luck!
posted by sharkfu at 1:16 PM on December 4, 2010

TiVo didn't reboot and shows are recording as requested.

If shows are recording, your Tivo is still on, so it rebooted (but the video card has failed) or you never turned it off.
posted by nomisxid at 3:55 PM on December 5, 2010

After TiVo support recommending purchasing new AV cables and 3 hrs on the phone with them, all it turned out to be was that somehow the cable input mysteriously changed itself. Duh. Thx everyone.
posted by HeyAllie at 3:59 PM on December 5, 2010