Need a little help regarding a DirecTV Tivo (1 Viewer)

[Mark Philp]

I own three R-10s and they're the best. However, one of them is sick. All I get is a full-screen message that says "recorder must reaquire information from satellite" and "0% complete". It's been that way for days. I tried all the usual things like resetting it. I unplugged it for about 48 hours and it did start working but after a couple of days it stopped again. I swapped it with another one and the problem followed the machine so I know it's not a wiring or switch problem. Any suggestions?

If this is fatal, I dread the the thought of getting the one DirecTV has now. From what I've read they're nothing but trouble. Does anybody know of any place that still sells the R-10s new? I don't want to go the used ebay route. Thanks.

 

[Robert_J]

Have you checked your signal strength to make sure your tuners are both working? It could be a bad access card or a bad drive. If it's a bad drive, it can be replaced in 2 hours for the cost of the drive plus a $20 software download from PTV Upgrade. When the drive in my HR10-250 (aka HD DirecTivo) died last year, I performed the upgrade in 3 hours and that included driving to Office Max to get a 320GB drive that was on sale.

Before doing anything, I'd search the DirecTivo section at Tivo Community. You may be able to find someone else with the exact problem and what they did to fix it.

-Robert

 

[David Norman]

Bad Hard drive or corrupted software would be my guess. Replacing the HDD isn't really all that hard if necessary. Last time I had this happen to mine the Drive was gone.

If there isn't anything on the TIVO you need/want to save, you could just do a complete reset - erase everything and set to defaults. When you reset, was that just a reboot or did you actually do the Clean Install?

 

[Mark Philp]

Thanks guys, for your suggestions. Here's the latest. First I checked the signal strength and it was zero on both satellites. Well, then I went to the system information page just to see if there was anything useful there and I found something. The listing for "account status" said closed. I then went and checked my other receivers and each showed that my account was in good standing.

Next, I called DirecTV to see what's going on. After I explained all this the CSR, who was very helpful, he had me unplug the unit and we went through the whole rebooting and reauthorizing process again. To make a long story short, the thing is working again.

Now, I'm usually pretty skeptical when things get resolved that easily so I'mkeeping my fingers crossed that it was, indeed, simply an error on their part perhaps a CSR shutting off service for somebody and typing in a wrong number or some such thing. My luck doesn't usually run that way so I'll just have to wait and see what happens.

 

[Doug Otte]

I had the same problem recently. I had to shut off the power to do some electrical work, and when I turned it on again, the DVR had the same symptoms. The CSR re-sent an authorization signal, then had me reset the unit.

It's no big deal. I'm guessing some circumstances can cause the code to get messed up in the box.

What's weird is: starting a few days after that incident, the DVR output started showing a LOT of mosquito noise, where the other receiver on another TV didn't. Again, I reset the box, and the problem was solved.

Doug

 

[Mark Philp]

Well you may be right. I did try doing that a couple of times even keeping it unplugged over a weekend to know avail. I have a feeling that they really accidently close my account on that unit, but didn't want to say so. Anyway, its been working ever since I called them so I'm grateful for that. Thanks for your interest.