Okay, here's the challenge:

Your friend calls you to say their new ReplayTV just showed up, and they're having problems (yes, I know, that could mean anything). What do you tell them to do?

We get so many messages here, it would be great to be able to have a master troubleshooting checklist generated by the community to work with.

So, what questions do you ask? What steps do you give them to try?

And JT, maybe we could send the finished product to India ;)

GREAT IDEA!!! Can you make it "sticky" when it's done? :) (ditto the India stuff :D)

Love the idea!!! It's all been documented here, but it would be great to consolidate it!

This would be great if you could create a little 4-d database for the FAQ where the user can type in a keyword and get options.

Where to start?

S-Video input isn't working:
Are you using input 2?
Does composite work?

Cables can often be the problem, try taking a known working cable off another piece of equipment.



Remote control isn't working:
1) Always get fresh batteries, this is more often than not the problem. Even if you think the batteries are good, and you don't have a tester, try another set of batteries.


Video signal problems:

Bad image quality on coax input
The tuner on the 5k isn't that great any loss of signal strength can cause problems. The best option is to have the cleanest, strongest signal possible.
1) Is the line split? Try connecting the line from the wall directly to the replay without using splitters.
2) Splitters cut the signal down the best thing to do is make sure you have a line with the least about of signal loss. Here's a good reference:
http://www.swhowto.com/VideoLoss.htm
3) Amplifiers do wonders, get one that will work with your setup.

Splitters and Amps need to work with the system you are on:
Digital Cable and Cable modem users need bi-directional with a range of 5MHz-900MHz or greater.
Analog Cable folks just need the 50-900MHz


My TV has no problem displaying channels I can't display on my ReplayTV.
- TVs are made with very wide tolorances to the NTSC spec. The TVs have a lot of hardware dedicated to dealing with these variations. The replayTV isn't as robust when dealing with slightly out of spec signals. The best option is to clean up the souce as much as possible.



No channel 6 on a 5k box:
The replay RF tuner is still pretty poor. (Personally I'm not convinced there isn't a hardware problem, but...)
- See above for maximizing the signal strength and minimizing the splits.
- Channel 6 is very close to the freqency is between 83-85MHz very close to FM bands. A FM trap may be a good option to try.

Edit Addition:
If you have a problem with channel 6 and rebooting your 5k box doesn't help try this:
Disconnect the cableTV coax cable.
Restart your replayTV
When you get the "No Signal Detected" blue screen reconnect your cableTV coax to the RF Input.

The replayTV configures the tuning based off what it "thinks" is good tunign. A lot of times channel 6 has issues when it's booting. This sometimes is fixed if the tuning is done after the unit has completely started up.



Closed captions Problems:

Closed Captions are garbage or aren't recorded by the replayTV.
- See the previous signal strength comments. Closed captioning comes in as data on line 21 (out of visible image) but there is only 2 bytes of data for every NTSC field (2 fields make a complete picture). So a bad source singal will very easily lead to problems for the replay in recording the CC data.

Closed Captions disappear when playing back recorded shows
- This is a known problem, at the moment the only fix is to reset the replay. Reset the replay by pressing the power button for 10 seconds.


We can go on forever.....

A few more...
Video is stuttering on playback or while watching live.
This is generally a problem caused by a bad disk or heat. Heat isn't a problem on replayTVs with fans, 4k, 4.5k and 5k models. If it is a disk problem and the unit in under warrenty talk to tech support.

Video is stuttering on playback from remote replayTV
Oh, man too many to go into. Make sure the LAN is optimized, I've only used a wired switched LAN. I've had no problems.

Switches are important, better than hubs. Switches streamline the transfer.

If you are using a wireless LAN configuration, try running wires as a test to see if the problem is the replayTV or the LAN.

ReplayTV can't see other ReplayTVs on the LAN:
Problems are generally fixed with a reboot (how power button on unit for 10 seconds). Reboot all machines on your LAN, sometimes you'll need to reboot the routers, switches and hubs. It doesn't hurt to reboot everything before calling Tech Support.

Add 'use DHCP for best results' (still seems to work better, I believe) to the network section....

Great idea to have this at the top. No one ("") reads the 'big FAQ' or the manual, but this concise advice they might.

(And then we can concentrate on weighty issues like what the heck is in the releases...)

stuck... keep 'em coming...

My ReplayTV tries to dial, but after a little while on the "Connecting" screen, it times-out and says it'll try again later.
Could be caused by bad lines in your area, or pairgain. Try pressing "Zones" on the Prefix screen and manually setting the modem speed lower one step at a time. Try to disconnect power in between each attempt to reset the modem.

When switching between "Modem" and "Network" in the Setup area, 243-Zones Net Connect still tries the original setting.
Disconnect power from the ReplayTV and reset.

The blue light is causing my kids to go blind.
Buy them sunglasses. ;)

My suggestion:

List the system as links (5000 series, 4000 series, 3000 series, 2000 series).

Then put in two ways to get a list of issues. One would list every single issue and the user could just scan the list. From there it would give the text summary of the issue and possible resolutions.

The other would be to categorize the list of issues into some sort of tree but many issues could span multiple problem branches.

Okay, here's a frequent one to address:

What do you say to someone whose machine stops on "Please Wait"? Before you recommend an RMA, that is :)

Factory reset? Or, you can't get past it anyway anyhow, you mean?

Let's say it just stuck at "Please Wait".

Try booting with cables unplugged?
Re-image drive?
RMA?

Anything in between that I'm missing? Mine work right, so I haven't gone through this :)

Please wait is a tough one...

Generally a problem with the disk, either bad file, bad sector or bad software from an upgrade. The solutions, there are not many. Generally you have no control at this point, the system won't get far enough in the boot process for user input...

First this is the best way to "reset" the replay.
1) unplug the replay power from the jack.
2) unplug all connections from the replay
3) press power button a couple of times.

Steps 2 and 3 are very important, electricity coming in over the coax, RCA or ethernet connections can be enough to keep parts of the replay "live" you can't get a true reset until all juice is gone. Pressing the power button helps to ensure the stored energy in the caps and such is discharged.

After that these questions are important:
Is the replay in reboot loop? On the SS series there was a problem where the system partition was having files corrupted. The only solution was to reimage the drive. This could very easily be the cause on the other replayTVs too.

If the replayTV is still covered by DNNA and you haven't opened it up and upgraded the drive. RMA might be the best option, sucks for DNNA, but if the unit is a refurb it might be the best option. There could be more problems further down the road. Sucks cuz it costs the DNNA money...

If you opened the replay, it's not under warranty or you've upgraded the drive....
Open it up, take the disk out, run maxtor's diagnostic software PowerMax
PowerMax Tools Download Page (http://www.maxtor.com/en/support/downloads/powermax.htm)
Check for errors, Maxtor drives generally have a 3 year warranty, use it if you need to!

If no errors were reported in diagnostic scan LLF (low level format) is a good option. Disk problems LLF is always a good idea, LLF maps out bad sectors on the disk. Bad sectors can cause all sorts of problems on PVRs because PVRs don't generally write verify (with good reason). It's assumed the write worked without problems. On system files this could be fatal.

Reimage the drive with the images available online and with RTV_Patch
ReplayTV OS Images (ftp://replay:giveme@ftp.kdhnews.com/)

RTV_Patch Link (http://sourceforge.net/projects/rtvpatch/)

Replay shows Welcome page with three choices, Press Guide, ReplayGuide or Menu. But replay doesn't respond to choices.

If the replay has a problem establishing a network connection this will happen. The machine can appear hung for a LONG time. I've waited 40 minutes while trouble shooting the problem. Turned out the switch had a bad port. Whenever you have any network problems try swapping cables, swapping ports on switches/routers. And once again... reboot every piece of equipment in the chain.

Great idea. Here are some real life ones from a guy who just bought a 5 series refurb from the sblu estore. I'm using comcast digital through a motorola dct2224 box. Ethernet connection to net through router to dsl connection. The cable box is set for channel 3, replay out to channel 4. I also connected the rca aux outs of the cable box directly to the tv for an alternate source when replay is funky. For Replay simplicity the only connections to replay are catv from the box to the replay to the tv. I'll start with the most consistent problem:

The remote -- it is very sporadic and slow. It requires multiple presses, and since you don't know if each input took or not, sometimes it advances further than you intended. I noticed after a reboot it sometimes seems to operate fine during the setup phase. Thereafter it always bogs down. Oddly, so does the remote for my cable box. In checking the info page for the box I notice it's set to IR blaster -- no. I don't know if this is the correct setting for the box, but I can't change it. I've replaced batteries with fresh ones for the remote. I've covered the settop box's ir sensor with opaque material. Seems to be no difference in replay remote performance.

Channel Guide: When I first set up the unit, it received the channel guide. However it is gone now, it just lists the channels with no info. I can usually go to those channels, however. I've tried to retrieve the channel guide again by resetting the connection and re-requesting a dhcp address from the router. No channel guide. I don't know if this is related, buy I can't do anything at myreplaytv.com either after two days -- maybe they don't recognize me either?

Channel changing takes at least five seconds. I can deal with that, but I don't know if it's normal.

On the plus side, yesterday I managed to record something. The pause and slomo functions seem to work.

I've rebooted many times, soft and hard. All symptoms remain.

I'm out of ideas short of getting an RMA

to update: Now I have the channel guide, thanks to the 243 zone command, which I haven't found in the manual, so maybe that should be in a troubleshooting guide?

I'll move to another topic with the next questions.

How about this senario.

(I am experiencing this one right now and have not had much time to troubleshoot it yet)

With replay plugged in blue light automatically comes on. No display, just passing through cable signal. Can not turn the blue light off by pressing power or bring up any displays.

Have tried soft reboot. Blue light comes back on, same thing. No please wait screen.

Have tried hard reboot. Blue light comes back on, same thing. No please wait screen.

I guess the next step is Reimage drive????

After that RMA ????

Additions/comments to Jeff's list

Originally posted by Jeff D
Love the idea!!! It's all been documented here, but it would be great to consolidate it!

S-Video input isn't working:
Are you using input 2? Have you selected S-Vid for input 2 in Setup?
Does composite work?

Cables can often be the problem, try taking a known working cable off another piece of equipment.


Remote control isn't working:
1) Always get fresh batteries, this is more often than not the problem. Even if you think the batteries are good, and you don't have a tester, try another set of batteries.
2) make sure there isn't another remote inadvertently activated and sending an interfering signal. If it's a remote for an older Replay, make sure that the Replay device is selected

Originally posted by sickboy007
How about this senario.

(I am experiencing this one right now and have not had much time to troubleshoot it yet)

With replay plugged in blue light automatically comes on. No display, just passing through cable signal. Can not turn the blue light off by pressing power or bring up any displays.

Have tried soft reboot. Blue light comes back on, same thing. No please wait screen.

Have tried hard reboot. Blue light comes back on, same thing. No please wait screen.

I guess the next step is Reimage drive????

After that RMA ????

Takes more than a minute on booting 5k with cable, THIS SHOULD BE DOCUMENTED here. My first experience with the 5k and cable and I had the same question:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=283196

More than 2 minutes and I'd guess there is a problem, this is a SLOW boot with pass-thru until the replay official boots up to the "welcome" or "please wait", can't remember which.

Originally posted by sickboy007
How about this senario.

(I am experiencing this one right now and have not had much time to troubleshoot it yet)

With replay plugged in blue light automatically comes on. No display, just passing through cable signal. Can not turn the blue light off by pressing power or bring up any displays.

Have tried soft reboot. Blue light comes back on, same thing. No please wait screen.

Have tried hard reboot. Blue light comes back on, same thing. No please wait screen.

I guess the next step is Reimage drive????

After that RMA ????

Yes, like Jeff said, it takes a while to boot up with the cable pass through. Try viewing the s-video or composite video output. You should be able to view the boot up progress (if any).

I appreciate the responses.

Thanks for the tip on the delay using the coax out. I did not know that. My other unit uses the s-vid and I do see an instant response.

However, I did allow the unit more than a couple of minutes to reboot, and never did see a please wait screen.

I went ahead and reimaged the drive w/72 , and it still took me a few tries to get it to connect to the server. ( I even had to reboot to try a phone line and then went back to ethernet with a new cable before it finally worked).

Anyways I am back up and running and I have updated to 110.
I am still concerned with what could cause this problem. I only have a couple more weeks of warranty on this one. (a refurb)

While my unit is open does the operator of the new FTP site need a copy of 110 image? Where should I send it?

As far as the troubleshooting guide, are you planning on adding a section for multiple units (ie. not seeing other guides or being able to record on second machine), or for IVS configuration. The later could be more of a configuration guide than a trouble shooting guide.

Originally posted by sickboy007


I went ahead and reimaged the drive w/72 , and it still took me a few tries to get it to connect to the server. ( I even had to reboot to try a phone line and then went back to ethernet with a new cable before it finally worked).

Anyways I am back up and running and I have updated to 110.
I am still concerned with what could cause this problem. I only have a couple more weeks of warranty on this one. (a refurb)

While my unit is open does the operator of the new FTP site need a copy of 110 image? Where should I send it?

As far as the troubleshooting guide, are you planning on adding a section for multiple units (ie. not seeing other guides or being able to record on second machine), or for IVS configuration. The later could be more of a configuration guide than a trouble shooting guide.

I think you voided you chance at an RMA by opening the unit up. If you didn't now the replay servers have all the information on your unit, yes everything is tracked. Shows, Drives, drive space, software versions. It's pretty easy for them to tell what you've done to the unit.

IVS I've already started to touch on, no? hmmm maybe I didn't bother yet.

I had a moment while setting up a refrub replacement tonight...

What I see out the video 1 output and coax output during a reboot of the replay.

Both displays are from the same replayTV.

The lower display is toshiba portable DVD player fed from the 5040's video 1 output. Upper display is 1983 Sony TV fed from the 5040's coax output.

Was there any sound?

My hinky remote is now working normally after 243 zoning again and receiving the updated software from Replay. The only other thing I did differently was assign replay the channel 3, which is also the output of my cable box. For some reason I thought they should be on different channels. In any case, the semi functional remote is now a fully functional remote after the software update. I was just lucky that Replay did a software update at this time since I don't know how to reinstall an existing version of software. Hope this helps someone.

Is there a troubleshooting in the manual. I haven't looked in a long time.


Problem: No signal from the Compenent out.

You must use a different output and setup the component in the menu first.

Originally posted by jleavens
Okay, here's a frequent one to address:

What do you say to someone whose machine stops on "Please Wait"? Before you recommend an RMA, that is :)

Do this at least once:
unplug it for an exaggerated amount of time. From evening to morning or from evening til after work is good; you won't be using it anyway. I've seen a faint but distinguished pattern of this sometimes solving the problem.

Do this at least once:
After booting it up give it an exaggerated amount of time to figure itself out 20 min is probably fine, about the same amount of time it takes to shower and remember it's out there trying to boot.

cow, remember 'unplug' always has to mean 'unplug *everything*'. Important, since for the average user who has a stuck PC or the like, they just pull the power (not the keyboard, mouse, and speakers... :) ).

My replay is saying my PCB serial number is missing

This is NORMAL

Originally posted by jleavens
Let's say it just stuck at "Please Wait".

Try booting with cables unplugged?
Re-image drive?
RMA?

Anything in between that I'm missing? Mine work right, so I haven't gone through this :)

There are a lot of people on this forum that are not techies. Assuming every one knows (or cares to) do a re-image etc is stretching it a bit. Either make the troubleshooting database for both techies and non-techies, or create one for techies and one for non-techies. Personally, if my replayTV is still under a one year warranty, it is my belief that is not my place to re-image, or do ANYTHING that should be taken care of by DNNA. Out of warranty, then a trouble shooting database is great. That is another reason to have a non-tech database; to be able to do a series of zone commands that may fix the problem without opening the box and making things worse.

Problem: My remote doesn't work, and/or, the Replay is acting like remote buttons are being pushed, but I'm the only one in the house, and I'm not touching the remote!

Solution: Are you using florescent lights? Some florescent lights create infrared noise. This can flood (block) remote commands, or can randomly issue commands to electronics. Try turning off the lights. If it is the problem, replace the florescent lights with different brand of florescent, or if that fails, replace with incandescent lights.

Problem: The Replay in my bedroom doesn't see the Replay in my living room.

Solution: Did you just apply power to either of the Replays? Replays do not immediately see each other on the network. The periodically poll the network for other Replays. This can take 10 or 15 minutes sometimes. If you know that the network is good, leave the Replays on for a half hour and then recheck to see if they see each other.

On the earlier mentioned problem of disk stuttering, I would recommend the user make sure disk spindown is disabled before assuming the HD is busted. spindown enabled on the 4xxx series has been known to cause the video to freeze and/or stutter.

Also, when connecting the Replay for the first time (or after a sustained power-outage) it is best to follow a specific order:

1) Connect telephone or ethernet cord (not both)
2) Connect only one input (coax, s-vid, or RCA)
3) Connect only one output (whatever you are using to TV)
4) Plug unit in
5) Wait till it makes it all the way through the several "wait" screens. Do NOTHING during this period. Don't rewire stuff, don't press buttons on the remote. Just be patient.
6) Go through the setup and get everything the way you want it. Let it do a successful net connect.
7) Now you may connect extra inputs, outputs, etc.

Not following this procedure exactly may work, but you're better off being safe and sticking to it.

Originally posted by jleavens
Okay, here's a frequent one to address:

What do you say to someone whose machine stops on "Please Wait"? Before you recommend an RMA, that is :)

If using broadband, disconnect the ethernet cable until the ReplayTV is finished booting. With the ethernet cable connected, it may take as long as 5 minutes to boot, and then still be unable to communicate over ethernet. With the ethernet cable disconnected it boots in about 1 minute.

I've found this also solves DHCP communication problems during initial setup.

If you are using ethernet, try booting up with the network cable disconnected.

Before I send this back ... I got a 5040 refurb from the Ebay Replay thing. Setup was no problem, everything connected to the network, it downloaded the guide. Life is good.

Except ... it worked fine yesterday. Today it says continually that it isn't getting a video signal. I tried using coax and composite outs, I changed the Replay inputs ( a real hassle with the 5xxx since it's a menu command ) , I changed the inputs between coax and composite, I changed the video out from channel 3 to channel 4.

Finally, I hooked up one of my 4xxx machines and it worked fine. So the 5xxx shows nothing ... no cable signal of any kind ... but it connected and everything seemed to work fine for one day. The 4xxx worked great right out of the box ( I bought another one of those from the Replay Ebay thing too ) without any special setup.

Any ideas what is wrong? Or did I finally get a bad one?
Working for a day and then having no video is a concern.

Hank

Hank and other, this is a common problem, although ReplayTV doesn't seem to think so because NO ONE is reporting it. Please call them to report the problem.

This seems to be a problem for those with RF input used. It doesn't matter what imputs you have configured, all inputs will show the "no signal detected" message.

This problem also appears to be connected to software upgrades. A good reason why you don't see it all the time (maybe why no one reports the problem?)

I tried for hours before something dumb just made it work.

MikeyBoy and SFHub answered this question in Hank's thread, the two suggestions for how to fix can be found here:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?postid=3071174#post3071174
SFHub's and CrunchyDoodle's

I just wanted to get think solution into this thread.

Have been trying to send pictures from my computer to my ReplayTV 5508. Loaded the software and both machines are working off the same hub. The machines don't see each other. Tried turning off my Norton Firewall but it didn't help. Any ideas?

I had the same problem. The solution is very simple, go to the back of your Replay and push the IR Blaster cable hard into the Replay. The IR blaster will work properly being "halfway" plugged in, but the remote will be sporadic, especially the channel guide.


"The remote -- it is very sporadic and slow. It requires multiple presses, and since you don't know if each input took or not, sometimes it advances further than you intended. I noticed after a reboot it sometimes seems to operate fine during the setup phase. Thereafter it always bogs down. Oddly, so does the remote for my cable box. In checking the info page for the box I notice it's set to IR blaster -- no. I don't know if this is the correct setting for the box, but I can't change it. I've replaced batteries with fresh ones for the remote. I've covered the settop box's ir sensor with opaque material. Seems to be no difference in replay remote performance."

When calling tech support, if you hear "Welcome to the ReplayTV technical support line..." hang up and hit redial. That is the India office where this troubleshooting guide will be sent. BUt since they don't have it yet, you don't want to talk to them if you actually have a problem you want resolved. Keep dialing until you hear, "You have reached the technical support queue...". This is the Texas office.

For the following:

People with no local number for replaytv access
& only dialup internet


You can setup your computer to give replaytv internet connection sharing privilages. I came home from a 2 day trip and my computer was on, waiting for me to log in. This freaked me out because I forgot I had wake-on-lan enabled and ReplayTV woke up my computer at night to connect to the services.

jot89679o68you

I didn't see this mentioned before...

My IR Blaster has stopped working (was working, now isn't)

There have been some issues with the IR blasters no longer working like it did.

This can be caused by a few things...
1) replay is confused
Best bet... reboot the replay.

I've had a replayTV completely lose track of what it should be sending the following fixed my problem:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?postid=2318360#post2318360

2) Box controlled by IR blaster is confused
Reset your dss/cable receiver, this problem happens a lot.

3) IR blaster cable can fail
There are two ends of the IR blaster, try both ends to be sure this isn't working. This is the thing I'd suspect would the most common problem.

4) IR blaster port on replay has failed
The only way to check this is to make a test cable with a regular LED on one end and the mini-jack on the other end. The regular LED will let you see the data the IR port is sending. Sorry, I know of no cables manufactured like this. You can make one for less than $5 with little skills.

Guys my 2 year old Replay 5040 remote stopped working suddenly a couple weeks ago. I tried to reboot warm and cold several times with no luck. I also tried to reset the remote.

I opened my Replay up and pulled out the IR circuit board. After looking closely at the solder joints specifically of the IR receiver element, I saw there were some poor solder joints. After heating up my little 20 watt soldering iron and putting a little solder on, I plugged it back in and it worked! I would recommend those with some soldering skills to give this a try as well if your warranty is gone (like mine) before calling the manufacturer boys in.

I'm so happy to have my remote back. In the meantime I discovered the RTVrc-0.2 program and that was awesome... but the remote I just can't live without. Still will use RTVrc from far away lands when I need to set up those same-day recordings. Thanks for all the other tips!

How about :

Replay does not record the channel you choose.

1. Replay chooses a totally different channel, can be intermittent.

2. Replay drops a digit off the channel you programmed.

3. Replay doesn't change channel at all and records wherever it is.

While it seems that the serial connection is more reliable through the posts I've read, most receivers will need to use the IR blaster. When I followed the advice listed here to pull the blaster off the front of the receiver and using a clear plastic battery box to tape it so it is inside the box and held steady, but about 1" away from the front of the receiver all my wrong channel problems ceased with my Hughes GAEBO receiver(I found this post in archives looking up ir blaster and GAEBO). Other posts had luck just laying the blaster on the shelf in front of the receiver and different approaches including gluing it to the right or left. My remote responds much better now too. I never would have thought of this myself and I'm really grateful to this forum!!

Worked for a long time, but now gets stuck at the please wait a few moments screen, any ideas?

Originally posted by linuxbatman
Worked for a long time, but now gets stuck at the please wait a few moments screen, any ideas?

As always with any stuck on "Please Wait" messages it's a hard disk problem most likley. The please wait image is ROM based so it's not loaded from the disk, and will show up every time. After that the disk is used to load the rest of the software. The loading is the normal reason for waiting... in your case it seems like the drive has failed all together.

Go back a few pages and read up on trouble shooting your hard drive.

Originally posted by homestylepc
How about :

Replay does not record the channel you choose.

1. Replay chooses a totally different channel, can be intermittent.

2. Replay drops a digit off the channel you programmed.

3. Replay doesn't change channel at all and records wherever it is.

While it seems that the serial connection is more reliable through the posts I've read, most receivers will need to use the IR blaster. When I followed the advice listed here to pull the blaster off the front of the receiver and using a clear plastic battery box to tape it so it is inside the box and held steady, but about 1" away from the front of the receiver all my wrong channel problems ceased with my Hughes GAEBO receiver(I found this post in archives looking up ir blaster and GAEBO). Other posts had luck just laying the blaster on the shelf in front of the receiver and different approaches including gluing it to the right or left. My remote responds much better now too. I never would have thought of this myself and I'm really grateful to this forum!!


There is one important thing regarding the IR stuff that's often overlooked...
You need to try to locate the IR Receiver and place the IR blaster in a way that would allow the IR transmission to get to the receiver. Many different ideas on this, but the blaster on a shelf in front of the unit is a great one. Another handy hint... IR will bounce off almost anything. I bounce it off the glass door in the cabinet of my 36" TV. (That's the only IR blaster I'm using, all other boxes are serial).

Another sometimes helpful suggestion is to use both of the IR blasters in tandem. One on each side of the tuner. (I've never seen any problems with multiple blaster heads being used)

Originally posted by fggtheater_john
Guys my 2 year old Replay 5040 remote stopped working suddenly a couple weeks ago. I tried to reboot warm and cold several times with no luck. I also tried to reset the remote.

I opened my Replay up and pulled out the IR circuit board. After looking closely at the solder joints specifically of the IR receiver element, I saw there were some poor solder joints. After heating up my little 20 watt soldering iron and putting a little solder on, I plugged it back in and it worked! I would recommend those with some soldering skills to give this a try as well if your warranty is gone (like mine) before calling the manufacturer boys in.


Thanks for this. I just lost remote control of one of my replays, and while I was checking all the connections internally, I didn't think to check the solder points. I was doing a search to find out if anyone had found a replacement IR Receiver when I saw this post and had that "Aha!" moment. I hit all the solder points and it's working again.

Strange that it didn't occur to me sooner, as I have a '90 Mazda RX-7 and they are infamous for cold solder joints. I've had to resolder just about everything on that car, and that should have been one of the first things that crossed my mind.

Thanks for saving me a lot of time!

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&postid=3651209

This thread had a problem (and eventual solution) that could be added to this list.

I just had my first ReplayTV problem.

Was recording the Masters when the picture started stuttering. Even when I unplug it and reboot the unit, once a channel is displayed my ReplayTV 3060 just locks up.

Just seemed to stop working all of a sudden.

Could this be a bad drive? The drive has started to make higher pitched sounds lately but no thrashing.

doggiedog, this could be, well most likely is a drive issue. There are several things you can do.

1) Pull the drive and run the PC diagnostics (manufacturer's diagnostics) and see if the are "real" drive problems.
2) If the diagnostics show no problems then the issue would most likely be either heat, or bad sectors.
You can check heat, by running your replay for hours with the cover off to see if that help, if so you know the cause.
If the problem is bad sectors the only way I know to remove those is with the manufacturer's low level format, this will wipe the drive so you'll need to back up stuff first.

There is one other issue, but I don't really think it would be the cause and that would be a power supply that's going bad... but, I hightly doubt this is the cause as the disk would be the #1 culprit of the symptoms you describe

Of course, if this sort of hardware play isn't your cup of tea you can always ask for help. There are several of us who could help out.

Thanks for the help.

After the machine locked up and I tried several times to unpower and power it, I left it on overnight.

Somehow it resurrected itself. I don't know how long it will last though. I've had the unit for several years and I don't think it was a heat issue. I suspect it must be a bad sector issue because of the skipping.

Regardless, my family and I never realized how critical the Replay is to our home. I've got 2 young kids who like to watch their shows and it would have been difficult not to have the Replay.

I'm seriously thinking of buying another one as an emergency backup now.

Originally posted by Jeff D
Reimage the drive with the images available online and with RTV_Patch
ReplayTV OS Images (ftp://replay:giveme@ftp.kdhnews.com/)

RTV_Patch Link (http://sourceforge.net/projects/rtvpatch/)
There are four (4) different drive images just for the 50xx series at ftp.kdhnews.com labeled:

5040_530510190.zip -- 67.7 mb
replay5040.rtv.gz -- 26.3 mb
replaytv5k_5072.zip -- 81.7 mb
rtv5040_110.zip -- 73.4 mb

They all have the same date. Many thanks to the kind person(s) whe put up the images for all to use, but it would sure be nice if there were a text file in the folder explaining the differences between the different versions of files.

OK, enough people have bugged the crap out of me on this issue it's time to address it.

The replayTV picuture it TOO BRIGHT, TOO DARK, BLURRY, FLAT or WASHED OUT COLOR why is this and what can be done about it?

Short answer... the replay CAN have and affect on your picture brightness and color, but generally not much.

Standard disclaimer... the replayTV hardware is all the same and configured the same. The chips inside are configured to work for a "general" state. I'd say somewhere in the high 90% this problem is USER error.

That's right I said USER ERROR.

Let me give you this sample...

http://home.comcast.net/~jeff.davies/replaytv/sidebyside.jpg

This is a shot of my Widescreen TV split screen with two replayTVs connected to two different inputs Notice how the color looks different on each side? Well... sure it is. Is this a problem of the replayTV? NO.

Some wise guy may say... but the TV is the same and the only thing different is the replayTV. Well wise guy is really dumb guy. If I swap the inputs the replayTVs are using guess what.... the exact same results!

Now this isn't true of all TVs but a lot of tv's with different inputs do have different settings for each of the inputs. Almost all HDTVs do, and many of the others that aren't HDTVs do this too.

More importantly this very basic feature your TV has is the key to fixing most of these problems. Your TV has these adjustments, color, hue, brightness, contrast, sharpness. It sounds like most of you never looked at them. Even if you do you may not understand what hue, saturation, brightness, contrast or sharpness do to an image.

Get yerself a copy of a video calibration DVD and sit down and play with it. This won't really work with the replayTV because you want the device that is connected to the input to be feeding the signal for calibration. But... my hope here is to help people understand it isn't always the ReplayTV that's causing the issues, but it may just be the way the user has the TV configured. The majority of people out there never calibrate the TV, and it's the most important thing to do for a great picture.

But we're on AVSForum everyone here should know this!

Leaving my 5504 on for an extended period of time, causes the screen to go completely white or green. Soft rebooting (power button off, then back on) doesn't clear the problem. Hard reboot (unplug unit, wait 10 seconds, replug back in) DOES clear the problem. Is this some pending hardware issue? I've got adequate room behind and ontop of the unit for cooling (it's in an entertainment system, and there's nothing sitting on top of it).

My set-up:
Coax -> 10db signal amp
Amp coax -> Replay
Replay S-Video -> Video Switch box
Replay Digital Audio -> Audio Switch box
Switch box S-Video -> TV
Switch box Digital Audio -> Stereo Reciever
Broadband hookup

We had two problems with this yesterday after several hours of TV time (3 or so hours), and I got the green screen when I left it on overnight.

Suggestions/recomendations?

Chlamydia, no idea, but if you want suggestions, I'd say you should start a new thread about this. That will get a lot more traffic and talk.

Two new ones...

Replay get stuck in infinite reboot loop.

In some cases the following will help to fix the problem. The replayTV will sometimes get into a situation where it can't complete the boot because of a filled MPEG partition, this will cause the replayTV to constantly reboot.

The fix is simple...
Disconnect any inputs you have on the replayTV. This will result in a "No Signal Detected" message after the replay boots up. (If it boots up) If your restart is successful go into your guide and delete some shows before reconnecting your inputs.



ReplayTV 5k hang or is unresponsive on the ReplayTV logo with three menu choices (guide replay guide or menu)
The hang with this logo screen with three choices is very common when there are network issues. Generally the replayTV can't make a connection and will sit there for up to 15 minutes before it times out. I've see it go longer than an hour.

Simple for DHCP users, static configuration folks you'll have to experiment with something like what I describe...

Before trying anything else try resetting your DHCP server (router) and see if that helps. You can do this while the replay is stuck on that screen. Another good option is try another ethernet cable between the replayTV and the router.

If those ideas don't help the following works well for me.

Disconnect the LAN cable and restart the replayTV. The replay should boot to the same screen and power off, sometimes it stays on. Once the replay is up and running:
Go into the menu
Select network and input settings
Select change network settings
Plug the LAN cable back in
Now do a release and renew (the first option)

Will a Win '98 computer work to mirror a replay hard drive? What image should I use for a MAXTOR hard drive from a Replay 5160?




[QUOTE]Originally posted by Jeff D
[B]Please wait is a tough one...

Generally a problem with the disk, either bad file, bad sector or bad software from an upgrade. The solutions, there are not many. Generally you have no control at this point, the system won't get far enough in the boot process for user input...

First this is the best way to "reset" the replay.
1) unplug the replay power from the jack.
2) unplug all connections from the replay
3) press power button a couple of times.

Steps 2 and 3 are very important, electricity coming in over the coax, RCA or ethernet connections can be enough to keep parts of the replay "live" you can't get a true reset until all juice is gone. Pressing the power button helps to ensure the stored energy in the caps and such is discharged.

After that these questions are important:
Is the replay in reboot loop? On the SS series there was a problem where the system partition was having files corrupted. The only solution was to reimage the drive. This could very easily be the cause on the other replayTVs too.

If the replayTV is still covered by DNNA and you haven't opened it up and upgraded the drive. RMA might be the best option, sucks for DNNA, but if the unit is a refurb it might be the best option. There could be more problems further down the road. Sucks cuz it costs the DNNA money...

If you opened the replay, it's not under warranty or you've upgraded the drive....
Open it up, take the disk out, run maxtor's diagnostic software PowerMax
Check for errors, Maxtor drives generally have a 3 year warranty, use it if you need to!

If no errors were reported in diagnostic scan LLF (low level format) is a good option. Disk problems LLF is always a good idea, LLF maps out bad sectors on the disk. Bad sectors can cause all sorts of problems on PVRs because PVRs don't generally write verify (with good reason). It's assumed the write worked without problems. On system files this could be fatal.

QUOTE]

I believe patch is only for winNT which win98 isn't. Win98 is FAT16 (32?) I can't see a reason why it wouldn't work, but I've never tried.

The old hard drive tests fine with the Maxtor utility. I did the LLF just so I had a clean slate, then got the system to recognize the drive as "D" but am wondering how I install the replay files. Have I gone too far by partitioning the drive in order to get the system to assign a drive letter?

Am taking this one slow, methodical step at a time. That way I'll learn something and avoid screwing something up.

Steve, sorry for the delay, you should have searched around.

Partitions in windows boxes are for windows machines. The replay drive uses a different structure. The drive won't ever be seen by windows as a mountable drive, so don't try. Nothing bad by doing it, it's just not needed.

RTV_Patch will fix the drive so it can be used by the replayTV.

You need to have the image (you should have made a back up before your LLF) if you need to download an image look on the faq page there's an area on the right side with links to images. Get the image and unzip that to a .rtv file. Use this file in rtv_patch to restore a system. Then patch the drive with the patch button. Icecow has an excellent video on this site you can use to understand how to do what you need to do.

Originally posted by Chlamydia
Leaving my 5504 on for an extended period of time, causes the screen to go completely white or green. Soft rebooting (power button off, then back on) doesn't clear the problem. Hard reboot (unplug unit, wait 10 seconds, replug back in) DOES clear the problem.


Chlamydia,
I am having the same problem.
I am also getting the "Video not found" error every time a program ends.
I have to go back into setup and re-select the video input.

The thing forgets the input and records hours of blank video. Very frustrating.

I love my ReplayTV, but in the 2 months I have had it, it appears buggy as all get out. I had great luck with it for the first 3 weeks. Since then it has been a strugle.

Folks - Are these things stable?

Originally posted by Rockin'EZ
Chlamydia,
I am having the same problem.
I am also getting the "Video not found" error every time a program ends.
I have to go back into setup and re-select the video input.

The thing forgets the input and records hours of blank video. Very frustrating.

I love my ReplayTV, but in the 2 months I have had it, it appears buggy as all get out. I had great luck with it for the first 3 weeks. Since then it has been a strugle.

Folks - Are these things stable?

What is the video input? If it's a cable or satellite box, you'll have to make sure that that isn't the problem. Do you have a VCR that you can hook up to another set of outputs from the converter box?

If that's not it, you might want to try a new hard drive. If it worked fine for a few weeks and then got worse, that sounds like the HD. But if you bought it from DNNA, you would invalidate the warranty by opening it. If you bought it on eBay, you might not be covered by the warranty and your best shot might be a new HD.

FWIW, I've had mine for 10 and 7 months, respectively, and other than occasional reboots when my wireless network hangs, I've had zero problems with the hardware and software. (Most of my problems stem from crappy guide data from DNNA.)

Thanks Max H.

I have a digital cable box.

I simplified the input by reducing it to the coax cable only.

In the past I was using Svideo input, but when the problems started I tried to make things as simple to troubleshoot as possible.

I did check the inputs to assure I had the connections correct.
I rechecked the setup options.

I purchased the unit new, so it is still under warrantee. This might be the ticket.

The Replay TV unit is crashing after being on for a few hours. It locks up with a dark blue background.

Works correctly after a hard reboot for a few hours and crashes again.

Every once in a while I get a greatly magnified screen ( I can only see a portion of the logo).

I also get a green screen with vertical lines every once in a while.

I will try the Replay support line tomorrow........ not looking forward to that.

What is the groups experience with the "Return to factory defaults" option?

.

.

OK, here's a really wierd problem I'm having with one of my 5040s after almost 2 years of use. My wake-up call in the morning is essentially my wife turning on the bedroom TV/RTV to 'Good Morning America'. One morning she says the replay remote's not working... it won't change channels (but it turned on the TV and RTV). Thats all it will do is turn on/off the TV and RTV, no channels, no guides, no menus etc. The first thing I do is put in new batteries and it does the same thing so I pull the plug on the replay for 10 min and reboot. I turn on the replay, then the TV and everything works (or so I think). Later that evening I check it again and its ok.

The next morning my wife says its not working again so I repeat the process and fix the problem. Morning 3, the same problem. Now I ask my wife what in the heck is she doing. When I use it it seems to work fine. When she uses it, it breaks.

Here's whats happening. Using the replay remote, if you turn the TV on first, then the replay, the replay won't respond to the remote. You then need to reboot to get out of this. If you turn on the replay first, then the TV, everything seems to work fine. I can't imagine what affect the TV can be having on the RTV when powered on first, it doesn't make sense.

Another symptom that I see with this problem is that when its in the 'doesn't respond to the remote' state, it still will attempt to record shows that have been previously programmed but it can't change channels. You end up recording the channel its stuck on during that timeslot. Anyway, I just thought I'd throw this up here and let some of you scratch your heads on it.

I have a RTV5504 set up to work with WiRNS 1.2.6. Back when I was using WiRNS 1.1.2, my nightly net connect would take roughly 5 minutes to finish; now it takes over 15 minutes. My RTV would go through checking activation, setting clock, transferring data, and etc. at its normal speed, but it would take more than 10 minutes on the last 15% of Combine Data. I tried unplugging the ReplayTV for over 30 minutes and disconnecting the RTV from the router. Nothing seems to be working. I am not sure what I did to cause this slow down. Everything else with my RTV seems to be running fine. I would like to get back my 5-minute nightly updates. Please help. Thank you.

In addition to the other "channel 6" issues, You can add a software update to the latest software as a solution.

If you get the Quick Setup screen after a reboot or a crash, you can likely recover your shows Do the following:
[list=1]
Do a 382-zone (the numbers do not appear on the screen, but you'll know if you did it right.
When presetnted with the factory reset option select exit.
This should take you to the choice of modem or ethernet connection to download data.
Select exit once again
[/list=1]

For me, this got me back into the menu. Others have gotten the three choices screen (Replay Guide, Channel Guide, etc). Anyway, all my shows were intact but any category that I created was gone (not the shows, just the category). For credit's sake, j.m. pointed me to a thread that was written by JeffD, but I was unclear on who wrote the original directions.

bump to save from archive

Weird- after reading this thread through, I left my Replay 5040 unplugged overnight- I had a power outage and afterwards, I would get a "service activation" screen up that I couldn't get rid of- it wouldn't connect to the server, wouldn't download anything properly.

After leaving unplugged overnight and booting the unit with the Ethernet unplugged, it seems to work fine now. Thanks to everyone who has contributed to the thread.

Hi,

I haven't been in this forum in a while, but here is a problem I experienced a while back. We had inadvertently let the Replay 5060 with a 120 GB drive fill up. I could not get it to delete any shows. However, I was able to access the Replay unit through DVArchive. After deleting a few shows, I was again able to clean out some files straight through the Replay again.

Hope this helps if anybody else gets stuck like that.

Cheers,
Cogito

I had the Please Wait... reboot loop issue mentioned by jleavens. I'm writing in the hope that I help somebody out.

I just spent the last two weeks getting familiar with my 5040 innards, rtv_patch, and hard drive upgrades. After much effort and buying a new Maxtor 120GB drive, I believe the answer to my original problem with the 2.5-year-old stock Maxtor 40GB setup was the grounding screws on either the motherboard or power supply.

The original symptom was a show hanging (video freeze with audio in a short loop). After reboot, continued to work normally. One morning after the same issue, unit got into a reboot loop at the Please Wait... screen.

Called ReplayTV folks and they told me for $80 + shipping they would fix it. Ha!

I read up on rtv_patch, ripped the sticker, opened it up and stuck the drive in my computer. With rtv_patch, did a backup, restore and patch to the same drive (lost my shows, but wasn't concerned about it). Put it back in the unit and it booted up and ran fine for a week (good for me, saved $80+) before doing something a little different than before (bad for me, not working again).

This time when it would boot up, it would go from the Please Wait... screen to the Quick Setup screen and then turn off. When I turned it on, it was at the Quick Setup screen prompting me to hit Select to continue. However, the unit would not respond to the remote at all, so I was essentially stuck.

I decided to buy a new drive to see if it was a drive problem. I plugged both the old drive and the new drive into my computer and used rtv_patch to copy the partitions to the new drive. I booted up the new drive and got the same Quick Setup dead end.

I did a restore to the new drive using my backup from 2 weeks prior. Put the unit back together and it booted up! Just for good measure, I did a factory reset and went through the setup flawlessly. Back in business or so I thought.

After checking the Channel Guide to see that things were working, I clicked on System Information in Setup. It hung there for 5 minutes before I manually rebooted. It came back up. 411-Zones indicated that I had September 2003 version. Using 243-Zones, I did a Net Connect. Everything worked fine...it downloaded the new software. When it rebooted however it got stuck in the Please Wait... reboot loop. AAAGH! Back to where I started.

So at that point I had a new hard drive that's essentially been wiped by a factory reset and it still doesn't work. I think it must be the latest software version, since it seemed to work with the 09/03 software. I figure I'm toast.

I start rummaging through this forum this afternoon and come across a thread talking about a grounding problem with the motherboard and power supply due to loose screws. I figure it's worth a shot so I open up the unit one more time and give a little tweak to each one. I plug the unit back in and PRESTO! it comes back to life on the first try. It's been running fine all evening...assuming it continues to work, I end up with 3 times the storage and a great amount of knowledge.

I'm a real newbie re use of this Forum, so hope I'm posting this in the right place!

I have a Replay 4000 that when I got up this a.m. had the power light blinking red. Nothing I can do will cause it to turn on. Does this mean it's for sure dead? Or is there some other way to try a reboot? (It's very hard to get to the plug -- requires moving lots of heavy furniture. So the obvious thing to do - unplug it and see it it would reset isn't easy).

We had a momentary power glitch last p.m. I noticed the unit reset itself, and it seemed to be okay (except the record light came on momentarily -- which seemed odd). So maybe something was damaged by the power surge.
Anyway, any opinion you can offer would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Ray Eve

First off - I have 2 x 5040 in each room connected by ethernet on a switch (no wireless). Each unit has a 250GB HD upgrade.

I had both units set to DHCP with a set address to be assigned to each. This got my room to room working, and it worked perfect for about a month. Now the replay guide will not populate?? I have no problem seening both units in the upper right hand corner to switch between, but no programs come up? I have 250GB drives in each, so I allowed plenty of time for the list to come across, but still nothing.

Does anyone have any ideas? Could it be a new software update that caused this? Or perhaps I have too many shows on the units, which has only increased over time??

>>> I had both units set to DHCP with a set address to be assigned to each.

Do you mean that the RpTV units were using DHCP, but your DHCP server has the MAC addresses for the two RpTV units in a reserved address table so that they always get the same address, even though your network is a DHCP environment?

If not, I suggest that you do it the way I descrbed. For whatever, reason, if you set a static IP address in the RpTV unit, it sometimes still tries to request an IP assignment if it sees a DHCP server on the network. Granted, that makes no sense, but trust me, it's a quirk of the OS that the RpTV units run.

I have three 5040s with 200gb drives in two of them. My networks is wired. My setup is as I described. I have no trouble. If your setup is like mine, first double check your DHCP server to make sure it still has reserved addresses for the two RpTVs. Next, do a hard reboot on everything.

Hello All- I have a 5040 Replay with a Maxtor Quickview 7200RPM drive that I replaced. It seems to work most of the time but every 4 months or so I'll go to turn on my Replay and it's stuck in the "Please Wait" screen. I've read this thread but have not really been able to pinpoint why this is happening. It really sucks because after a manual reboot I have to walk through the installation wizard and all of my previously saved shows do not show up. I'm forced to reformat the drive in order to get it working again.

Could this be due to heat? Should I go out a get a 5400 RPM drive?

Thanks in advance,
phiphika

>>> I had both units set to DHCP with a set address to be assigned to each.

Do you mean that the RpTV units were using DHCP, but your DHCP server has the MAC addresses for the two RpTV units in a reserved address table so that they always get the same address, even though your network is a DHCP environment?

If not, I suggest that you do it the way I descrbed. For whatever, reason, if you set a static IP address in the RpTV unit, it sometimes still tries to request an IP assignment if it sees a DHCP server on the network. Granted, that makes no sense, but trust me, it's a quirk of the OS that the RpTV units run.

I have three 5040s with 200gb drives in two of them. My networks is wired. My setup is as I described. I have no trouble. If your setup is like mine, first double check your DHCP server to make sure it still has reserved addresses for the two RpTVs. Next, do a hard reboot on everything.


I've had a somewhat similar problem with one of my RTV's. I have static IPs set on both of my RTVs. For some reason, one of them bound to ip .3 even though i had it set to .100. The "Network and Input" section still said it was set to .100. So on that screen with the network settings, I clicked on "Continue". As soon as I did that, the RTV bound again to the IP that I had specified for it. That was this morning, and i just had to do that again now. Is this also a "quirk of the OS"? I haven't had this happen to me in the 3+years I've had my RTV.

Very interesting, I'm on DHCP and it's bound to .3! Wow. So what you are suggesting is that I static IP it and change the IP?

I'm not suggesting anything. I'm just stating my problems. The fact that your unit binds to ip .3 as well supports the fact that this is some "quirk of the OS." Although, I do find it weird that it just started all of a sudden after over 3+ years of having the units.

Thanks for this thread. I had forgotten how network issues could lock up a Replay. (it happened to me before)
I had someone request a show and when I tried to send it, the Replay said it couldn't contact the other unit. I thought maybe his was on the fritz. It turned out to be mine. It wouldn't contact ReplayTV. DVArchive couldn't find it. The power button didn't work. (except for soft reboot) The remote didn't work.
After verifying the IR board issues, I found the 3 choices menu (after please wait... screen) lockup was an indication of searching for a network. (although I did find a cold solder for one leg of the power light, all other solder joints looked pretty good)
1. Unplug network cable.
2. Reboot Replay.
3. Select modem connection. (save settings)
4. Select network connection. (save settings)
5. Works fine again. (show now being sent)

Thanks guys!

I have not seen any symptoms like this posted... or a similar solution so FWIW

5040 Input 1 connected by RCA cables from a Scientific Atlanta Digital Cable Box..
The Replay is over 3 years old and has run continuously (as a point of reference). Purchased new from Replay it has many of the hiccups mentioned in this Forum but nothing that was not previously posted... until now.

Set up: RCA component out from Cable box to Input 1 on Replay. Output 1 RCA component out to TV.

Symptom: Stuttering sound, black video on channel select, able to access Replay menus and to replay recorded shows.

Analysis: Checked cable connections, checked power, etc..., bypass video from Cable box and from replay working OK.

First hypothesis, Disk going bad in sectors being used for live TV recording.
Second hypothesis: Replay tuner going bad

Action: All other disk functions including reboot working fine. Since there was nothing I could do to verify the disk hypothesis I lowered the priority and
Reset/Reboot all components one at a time.

When I rebooted the Digital Cable box, the Cable Box logo was displayed on the TV... this eliminated the Replay tuner as the problem as the video signal went through the Replay.

Solution: Rebooting the Digital cable box and letting it "reload" whatever reloads corrected both the video and audio problems... neither the disk nor the tuner was the problem. I did not have to reboot the Replay after the Cable Box reboot. (This is similar to the remove the remove and restore the coax cable and reboot solution, but removing the RCA video in to the Replay and rebooting did not solve the problem)

and thanks to everyone on this forum for taking the time to post issues and solutions... the guidance here was a great help in eliminating options and getting to the solution... GREAT JOB...



NH

I have a 5080 whose symptoms lately have been multiple zero-minute and one-minute recordings, video freeze with stuttering & looping audio, and finally, continuous rebooting with loss of all functions.

I pulled the unit out of the entertainment stand, (which has no doors and is well-ventilated.) The vent on the left side of the 5080 and the opening over the power supply fan were coated with a thick layer of dust/dirt.

I have two cats, (one long-hair), and a smoker in the house. We have ceiling fans constantly running, and I have to regularly clean the ceiling fan blades and motor housing vents. I also open all the PCs in the house and blow them out with an air compressor to keep them from overheating.

I simply forgot that the 5080 is also a computer and needs the same regular cleaning to prevent overheating. After cleaning the exterior, I plugged it in and the symptoms went away, for now. Of course, it could've been that unplugging everything for a while solved the problem, but it doesn't hurt to make sure your ReplayTV unit can breathe. Keep those vents clean & clear.

I bought the unit new 3-1/2 years ago, so it's well out of warranty. I'll probably break the seal and blow the innards clean with the air compressor, just to be sure.

I start rummaging through this forum this afternoon and come across a thread talking about a grounding problem with the motherboard and power supply due to loose screws. I figure it's worth a shot so I open up the unit one more time and give a little tweak to each one. I plug the unit back in and PRESTO! it comes back to life on the first try. It's been running fine all evening...assuming it continues to work, I end up with 3 times the storage and a great amount of knowledge.As the 5040 reboot loop has also visited upon me today out of the blue, I hope this turns out to be my problem as well. The screws in question are nicely illustrated here. (http://www.replaytvparts.com/Replay5000_5500_hard_drive_replacement.html)

My 5080 has been running fine since I did that routine exterior cleaning last August.
Over Thanksgiving, I cleaned the unit again as I moved it from under the old TV to the stereo closet.

As the 5040 reboot loop has also visited upon me today out of the blue, I hope this turns out to be my problem as well. The screws in question are nicely illustrated here. (http://www.replaytvparts.com/Replay5000_5500_hard_drive_replacement.html)

Even more information on power supply problems, including the nice picture of the screws is given here (http://www.replaytvparts.com/5000or5500powerproblems.html)...

Henry

Just finished installing WD3200JB in a 55XX Replay unit and there was an issue that prolonged the install. I was using the RTVPatch program installing a single drive and followed the directions exactly. The problem occurred when I first started the Replay unit, it would cycle the please wait screen continually. The fix was to move the jumper from Master, like it said in the instructions, to Cable Select.

I discovered this after I had googled the symptoms and followed some of the advice that existed. I spent 2hrs 40 minutes performing a low-level diagnostics to see if I had some bad sectors(none found). Also I removed all the inputs to see if that would fix the issue. Only after looking at my old drive did I realize that Cable select was jumpered. Once I changed it, all was good.

I learned not to put the Replay back together until I was sure the unit could get past the Please wait screen and I could see the basic functionality was there. This is dangerous because the power supply is exposed. I have a spot in my entertainment center that I can close a door to keep out fingers and pets. If this bothers you put the cover on without the screws after you have placed the unplugged unit where you are to test it.

The RTVPatch process was the quickest part of the process. If you do not want to copy your existing shows and you know how to connect a harddrive then you can get this done in 30 minutes easily. It took me longer to move the furniture and note all the connections than to patch the replay unit( excluding the low-level format which did not need to be done)

Just finished installing WD3200JB in a 55XX Replay unit...Nice, 320GB! Does the OS allow you to use it all?
How much storage space is available for recordings?

Just finished installing WD3200JB in a 55XX Replay unit and there was an issue that prolonged the install. I was using the RTVPatch program installing a single drive and followed the directions exactly. The problem occurred when I first started the Replay unit, it would cycle the please wait screen continually. The fix was to move the jumper from Master, like it said in the instructions, to Cable Select.

I discovered this after I had googled the symptoms and followed some of the advice that existed. I spent 2hrs 40 minutes performing a low-level diagnostics to see if I had some bad sectors(none found). Also I removed all the inputs to see if that would fix the issue. Only after looking at my old drive did I realize that Cable select was jumpered. Once I changed it, all was good.

I learned not to put the Replay back together until I was sure the unit could get past the Please wait screen and I could see the basic functionality was there. This is dangerous because the power supply is exposed. I have a spot in my entertainment center that I can close a door to keep out fingers and pets. If this bothers you put the cover on without the screws after you have placed the unplugged unit where you are to test it.

The RTVPatch process was the quickest part of the process. If you do not want to copy your existing shows and you know how to connect a harddrive then you can get this done in 30 minutes easily. It took me longer to move the furniture and note all the connections than to patch the replay unit( excluding the low-level format which did not need to be done)

Gary has updated his trouble shooting (http://www.replaytvupgrade.com/upgradewontboot.htm) web page with the jumper information. That information was already contained in the RTVPatch documentation (http://www.replaytvupgrade.com/rtvpatchdocumentation.htm). Since you started with RTVPatch, looking at that page would have made sense. But, since you had problems with it booting, it made sense to copy the jumper information to that page as well...

Henry

Hi,
I'm new to this forum. I just bought a Replay TV 5040 on ebay with upgraded hard drive (250G). I have done the real simple hook-up (red-white-yellow cables to/from replay tv and cable box and to/from replay tv and TV) with a telephone line into a wall jack. Have had the Please Wait screen now for over an hour...my fourth or fifth time trying it and just waiting. The seller recommended I register on this forum and your post was the only one I could find that mentioned the 'Please Wait'. Please help! Thank you.
Susan

Hi,
I'm new to this forum. I just bought a Replay TV 5040 on ebay with upgraded hard drive (250G). I have done the real simple hook-up (red-white-yellow cables to/from replay tv and cable box and to/from replay tv and TV) with a telephone line into a wall jack. Have had the Please Wait screen now for over an hour...my fourth or fifth time trying it and just waiting. The seller recommended I register on this forum and your post was the only one I could find that mentioned the 'Please Wait'. Please help! Thank you.
Susan

You'll want to start here (http://www.replaytvupgrade.com/intro.htm) and proceed to here (http://www.replaytvupgrade.com/pleasewait.htm) and here (http://www.replaytvupgrade.com/upgradewontboot.htm). In addition, I've written some step-by-step instructions here (http://www.planetreplay.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=13999) where you might want to register as well...

Henry

Well, I now have the unit back with a new hard drive in it, and am now stuck on setting up the Scientific Altanta Explorer 2100 code in the on-screen set-up. None of them turn the box on. Did a search online as well as the replaytv site however, no other codes worked. Need some more help! Thank you! Susan

Hello,
I have a 4xxx series lifetime activated replaytv unit. It was 160 hr unit, and one of the hard drives went. I still had a working 80 drive in the unit. so I reimaged the drive. The unot now boots up no problem, but I am stuck on the activation nag screen.

I tried to force the net connect using the 243 zones. but it doesn't seem to connect. Before the hard drive failure the network connected fine. So there wouldn't be any reason that the nic has since failed... I have been wrong before.

Is there in tips that I can do to try to get htis unit to connect so I can get past the activation nag screen.

Rememebr I cannot access any menu information. so telling me to manually setup the network info will not work.

Thanks for any help.

My upgraded 3060 is starting to show its age. Whenever I hit the guide button the unit reboots. It looks like it is still recording and working fine but I can no longer get to the replay guide.

I have tried a hard reset, but I have yet to do a restore as I would rather not loose the 100+ hours of programming on the drive.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

Hello,
I have a 4xxx series lifetime activated replaytv unit. It was 160 hr unit, and one of the hard drives went. I still had a working 80 drive in the unit. so I reimaged the drive. The unot now boots up no problem, but I am stuck on the activation nag screen.

I tried to force the net connect using the 243 zones. but it doesn't seem to connect. Before the hard drive failure the network connected fine. So there wouldn't be any reason that the nic has since failed... I have been wrong before.

Is there in tips that I can do to try to get htis unit to connect so I can get past the activation nag screen.

Rememebr I cannot access any menu information. so telling me to manually setup the network info will not work.

Thanks for any help.

I just had a similar situation on a 5500. I was able to get to Menu / Setup / Network settings. I found all my network settings and location setting were wiped out. Reset them up and then was able to get past the nag screen and did a 2-4-3 zones to rebuild my guide etc.

First off I would like to thank all who have contributed to keep the replay program going.

I have a 5516. My problem was that this weekend my shows were pixilating a lot and then rebooting. I figured that the HD was failing so I bought a new one.

Seagate - 500GB Internal Hard Drive
Model: ST3500641A-RK

I reimaged it, patched it, and transferred my movies over. The DVR booted and showed the new capacity and all my shows. It doesn’t pixelate anymore but it is still rebooting frequently. Any idea why? Do I need to reset it to factory defaults? (I don’t want to lose my shows and settings but I will if I have to.)

I did notice that the old drive was an ata-133 and my new one is an ata-100. Does anybody know if the onboard controller is a 100 or 133?

Thank for all you help.

First off I would like to thank all who have contributed to keep the replay program going.

I have a 5516. My problem was that this weekend my shows were pixilating a lot and then rebooting. I figured that the HD was failing so I bought a new one.

Seagate - 500GB Internal Hard Drive
Model: ST3500641A-RK

I reimaged it, patched it, and transferred my movies over. The DVR booted and showed the new capacity and all my shows. It doesn’t pixelate anymore but it is still rebooting frequently. Any idea why? Do I need to reset it to factory defaults? (I don’t want to lose my shows and settings but I will if I have to.)

I did notice that the old drive was an ata-133 and my new one is an ata-100. Does anybody know if the onboard controller is a 100 or 133?

Thank for all you help.

Couple of things: If you copied your shows over and they showed up with the new drive installed, then you really didn't reimage the new drive, you simply copied over the image from the old drive. If the old drive had file system errors, then you would have copied those file system errors to the new drive. You need to put a fresh image on that drive (which you can download from somewhere like http://www.replaytvupgrade.com). Unfortunately, when you put a new image on your drive, then you can't keep your old shows...

Second, that is a 7200.9 drive which people have reported doesn't work properly in a 5000 series ReplayTV. After putting a fresh image on the drive, you can just try it and see how it works, but I wouldn't be surprised if you continue to have problems with it. Or, check ReplayTVupgrade.com for drive compatibilty, and there are theads on the subject in this forum as well...

Henry

I just reset it using their image and I'm still having the same problem. What drives would you suggest?

Found some listed. Looks like I'll have to try the WD5000JBRTL. Hopefully they will have it to swap out. Well see.

Personally, I like the Seagate DB35 drives. Be careful with the Western Digital drives. While they may say JBRTL, if they turn out to be AAJB, then they won't work...

Henry

Thank you for your help. Unfortunatily my Best Buy doesn’t seem to have that one but it does have the WD I mentioned. Is there a way to look at the serial number to tell if it’s truly a JB and not an AAJB?

If I put on and older image will it update as soon as I turn on and set up the DVR or will it retain the older image OS? (I presume it will update so I should use the most current posted. I don’t want to use WiRNS just to get the Commercial Advance.)

Thank you for your help. Unfortunatily my Best Buy doesn’t seem to have that one but it does have the WD I mentioned. Is there a way to look at the serial number to tell if it’s truly a JB and not an AAJB?

Not without opening the box. Unfortunately, the only way to find out the actual model number is to look at the sticker on the hard drive. It is pretty unlikely that anything sold today in a retail store ISN'T an AAJB...

If I put on and older image will it update as soon as I turn on and set up the DVR or will it retain the older image OS? (I presume it will update so I should use the most current posted. I don’t want to use WiRNS just to get the Commercial Advance.)

Unless you are running WiRNS to prevent software updates, the Replay will update automatically. Because you have a 55xx model, you will lose CA and IVS (it should come out the same as was). Although, since you are upgrading the drive, it certainly is an opportunity to put an older image on it and run WiRNS so that you CAN have CA!

Henry

Here is what the say hopefully they are right. I'll find out tonight.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8188962&productCategoryId=abcat0504002&type=product&tab=1&id=1164155955173#productdetail

Here is what the say hopefully they are right. I'll find out tonight.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8188962&productCategoryId=abcat0504002&type=product&tab=1&id=1164155955173#productdetail

That's pretty much what everyone says. But, it's not likely that it won't be an AAJB. I'll keep my fingers crossed for you, however...

Henry

Well the box says it wasn't but the drive says it is an AAJB. :-( (Thats false advertising.)

Any idea what defrag and/or format utility i can use on the original HD?

Well the box says it wasn't but the drive says it is an AAJB. :-( (Thats false advertising.)

Any idea what defrag and/or format utility i can use on the original HD?

Did you ever check out ReplayTVupgrade.com? It has all the information you need including the hard drive tools and utilities...

Henry

I just want to get this (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=792043) thread about drive compatibility into this sticky so that it will be easier to find...

Henry

I guess its been quite a while since I've been here...but I do have something to add regarding the Showstopper unit.

I had a reboot problem several times and not 100% sure which solution fixed it so I'll throw them both out there.

Please Wait....

Power off

Please Wait....

Would continue to cycle like this.

I found the +5V power of the power supply to be low...down in the +4.5V range.
I replaced the power supply with a 65W Mean Well PD-65A.

I also threw away the Power Interrupt Module board...and connect the power supply directly to the MoBo.

No more reboots.

The other problem That I had was the unit would forget the time. (only after it was unplugged) I ended up replacing the Super Capacitor that keeps the memory alive on this unit. (circled in the pic)...I found the part on Jameco electronics web site.

redhawk

Do this at least once:
unplug it for an exaggerated amount of time. From evening to morning or from evening til after work is good; you won't be using it anyway. I've seen a faint but distinguished pattern of this sometimes solving the problem.

Do this at least once:
After booting it up give it an exaggerated amount of time to figure itself out 20 min is probably fine, about the same amount of time it takes to shower and remember it's out there trying to boot.

I had the Please Wait reboot issue for the first time on my old showstopper...
Just wanted to report that I did the unplug of my showstopper overnight and it finally rebooted after about 1 hour of Please Wait...! Looks like I need to do set up again. Someday this thing will really die and I will get to upgrade :)

I had the Please Wait reboot issue for the first time on my old showstopper...
Just wanted to report that I did the unplug of my showstopper overnight and it finally rebooted after about 1 hour of Please Wait...! Looks like I need to do set up again. Someday this thing will really die and I will get to upgrade :)

I want to get this (http://www.planetreplay.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=13999) link in here to be part of the trouble shooting guide. While it isn't really aimed towards ShowStoppers and 2K/3K ReplayTVs, it's still fairly applicable. The main thing to realize is that when you are having problems with the unit booting, you are really past the point of upgrading (where you can keep your shows and recording schedules) and should just start out by downloading a fresh image. This is very applicable in your situation because you are already having problems with your drive, it would be risky to upgrade from your current drive versus using a fresh image...

In addition, for Showstoppers and 2K/3K ReplayTVs, while extract_rtv and extract_rtv5 can be use to copy your recorded shows to a PC (Windows or Mac), extract_rtv5 can also provide the show recording information or even the DVArchive show description XML files so that you know a bit more about the shows that you have copied to your PC. It might make it easier to watch the shows on the PC if you used DVArchive to let you pick the shows, I might assume that since the shows are still in MPEG-2 format that they would play just fine from DVArchive launching the MPEG-2 video player, such as VLC or QuickTime with the MPEG-2 component. Both extract_rtv and extract_rtv5 make some additions to the show file when copying to the PC to make them more standard MPEG-2 files such that they should play normally with an MPEG-2 player...

Henry

This is apparently rare since the folks at customer support had never seen it happen until I came along.

My unit, which I just bought used, was saying something like "There is a problem with your account. You need to call customer support before you can use your ReplayTV device."

I called customer support, and they were stumped. My unit has a lifetime activation, and after forcing a net-connect and resetting to factory defaults and resetting my network connection, System Information still said "deactivated". It wasn't recognizing my lifetime activation.

After 45 minutes on the phone, the representative, who was great (I think they're all great), "relapped" my activation because he had no other ideas. That just meant that he reset my lifetime activation. He said it would take an hour or two to take effect, and it did. But then it worked great!

So that's what to ask customer service to do if you know you have a lifetime activation but your machine keeps saying "deactivated".

Hope that helps someone sometime!