Here's the document that was banned from AVS Forum. :eek:

You may discuss the reasons why, if you want. You might also want to use this as a starting ground to try new combos. Enjoy.

Instructions for Initiating 'Kickstart' Diagnostics

1.Confirm that the TiVo Recorder is plugged into the phone line, that the TV is on, and is tuned to the TiVo. Navigate to the System Information screen, and confirm the serial number and the fact that the system is running 1.3 or later.

2. Determine whether you have a touch-tone phone, a pulse phone or are connected to a touch-tone PBX and have to dial "9" before making an outside-line phone call.

Touch-tone = 0
Pulse Dial = 1
Analog PBX = 9

3. Using the TiVo remote control, go to "TiVo Central", "Messages & Setup, "Factory Settings" and select "Restart the Recorder".

4. As soon as the unit begins to boot, point the remote control at the TiVo Recorder and hold down the orange 'pause' button. Keep holding it down. After a few seconds, the left-hand light on the Recorder's front panel will turn yellow. Keep holding the 'pause' button down. After a few seconds more the right-hand light will also turn yellow. When this happens, release the orange 'pause' button, and then press the '0' button on the remote control. [Note - press the '0' button, '1' button or '9' button depending on the type of telephone you have listed in step 3.]


The lights on the front panel should change to green (on the left) and red (on the right). This means that the system is phoning our service and asking for assistance. If the phone call succeeds, the TV screen should display a message saying that the system is being tested.

5. If the system resets itself without displaying this message, it means that the phone call failed. Hold down the 'pause' button on the remote control, wait for both yellow lights to come on, and try the process again once or twice. [If the process continues to fail, we'll probably have to RMA the unit.]


If the service has identified the cause of the problem with your recorder, it will display a message saying that new software is being installed, and it will transmit software to your recorder to fix the problem. This transmission will usually take less than five minutes, at which point the recorder will restart itself.

After the recorder restarts itself, it will execute the new software and repair the problem. During the repair, it will once again display the 'installing new software' message. The repair takes approximately 10 minutes in most cases. Please do not turn off the recorder while it is repairing the problem.

Once the repair is complete, the recorder will reset again, and then start up normally. It should operate
correctly from this point on. If the recorder tells you that it has run out of program-guide information, you can go to the 'Phone Connection' menu, and perform a daily call in order to update the program guide.

6. If the TiVo service is not able to accurately identify the problem with your recorder, the 'installing new software' message will not be displayed. Instead, you'll see the 'Your system is being tested' message for several minutes (up to half an hour in some cases), while your recorder transmits its diagnostic reports to the TiVo service. When this process is complete, your recorder will reset itself and start up normally. If this happens, we can investigate the problem further.

Last modified 4/6/00 by Michael Tiffany :eek: