My Tablo Quad has been in service since early 2019. So about 2 years. It has an internal 1TB hard drive. (I’m pretty sure I put a WD Blue in there). We’ve been having issues lately with buffering, some pixelating, but then last night it just said “See ya” and I get a message that the Tablo isn’t found on the network. It’s ethernet connected.
Doing several things, including rebooting and/or power cycling multiple times, I am sometimes able to connect to it through Roku, but trying to do ANYTHING whether it’s watching live TV or accessing a recording, causes it to go off again. Pretty much the same thing happens trying to access it using the web app. When it DOES connect, accessing live TV or a recording causes it to go spastic and eventually it loses connection and tries to reconnect.
Would a failed hard drive cause this? I mean the messages talk about not being able to connect, but because I can’t watch live TV or recordings, both of which involve the hard drive, it makes me wonder if it’s just the hard drive that’s failed.
Would I have to open it up and REMOVE the internal hard drive before trying to connect a USB external? I have one here I can try.
Or is this just done and I should order another Quad?
Have you uninstall/reinstall the app you use to access Tablo?
How would you uninstall and reinstall the web app?
This is happening on all 4 TVs (all have Roku), plus the web app. I don’t think it’s an app issue.
Another way to potentially confirm if the problem is the hard drive, particularly since you say you have problems on live TV as well, would be to remove the drive and see if you have the same issues with live TV with no drive connected
Aaaaand… just turned on the TV, went to Tablo… and it’s working. So it sat for about 8 hours and seems perfectly normal now. Hard drive cooled down?
It’ll work fine on live TV without any storage at all? I thought it always used storage to spool up before streaming
Data stored locally (on Roku, IOS, Android, web app) can cause “confusion” if the database on the Tablo does not match what is on your streaming device via corruption of the database. I would suggest that prior to getting a new hard drive. It just a simple step. Just trying to help.
And I appreciate the help. So… uninstall/reinstall the app should re-sync the database? I can try that.
Yes, the database from the tablo will get rewritten to the accessing app. I don’t use the web app often enough to tell you what to delete from your browser (cookies, maybe?), but that info should be somewhere within this forum.
Good luck.
Yes, for testing purposes. You can’t do multiple streams or anything without a hard drive but you should be to just view live TV to see if you see the same issue even without the hard drive.
Either way, I would open a ticket with @TabloSupport so they can see if the logs show any indication as to the root cause of your issue.
Opened a ticket last night. Waiting to hear back. I’m really beginning to suspect the hard drive. I may run out and get one locally today just to have it. I noticed last night that a program my wife had set to record was not recording while this stuff was going on. It’s really a bunch of weirdness.
Very odd. Our team has your ticket and should be responding shortly. Glad to hear you’re up and running now, though.
It’s in heartbeat mode waiting for support to access the logs.
It has been running all day, about 13 hours so far, with no issues. Oh, except when I went down to the “closet” to put it in heartbeat mode, when I came back up my wife said, “Tablo went goofy again”. I told her I made it goofy. Waiting to see if they can figure out what the heck was going on with it last night.
Just a heads up, the over night maintenance activity may very likely put your Tablo back to normal mode. It would be wise to check your Tablo first thing in the morning to verify that it is still in heartbeat mode or if not, place it back in that mode.
Thanks for that heads up. Sho 'nuff, it was out of heartbeat mode when I checked this morning. Put it back into heartbeat mode.
Just a follow-up…
Support was quick to respond. They looked at my logs and said it looks like I was having power issues. The Tablo is plugged into an OLD UPS. It’s probably degraded to a point now where it should be replaced. I know the battery in it is done.
Meanwhile, I went down and unplugged every power connection, cleaned them, plugged them back in. Removed and cleaned the coaxial connection AND switched out the ethernet cable for a new one. It’s been running fine since. It hasn’t really been touched for almost 2 years. Was there oxidation building up on the connections? I don’t know. I’ll continue to monitor, but right now it’s back to being just it’s normal, reliable self.
So is it plugged into the UPS still?
It sounds like your power adapter may be failing. You can purchase a new one from Tablo for $10 to have on hand for that just in case.
yeah it’s still plugged into the UPS. Waiting for replacement to arrive.
Probably not a bad idea to have one as a spare.