There are several reasons why a Toppy may restart:
External network activity
Other devices on you home network can cause the Toppy to spontaneously restart. This is usually limited to Toppys with DLNA support (2400, 2460, 2470). Possible causes include:
- A Windows PC with PowerDVD can cause the Toppy to go into a rebooting loop. Disabling all PowerDVD related services will stop this from happening.
- Some version of the Twonky cause spontaneous rebooting.
- MiniDLNA/ReadyMedia ((v1.1.1) running on on FreeBSD server eventually leads to the continual restarts and disabling it stops the problem.
- The media player app on the original Telstra TV can produce rebooting loop, but fortunately does not happen with the Roku base Telstra TV 2. Only solution is to remove the media player app.
- Setting router to use Jumbo Frames can cause networked Toppys to go into spontaneous rebooting cycle (did this on Asus RT-AC68U router - changing back to default immediately solved the problem).
This problem is not unique to Toppys, it also affects some Humax units.
IceTV EPG cause rebooting
If disabling IceTV solves the problem, then the problem is related to the implementation of IceTV on the Toppy. Dave at IceTV explains the situation in the following terms.
The 7100+, 2400 and 2460 PVRs will reboot with IceTV enabled if there are conflicting channels or conflicting/duplicate LCNs set in your IceTV account. If this is not the case, then it will be that the Toppy cannot handle the amount of guide data from IceTV. It is a known issue that Topfield PVRs don't have enough memory or don't allocate enough memory for processing the IceTV EPG and schedules. The solution for this is to disable any channels that you don't watch or don't need in your account. This solved the problem for me; I had everything enabled (30+LCN), disabling 5 of them was sufficient.
Once the Topfield PVR has processed and displayed the guide for the enabled channels you may be able to re-enable the channels that you disabled (if you want to).
Another possibility is that there is an 'invalid' character in the IceTV EPG Data. For some reason it tends to be related to ABC2, and sometimes SBS. A temporary fix is to disable ABC2 in your IceTV Account Settings (accessed by IceTV www), then on the Toppy 'Reset EPG Data" in the IceTV Settings page (it is the red button at the bottom; looks like the Record button rather than the Red Function Button). This issue tends to be region specific rather than national, so if it fixes the problem report the problem to IceTV (post on the IceTV forum seems to be the fastest way of getting things fixed).
Reading large log file on startup of Toppy or a TAP
Some log files can become very large, so large that when trying to write to the the Toppy spontaneously reboots. This can happen with, but not limited to, TMSTimer. Delete or rename the log file and all should be well.
One of more TAPs is misbehaving
Disable all TAPs and then start them one by one to isolate the offending TAP or TAPs. To stop all TAPs from starting when the machine is starting press the '0' key on the remote.
Internal HDD file system corruption
The only solution is a HDD reformat. In extreme cases formatting via Toppy will not fix the problem, as it only formats partition 1, partition 0 is not reformatted and there may be problems with the file system on partition 0. In this case it is necessary to remove the HDD from the Toppy and attach it to a PC. The best solution is to delete both partitions. Before replacing the HDD, run the drive diagnostics program from the HDD manufacturer to make sure that the HDD is not failing.
Internal HDD is failing
First try to run a special TAP that will analyse the HDD and report on errors. Download it from here: http://www.topfield.cc/files/Firebird/HDDInfoTAP.zip or from TAPtoDate.
Otherwise, remove the HDD from the Toppy, and attach it to a PC. Run the drive diagnostics program from the HDD manufacturer to confirm that the drive is in fact failing. If it is, replace the HDD (see section on replacing Toppy HDD).
Power Supply is failing
A common cause of restarts for the 7000 and 7100. The solution is to replace capacitors on internal power supply board described here.
Power Supply from main board to HDD is failing
This happens to Toppys with SATA HDD. Replacing the Molex to eSATA power cable will fix the problem.
Corrupt settings or firmware
Reset settings to factory defaults. If the Toppy is still rebooting, reinstall the firmware. If you cannot reinstall firmware because of rebooting, use the procedure for resurrecting a bricked Toppy described here.
Some 2400/2460 running December 2010 or March 2011 firmware experience spontaneous rebooting. Solution is to install a more recent firmware.
If there is a HDD issue
It is possible to recover your recordings by attaching the HDD to a PC. As the drive is formatted with JFS file system the computer will need to be running Linux (native or via a live CD) or use a utility that allows the computer to read the HDD. In the windows environment UFS Explorer provides a very comprehensive solution (although it is not free). It allows both file recovery and transfer of files from the HDD to the PC. It cannot write to JFS formatted HDD. TFtoolTFToolpage name windows app can read various Toppy drives, including those using JFS file system.