What is the average life of a DirecTivo?

[ntwrkd]

I've been a D*sub for many years but started using DirecTivo's about 4+ years ago. I added Weaknees upgrades (extra HD's) to 2 of my Hughes HDVR2's. 3 hard drives failed in 4+ years (out of a possible 4). Anyone else have a similar experience? What is the average life expectancy of a Tivo HD? I say about 2 years? Maybe we can start a poll?

[aphex187]

I've been a D*sub for many years but started using DirecTivo's about 4+ years ago. I added Weaknees upgrades (extra HD's) to 2 of my Hughes HDVR2's. 3 hard drives failed in 4+ years (out of a possible 4). Anyone else have a similar experience? What is the average life expectancy of a Tivo HD? I say about 2 years? Maybe we can start a poll?

I just recently had to replace the drives in my Philips DSR60000 - they weren't failing, they just had a whine that I wanted to get rid of. They had put in just under 5 years.

[HiDefGator]

I suspect the biggest factor affecting hard drive life is operating temperature. Does your Tivo get good ventilation? Does the room it's in ever get hot? I know when we go on vacation in the summer we often turn off the AC, forgetting that the poor Tivo's are then trying to run in 95 degree rooms.

[ntwrkd]

The units get good ventilation, nothing on top or blocking the fan and have ups's attached.

[Tracy RainH2o]

I have had my first Tivo for three years with no problems. I recently changed out the HD for a much larger one.

I think the best bet for upgrading is to replace the original drive. If you add a new large drive to your original 2+ year old drive, you will be redoing it much sooner. As stated, the temp factor is a major cause of failure.

[Dood]

I'm on my 3rd in 3 years, you do the math :)

[Pauli]

IMO, adding a second drive to these units is unwise. These things run pretty hot with only a single, smaller drive. With a larger, 2nd drive it gets worse. Heat kills hard drives. I even added a "blowhole" to my single-drive upgraded unit to keep it cooler.

[Dkerr24]

Another vote for not running 2 hard drives. Double the heat, double the load on the power supply, and of course double the noise. Not to mention if even one drive fails, the other drive is useless until reformatted and reloaded. And you're left with a guessing game of 'which drive is the bad one?'

[TiVoSoFine]

I have two SAT-T60's.

The first one: bought in 1/2001, unmodified. HD failed in late 2004. Replaced with a new 80GB HD, it's been running well since then. During the research (to change the HD), I found the most probable cause of the failure was the temperature. Both of mine were sitting on flat surface and the internal temperature was at mid 50 C.

Since then I have elevated both of them with wood blocks (really high tech) which leaves the vents open. They now run at mid 40 C.

The second one: bought in 5/2001, added 120GB second drive in early 2002. It's been running fine ever since.

My plan is: when they both die, I'll join the Hi-Def revolution. But they just keep chugging along... :up:

[wedgecon]

Bought my SAT-T60 a little over 3 years ago. First thing I did was put in a 120GB drive, a more powerful fan and elevating the unit. I have not had a single issue and my temp is always in the 30's and 40's.

[nhaigh]

Bought my SAT-T60 a little over 3 years ago. First thing I did was put in a 120GB drive, a more powerful fan and elevating the unit. I have not had a single issue and my temp is always in the 30's and 40's.

My Philips DRS7000 ?? lasted two years before it failed, the hughes that repleced it lasted less tha a week and the huges that replaced that is not three montns old and still working.

My Sony SVR2000 (Series One SA TiVo) is now six years old and still working as well as the day I bought it.

[RossoNeri]

I've had two drives fail. Both were after power failures though. One was on a used HDDVR2 I bought from eBay and the other on an SD-DVR40 with a second drive (the original stock drive failed). Both were in the 10-14 month range since I started using them.

I have two other drives that are running okay after 8-10 months (although I don't want to jinx myself...).

I'll echo the recommendation on not using two drives (it caused about a 10 degree difference) and add that a UPS to protect against sudden power loss/power up is a good idea (as it is with any computer).

[roamerr]

I have one that is two years old. I had two others die within 6 months. Tivos eat hard drives -- that is what determines the life.... If one lasts 5 years that would be a great hard drive...

[gtrogue]

The shortest time a replacement drive in my DirecTivo's lasted was about 3 years.
The drive in my original 14 hr SA Tivo ran from '99 until '05.

[sschwart]

My SAT-T60 is almost 5 years... It's had 1 HDD failure, and that's it.

[tbeckner]

My SVR-2000 will soon be six years old, with two hard drives, one is the original OEM and the other is a Staples purchased retail red box 60GB Maxtor (that was on sale) that has been installed two months after the SVR-2000 was purchased and I still have had NO failures. Knock on Wood.

Three HDVR2s still running (bought when they first went on sale for $99), NO failures in any of them yet.

I never have had any major hard drive failures all these years on any devices, except when IBM and Maxtor (Quantum) where first screwing around with the PIXIE DUST drives, what a huge mistake that was. Those drive failures was just one of the contributing factors to IBM selling their hard drive business, in addition to their lack of capability to make it profitable. Never before did I or after have I had as much of a problem with hard drive failures, as I did with those first PIXIE DUST drives.

[Dan Collins]

Couple of points:

DirecTiVos, even under the best circumstances, present a hard drive with a harsh environment. Desktop hard drives were not designed for continuous duty cycle, and that is truer of newer drives than older ones. Therefore, it is not surprising to hear of 5 year old drives still going strong, and 2 year old drives failing.

Temperature also plays a part - the maximum rated operating temperature of most 3.5" drives is around 55°C. Many DirecTiVos (even with one drive) routinely approach 50°C. Personally, I have two Series 2 DirecTiVos with 2 drives, and 3 with only 1 drive. The hotest unit I have, a DSR7000, has only one drive (and it is an original TiVo drive). The coolest running unit has 2 drives, a WD 250GB drive and a WD 60GB drive. It is more a function of the heat produced by the particular drives than it is the number of drives installed.

I previously ran 3 Series 1 DirecTiVos for 4 years with only 1 drive failure. Drives are so cheap they are now disposable. The best bet is to hack your DirecTiVos so that you can backup your Season Passes and Wishlists, and use MRV to move recordings off a TiVo with a failing drive.

[tbeckner]

use MRV to move recordings off a TiVo with a failing drive.I can't talk for other people, but I told my wife tonight that unless the Series 3 TiVo has MRV (there is a discussion that because of the HD DRM issues that the Series 3 might not have MRV) there is no way that I could buy into it.

I use MRV almost every day, mainly because I use my DVRs to record different material, the frontroom DVR records PBS (Frontline, NOVA, This Old House, etc), NFL and College Football games and other sports, Science channel programs, and HGTV programs, and Specials, and I use the one in the bedroom to record network series programs like CSI, Medium, Law & Order, House, Bones, 24, Surface, Lost, ER, Numbers, Desperate Housewifes, etc and some NFL and College football games that I can't record in the frontroom because of scheduling conflicts. And the third one is current being used my oldest daughter amd mostly contains her tastes, like ANIME and network shows like Alias.

But my viewing takes place where I am at when I get the time, so maybe I will watch a Science channel program or Football game in the bedroom, and a network series in the Frontroom. And without the flexability of MRV I would now be lost and I have only had it for about seven months and for the first two months I still attempted to record everything on both DVRs, which was totally impossible and would have been worst once football season started.

To me MRV is almost as important as the DVR, and without a doubt has made the DVR an even better video watching time shifting tool. I bet if more people had MRV they would understand the importance of it, kind of like the difference of having a DVR and not.

[phoenix_one]

I had a SAT-T60 since Dec 03. It already had a 120g harddrive and I added another one. Seagate Barracuda, temp hovers around 48-50C.

I have it raised about 3/4". Stock fan.


No problems whatsoever.

[pudge44]

I have a DSR6000 that's going on 4 years. I replaced the fan in it during the first year because it was makingall sorts of weird noises. Just recently, I've noticed it's starting to get loud again, but haven't yet cracked it open to see if it's the fan or the hard drive.

I'm holding out to upgrade to HDTV, but I might bite the bullet and buy a replacement drive from WeakKnees.

[newsposter]

I've had poor luck with western digital drives. 3 yr old T60 here. Fried M/B and hard drive under warranty +60 bucks from me (power strip device long story). Then that drive was replaced by 2 80 gig WD...one went bad....got warranty replacement, put them in my PC and now i have 2-160s in the t60 plus their 14.95 3 yr warranty. After that is up, i'm switching brands of drives..but i've been very loyal to WD...maybe unjustifiable too.

Not sure the sony will function in 2 more years anyway lol

[BeanMeScot]

I've had VERY bad luck with drives. My first one in my SAT-T60 died at about 9 months in. I think the longest survivor was about 2 years. I have had 3 Directivos and replaced drives multiple times in each one. One was less than a year old but I could not get an RMA because it was a replacement for another short term survivor.

[tbeckner]

I've had VERY bad luck with drives. My first one in my SAT-T60 died at about 9 months in. I think the longest survivor was about 2 years. I have had 3 Directivos and replaced drives multiple times in each one. One was less than a year old but I could not get an RMA because it was a replacement for another short term survivor.Based upon that failure rate, you could be having spiking electrical problems. That is way beyond the norm in almost all cases. Have you contacted an electrician to check for grounding problems and circuit problems or could you have the devices installed somewhere where they are getting too hot?

Your failure rates are NOT anywhere close to normal, and there is very likely something in your environment and /or situation that is causing this type of problem.

The only time I had large amounts of hard drive failures is when IBM and Maxtor (Quantum) had just released the new PIXIE DUST drives.

Additional Note:

I am not a normal user, but my background is not the normal background of most of the posters on this forum, but it also may not be that far from the norm.

I current have ten computers here at home, 6 desktops and 4 servers, and earlier in 2005 I had four additional desktops at home, before my kids started moving away from home.

All of the desktops (up to ten) have two hard drives (twenty total), and the four servers have at least two hard drives and one server has four hard drives (ten total), and over the last eight years I have only had four hard drive failures out of thirty total hard drives in computers (most of which run 24/7/365) and those four failures where all PIXIE DUST IBM and Maxtor (Quantum) hard drives. I did have one other failure, a Maxtor 160GB that was less than thirty days old.

So in total, out of thirty hard drives in computers and five hard drives in TiVos, for a total of thirty-five hard drives, and not counting the four PIXIE DUST hard drives, I have only had one hard drive failure in eight years and it failed in the first thirty days (KNOCK ON WOOD).

I do use UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supplies) or surge protectors on all devices and I have had my ground checked in the last eight years.

[nhaigh]

To me MRV is almost as important as the DVR, and without a doubt has made the DVR an even better video watching time shifting tool. I bet if more people had MRV they would understand the importance of it, kind of like the difference of having a DVR and not.

I support this sentiment. MRV to me if more important than Dual Tuners or HD.

[tbeckner]

I support this sentiment. MRV to me if more important than Dual Tuners or HD.But what is interesting, is that YOU CAN HAVE YOUR CAKE AND EAT IT TOO. All you need are some pre-R10 Series 2 DirecTiVos and a little technical help to hack them and you can have dual tuners and MRV.

[nhaigh]

But what is interesting, is that YOU CAN HAVE YOUR CAKE AND EAT IT TOO. All you need are some pre-R10 Series 2 DirecTiVos and a little technical help to hack them and you can have dual tuners and MRV.

I think if I didn't have to go to the S3 I'd probably be compelled to do that but currently I only have one DirecTiVo. To get another means commiting further to DirecTV and it is my intention to cancel the service the day my S3 is delivered.

[tbeckner]

I think if I didn't have to go to the S3 I'd probably be compelled to do that but currently I only have one DirecTiVo. To get another means commiting further to DirecTV and it is my intention to cancel the service the day my S3 is delivered.I sure hope for all of us that the cable industry settles all of their infighting and gets the CableCard situation and the integration issues taken care of so the Series 3 can become a success. But if they don’t settle their difference, then we all will be left high and dry (like the Betamax/Blu-Ray and VHS/HD-DVD situation). I do see one advantage for Sony this time around; they have control of a lot of source material and understand why the Betamax failed, even though it was technically the best device.

[jcricket]

My original DirecTivo (Hughes GXCEBOT) lasted 3 years before the hard drive went out. Mine was kept in a reasonably well-vented enclosure, but I'm guessing the added heat didn't help. Consider I paid $0 ($100 rebate when I signed up with DirecTV), that's fine by me :-)

For those that are claiming the 2nd drive adds heat/drain you obviously haven't checked out the solutions from weaknees. With a 2nd drive installed in bracket they provide and the 2nd fan the Tivo's temperature is often 5 deg lower than stock 1 drive systems.

[tbeckner]

My original DirecTivo (Hughes GXCEBOT) lasted 3 years before the hard drive went out. Mine was kept in a reasonably well-vented enclosure, but I'm guessing the added heat didn't help. Consider I paid $0 ($100 rebate when I signed up with DirecTV), that's fine by me :-)

For those that are claiming the 2nd drive adds heat/drain you obviously haven't checked out the solutions from weaknees. With a 2nd drive installed in bracket they provide and the 2nd fan the Tivo's temperature is often 5 deg lower than stock 1 drive systems.Great point about the Weaknees solution, it has additional cooling capability, which even in a single drive unit could pay off big time.

[phoenix_one]

An extremly sensitive device like TiVo should always be under the protection of an UPS.

Maybe that's the reason I have not had any problems with it.

[Dawghows]

My original TiVo (which I have recently installed at my sister's house in NC under the stipulation that technically it is on loan, not a gift), is a modified 14-hour Phillips that is still going strong after all these years. I think I got it in 1998.

I have a question, though. The reason I gave it to my sister is because I switched over to DirecTV and got two DTiVo's. One's the Samsung and one is an R-10. Neither is modified in any way.

I understand that the R-10 cannot be modified, which is fine by me. But in regards to the lifespan: if it dies, can it be fixed? In other words, does whatever it is that prevents the R-10 from being modified prevent it from being repaired?

Put another way, should I be buying up R-10's to keep as replacements for whenever this one goes to TiVo heaven?

[tbeckner]

My original TiVo (which I have recently installed at my sister's house in NC under the stipulation that technically it is on loan, not a gift), is a modified 14-hour Phillips that is still going strong after all these years. I think I got it in 1998.

I have a question, though. The reason I gave it to my sister is because I switched over to DirecTV and got two DTiVo's. One's the Samsung and one is an R-10. Neither is modified in any way.

I understand that the R-10 cannot be modified, which is fine by me. But in regards to the lifespan: if it dies, can it be fixed? In other words, does whatever it is that prevents the R-10 from being modified prevent it from being repaired?

Put another way, should I be buying up R-10's to keep as replacements for whenever this one goes to TiVo heaven?The R10 can be modified for storage increases, just not for additional features, and if the HD fails, it can be replaced.

[coleren1]

My Weaknees Tivo's hard drive froze up and died after 1 year and 3 months. I'm still in the Directv contract of 2 years that Weaknees had me sign to get the darn thing, yet I don't have the benefit of the 120 hour tivo. :confused: Weaknees response? Buy another hard drive for $129. Forget that. They are lucky I don't report them to the better business bureau! :mad:

[yunlin12]

Stock HDVR2 purchased from BB Mar 2003, replaced with 120G Samsung 5400 RPM HDD Aug 2003. It's always been on an UPS. It ran pretty warm (upper 50's in the summer) for a while until I elevated ~3/4 inch and moved it away from my A/V receiver shortly after upgrading the HDD. It almost always runs under 50F since, and going strong. I'm fine as long as it gets me to Comcast with Tivo, either with the Moto box or S3. I'm not liking where DTV is going with HD, hardware, etc. It'll be a tough day to retire the HDVR2...

[lmk911]

Unmodified Sony T-60 purchased 12/00 retired 10/05 – fan problem.
Unmodified Sony T-60 purchased 01/01 retired 12/05 – hard drive problem.

Both located on open-air shelf system.

[copperhead]

I have a sony satt60 had up grade from weaknees and unit failed in about 8 months. Sony service repaired unit and told me most failures were due to heat. I placed unit where it gets colding circulation and not problems for last two years :)

[newsposter]

Unmodified Sony T-60 purchased 12/00 retired 10/05 – fan problem.
Unmodified Sony T-60 purchased 01/01 retired 12/05 – hard drive problem.

Both located on open-air shelf system.

2 ez to fix problems. :) I'd have to fix them if it was me. What did you do with them? I'm almost tempted.

[ntwrkd]

I'm not liking where DTV is going with HD, hardware, etc. It'll be a tough day to retire the HDVR2...

I am leaving D* for this exact reason. Too costly when hardware fails and you pay out of pocket and get socked with more "commit" years. Time Warner Digital in my area looks like a better way to go for me. I want HD but don't want to pay a dime for anything including the mpeg 4 HD DVR from D*. TW has the Scientific Atlanta SA-8300 (HD DVR) and I know it's no tivo :mad: but if it fails, I'll just return it for another (newer, most likely) DVR for no additional charge and no 2 year service commit. Their "Triple Play" is hard to beat and NO I don't work for TW. Actually I despise them. D*'s move away from Tivo and their 4 cable 5 lnb dish is the last straw for me. I will miss being a Sat TV sub. I'll still visit the forum to see how D*'s move away from Tivo and their new direction for HD shakes out. I may have the 2 boxes in my sig up for sale soon and 2 HDVR2's with at least 1 failed HD (out of 2) in each box.

[BeanMeScot]

Based upon that failure rate, you could be having spiking electrical problems. That is way beyond the norm in almost all cases. Have you contacted an electrician to check for grounding problems and circuit problems or could you have the devices installed somewhere where they are getting too hot?

Your failure rates are NOT anywhere close to normal, and there is very likely something in your environment and /or situation that is causing this type of problem.


The failures occured in 2 different homes. I have had several electricians come in. No one has ever found anything. All of my machines are on UPS devices. I always had my Tivos on something to keep them off a flat surface.

[ddobson]

Another vote for not running 2 hard drives. Double the heat, double the load on the power supply, and of course double the noise. Not to mention if even one drive fails, the other drive is useless until reformatted and reloaded. And you're left with a guessing game of 'which drive is the bad one?'

I put a weaknees upgrade in my oldest DVR shortly after getting it. With their bracket and moving the main hard drive to their bracket before adding the second, my unit runs about 6 to 8 degrees (C) cooler than it did before. It dropped from 43 to normally 36 or 37 (C). I think running 15 degrees (F) cooler might make a big difference.

I have had problems with another unit that is factory and almost exactly a year old. But my 2+ year old unit with the 2 drives is still running great.

[Double-Tap]

I don't remember having a hard drive fail, either in my numerous computers or seasoned SVR-2000 TiVo. Lucky, maybe. A UPS is crucial, IMO. It's a small investment to protect your electronics. Buy a refurbished unit (usually includes new battery) and save a good chunk of money if you can't afford new. The warranty on the UPS itself is far shorter but a brand like APC should last for years, at least until the battery wears down and needs replacing or lightning makes it give up the ghost. I've bought two refurbished APC SUA-1500's, each about half off new cost, and they look and perform like brand new. A UPS offers the additional benefit of keeping your video sources and TiVo units running/recording if the power goes out.

[JorgeGVB]

My original Phillips unit has to be over 4 years old now and it is the most used. I replaced the hard drive shortly after getting it with a larger drive from Weaknees. I have 3 units total and never had one fail yet. I also have them attached to UPS units.

[HarryD]

When I purchased my Philips DSR 7000, I replaced the original 40 gig with a Weaknees 120 gig drive. Turns out this drive is made by Samsung. It failed in less than a year. Called Samsung and got a replacement. The replacement went into my kid's PC and eight months later it failed again.. Samsung replaced that one as well and now this one is in my Linux PC.

[tbeckner]

The failures occured in 2 different homes. I have had several electricians come in. No one has ever found anything. All of my machines are on UPS devices. I always had my Tivos on something to keep them off a flat surface.I started to write a post that could explain all the possible problems that could cause failure rates like this, but that could be real confusing.

I wish I could help you uncover the reason for you abnormal failures rates, but without more detailed information about the time period that covered the equipment from initial installation to the point of failure, including the original shipping of the equipment, I would be shooting in the dark.

One thing that could have a real effect on hard drive failure and not have any effect at all on other electrical or electronic equipment is the physical handling of the equipment. If the hard drives where mishandled during any physical movement, including the original shipping from the manufacturer, that could have an effect of the failure rate. But the physical mishandling of the hard drives prior to your installation would not be something that you would have had control of.

But if your hard drives are failing and you are not having any other electrical or electronic equipment failures, then it is highly likely that you’re hard drives are failing because of physical mishandling or over heating. I did notice that you live in Georgia, and if you don’t have Air Conditioning, then it is likely that heat could be the problem. These units are not really made to take heat above 85 degrees for any long time period.

Again, your failure rates are far above normal.

[SecureTalk]

I have two T-60 DVRs, One purchased in late 2000 and one in early 2001

One is hacked to add a second drive, and one only has it original drive

Both are still running non-stop (except for a day or two) with their original drives. despite one being damaged during both Hurricanes Ivan and Katrina. I had to hose the mud out of the receiver.

[Pauli]

My original DirecTivo (Hughes GXCEBOT) lasted 3 years before the hard drive went out. Mine was kept in a reasonably well-vented enclosure, but I'm guessing the added heat didn't help. Consider I paid $0 ($100 rebate when I signed up with DirecTV), that's fine by me :-)

For those that are claiming the 2nd drive adds heat/drain you obviously haven't checked out the solutions from weaknees. With a 2nd drive installed in bracket they provide and the 2nd fan the Tivo's temperature is often 5 deg lower than stock 1 drive systems.
I have no experience with a Weaknees upgraded unit, but my assumption is that the extra fan and hard drive cause additional noise. I can believe that the extra fan would help with cooling, but not without a price with unacceptable noise levels (for me, at least). Can you give me an opinion on the noise increase?

[BeanMeScot]

But if your hard drives are failing and you are not having any other electrical or electronic equipment failures, then it is highly likely that you’re hard drives are failing because of physical mishandling or over heating. I did notice that you live in Georgia, and if you don’t have Air Conditioning, then it is likely that heat could be the problem. These units are not really made to take heat above 85 degrees for any long time period.

Again, your failure rates are far above normal.

I couldn't live without AC! I do let my house get to about 79F during the day and bring it back down at night during the summer. I keep my house at 58F most of the winter. All the units I have/had are DirecTivos and those tend to run hotter, in general. Mine was usually 47 C when I checked it. That never seemed to fluctuate. I have my suspicions about what caused some of the failures. For instance, my desk has a door for the computer. I think it got too hot in there. One Tivo failure happened after my home was flooded. After everything was dry, I hooked the Tivo back up but did not have the UPS. Several houses in the neighborhood kept tripping the transformer because we were pulling so much electricity while using dehumidifiers and fans. After the electricity popped a few times, the Tivo died. With my most recent failure, I had gotten Comcast cable but was still watching some archived shows on my Tivo. When I was connecting the TV to the Tivo, it seemed to be giving me some small shocks. Then my Tivo quit working. Those are the only ones where I feel like I know what happened. I have had several other hard drives fail for no known reason.

I was trying to think of how many drives have failed. It is a daunting number. My SAT T60 failed at least 3 times (I finally just sold it after repairing it one last time). I have had 2 computers fail, one laptop and one desktop, both Tivos I have right now have failed at least once. That's at least 7 hard drives in 4 years (in 2 houses).

[tbeckner]

I couldn't live without AC! I do let my house get to about 79F during the day and bring it back down at night during the summer. I keep my house at 58F most of the winter. All the units I have/had are DirecTivos and those tend to run hotter, in general. Mine was usually 47 C when I checked it. That never seemed to fluctuate. I have my suspicions about what caused some of the failures. For instance, my desk has a door for the computer. I think it got too hot in there. One Tivo failure happened after my home was flooded. After everything was dry, I hooked the Tivo back up but did not have the UPS. Several houses in the neighborhood kept tripping the transformer because we were pulling so much electricity while using dehumidifiers and fans. After the electricity popped a few times, the Tivo died. With my most recent failure, I had gotten Comcast cable but was still watching some archived shows on my Tivo. When I was connecting the TV to the Tivo, it seemed to be giving me some small shocks. Then my Tivo quit working. Those are the only ones where I feel like I know what happened. I have had several other hard drives fail for no known reason.

I was trying to think of how many drives have failed. It is a daunting number. My SAT T60 failed at least 3 times (I finally just sold it after repairing it one last time). I have had 2 computers fail, one laptop and one desktop, both Tivos I have right now have failed at least once. That's at least 7 hard drives in 4 years (in 2 houses).It appears that there are many different reasons why the hard drives are failing, but overall that is way above average failure rates.

Flooding could have had an effect on your equipment, even if the equipment did not directly come into contact with the water.

And temperature of 58F in the winter should NOT hurt but could actually help your equipment if there is not a moisture problem, although I believe 58F would be very uncomfortable to humans, except at night.

To list some reasons in your post:


Electric Supply Problems "houses in the neighborhood kept tripping the transformer "
Static Electricity or Potential Difference Problems "it seemed to be giving me some small shocks"
Heat Problems "I think it got too hot in there."
Flooding/Mositure Problems "One Tivo failure happened after my home was flooded."

[buzzz32]

I have a 4 year old Hughes 40 hour that just recently refused to power up and emits only a small humming noise - no green light will come on.

Is it gone forever? I am not too concerned with the new ones basically being free.

Sounds like I still want a Tivo based unit, not the DirecTV DVR.

[Jerry_K]

One Hughes series one DTivo four years without one glitch

One Phillips 6000 same four years without a glitch

One Phillips 6000 upgraded twice as hard drives became less expensive. Now at dual 160 gig (137 gig seen by the Tivo) and no problems. The only problem is my lovely wife can fill it up. LOL.

No special treatment. No fans. No UPS just keeps running. Love those DTivos.

I have not had to visit this site in over three and a half years. Now that is fantastic. I just popped in to see the state of HD on Direct. Then I did a bit of research and discovered HD is not ready for prime time. And it is VERY expensive. Maybe later.

[captain_video]

Someone said that there are only two types of hard drives - dead or dying. The post by Dan Collins pretty much sums up what you're dealing with when you use a hard drive in a Tivo. It's a harsh environment that will kill hard drives. I've had numerous drives go bad over the years for one reason or another. Here are a few key points to consider:

1. Always use a UPS with your Tivo. You'd use one with your PC so why shouldn't you use one with a Tivo. Many UPSes provide regulation and spike protection that will prolong the life of both the Tivo hard drive and the electronics. I get a lot of voltage spikes and brownouts in my area during the summer which would otherwise be a death sentence for my DTivos. A UPS keeps your Tivos spinning even when the rest of the house is in the dark.

2. Make sure you have adequate ventilation. I can't say enough about providing cooling air to your Tivo. If you like the weaknees fans then go for it. Personally, I think all of their products are sold at extortionist prices and refuse to buy anything from them for that reason. You can buy similar products elsewhere for far less. Monitor the temperatues of your Tivos to head off any potential problems (i.e., check the systeminfo screen regularly). The temp of your Tivo should always be in the mid 40's or lower. If it's high 40's or 50's then you've got a problem and the drive will surely be heading down the drain in short order.

3. Make a backup of your Tivo drive. Better yet, get another drive for use in your Tivo and copy the image from the original drive to the replacement. Put the original drive away for safekeeping so you'll have it to use in a pinch. If the Tivo OS gets updated, then put the original drive back in the Tivo so it will take the update, make a new backup, and store the drive away again. Any future drive upgrades should be done using the original backup image instead of trying to add-on to an existing upgrade.

4. Get the DTV service plan. For $7.99/month, it's cheap insurance against hardware failures, especially if you have HDTivos. I've already had two DTivos (DSR-704 and HR10-250) replaced under the plan and it didn't cost me a cent.

[Dkerr24]

4. Get the DTV service plan. For $7.99/month, it's cheap insurance against hardware failures, especially if you have HDTivos. I've already had two DTivos (DSR-704 and HR10-250) replaced under the plan and it didn't cost me a cent.

Not exactly. You pay $95.88 a year for the 'didn't cost me a cent' :)

[Giorgio]

2 years if u are lucky as I saw above weeknees is your best option anyone with an opion on the R10??

Dvr2 hughes
R10 DVR