Repair via TIVO or Upgrade to repair myself

[jpski]

I have a Toshiba SD-H400 which is only about 6 months old (not subscribed yet). Unfortunately it looks like the hard drive is toast (repeated wait and the welcome screen then it reboots every 5-10 minutes). The unit has been used less than 5 hours and was only recently removed from the shipping box. I noted a slight rattling sound when I first used it (presume it was iffy hard drive) but it did record one show correctly when I plugged it in when I first purchased it.

After finally having the opportunity to un-mothball it...I took it thru the OS upgrades (3-4 connections) and went to the FREE TRIAL to TIVO PLUS at the bottom of the screen. It got 20-30 seconds into the "whys" when it rebooted, now all it does is reboot and welcome (I wish my wife was a quick to welcome me).

It appears it is out of the 30day all inclusive warranty but is still under the one-year warranty. WHat I am wondering is whether I should send it in for repair (any ideas what they will charge?) or just do a hard drive upgrade myself (presuming the hard drive is the problem).

The original hard drive was not backed up (too new) however I purchased two TIVOs which are identical and the first one seems to be working fine. If an image is needed I presume I can take it from the other working model. I had planned on doing drive upgrades eventually anyway so this will just mean I will do it sooner.

Does anyone see a reason why I should send it into TIVO and pay for the repair and how much would you expect they would charge for a 6 month old unsubscribed unit.

PS THis model comes with a DVD player but not a burner and is a 80gig model.

Thanks

John

[funtoupgrade]

I'm pretty sure you would be sending this to Toshiba rather than TiVo. They do not have a flat repair fee like Philips and Tivo. First, call them and find out if there are any charges at all except the shipping charge to them.

If it were me I would reimage the drive from a backup on the other unit and see what happens. New hard drives should not be making any strange noises, but if any of the data on a hard drive becomes corrupt the drive tries to recover it and kind of thrashes away which is noticeable.

[atmuscarella]

Your warranty is by Toshiba not TiVo so I would start by calling Toshiba and finding out what they will do for you. I found this number on there web site 800-319-6684. After that you can better judge if you want to put a new drive in it yourself or not.

Also after you find out what Toshiba will do, if decide to go the self repair root you can check with the hard drive manufacture to see if the hard drive is still under warranty.

Good Luck,

atmuscarella