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View Full Version : i guess thats what i get for buying a refurb box and rushing, horror story with pix!

xnevergiveinx
03-15-2006, 01:01 PM
so, i got my tcd 5400400 refurb box last week from tivo. i upgraded it right away to lifetime because i know i want to hold onto it for a while and it was an awesome deal.

i got a 300 gig seagate drive from outpost.com for $80 after rebate, awesome deal as well.

i opened the case (no warranty sticker to be found by the way) and disconnected the power cord from the hard drive. then i went to disconnect the ide cord from it. i was a little rushed, because it was about 2 am and i was excited to see this thing upgrade. i always grab ide cords by the sides with both hands and pull straight out. this time, i lost grip on one side and it still pulled out.

this was not good. i ended up bending 3 pins. when i went to bend them back with tweezers, one of them was so loose that it cracked off...crap!!
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y99/dorkultra/DSCN0896.jpg

i've never done this before. i've been repairing computers for about 7 years now and i haven't bent a single pin, ever. the guys who came up with hard drive and motherboard design having the pins on the devices were smart, because a hard drive or motherboard is pretty much worthless if you bend a single pin...so they make money. thats why sata is good...no pins

anyways, i went into panic mode...thinking to myself...what if i can't get the image off of this! i'll have to buy instant cake, nuts, thats $20 more. so, i took a small paperclip and some pliers and shoved it in hole #39, i think it's #39 that broke off the pin.
that didn't work. it wouldn't make contact, it was too big. so i ended up ruining one ide connector on an ide cord

so i broke off a pin from a broke hard drive i had sitting around and placed that in the second ide connector on the cord. but it was too small and it fell inside too far to make contact.
here is my makeshift workstation...it's so easy to make a mess when things aren't going good
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y99/dorkultra/DSCN0903.jpg

so i was freaked out...then i saw a small safety pin in my cup of misc junk. i bend it up to where i only had a small peice about 5 mm long. then i loaded it into another ide cable, with the pointy tip poking out.
success!!!

i did a backup onto a fat32 partition
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y99/dorkultra/DSCN0902.jpg

then i took out the fat32 drive and replaced it with my new seagate and started a backup | restore
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y99/dorkultra/DSCN0905.jpg
it was going slow. so i let it sit overnight

this morning i saw this on the screen...success again!
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y99/dorkultra/DSCN0908.jpg

so i put it in the tivo and it's working fine
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y99/dorkultra/DSCN0917.jpg



so now i'm stuck with a 40 gig drive that will only work with my special ide cord. i broke one ide cord attempting to fix the problem.
sadly, this hard drive will only be seen as storage space on my server in the basement. i really didn't pull the ide connector at an extreme angle, it just seemed like the pins are softer than usuall on this drive...

don't rush things!
xnevergiveinx
03-15-2006, 01:04 PM
also, i noticed that the ide connector in my tivo is special. because most ide connectors just block out pin #19, i believe. this one does not block it out. so you are stuck with that connector, unless you crack off the corresponding pin on the board so you can place a normal ide connector in there.

this sucks if my tivo dies...i can't send it back with the original drive, because of the broken pin. i doubt it would work without that pin and i don't want to try.
MickeS
03-15-2006, 01:14 PM
I think a wasted 40gig drive is worth the price. And the tivo won't die within the next 90 days, I'm pretty sure. :)

Thanks for the pics, I always like computer porn like this. :D:D
TydalForce
03-15-2006, 03:44 PM
if memory serves, some of those pins are just grounds. I think I may have broken one or two here and there and the drives still worked

You just got one of those important ones ;-}

Nice save though!
OldTownTreadles
03-15-2006, 04:26 PM
I loved the pics! More!! More!!

(BTW, looks like my workspace, only mine's usually cluttered with sewing machines.)

Seriously, any pictures of upgrades will be of enormous help to me in learning.
davezatz
03-15-2006, 04:28 PM
so i was freaked out...then i saw a small safety pin in my cup of misc junk. i bend it up to where i only had a small peice about 5 mm long. then i loaded it into another ide cable, with the pointy tip poking out. success!!!
I wonder if this will conduct properly long term and if there's any sort of electrical risk involved? Interesting story and nice pics either way. ;)
ChuckyBox
03-15-2006, 05:35 PM
Can you replace the whole connector? You don't show enough angles for me to tell, but on some drives you can easily access the circuit board on which the connector is mounted. It should be possible to replace it fairly easily, though it might require a bit of soldering. If that isn't your thing, call a couple of local computer shops and explain the problem -- they may be able to fix it (don't mention TiVo or you'll confuse them; just say you have a drive with a broken pin on the connector). Have the drive make and model ready when you call, they'll respect you more.

Good luck.
xnevergiveinx
03-15-2006, 10:10 PM
Can you replace the whole connector? You don't show enough angles for me to tell, but on some drives you can easily access the circuit board on which the connector is mounted. It should be possible to replace it fairly easily, though it might require a bit of soldering. If that isn't your thing, call a couple of local computer shops and explain the problem -- they may be able to fix it (don't mention TiVo or you'll confuse them; just say you have a drive with a broken pin on the connector). Have the drive make and model ready when you call, they'll respect you more.

Good luck.

i have an old maxtor fireball drive that looks very similar to this one. the fireball crapped out on me about a year ago. i took it apart, but it doesn't look very easy to solder in a new pins, because they are connected directly to the circuit board.

i also attempted to try it without the special cord, it gave me an "invalid ATAPI device" error.

i totally doubt the special cord would have any electrical concern, you have to realize that the drive is only running 12 and 5 volts...
i did a little research and i found that pin #39 is:
DASPDrive Active/Slave Present (IDE hard disk drive pin)
Crrink
03-16-2006, 10:00 AM
Can you RMA the drive? Don't know if drive warranties cover stuff like this, but it's probably worth an e-mail or phone call to Maxtor.
JS2003
03-16-2006, 10:06 AM
Nice save! Very inventive...

On the bright side, a 40GB drive is worth only slightly more than a brick, and both make pretty good doorstops! At least you're not out much with a bad 40GB drive...
dtremit
03-16-2006, 10:28 AM
also, i noticed that the ide connector in my tivo is special. because most ide connectors just block out pin #19, i believe. this one does not block it out. so you are stuck with that connector, unless you crack off the corresponding pin on the board so you can place a normal ide connector in there.

You can get around that fairly easily -- just use a pushpin or something to clear the plastic on the cable above that pin. It is usually hollow underneath a thin layer of plastic.
dtreese
03-16-2006, 11:27 AM
Nice save! Very inventive...

On the bright side, a 40GB drive is worth only slightly more than a brick, and both make pretty good doorstops! At least you're not out much with a bad 40GB drive...

Hahaha! I remember back in 95 when I got a Mac for school -- it had a MONSTER 250 MB hard drive. It's just funny to see people call 40GB drives next to worthless -- and agree.
Then again, I also remember the TI-99/4A and Apple IIc we had when I was a kid. No hard drives.
davezatz
03-16-2006, 11:50 AM
Hahaha! I remember back in 95 when I got a Mac for school -- it had a MONSTER 250 MB hard drive. It's just funny to see people call 40GB drives next to worthless -- and agree.
Then again, I also remember the TI-99/4A and Apple IIc we had when I was a kid. No hard drives.

Ah yes, the Apple IIc... I had modem (can't remember the baud rate) that got me onto the local university VAX and beyond in the days when MIT gave away shell accounts, Usenet was small enough you could carry on conversations, and Mosaic wasn't even a fantasy - viruses weren't a concern, but line noise sure was. Seems like a loooong time ago...

(I also have many fond TRS-80 memories and had a buddy with some sort of Atari and acoustic coupler modem he used to download ASCII porn. How old skool is that?)
dgh
03-16-2006, 11:58 AM
My third computer had a 3MB hard drive. But it WAS a monster! It had 14 inch platters! I still have a scar from where my finger was stitched up after an accident while trying to move it several feet :D
xnevergiveinx
03-16-2006, 12:30 PM
Can you RMA the drive? Don't know if drive warranties cover stuff like this, but it's probably worth an e-mail or phone call to Maxtor.


hmm, i'll have to see. no time today, will try tomorrow. i wonder if they would warranty something that i screwed up...doubt it.

would the drive even be warrantied to begin with? i just got this tivo about a week ago...and it's a refurb drive...thats kind of pushing it
Crrink
03-16-2006, 01:03 PM
hmm, i'll have to see. no time today, will try tomorrow. i wonder if they would warranty something that i screwed up...doubt it.

would the drive even be warrantied to begin with? i just got this tivo about a week ago...and it's a refurb drive...thats kind of pushing it
I think the Quickview drives TiVo uses have at least a 1 year warranty, so you might still be within the range.
I've RMA'd Maxtor drives before - their website makes it pretty painless. Enter the Serial Number and that will tell you if the drive is still under warranty or not, from there you answer a couple of questions and they direct you to either run diagnostics, or get the RMA process going.

No idea if they'd cover what happened to you, but it should only take 10-15 minutes to find out. Might as well give it a shot.
xnevergiveinx
03-16-2006, 02:08 PM
http://tinypic.com/rjmrh3.jpg

well, i guess i'm stuck with it. i doubt tivo would want to touch it
Crrink
03-16-2006, 03:30 PM
Bummer, I didn't realize that TiVo drives weren't covered anymore (I'm almost certain they were in the past).
Well, at least you got the big drive up and running.
Double-Tap
03-17-2006, 09:13 AM
Be joyful that you were able to use the hobbled drive to upgrade the new one. Whew! And extra geek points for clear thinking under pressure.

What would someone with a doorstop 40GB hd? It would make a nice dedicated FAT32 drive to write to and store your DVR image backups. That's what I plan to do with the drive I yanked out of my 40 hour Series 2 after replacing with a 250GB. Or use it as a drive for your Windows swap file, or favorite iTunes music, or.... Small by todays standards but still useful.
xnevergiveinx
03-18-2006, 02:36 PM
Be joyful that you were able to use the hobbled drive to upgrade the new one. Whew! And extra geek points for clear thinking under pressure.

What would someone with a doorstop 40GB hd? It would make a nice dedicated FAT32 drive to write to and store your DVR image backups. That's what I plan to do with the drive I yanked out of my 40 hour Series 2 after replacing with a 250GB. Or use it as a drive for your Windows swap file, or favorite iTunes music, or.... Small by todays standards but still useful.

i was going to make a server with this drive, but nah.
i think i'd rather just use it for backups of itunes, programs, websites i work on, and documents, plus, i will make a backup of both of my tivos and put it on there.