Toshiba sd-400

[raider68]

My toshiba Sd-400 shows the message.....POWERING UP and will not leave that screen....I asume that the hard drive is toast.........Can I just go buy a new harddrive and put in? Or do i need to get software to load on it? Also will my lifetime subscription still be active.....? Please help

[megatron]

i dunno why, but the same thing happened to me today...sorta. I went to turn on my tv and my tivo wouldnt work. Neither the remote or the buttons on the face would work. So i pulled the plug, gave it a few seconds and reconnected. It rebooted and took much longer than usual to come back to the main menu. Also it intermittently would stop working. I heard the death clicking from the HD so pulled the plug again...I guess i'll try it in a few hours... I wonder if they did some software upgrade or somethgn that isnt compatible if u upgraded the HD in the unit.

[raider68]

i am having the same problem as you............i guess that i need a new hard drive.....

[weaknees]

You cannot install a blank drive; you'd need to have the proper operating system loaded on the drive. If you replace the drive with a new one, you will not lose your lifetime TiVo DVR service.

[threerabbits]

:( My Toshiba SD-H400 is stucked at Powering Up screen... I guess this means I have lost all my recordings??? :(

[raider68]

Well, i put a hard drive in from weakness and still the same problem.....My unit will not go past the powering up screen. The Guys at weakness were awsome.....no problem they gave me a Return # and i shipped it back for credit. So then i called toshiba customer service to find a service center. the rep told me that toshiba does not service this unit anymore. WHAT! The rep told me to calm down that he had good news. For the SD-H400 , toshiba offers a exchange program. He gave me a RA# and I had to ship the broken unit to them........They will send me back a new TX-60 DVD Burner/Tivo unit...............That is a deal!
So dont try to fix them , hell call toshiba and get a new one with a DvD burner.....
:up:

[Steve_Martin]

Yeah, but could you transfer your lifetime subscription to the new unit?

[emeril2k1]

Well, i put a hard drive in from weakness and still the same problem.....My unit will not go past the powering up screen. The Guys at weakness were awsome.....no problem they gave me a Return # and i shipped it back for credit. So then i called toshiba customer service to find a service center. the rep told me that toshiba does not service this unit anymore. WHAT! The rep told me to calm down that he had good news. For the SD-H400 , toshiba offers a exchange program. He gave me a RA# and I had to ship the broken unit to them........They will send me back a new TX-60 DVD Burner/Tivo unit...............That is a deal!
So dont try to fix them , hell call toshiba and get a new one with a DvD burner.....
:up:

Was your original unit still under warranty?

My SD-H400 has had a bad DVD player for almost a year now...

Did it cost you anything for the exchange?

[PatC]

Was your original unit still under warranty?

My SD-H400 has had a bad DVD player for almost a year now...

Did it cost you anything for the exchange?

Hey I think something is up with the Toshiba SD-H400's! Mine died today too. Two years old. But, like raider68 said, in desperation I called Toshiba and to my surprise they gave me a case number to ship the old unit to them and they will ship me either a RS-TX20 120GB or RS-TX60 160GB as a replacement, depending what they had in stock. Of course I requested the RS-TX60 160GB for a replacement. Shipped my old one back this afternoon, should arrive at the TN depot on Tuesday.

Can't wait for the new (refurb probably) RS-TX60 with DVD burner and firewire port! I would start calling Toshiba at 1-800-631-3811. It took me longer to complete the phone satisfaction survey, than to get the 5 minute return done. FYI, Shipping weight in original box was 16lbs, with manuals, power cord and remote. They told me to keep the other cables, etc. UPS cost about $24 with insurance.

Seriously though, it sound like Toshiba KNOWS about a major problem with this model, like the old IBM DeathStars :(

Hope that helps, Pat C

[profet]

but do you lose your lifetime sub?

[PatC]

but do you lose your lifetime sub?

I don't think you would, since it was a factory exchange. But, I would call TiVo to check.

[gastrof]

From what I've heard, if TiVo replaces the machine, they'll transfer the LIFETIME service to the new one. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say the same would apply with a similar exchange done by Toshiba. TiVo would likely honor that too.

[raider68]

I called tivo before i did this and they said YES.....If the unit cannot be reapaired and Toshiba is swapping it out.......they will move the life time package at no cost...

LEN

[Steve_Martin]

Cool, makes me want to have our SD-400 fail mysteriously. :)

[PatC]

Hey raider68, How long did it take to get the replacement unit? Mine shipped late Friday from Atlantic City and arrived in TN this morning. I keep trying to hit the skip back on my TV remote and hate it when it does nothing :) Also, did they send you a RS-TX20 or 60 as a replacement and how do you like it?

Thanks, PatC

[phbigred]

:confused: My SD-H400 is outside the extended warranty and not malfunctioning. If I encounter a problem would it be able to be exchanged as well even if it is no longer covered? My drive has started getting noisy and have experienced intermittent problems but have been able to restart and recover it each time.

[scottykempf]

Yes, everyone please post how old their SD-H400's are if they have a problem with them. Mine is about a year and a half old and I found this thread because mine has been restarting more than usual and this morning was stuck on one channel. I like my Toshiba but would not think twice about sending it in for a DVD Burner unit if it is covered. Thanks.

[PatC]

Yes, everyone please post how old their SD-H400's are if they have a problem with them. Mine is about a year and a half old and I found this thread because mine has been restarting more than usual and this morning was stuck on one channel. I like my Toshiba but would not think twice about sending it in for a DVD Burner unit if it is covered. Thanks.

Scotty, Mine was just about two-years and two months old, when it died on May 5, 2006. I would make a backup and/or restore the current drive to a larger HD ASAP. There is no Instant Cake for the SD-H400, so without a backup or original drive to restore from you would have to get a new drive from PTV or weaKnees.

I don't know if this is a blanket policy by Toshiba on this model or not, that's why you need a backup just in case. Unfortunately, I see the replacement RS-TX20 and TX60's are now discontinued, although they still appear on the Toshiba web site. I hope they last longer than two-years. :(

HTH, PatC

[phbigred]

Pat was yours covered under warranty by an extended warranty by chance?

[PatC]

Nope, just the standard warranty. That's what makes me think that Toshiba KNOWS there is a problem with these units. CS put me right through to a SD-H400 TiVo "specialist". She asked a couple questions about why I thought the HD died, did I unplug, reboot, etc. Yes only to get a fuzzy gray constant Powering Up... screen. She then said she would send me an exchange unit. :) My unit constantly ran at about 49C, which is hot compared to my S2 at 35-39C. I think that's a major problem with these particular units.
HTH, Pat

[comber]

Well, i put a hard drive in from weakness and still the same problem.....My unit will not go past the powering up screen. The Guys at weakness were awsome.....no problem they gave me a Return # and i shipped it back for credit. So then i called toshiba customer service to find a service center. the rep told me that toshiba does not service this unit anymore. WHAT! The rep told me to calm down that he had good news. For the SD-H400 , toshiba offers a exchange program. He gave me a RA# and I had to ship the broken unit to them........They will send me back a new TX-60 DVD Burner/Tivo unit...............That is a deal!
So dont try to fix them , hell call toshiba and get a new one with a DvD burner.....
:up:

Thank you so much for posting that! I came back from ireland to find the DVD not working and I have to pull the plug out and do a power start every time I use the TiVo or just leave it on all the time. Called Toshiba, they put me through to the department they have set up especially to deal with the SD-H400, which tells you something, and I also am getting a TX-60, double the hard drive plus a DVD recorder. It's a refurbished model but it is under warranty and the TiVo lifetime subscription transfers. What a deal. And I was this close to binning it and buying a new one! Thanks again.

[gastrof]

:( My Toshiba SD-H400 is stucked at Powering Up screen... I guess this means I have lost all my recordings??? :(

The recordings are in DVD format...

If someone you know is computer saavy, they might be able to rescue the files.

[PatC]

Thank you so much for posting that! I came back from ireland to find the DVD not working and I have to pull the plug out and do a power start every time I use the TiVo or just leave it on all the time. Called Toshiba, they put me through to the department they have set up especially to deal with the SD-H400, which tells you something, and I also am getting a TX-60, double the hard drive plus a DVD recorder. It's a refurbished model but it is under warranty and the TiVo lifetime subscription transfers. What a deal. And I was this close to binning it and buying a new one! Thanks again.

Just got my refurbished TX60 on Monday, about a nine-day turnaround. Unit looks like new, a small stain on the remote, but who cares. Nice unit, just burned my first DVD this morning in about 15 minutes. Pretty quick. I hated going into the jungle of wires behind the entertainment center, but I did manage to reduce them to a more manageable number.

FYI, the TX60 won't record TiVo's transferred from another unit with MRV, it says the recording is incompatable. Why, I don't know. Maybe to do with copy protections, DRM, etc. Only burns DVD's from shows recorded on the TX60 in the Now Showing Playlist and some of those may be flagged too.

One setup note, if you have a cable box you need to use the RCA composite connections into the TX60. I used the coax at first and got no signal in setup. We don't need no stinkin manual! Setup took about four hours after the initial download, pretty long compared to my S2 at an hour. The service update to the 7.2.2b? software installed on my first forced call. This unit does run a lot cooler at 35-39C, than my SD-H400 at 49-50C, even though the fan doesn't seem to put out more airflow.

Good luck with the new *refurb* unit. I still wonder what caused the "Magic May Day" for the SD-H400's.

Pat

[jon96cobra]

My toshiba Sd-400 shows the message.....POWERING UP and will not leave that screen....I asume that the hard drive is toast.........Can I just go buy a new harddrive and put in? Or do i need to get software to load on it? Also will my lifetime subscription still be active.....? Please help


I have the same problem. I have installed a new drive and followed the instructions on Weaknees site but still not working. I'm not sure if its the size of the drive or something wrong with the board in the tivo.

I installed a Maxtor 300gb drive.

I still have the factory drive but out of warranty.

[PatC]

I have the same problem. I have installed a new drive and followed the instructions on Weaknees site but still not working. I'm not sure if its the size of the drive or something wrong with the board in the tivo.

I installed a Maxtor 300gb drive.

I still have the factory drive but out of warranty.

Jon, It's probably the HD that died, like many other SD-H400's around the two-year old mark. If the HD is toast, a backup to a new HD won't work. You needed to backup the old drive Before it died. Call Toshiba CS, they have been replacing them with refurbished RS-TX20 or TX60 models, even if your out of warranty. I got the TX60 and love it. I'm waiting for my 90-day refurb warranty to expire, then pull the drive and make a backup to a larger Seagate 250GB w/16MB cache.

HTH, Pat

[stacigr]

I think my Toshiba SD H400 died on me today also. Lately, it had been freezing up once in a while and I would have to unplug and power up again, but today the screen stays at Welcome... Powering Up. The screen has not changed for hours, so I assume it died. I am so glad that I found this thread and see that this is a common and known issue. By the way, I received it as a gift about 3 years ago.

[tom1002]

to my dismass...

toshiba changed their policy last friday
from exchange to repair only.....

my sd-h400 died (stuck at the grey screen) also
loved it......

called and B$%^$ and B&$%@& and to no avail....
no tx20 or 60 for me....

they told me send it in with 140 bucks and we'll
see what we can do.....

said no thanks.....

fyi
i had the 7.2.2 update for about 2 weeks before
the grey death....
was using a netgear wireless G adapt.
h400 never opend or upgraded
prob ran at 58-59 degrees (me thinks) i chked it like 1 yr before (not recently)
bought a best buy about 2yrs ago

hope this info helps our case against Toshiba

[ashu]

to my dismass...

toshiba changed their policy last friday
from exchange to repair only.....


(I'm not saying you did, but ...) I bet a lot of people tried to abuse their policy over the last few days!


hope this info helps our case against Toshiba

See entitlement (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=entitlement)

Harsh as this sounds, it outlasted its warranty. When you bought it, did Toshiba promise it would continue to work flawlessly after two years of ownership?

If mine (also around 2 years old) died today, I'd be p***ed off too ... but wouldn't feel entitled to a replacement (or a free upgrade).

[ArcticZ]

wow then i got in under the wire! I called last week about my sdh400 that died this past february. I thought it was toast, even ordered a new hd from weaknees. But after reading this thread i called and they told me to send it in. I called weaknees and told this they told me to send the hd back. I didn't even open the box that the hd came it, just turned around and sent it back. I sent in the sdh400 and they got it last friday. There sending me out a TX60 model that was shipped out wednesday. So i'm glad i did that! and getting a dvd burner now. hehe But they sent out my unit to the wrong place. I'm in michigan they sent it to oregon. I think i got that taken care of today, just have to wait a little bit longer now till i get it. :-))

I bought two sdh400 units from qvc two years ago, just hope my brothers unit dosen't die now since i told him if it dose he can get a better one free like me. grrr i wonder why they just stoped!!

[greggt007]

i gave my sister an sdh400 about 2 yrs ago. it died on her about almost a yr ago. she finally drove it up to me 3 weeks ago and i go to look up how to replace the hd and find this out just too late! just called the number from above and yup they want $125 to repair it. so is there no way to repair this POS other than buying a drive from weaknees? or does the unit need to be sent to weaknees?
i have another sdh400 still working (hopefully wont die before the week is over!). can i get the image from that working sdh400 and use it to make a copy to another hd?

also, i have a ton of 40gb drives. so is it possible to put a single 40gb drive in the toshiba (ie. take the image of the working 80gb drive minus the shows recorded, to transfer to the new 40gb drive via weaknees instructions)? she doesnt need the space...

[funtoupgrade]

i have another sdh400 still working (hopefully wont die before the week is over!). can i get the image from that working sdh400 and use it to make a copy to another hd?

Yes

also, i have a ton of 40gb drives. so is it possible to put a single 40gb drive in the toshiba (ie. take the image of the working 80gb drive minus the shows recorded, to transfer to the new 40gb drive via weaknees instructions)? she doesnt need the space...

No, drive needs to be same size or bigger. You can buy any suitable hard drive and image it yourself using free downloadable software in stickies at top of upgrade forum.

[dageeza]

hi .
Toshiba replaced my defective sdh400 to a sx -60. nice. one problem I cannot get the remote to work with my TV or audio receiver . The old remote worked great to control my polaroid TV and sony reiever. this thing is driving me crazy. i much prefere the old remote . anybody have any ideas to where i get get a remote that comes with the SDH400 or any solutions to programming the remote, the remote flashes as though it programmed but nothing happens?? any ideas are much appreciated.

[dageeza]

hi .
Toshiba replaced my defective sdh400 to a sx -60. nice. one problem I cannot get the remote to work with my TV or audio receiver . The old remote worked great to control my polaroid TV and sony reiever. this thing is driving me crazy. i much prefere the old remote . anybody have any ideas to where i get get a remote that comes with the SDH400 or any solutions to programming the remote, the remote flashes as though it programmed but nothing happens?? any ideas are much appreciated.

[ashu]

Those are both pretty popular brands (Polaroid and Sony) ... I'm surprised you can't get it to work. I'd suspect a faulty remote or improper programming. Give it one more shot ;)

Also, the SD remote has it's benefits, but the comparison is a near-religious battle! I personally prefer the peanut, as well as the integrated/smoother DVD playback features of the RSX or the Humax DRT series with the Peanut remote! AFAIK, the codes are incompatible, so you have to learn to live with the Peanut, or pick a Universal remote you like!

[jon96cobra]

Jon, It's probably the HD that died, like many other SD-H400's around the two-year old mark. If the HD is toast, a backup to a new HD won't work. You needed to backup the old drive Before it died. Call Toshiba CS, they have been replacing them with refurbished RS-TX20 or TX60 models, even if your out of warranty. I got the TX60 and love it. I'm waiting for my 90-day refurb warranty to expire, then pull the drive and make a backup to a larger Seagate 250GB w/16MB cache.

HTH, Pat


The 300gb drive I have tried is a new drive. I was wondering if maybe the software is bad or something else might be wrong with the Tivo.

I also picked up a 250gb drive new and it doesn't work either. What software should I be putting on it.

I'm starting to think thats the problem.

[gadgetfan]

It seems my SD-H400's HD died over this past week as well. I came back from nine days out of town on Monday to find my unit in a constant loop of "Welcome, powering up" for 15 seconds, followed by a reboot. Good thing I wasn't counting on it to record a bunch of season finales last week. Oh, wait.... :rolleyes:

After reading this thread I called Toshiba and the very nice woman in their Tivo department explained that while there was a brief time that they were offering newer units in exchange for defective SD-H400s, that was only when there was a shortage of SD-H400 parts and there was therefore no repair option. At least, that's the company line, and I don't work there, so I can't really argue with her. She offered what has been offered to others recently, a $140 flat fee to fix it. As has been noted above, it's well out of warranty and therefore Toshiba has no further obligation to me and I can't really argue with that.

I've been using Tivo Basic for the past 2.5 years and it suits me fine, so the only compelling reason to fix the Toshiba would be so that I don't have to pay Tivo's monthly fee. However, my gut feeling is that if I'm going to put money into a DVR, it may as well be a newer one (likely a dual-tuner Tivo).

For the time being, however, I think I'm going to give Adelphia's Moxi DVR a shot. From what I've seen in an online demo, the interface doesn't impress me, but the monthly fee is less than Tivo and the hardware is Adelphia's problem if any issues crop up, so it's worth a shot, at least until I decide just how much I miss the Tivo interface and/or hate the Moxi interface.

[stacigr]

They gave me the same story yesterday on my unit that died Friday. Interesting that most of these problems have arisen in the last month. It sounds like a product defect to me. There is no way I am paying to fix it after they so quickly handed out new ones. I wonder if we have any recourse considering that they replaced units that were outside of the normal warranty without a blink of the eye and with so many breaking down right now. I think that even 3 years years is an extremely short life span for electronics especially since my 15 years old TV's and VCR's still work perfectly. I believe the manufacturer still has to uphold a lifetime implied warranty for defects.

[jon96cobra]

They gave me the same story yesterday on my unit that died Friday. Interesting that most of these problems have arisen in the last month. It sounds like a product defect to me. There is no way I am paying to fix it after they so quickly handed out new ones. I wonder if we have any recourse considering that they replaced units that were outside of the normal warranty without a blink of the eye and with so many breaking down right now. I think that even 3 years years is an extremely short life span for electronics especially since my 15 years old TV's and VCR's still work perfectly. I believe the manufacturer still has to uphold a lifetime implied warranty for defects.

My guess is they will try to blame it on the hard drive manufacturer Maxtor in this case for the issues.

Has anyone tried seeing if maxtor warranty is still valid on the drive in there tivo. You might be able to get a replacement drive from them.

[gadgetfan]

My guess is they will try to blame it on the hard drive manufacturer Maxtor in this case for the issues.

Has anyone tried seeing if maxtor warranty is still valid on the drive in there tivo. You might be able to get a replacement drive from them.

Hadn't thought of that. Maxtor has an online warranty status checker (https://www4.maxtor.com/en/support/service/rma/create/01_serial_number.cfm?dt=), and unfortunately it indicates that my drive went out of warranty in June 2004.

[funtoupgrade]

Maxtors generally have the worst warranty in the business (one year) for models you and I can buy in our local computer stores. Please remember that the TiVo writing to the drive 24/7 while plugged in which most computer drives are not. You cannot compare the reliability of a TiVo to a VCR or most any other device that is only on occasionally. Best remedy is to get a better hard drive with longer warranty. Unfortunately, Weeknees who supplies pre-configured hard drives for TiVo lovers uses only Maxtors which I am sure are pretty cheap in bulk. TiVo Inc. has used Maxtors in most of its units also as they are always looking for cheapest parts. The new DT models have Western Digital drives in them. I wonder if this has anything to do with the new pricing policy? The units are warrantied until paid off on the new bundle plan, and I am sure they don't want to be replacing a bunch of hard drives in a year.

[Blackvr4]

I sent mine in the 1st week of May for a SX-60 replacement but have yet to receive it. I called the other day and was told they are on backorder. I have no idea when I will get it....

[ArcticZ]

I sent mine in the 1st week of May for a SX-60 replacement but have yet to receive it. I called the other day and was told they are on backorder. I have no idea when I will get it....

I don't think there backordered, because i sent in mine 2 weeks ago, and they got it on the friday may 19th. I called last friday and they said my rs-tx60 has been shipped on wednesday. And it did ship out already (because i'm tracking it on fedex) but my problem now is they shipped it to the wrong address on the other side of the country. I called toshiba last week and told them this, finally got someone to called fedex and give the correct address. But all they did was note it in the file, I had to call fedex yesterday and get them to get my box and ship it to the correst address. So now my tx60 should be getting to me next week, at least i hope. :)

[PatC]

The 300gb drive I have tried is a new drive. I was wondering if maybe the software is bad or something else might be wrong with the Tivo.

I also picked up a 250gb drive new and it doesn't work either. What software should I be putting on it.

I'm starting to think thats the problem.

Sorry for the late reply, I haven't been following the forums. But as I said before, if your hard drive crashed a new drive won't help since the TiVo software needed for the new drive also died with the old drive. I think if you search the upgrade forums someone may have an image for the SD-H400 that you could use to image to a new hard drive.

[funtoupgrade]

I have a good Toshiba SD-400 image I would be happy to share with anybody who would like to PM me. The only problem is my lame computers will not send such a large image via email, and the image is too big to fit on a CD. My only option is to burn it onto a DVD so whoever needs it will have to have a DVD player in their computer.

[jon96cobra]

Sorry for the late reply, I haven't been following the forums. But as I said before, if your hard drive crashed a new drive won't help since the TiVo software needed for the new drive also died with the old drive. I think if you search the upgrade forums someone may have an image for the SD-H400 that you could use to image to a new hard drive.


That explains why I haven't had luck getting the new drive to work. I do have another Tivo but its just the regular series 2. would I be able to use the software off that to get the sd-400 running? If not I will need to find a copy of the software from someone who has a copy.

I did go to PTV upgrade and download there ISO and I didn't notice it mentioning anything about having old software loaded on the drive. I will have to look again.

[tjs198]

well, i got in under the "no more returns" date, and they said they would send me the 120 gig player with dvd burner, well it happens they just sent me a refurbished SDH400. A little disappointed, but hey it's better than nothing. One question though, my old wireless device (DLink) worked with the old SDH400, but with this new one, it no longer works, i can't figure it out. they both start with 264 tivo service #s. anyone have any ideas what could be wrong?

[glov222]

My Toshiba just bit the dust on Monday....stuck at the "Almost there" (ha!) screen, so I guess the new software destroyed my hard drive as well. And during the World Cup, too...the main reason I got a Tivo!!

Is there any way to put a new, upgraded drive in it, or would I be throwing good $$ after bad?

[Mars]

I had a SD-H400 die just two weeks ago, put in a larger 120 G drive and it's working fine now with 138 hour capacity!

[quarkman97]

I have an SD-400 and it hasn't died (yet).

Is there anyway to get an aftermarket warranty on this product through Toshiba or through Best Buy? I might have the receipt still.

I'm just trying to think of any solutions before mine goes the way of the dodo like everyone else's.

Any advice would be appreciated.

[glov222]

I had a SD-H400 die just two weeks ago, put in a larger 120 G drive and it's working fine now with 138 hour capacity!

Great to hear! Did your new hard drive get the new software and still work? That's my worry...that I upgrade, tivo updates, and I'm back to having a large paperweight.

[Mars]

I'm just trying to think of any solutions before mine goes the way of the dodo like everyone else's.

My advice would be to make a backup copy of the image on your drive WHILE it is still working. There doesn't seem to be an "instant cake " available on this model and finding someone else's image is difficult.

[quarkman97]

My advice would be to make a backup copy of the image on your drive WHILE it is still working. There doesn't seem to be an "instant cake " available on this model and finding someone else's image is difficult.

Where/how would I do something like that? Sorry to be a newb, but Hinsdale did my other drive.

[Derek93]

Nothing to add to the thread, just add my machine to the list, died yesterday.
"almost there..."

[billyacc]

My SD-H400 died in September of 05! I got stuck on the Almost There screen as well and had the clicking hard drive. My warranty had expired in August of 05 so I was SOL. I bought a larger hard drive from Weaknees and I have not had a problem since (knock on Wood). I also have the RS-TX20 (The Best Buy purchase of $100 from last July) and it started acting up on me on Monday. I got a new Harmony 880 remote and now I have no Audio from my Tivo.

Ugh...

Based on all of the posts, I am starting to hate Toshiba and their lack of support for their products.

[JamieP]

My SD-H400 died in September of 05! I got stuck on the Almost There screen as well and had the clicking hard drive. My warranty had expired in August of 05 so I was SOL. I bought a larger hard drive from Weaknees and I have not had a problem since (knock on Wood). I also have the RS-TX20 (The Best Buy purchase of $100 from last July) and it started acting up on me on Monday. I got a new Harmony 880 remote and now I have no Audio from my Tivo.

Ugh...

Based on all of the posts, I am starting to hate Toshiba and their lack of support for their products.
:confused: They've been replacing failed boxes that are out of warranty. How is that a lack of support? Hard drives fail. It is a fact of life that a tivo that is several years old using the original harddrive may start to see harddrive failures.

If you think there is a correlation between getting your new Harmony remote and the lack of audio from your Toshiba tivo, I'm not sure why you'd blame Toshiba for that. Perhaps the Harmony isn't configured properly for your audio setup?

[billyacc]

:confused: They've been replacing failed boxes that are out of warranty. How is that a lack of support? Hard drives fail. It is a fact of life that a tivo that is several years old using the original harddrive may start to see harddrive failures.

If you think there is a correlation between getting your new Harmony remote and the lack of audio from your Toshiba tivo, I'm not sure why you'd blame Toshiba for that. Perhaps the Harmony isn't configured properly for your audio setup?

All I was saying is that after reading this entire thread, that I am not happy with Toshiba and their products.

I am not blaming Toshiba for my latest glitch, I was just stating what happened. I don't know why I lost Audio and now I have lost the display on my TX-20. It is still under warranty, maybe they will replace it. I will contact them and see what they say.

I have just had alot of problems with Toshiba. And after reading the posts above, it sounds like Toshiba is not supporting these models anymore. Maybe I read it wrong.

[glov222]

I think the anger toward Toshiba is misplaced. If it's true that new Tivo software is killing our machines, then it's Tivo's fault. They should at least give us the option to not install it and continue with the old software. It's one thing if the machines are breaking on their own...fine, as I'm out of warranty. But if Tivo is breaking them, that's another issue.

[billyacc]

I think the anger toward Toshiba is misplaced. If it's true that new Tivo software is killing our machines, then it's Tivo's fault. They should at least give us the option to not install it and continue with the old software. It's one thing if the machines are breaking on their own...fine, as I'm out of warranty. But if Tivo is breaking them, that's another issue.

Good point. I will reserve judgement until I verify what is causing the problem.

[ashu]

I think the anger toward Toshiba is misplaced. If it's true that new Tivo software is killing our machines, then it's Tivo's fault. They should at least give us the option to not install it and continue with the old software. It's one thing if the machines are breaking on their own...fine, as I'm out of warranty. But if Tivo is breaking them, that's another issue.

One has to realize that MOST (I'm sure someone can throw in a meaningless numeric statistic) hard drive failures occur during shutdown/startup, when the heads & disk/s are moving the greatest relative distances and undergoing the highest speed variations.

Most disk failures noticed during upgrades are NO different from the failures those same users would *likely* observe if they shut down their TiVos and restarted them themselves twice on the same day that TiVo sent out a software upgrade.

There's a reason my longest lasting computer hard drives are the ones installed in systems that I *never* reboot, if I can avoid it!

[Mars]

In the case of the Toshiba I repaired, The Maxtor drive had failed Maxtor's own diagnostic test. Not likely TiVo software damaged the drive, just plain crummy drives by Maxtor that are all failing at the same time. Not really Toshiba's fault.

[jon96cobra]

One has to realize that MOST (I'm sure someone can throw in a meaningless numeric statistic) hard drive failures occur during shutdown/startup, when the heads & disk/s are moving the greatest relative distances and undergoing the highest speed variations.

Most disk failures noticed during upgrades are NO different from the failures those same users would *likely* observe if they shut down their TiVos and restarted them themselves twice on the same day that TiVo sent out a software upgrade.

There's a reason my longest lasting computer hard drives are the ones installed in systems that I *never* reboot, if I can avoid it!

Any hard drive reading and writing over and over again in a tivo or any DVR will fail sooner than one in your pc. Since the HD in your pc is not always reading and writing like the DVR or tivo. Rebooting the drive won't hurt it as much as power outtages and/or unpluging the power since the HD will not have a chance to properly shut down and return to a home location so the heads do not contact the disk.

[BrianEWilliams]

I'll add my name to the list of people whose SD-H400 has died. Same symptoms, stuck on the powering up screen. Running the Maxtor diagnostic right now, so I'll see what it says. I'll call Toshiba on Monday and see what they say. I have been power cycling the box lately, and I guess that helped kill it. Live and learn.

[skeezicks]

well, i had the same problem (wish i would have called/researched when it happened a few months back) -- but when i called toshiba this morning i received the comment that only the replacements/refirbs were being offered because there were no available serviceable parts for the sd400 at the time.

now as others have reported, it is $140 (which does inlcude shipping) for the repair of the unit. in looking at my own personal time/estimates, this isn't worth it to get the unit back to the same state. going to weakknees[dot]com for an upgrade and 2 year warranty on a new drive will cost me aout $189 and I'll have it in 2 days...much more worth the effort and i triple my recording time.

[skeezicks]

well, i had the same problem (wish i would have called/researched when it happened a few months back) -- but when i called toshiba this morning i received the comment that only the replacements/refirbs were being offered because there were no available serviceable parts for the sd400 at the time.

now as others have reported, it is $140 (which does inlcude shipping) for the repair of the unit. in looking at my own personal time/estimates, this isn't worth it to get the unit back to the same state. going to weaknees[dot]com for an upgrade and 2 year warranty on a new drive will cost me aout $189 and I'll have it in 2 days...much more worth the effort and i triple my recording time.

[BrianEWilliams]

I called Toshiba, and they said there wasn't even an option to send it back. I had to take it to a local service center. When I called the service center, they said that all they would do is ship the unit back to Toshiba, probably charging me for the shipping, plus I have to drive a half hour to get to the service center. I feel like starting a thread called TOSHIBA SUCKS!!!! Is that against forum rules?

[ashu]

I feel like starting a thread called TOSHIBA SUCKS!!!!

Only if your warranty is still current.

Really, folks ... hard drives die. Mine did too, a few days ago. If you don't have a warranty longer than a year, quit complaining - it's getting old (pun intended)!

[plumsmuggler]

I personally think owners of the sdh400 got the shaft. Either maxtor or toshiba can be blamed but it seems like alot of units are dying at roughly the same time. I also think toshiba knows, and is purposly dodging liability. My HD just died...though the symptoms are a bit different. Got the nasty old S03 error and no more updates. When I called tech support they suggested the problem might be my updates, I should call tivo. Tivo said no, definatly the unit, we suggest a "kick start." I call toshiba and was told they have never heard of a kickstart! Furthermore they suggested tivo was lying to me to get me off the phone. Well of course they have, so why pretend like they haven't? Because they know its not a software glitch, that all sdh400 are failing. If they told me to kickstart, they would be liable for the results... aka the GSOD. I ran maxtor's diagnostic got a D7ABAB7B code... I am going to follow up with maxtor. Whether it is the drive or the way the sdh400 accesses it, someone is it at fault. Products should not have 2yr life spans.

[ashu]

At the end of your long-winded accusatory post, you mentioned a Maxtor diagnostic error. Ergo - hard drive failure.

And if products had lifespans longer than two years, then the warranties would be longer too. I can't imagine a manufacturer NOT providing a longer warranty as a selling point. I personally prefer Seagate drives because they ALL (no OEM only/Retail only, ID or any of that irritating maxtor/WD rigmarole) have a LONG warranty, the longest in the business. 5 years!

How's the plum smuggling business these days? Better than the logic thing, eh?
;)

[plumsmuggler]

Its funny you mention seagate since they just bought maxtor... but anyhow... my comments were not to suggest the legal culpability of either company. My point was toshiba is selling boxes that destroy the hard drives in under two years. Whether by defect of the hard drive or the way the box accesses them, I don't know. What I do know is I have a sylvania dvd/vhs player that is about 7 years old. I don't know if it even carried a one year warranty. I also have a tivo stand alone that is about five years old, which has had no problems. My assumption is it is toshiba making crappy product. Its not a brand I previously made such assumptions about. I will however make it a point to make avoid their products in the future. I would recommend others in this forum do likewise. The fact their technical support claims there is no such thing as a kick start kinda says it all. They are lying to their customers. Also if you havent noticed, I don't know how to speak in anything but longwinded tirades.


Also, if anyone else is a dumbass like myself who did not back up their tivo, let me know.... I ll give them ftp access to the backup SDH400 image funtoupgrade sent me.

[xmo]

Call toshiba this morning for the problem with my SD-H400 and was told the same thing: pay $140 flat fee (plus shipping) to fix it. I said come on, is this a joke? I can get a brand new one for $170. As far as I see, this is a systemic problem and is caused by a design flaw. I told them I was an engineer and wanted to know if this was a hardware or software problem so I could decide what to do next. Still they refuse to disclose any more information.

I am pisssed off.

If this is a design and systemic problem, Toshiba should disclose what the problem is, like they did with their laptop computers, and should offer to fix it free of charge. Instead, they want to make some money out of it.

I think we should collect data and talk to an attorney, and this may be qualified as a class action lawsuit.

[sig435]

Well looks as though i join you guys with my SD-h400 not working anymore just gets stuck on the powering up menu... seems strange how everyones is now failing....

[JasonColeman]

Add ours to the list as well. We get the "almost there..." screen for over an hour with no progress at all. I tried powering down, unplugging, etc to no avail. Also, our unit was running pretty warm and there was a distinct buzzing sound coming from the back, so maybe it's better that it died instead of burning down our house (and all of my other nice gear!)...:rolleyes:

I called Toshiba and got the repair statement, too...no thanks!

J.

[TiVo_is_NeTo]

Add me to the list. For some reason this really gets up my crawl. It was working fine last night and this morning my wife says, "Hey, why won't the TV work?" and it is the Welcome problem eeryone else is having. Called Toshiba and the guy said that it sounded like the HD was locked and to unplug for 30min and pray that it unlocks. It makes a really nasty noise though ao I doubt it will work. What ticks me off is that so many people (some with other models) are having this issue. Some are saying that it happened after a TiVo update? I think we should keep at Toshiba for this one since it is obviously a known issue that overwhelmed them. I loved this unit until today! they need us to help their rep - go the BBB and search Toshiba - OUCH!

[JamieP]

I'd suggest that those of you who have given up on their sd-h400's list them on ebay as "as-is" sales. In many cases, a new harddisk and a fresh software image will bring them back to life. Since they are hackable, have lifetime tivo-basic service, and a dvd player, repairable sd-h400's have a higher value than most S2SA tivos. Naturually, the ebay buyer will have to take the risk that it is repairable, but ebay buyers often seem to be foolhardy that way. You might be able to get $50 out of it anyway.

[xmo]

Toshiba was notorious a few years ago for make notebook computers that got data storage reliability problems and overheating issues. It ended up being suited and paid a large amount of money to settle.

Some people replaced the harddrive with ones from Weakness but couldn't get the machine to work. So I rather not to spend the money and time to try that if it were caused by the HD.

Toshiba can simply be honest and forward coming by providing technical information on fixing the problems, rather than charging people money for such stupid mistakes they made.

We should joint force and get Toshiba to do something. Let's all send emails and faxes, make phone calls and talk to the media until they do something.

[MadAtMaxtor]

I'll add my SD-H400 to the list as well. It died last week at the "Welcome. Powering up" message. I purchased a new Seagate 160GB HDD, but unfortunately the Maxtor isn't spinning up long enough to get the image off of it. Shame on Toshiba for using the notoriously poor Maxtor drives. I work for an educational institution and IBM is currently replacing ALL of our Maxtor drives due to their extremely high failure rate. I'm going to keep trying to get an SD-H400 image... if anyone has one I would greatly appreciate it!!

[fonz88]

I have been a proud owner of my SD-H400 for almost 2 years. I recently started noticing some problems with it. I was wondering if anyone has had these problems and if they are fixable. I have a warrenty with Bestbuy and will be taking it in to see if they can fix it. The problems that I am having are as follows.

1. When playing a DVD the video starts jumping up and down, almost like its trying to track the video (like a VCR). I tried several DVD's and have noticed it always happens with new DVD's and DVD-R only sometimes. It always happens when the movie starts and just recently started during the movie.

2. The audio when I'm watching something on my now playing list goes up and down when playing, but not when I'm watching live TV.

3. I hit the Tivo button or the back button and it takes several seconds (maybe 4-5) to even get the bing and then takes awhile to change.

4. When I first power up Tivo in the morning it reboots. This has been happening alot lately and I first thought it was because I was transferring to my PC, but it even happens even when I don't transfer.

5. I was watching live TV and something was going to record. It gave me the message if it was ok to change the channel and I said yes. The channel never changed, but it was still recording what it needed to record. I got to watch the program for 30min and then it changed to the channel it was recording. This is not a bad thing , but I did not see that this was added on any update.

6. I was not able to put the system on standby mode. It would take several trys before it actually went to standby mode.

7. Theres other problems that I've been noticing, but can't remember them right now. Thanks in advance for any responses.

[Gorsline]

My SD-H400 gets included too. It just stopped while I was watching TV, restarted and was stuck on the Welcome Powering Up. After several reboots nothing. Then it started clicking and making other loud noises. Just like everyone else mine is about 2 years old right now. Looking at getting a replacement but will call Toshiba tomorrow just to confirm the death.

[plumsmuggler]

I'd suggest that those of you who have given up on their sd-h400's list them on ebay as "as-is" sales. In many cases, a new harddisk and a fresh software image will bring them back to life. Since they are hackable, have lifetime tivo-basic service, and a dvd player, repairable sd-h400's have a higher value than most S2SA tivos. Naturually, the ebay buyer will have to take the risk that it is repairable, but ebay buyers often seem to be foolhardy that way. You might be able to get $50 out of it anyway.

I can say a new hdd did the trick for me ... was able to get one for $11 after rebates from OD two weeks ago.

[cgilly]

Mine died on Friday...now I need advice on what to do.

Please show pity on me - I'm pg with twins, have a 4 yr old, and my DH is not interested in helping. I'm relatively good with computers, but don't have the time to do this myself. I need to know what the best deal is. I have a guy at work that will do this for me for cheap labor, I just need to know where to buy the replacement drive. He's a computer pro, and should be able to figure out how to get the needed sofware set up on the drive. Can I buy any hard drive (same/larger, I know) to have him put in? I know there are often good deals after rebate...I just need to know what will work. I've read the threads, but it doesn't say specifically what will work and what will not.

Or should I just buy a new unit? I pay the $6.95 monthly fee, need to have the dvd player, use Tivo To Go, and am happy with unit in general.

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

[JamieP]

Mine died on Friday...now I need advice on what to do.
Keep in mind that there is no guarantee a new hard disk will fix your problem. It is likely that it will, but you haven't described your symptoms, so it's hard to know.

The simpliest solution is to go buy a pre-imaged drive for your system from one of the upgrade vendors. You'll pay more than for a bare drive, but this approach may be worth considering if you are nervous about a completely DIY solution.

A cheaper way is to buy a bare harddrive and put the tivo software image on it yourself. A 320GB drive -- 4 times your original capacity -- runs about $100.

You can buy a tivo software image from PTVUpgrade for ~ $20. They call the product "Instant Cake" be sure you select the right tivo model.

You can also find a free tivo software image on the ed2k (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EDonkey_network) peer-to-peer network if you look around. Tivo frowns upon sharing of tivo software images, so they are a little hard to find. There is some possibility of getting a "bad" image this way. The usual symptom of a bad image is that the menus are "transparent" and you see live tv behind them instead of the usual tivo background animations. Again, be sure you get an image that is for your hardware model. An sd-h400 is also known as a "264" model -- based on the first three digits of the tivo service number.

If you DIY using a downloaded image, follow the weaknees upgrade instructions (http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=141538) for restoring from a backup. There are other instructions out there, but some of them are not up to date and don't work correctly with large disks.

[cgilly]

Keep in mind that there is no guarantee a new hard disk will fix your problem. It is likely that it will, but you haven't described your symptoms, so it's hard to know.

The simpliest solution is to go buy a pre-imaged drive for your system from one of the upgrade vendors. You'll pay more than for a bare drive, but this approach may be worth considering if you are nervous about a completely DIY solution.

A cheaper way is to buy a bare harddrive and put the tivo software image on it yourself. A 320GB drive -- 4 times your original capacity -- runs about $100.

You can buy a tivo software image from PTVUpgrade for ~ $20. They call the product "Instant Cake" be sure you select the right tivo model.....


Thanks for the quick reply.

My Tivo is doing what everyone esle's has done - "Welcome, Powering Up" screen, then I'll get the green screen that says to wait 3 hours, then an error screen that says there is a critical error and I need to contact Tivo.

I looked at the instant cake info - but there is no choice for this Toshiba model. I don't really care too much about increasing the size of the drive, I was thinking of just going to the FAR drive that is going on this week at CC (w/a PM to OD) for a 160gb Western Digital drive. I'd be really happy to spend the $20 on istant cake and be done w/it for that price - but there is no version available.

I reviewed the weaknees directions w/my co-worker on Friday, and he agrees it looks easy enough, and is even willing to try to salvage my recordings (if they aren't trashed from the crash already).

I need to find a good image I guess, since my HD probably won't spin long enough to recover it. I'd prefer to go this route w/a minimal HD cost and be done with it, since I have a guy that will help me do the install.

Thanks again.

[cgilly]

I have a good Toshiba SD-400 image I would be happy to share with anybody who would like to PM me. The only problem is my lame computers will not send such a large image via email, and the image is too big to fit on a CD. My only option is to burn it onto a DVD so whoever needs it will have to have a DVD player in their computer.

Please check your email...

Thanks.

[ronniejay]

Please check your email...

Thanks.


I left one email, too.

[flyonwall]

Adding to the list of recently departed units... mine died one week ago after 2 years of faithful service. Now it only shows the "Welcome.. powering up" screen (it made the dying hard drive clicks at first, but now only silence).

This is more than a coincidence, and probably class action worthy.

[TivoBasicRules]

My SD-H400 died a similar death last Sunday. I am looking for a good hard drive image.

[michigan bob]

I've had my Toshiba for about 2 1/2 years and replaced the hard drive last summer with a 250GB drive. I sure hope mine doesn't die soon.

[ColonelCash]

OK, you can add mine to the list also. I actually have 2 of these units, one is holding up well and another died about a year ago, with my copy of "Anchorman" in the drive (not happy about that at all). Since I have 1 working unit, couldn't I just make an image of that drive and install a new drive in the second unit? Also, what type of drive is needed for these units? EIDE, ATA, SATA, etc.? I'll keep watching for a drive for cheap and just work on this one myself. Also, if anyone knows how to make an image of the drive, please let me know! PM's and links are welcome.

[megazone]

How To: http://www.newreleasesvideo.com/hinsdale-how-to/ And they use IDE/PATA drives.

[KBOOM]

R.I.P.
7/2004 - 8/2006

[JamieP]

How To: http://www.newreleasesvideo.com/hinsdale-how-to/ And they use IDE/PATA drives.That guide doesn't describe how to remove the capacity lock on a stock sd-h400 nor does it include the extra "-r 4" switch needed when expanding onto a large disk (partitions > 274GB).

I'd recommend following this (http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=141538) instead, since it addresses both of those issues and seems to be actively maintained.

[doyling]

Looks like I caught mine just in time. I started hearing the heads pick up and drop, and change speeds. I cloned my drive since my wife has tons of season pass and whatnot. It took 12 hours on a Pentium 4 2gighz. My problem now is that the Tivo only shows 83 hours though I put a 120g drive in there. I used MFStools 2.0. I would apreciate any suggestions.

For the next guy who's wife has lots of programs to save and needs to do a copy, here is my suggestion. Tivo to Go all the files to your computer. Yup that will take awhile and give her time to put more on. Then, delete the programs so all you have left is the OS. I bet that copies much faster.

[JamieP]

... My problem now is that the Tivo only shows 83 hours though I put a 120g drive in there. I used MFStools 2.0. I would apreciate any suggestions.Read the weaknees instructions for your hardware here (http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=141538) and pay particular attention to the sd-h400_unlock step.

You can capacity unlock your 120GB drive without going through the whole copy process again.

[doyling]

Thank you. I just did that but I have another problem. My video is awful after a reboot. I noticed this before but it would eventually clear up. I am using component video cables to a regular TV not high def or anything. The screen is just a bunch of lines. I called Toshiba earlier in the day, but by the time they answered, all was well. Now, after booting back up after the unlock, its the lines again. They have not cleared up either this time. Two reboots, plus the tv.

I am trying to figure out if it has something to do with the progressive/interlace switch on the back. I found that booting with RCA jacks to the front pannel of my tv had a similar effect. I would have audio, but after the grey boot up screen, when I get the orange tivo guy screen, it would go blank. This is the same spot the lines would start when using the component vid outputs.

Wow, what a hassle. Changing from progressive to interlace did the trick. Plus, the unlock freed my hard drive. Yippie 137 hours. Wife will be impressed.

:)

[hiros]

I looked at the instant cake info - but there is no choice for this Toshiba model. I don't really care too much about increasing the size of the drive, I was thinking of just going to the FAR drive that is going on this week at CC (w/a PM to OD) for a 160gb Western Digital drive. I'd be really happy to spend the $20 on istant cake and be done w/it for that price - but there is no version available.



Thanks JamieP.

My SD-400 died yesterday and I successfully upgraded the drive with instant cake at PTVupgrade.
I could find the instant cake for SD-400, ICAKE2-S2SA-DVD and downloaded it by just $20.


I baked the boot CD from this image then I could build the TiVo drive with WD 120GB drive that I had for stock.

Now my SD-400 is working fine with 120GB drive. :)

[janbo]

I have a good Toshiba SD-400 image I would be happy to share with anybody who would like to PM me. The only problem is my lame computers will not send such a large image via email, and the image is too big to fit on a CD. My only option is to burn it onto a DVD so whoever needs it will have to have a DVD player in their computer.
any way to down your image to my pc? my toshiba sd-h400 hard drive just failed and i don't have a backup image.

[lafos]

I'm not necessarily defending Toshiba, but my two are almost 3 years old, and except for running warm, have behaved well. I have replaced the drives at 12-15 month intervals, not because they failed, but because they're cheap. This is not a guarantee of performance, as I did the same thing with a 140 S2, and it died after 3.5 years. It was not the drive. My policy is to not trash old drives, just stack them in a box in the closet. When the S2 died, I tried swapping out with the two most recent vintages with no success. TiVo charged $150 to replace it with a refurb 540 series so I could keep the lifetime subscription going.

Toshiba was going beyond the call of duty by exchanging out-of-warranty boxes at no charge, and then when they changed to a policy that would be normal in most electronics industries, some people started bashing them.

Is it really anger at Toshiba for making an "inferior" product, or jealousy that some people benefitted from a generous policy but some didn't?

And yes, I also have one of the overheating laptops Toshiba was sued over. I have another Toshiba laptop that has worked flawlessly for 4.5 years.

[cyclemattstl]

My SD-H400 died this week, two years and one week. I too was told by Toshiba that it would cost 140 to fix. I bought a 400 GB drive and planned to buy InstantCake but of course the Toshiba is not listed and they did not return my email. I dont know how the ICAKE2-S2SA-DVD referred above worked. I am hoping someone can help me with a drive image. If not, I will buy a small preimaged drive and back that up. Please email me if you have any help. Thank you.

Matt

[JamieP]

... planned to buy InstantCake but of course the Toshiba is not listed and they did not return my email. I dont know how the ICAKE2-S2SA-DVD referred above worked. ...It's there, although it can be a little hard to find. Try this (http://downloads.ptvupgrade.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=ICAKE2-S2SA-DVD&Category_Code=) link and choose "Toshiba SD-H400" as your model number.

There are images you can download from the ED2K P2P network too. There is a link in the image begging forum over at DDB.

[angelnjj]

Hmmmm...me too, died yesterday. Arrangements are being made and there will be a private ceremony for friends of the family...

Is there anything I can do?!?? Is the best bet starting over and forking up the cash for a new machine? Any recommendations?

[cyclemattstl]

Thanks to everyone on this forum. I downloaded the InstantCake per above instructions. Worth every bit of twenty dollars. Put it on an old 200 GB drive. My 400 GB drive (with five year warranty) arrives Monday. Although I will have to go through the long winded setup again, at least I can do it with the wireless network. For everyone out there with a dead Toshiba SD-H400 I have this to say:
Another opportunity to upgrade.

Too bad PTV put the software under DVD burners.

Spend the money, you will not be sorry.

Matt

[epics]

My SD-H400 died a similar death last Sunday. I am looking for a good hard drive image.

Mine died also. Has anyone sent it back to toshiba for the $140 and gotten back a SD-h400 or the newer model with the burner?

Wondering what to do with my dead Toshiba.

[kghawk]

it seems as if this is an epidemic...mine is dead...I'm not a techie - what are my options? are people having good luck with the $140 repair/exchange Toshiba is offering? is this a decent deal if you don't know what you're doing and can't repair it yourself? :confused: Help!!!

[lafos]

it seems as if this is an epidemic...mine is dead...I'm not a techie - what are my options? are people having good luck with the $140 repair/exchange Toshiba is offering? is this a decent deal if you don't know what you're doing and can't repair it yourself? :confused: Help!!!

Do you have a lifetime subscription on the Toshiba? If you do, then repairing it may make sense. If you don't, then reparing it for $140 is not a bargain. You can buy a new dual tuner 80-hour system for about $70 AR, or you should look at the various subscription options TiVo offers.

If you have a "techie" friend, perhaps they could try to swap the drive for you. I think the SD-H400 was stock with 80GB, and you can get >100GB for about $50. Add the Instant Cake image for another $20. Very detailed directions are available on the Web.

[idunavailable]

Add me to the list. Funny thing is this is the only thing I have not hacked in my household as a promise to the wife. Man wishing I wold have took a image of that drive.
My 2 cents: Maxtor drives will fail in at least 3 years. I now own 2 maxtor doorstops with another on its way out. I do not blame Toshiba as it looks like they did their part to correct what they could. I bet that contract with maxtor has ticked them off.

Anyway I did not have any intention of hacking the tivo but at least there is a possibility I can get this thing to work again. Thanks to tivo for leaving some thing hackable.

I guess the next step is to check all the torrent and eD2k sites. :)

[megazone]

Doesn't PTVUpgrade.com sell an Instant Cake CD for this model?

[JamieP]

Doesn't PTVUpgrade.com sell an Instant Cake CD for this model?Yes (http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=4291223&&#post4291223) (look back 7 posts).

[jblt]

Our Toshiba SD-H400 HDD died also. Replaced it with one from weaknees, but now our dvd is broken. The tray is stuck, does anyone know if that can be replaced as well or if we take it out can it be fixed? If we take it out it looked like the new HDD is screwed on top of the bracket for the DVD so will that screw up TIVO again? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

[rcurrlin]

My Toshiba SD-H400, dead at 2 years, 2 months. WE mourn its loss

[epics]

My Toshiba SD-H400, dead at 2 years, 2 months. WE mourn its loss

I sent mine in, they replaced the board and the hard drive. I had a feeling it wasn't just a drive issue...

[DoubleDown]

I figure I will do a preemptive strike and replace the hard drive before it fails. However I do have a couple of questions. I have the SD H400, with the new software, and just basic service,
if I use these directions http://tivo.upgrade-instructions.com/index.php Do I still need to get the "image" off my old/ dying drive? or is that what the weakknees boot Cd does? Is it easier to format the new drive in FAT32?
any tips or suggestions to prevent errors would be greatly appreciated.

Sorry for being such a newb. Otherwise, it seems easy enough just wish I had a bigger Hard drive as I am Just swapping an 80 GB for an 80 GB.

[raven42]

Ours died yesterday, after a bit more than 2 years. I am seriously irritated. Yes, hard disks die, but I doubt that having to spend 80 - 140 USD every year or two for a product which is around 250 USD now to begin with, is justifieable.

If anyone takes action, count me in.

[ashu]

raven42, a dead hard drive in two years, easily replaced with a $30ish 80 gigger HARDLY equates to the claimed $80-140 per year. Or would you like to explain the numbers again? ;)

[lafos]

I figure I will do a preemptive strike and replace the hard drive before it fails. However I do have a couple of questions. I have the SD H400, with the new software, and just basic service,
if I use these directions http://tivo.upgrade-instructions.com/index.php Do I still need to get the "image" off my old/ dying drive? or is that what the weakknees boot Cd does? Is it easier to format the new drive in FAT32?
any tips or suggestions to prevent errors would be greatly appreciated.

Sorry for being such a newb. Otherwise, it seems easy enough just wish I had a bigger Hard drive as I am Just swapping an 80 GB for an 80 GB.

The Weaknees CD will pull the image off of your existing hard drive and rebuild it on the new. Read the directions carefully. Weaknees has a nice interactive instruction set that walks you through step by step.

[lafos]

Ours died yesterday, after a bit more than 2 years. I am seriously irritated. Yes, hard disks die, but I doubt that having to spend 80 - 140 USD every year or two for a product which is around 250 USD now to begin with, is justifieable.

If anyone takes action, count me in.

It's interesting to note that MTBF of desktop class drives, which includes all TiVo drives, are rated based on a 40% duty cycle. ATA drives have a typical MTBF of 500,000 hours, but with a 1-year warranty (our years have <9000 hours). Even Seagate's 5-year warranty is far less than the MTBF, which makes sense since they expect virtually zero failures within the warranty period. Toshiba also gave a 1-year warranty. The equipment lasted >2x the warranty period.

[ukaussi]

My personal opinion is that the recent software upgrade from TIVO has been hosing the install on many Toshiba players.

It isn't Toshiba's fault it is TIVOs !!

Not sure why everyone just bends over and accepts it is a hard drive after such a short time. Hard drives are indeed designed to last a lot longer but just like people "hose" their Windows OS by screwing with it or installing bad programs and have to reinstall the same is true for TIVO.

I am willing to bet that if you reformatted the "faulty" hard drive and reimaged it with a TIVO image it would work fine.

As TIVO is doing with myself they are actually accepting that it is their software that caused my issue but won't do anything about it other than tell me to call Toshiba, who say I have to pay for it to be repaired.

[ukaussi]

thanks all but I again spoke to TIVO and they still wont do anything.

Consequently I have cancelled all 3 of my accounts

Good luck

[jon96cobra]

My personal opinion is that the recent software upgrade from TIVO has been hosing the install on many Toshiba players.

It isn't Toshiba's fault it is TIVOs !!

Not sure why everyone just bends over and accepts it is a hard drive after such a short time. Hard drives are indeed designed to last a lot longer but just like people "hose" their Windows OS by screwing with it or installing bad programs and have to reinstall the same is true for TIVO.

I am willing to bet that if you reformatted the "faulty" hard drive and reimaged it with a TIVO image it would work fine.

As TIVO is doing with myself they are actually accepting that it is their software that caused my issue but won't do anything about it other than tell me to call Toshiba, who say I have to pay for it to be repaired.

Unless you have tested the Maxtor drive with the Drive tester software I wouldn't just go blaming Tivo for the failure but may cause the drive to fail since it may check the drive for bad sectors.

I personally work on DVR's everyday and yes you can fix a fault with formatting but thats only to try to recover the data off I wouldn't use that drive again. When that happens its caused by a Data failure that had corrupted the drive plater and was probably caused by heat or just age of the drive being rewritten over and over. Also if it was a software issue it would affect more models than just SD 400 boxes.

[sgreenberg]

OK. My SD-H400 just died. Cycles between Booting, Just a few more minutes, and GSOD.

An observation. Some people have asserted that TiVo software is breaking the hard drives. I can run an experiment. The Tivo that died is two years and 2 months old. However, I just got my daughter a new SD-H400 out of the box. If hers dies it's TiVo software, if it doesn't it's Maxtor.

BTW, I was lucky to find an SD-H400 since they've been discontinued for at least a year. And no, they don't have any more. I wish I bought a backup two months ago while they were still in stock.

I have a different question. I am perfectly happy with Basic Tivo, so I'd like to reconstitute the SD-H400 to avoid paying the monthly or lifetime TiVo fee.

Toshiba wants $139 fixed price for 80Gig with a 90 day warrantee. Week Knees will ship a 160Gig drive for $149 with a 1 year warrantee, and even bigger drives for a little more. So, if I really knew that it was the hard drive, Week Knees would be the way to go. So, how likely will a new HD fix it up and is it easy enough for a novice to install. I haven't installed a HD in a computer since 239Meg (yes Meg) were big drives. Thanks.

[jon96cobra]

OK. My SD-H400 just died. Cycles between Booting, Just a few more minutes, and GSOD.

An observation. Some people have asserted that TiVo software is breaking the hard drives. I can run an experiment. The Tivo that died is two years and 2 months old. However, I just got my daughter a new SD-H400 out of the box. If hers dies it's TiVo software, if it doesn't it's Maxtor.

BTW, I was lucky to find an SD-H400 since they've been discontinued for at least a year. And no, they don't have any more. I wish I bought a backup two months ago while they were still in stock.

I have a different question. I am perfectly happy with Basic Tivo, so I'd like to reconstitute the SD-H400 to avoid paying the monthly or lifetime TiVo fee.

Toshiba wants $139 fixed price for 80Gig with a 90 day warrantee. Week Knees will ship a 160Gig drive for $149 with a 1 year warrantee, and even bigger drives for a little more. So, if I really knew that it was the hard drive, Week Knees would be the way to go. So, how likely will a new HD fix it up and is it easy enough for a novice to install. I haven't installed a HD in a computer since 239Meg (yes Meg) were big drives. Thanks.

Well if its the Tivo software than once you put in a new drive in the SD-400 it should fail since that would be the software causing it to fail. I put a 300gb in my SD-400 and it works fine. I have had 2 updates to it since the newer software came out.

[ashu]

I am willing to bet that if you reformatted the "faulty" hard drive and reimaged it with a TIVO image it would work fine.




And, even rhough you've cancelled and likely no longer read the forum, I'd like to inform you that you would NOT win that bet :)

Mine's a dead Mator with the unmistakeable click of death, and confirmed as inaccessible when installed to a PC (I boot and test bad drives with the Ultimate Boot CD - can't get any more elaborate about confirming drive deaths ;) ).

[ukaussi]

And, even rhough you've cancelled and likely no longer read the forum, I'd like to inform you that you would NOT win that bet :)

Mine's a dead Mator with the unmistakeable click of death, and confirmed as inaccessible when installed to a PC (I boot and test bad drives with the Ultimate Boot CD - can't get any more elaborate about confirming drive deaths ;) ).

With yours I would absolutely lose as the click of death is indeed a sure sign of drive failure. I am sitting next to a users laptop right now that has that issue and it isn't even recognied in the BIOS !!

[cgilly]

My Toshiba died in July, and haven't had luck with the guy that said he'd try to fix it for me. I have an image that was sent to me on dvd (thanks), and he tried another one that was emailed as a link (thanks), and a 250gb drive - but he says he can't open the images to get it to work.

Is there anyone in the Columbus, OH area that would be willing to work on this for me? I'd try it myself, but I'm pg w/twins, about to burst, working full time, and don't have the time (DH isn't computer savvy enough to try).

Please PM me if so.

Thanks,

Carole

ps
I'm still paying the reduced monthly rate, because Tivo support said they'd credit me for the downtime if I can get it running again...hoping that is true.....

[JamieP]

My Toshiba died in July, and haven't had luck with the guy that said he'd try to fix it for me. I have an image that was sent to me on dvd (thanks), and he tried another one that was emailed as a link (thanks), and a 250gb drive - but he says he can't open the images to get it to work.Instant cake is an option. It's hard to find on their website, but they do have a version for the sd-h400 (link (http://downloads.ptvupgrade.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=ICAKE2-S2SA-DVD&Category_Code=)).

[ArcticZ]

Instant cake is an option. It's hard to find on their website, but they do have a version for the sd-h400 (link (http://downloads.ptvupgrade.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=ICAKE2-S2SA-DVD&Category_Code=)).

yep thats it. My second toshiba sd-400 did on us a week or so ago. And we paid the $20 for the instant cake and bought a $60 160gb drive and installed the software and the thing booted right up and is working fine. We even noticed that the unit seems quiter now. So now were still using the h400 unit and the free refurb unit i got a few monts ago and were still tivioing along. :D

[atsang]

mine died like 8 months ago, and its been sitting there because I just havent gotten around to it (also because i'm using my SA8300hd for hd recording). anyways, i dled some iso from a PM request, and loaded it up, and it was slow and buggy. it went into that restart cycle.

I bought the instantcake, loaded it up and everything is working great. Once I saw the tivo's green background I knew things were already better :)

[cgilly]

Thanks for all the advice, and for the tip that Instant Cake is now available for this unit. I'm definitely going to try it!

Will let you know how it turns out!

[sgthatch]

Products should not have 2yr life spans.
You could not be more correct. My bubble gum only lasts 15 minutes too! Let's take them to court.

[sgthatch]

Here's a couple of things to consider. My HD crapped in July. I forget the exact day but it was a sad day at my house. Anyway, there are many options out there. You don't have to use a Maxtor if you don't want to. You don't have to have an image of your drive (but you will lose/have lost your previously recorded shows). Your lifetime membership will transfer. Do a google search for replacement drives. I used Weaknees (yes, a Maxtor). Everything worked great UNTIL...

This week we lost the audio and video of live TV. I have trouble-shot everything and narrowed it down to a cooling issue. Bottom line: If you think your TiVo ran a lot with the old hard drive, wait until you put a 300g HD in there. We used to have about 15-30 TiVo suggestions now we have over 400. What that means is cooling problems that lead to other symptoms (i.e. no live tv audio and video). You can solve this several ways. First, turn off TiVo suggestions. Second, get a bigger/better cooling fan from a computer store. Third, make sure your unit is well ventilated and not stacked directly on top or underneath any other a/v components. Fourth, clean out all of that dust out of the inside (especially around the fan exhaust). I'm sure there are many other great ideas out there for how to deal with cooling.

My last parting thought. If you don't like Toshiba, TiVo, or Maxtor, I would invite you to turn in anything in your house with those name brands on them to your favorite charity. Then you will need a subscription to TV Guide and a VCR. A warranty is a warranty.

[hlev]

I just wanted to give thanks for this forum and all the helpful people here.
After reading all the posts, I downloaded the Instant Cake for the Toshiba
and bought an 80 gig Westerndigital hard drive. Did the installation and
it worked with no problem. Total cost $65.
Been up and running for a week now.


THANK YOU, THANK YOU! :)

[Tersanyus]

Just wanted to let everyone know that my SD-H400 which I used for about a year then left unused and unplugged for a year.

My TiVo subscription is long gone and I knew this unit had TiVo Basic so I hooked it back up and got it up and running.

It downloaded 7.3.1 and has been running fine on that for about 2 weeks. So if what I skimmed over in this thread about updates killing the unit is correct mine may go belly up at any time.

If it doesn't then these units just don't last long. If any electronic item lasts past it's manufacturers warranty consider yourself lucky. This is how the electronics world works. Things generally work till warranty gives out. You get angry and are forced to buy a new one. This is how those companies make their money.

I buy some extended warranties. My new HDTV's have them. My $30 DVD players on non HDTV's do not have them. A $30 DVD player is throw away electronics. If it lasts the 90 day warranty you are lucky. If it lasts a year, well, wow!

The Toshiba SD-H400 never looked to be that well made to begin with. If you look inside while replacing that hard drive just look at all the white wire jumpers in there. This thing looks bypassed so many ways it's suprising it lasted as long as it did.

Don't get me wrong. I liked my Toshiba while I used it. I like the other standard TiVo's I used. At the time I left there was no S3. I wanted HD recording so I went the Windows Media Center route. No it's not TiVo but I can record HD. Would I like an S3? Sure. I may get one once the prices go down. I remember telling the TiVo rep when I cancelled service on 3 TiVo's why I was leaving. He tried his hardest to get me to stay.

For the price of an S3 today you could build/buy a PC upgrade it to HD add on cards. True no cable cards, no dual tuners but also no monthly fees.

I look forward to trying Series 3 when it drops about half the price it is now.

[ashu]

Excellent post, Tersanyus!

Good move on the Media Center. I'm too lazy to deal with the hassle, so I'll survive with the Cable HD DVR from the company until the S3 is about 2/3 the current price (500ish out of pocket)

And I have a strong feeling your SDH400 will last about another year, confirming it's a drive lifetime issue. Maxtor has finally mastered how to engineer their drives to fail past warranty :)

[bhshmo]

Do you have a lifetime subscription on the Toshiba? If you do, then repairing it may make sense. If you don't, then reparing it for $140 is not a bargain. You can buy a new dual tuner 80-hour system for about $70 AR, or you should look at the various subscription options TiVo offers.

If you have a "techie" friend, perhaps they could try to swap the drive for you. I think the SD-H400 was stock with 80GB, and you can get >100GB for about $50. Add the Instant Cake image for another $20. Very detailed directions are available on the Web.

So my Toshiba Tivo died this weekend, stuck on the "Welcome. Powering up..." screen. From what i've read on this thread its very likely the hard drive is kaput.

My question is, with the many options -- fixing it myself,or letting a pro do it -- will any of them make it possible to recover the recordings on my seemingly-dead drive? Or is it just dead? I do not have a lifetime subscription. So therefore it seems there would be no benefit in fixing my current machine, and I might as spend the $140-ish and buy a new one. right?

[lafos]

So my Toshiba Tivo died this weekend, stuck on the "Welcome. Powering up..." screen. From what i've read on this thread its very likely the hard drive is kaput.

My question is, with the many options -- fixing it myself,or letting a pro do it -- will any of them make it possible to recover the recordings on my seemingly-dead drive? Or is it just dead? I do not have a lifetime subscription. So therefore it seems there would be no benefit in fixing my current machine, and I might as spend the $140-ish and buy a new one. right?

If the HD is dead, then recovering the shows is not possible. On the other hand, if there's only a few bad sectors, it may be possible. You'll need a hard drive with a size equal to or greater than the TiVo drive. Search the forums for info on mfstools and dd_rescue. You can download tools and burn them to CD. There are step-by-step guides. I'd try mfsbackup/mfsrestore first, as it's faster than dd_rescue, which does a sector by sector copy.

If your shows aren't worth the time & effort (I'd guess several hours of research and work if you're new at it), then a new TiVo might be worthwhile.

Personally, fixing stuff is fun.

[glocks]

This morning, we also received the dreaded "Welcome" message with the gray screen and the apparently locked hard drive after almost exactly 2 yrs. of use. However, I unplugged the unit for about 40 min. and then fired it up again and everything is back to normal... Whew!

[buddhawood]

This morning, we also received the dreaded "Welcome" message with the gray screen and the apparently locked hard drive after almost exactly 2 yrs. of use. However, I unplugged the unit for about 40 min. and then fired it up again and everything is back to normal... Whew!

Time to think about replacing the drive while you still can use the image off your old drive. Chances are that you are just delaying the inevitable.

[glocks]

Time to think about replacing the drive while you still can use the image off your old drive. Chances are that you are just delaying the inevitable.

Hm. Still alive (barely) after another unplug and play today. As someone who is reasonably intelligent but has no experience w/ installling hd's or even opening up electronic devices, it looks like my options include:

a) quickly ship to weaknees for about $200 for the same brand (but larger) of drive that might be expected to last about 2 yrs.

b) order replace kit from weaknees that purportedly anyone can install in 1/2 hr. or so, for about $150

b) refurb/new model online for maybe $180-$200

c) new DT Tivo box w/ 3 yr subscription for $400

d) cable company DT dvr for $16/mo.

Just thinking out loud, lol. I'm leaning towards the replace kit, but I know as soon as I mention a DT option, my wife will be pushing for that strongly...

[gastrof]

The only reason for shipping the machine to Weaknees is if they think they can save the recordings off the old drive.

If not, don't worry about just ordering an appropriately prepared drive from them and installing it yourself. I was hesitant and had to ask a few questions here, but with a little hand-holding from guys in the "Help" forum, I did it and the thing works just fine, and now has even greater capacity than my other TiVo.

If the DVD burning is important to you, keep the Toshiba.

[glocks]

Thanks for the reassurance for being able to do the install myself, w/ the weaknees kit. A $10 off coupon code--google10-- for google checkout pushed me to order the install kit today. The race is on b/t the free ground shipping and the end of my hd's life! Ugh.

[ashu]

If the DVD burning is important to you, keep the Toshiba.

The SDH400 is the unintegrated DVD playing TiVo (no burning possible). In fact, it seems to boot into an alternate DVD-only OS identical to Toshiba DVD players of its era!

This weirdness is more than made up for in the incredible snappiness of this unit ... same innards as the 240 series, and not the slower 540 series of S2 TiVos! And component DVD quality is superior, IMO, to the DVD burning TiVos for some reason ... and I have the Tosh RS-TX20 as well as the Humax DRT800 to compare it to!

[Tersanyus]

This weirdness is more than made up for in the incredible snappiness of this unit ... same innards as the 240 series, and not the slower 540 series of S2 TiVos! And component DVD quality is superior, IMO, to the DVD burning TiVos for some reason ... and I have the Tosh RS-TX20 as well as the Humax DRT800 to compare it to!

Yeah, that's one thing I noticed a long time ago about this unit. This was my first TiVo and then when I got a "normal" S2 TiVo I thought how slow it seemed. The SD-H400 is quite a bit faster and more responsive.

And just to update that my SD-H400 is still going strong even on 7.3.1. I don't keep this unit doing much since there are no season passes on TiVo Basic.

[rcurrlin]

My Toshiba SD-H400, dead at 2 years, 2 months. WE mourn its loss

Just wanted to note my Tivo has been reborn for over a month now.

I bought a 40G hard drive on ebay for $25 and installed myself, even though I'm only computer semiliterate...all I needed was a Philips screwdriver. It works better than it did during its last year when it was freezing upand stuff as the drive was dying.

It seems that to most here, size matters, so downgrading to 40G may not be for you, but I don't mind cuz I usually watch what I record quickly, and didn't want to risk spending more in case it wasn't really the hard drive. Plus, the sd-h400 has a kick ass dvd player that only works if the TiVo works. Double plus, it's TiVo Basic and no-fee works great for me.

[ebeighe]

I bought a 40G hard drive on ebay for $25 and installed myself...

I didn't think it was possible to restore and image to a drive that is smaller than the drive the image was made from. How did you do that?

[ebeighe]

I have an SD-H400 image available for download (it is approx 200MBytes) -- so long as demand is not too great.

If restoring it yourself is beyond your level of geekiness, I can arrange to have your drive re-loaded with my image for a nominal fee.

EMAIL me (see http://azbikelaw.org/computer/tivo.html#broken for the email), I probably won't see pm's very often.

[ashu]

I have an SD-H400 image available for download (it is approx 200MBytes) -- so long as demand is not too great.

If restoring it yourself is beyond your level of geekiness, I can arrange to have your drive re-loaded with my image for a nominal fee.

EMAIL me (see http://azbikelaw.org/computer/tivo.html#broken for the email), I probably won't see pm's very often.

Nice gesture :)

One of these days, I'll finally get around to reviving my long-dead (3 months, and still paying the monthly fee!) SDH400. Let me know if you need help or a mirror ftp/http download location for the image :)

Oh, and I need it myself (duhh) ... will email you to set up an ftp upload if convenient! (I actually have already requested someone else for it too, maybe they already uploaded an image ... haven't checked my ftp server in a while!)

[Character Zero]

I have had my SD-H400 for a little over 2 years now and I love it. I have been putting off getting an HD DVR from my cable company (2 tuners) because I love the TIVO interface too much. But I am wondering if my TIVO is on its way down. While I am watching Live TV or recorded (i think, i know for sure on Live) sometimes it will stutter. Almost like when you are watching a DVD and it hits that second layer and there is a brief pause. I dunno if this is a sign of impending doom, or just maybe the cable feed.

[ashu]

That IS a sign of impending doom. Back it up before the drive dires completely.

I ignored mine for weeks, and now when I do revive my SDh400, I won't have a working source disk, nor all the shows on it :(

[Character Zero]

Well I am caught up on everything on there. Mostly what I keep is stuff I can watch when I am bored, like a bunch of Law and Orders they show while I am at work. They only shows that pile up are my wife's recordings, which, in the grand scheme of things, don't really matter (she doesn't read these forums, so I am safe). When I does die its a good excuse to move on to an HD DVR which I really want anyway.

[edved10062]

I'm having an issue with my Toshiba SD-H400. I've had it for going on three years now and it is definitely past its warranty. My problem is it will no longer make the call to download the schedule info.

I've recently switched to Vonage and I've used it for 3 months with no problems. I've ruled Vonage out as the issue because I've gone through troubleshooting the whole thing with Vonage CS and they've even sent me a replacement box, and it still won't work. I've tried dialing prefixes and different numbers...none of it worked. Just get the 'Could not connect' error.

I've considered doing the network set up, but as I understood it, you can't use networking with the free Tivo service, you'd have to use the subscription service. Is this correct or would I have to start paying the subscription to use this option?

Any help on this is much appreciated, I'd like to keep using our unit for as long as I can and it looks like I missed the boat on the Toshiba exchange. (I've had a few HD issues as well, but one thing at a time right now)

[ashu]

I thought i would dial out over the network even unsubbed ... just MRV/HMO/HME/TTG/TTCB etc would be disabled. (I say 'just' in jest ;) )

[majinbuu147]

I'm having an issue with my Toshiba SD-H400. I've had it for going on three years now and it is definitely past its warranty. My problem is it will no longer make the call to download the schedule info.

I've recently switched to Vonage and I've used it for 3 months with no problems. I've ruled Vonage out as the issue because I've gone through troubleshooting the whole thing with Vonage CS and they've even sent me a replacement box, and it still won't work. I've tried dialing prefixes and different numbers...none of it worked. Just get the 'Could not connect' error.

I've considered doing the network set up, but as I understood it, you can't use networking with the free Tivo service, you'd have to use the subscription service. Is this correct or would I have to start paying the subscription to use this option?

Any help on this is much appreciated, I'd like to keep using our unit for as long as I can and it looks like I missed the boat on the Toshiba exchange. (I've had a few HD issues as well, but one thing at a time right now)

i have mine networked with the wireless adapter that they sell. mine downloads everyday no problems at all. I have the Free basic service and i dont think u can do anything else besides get updates and schedule information with the free service. unless im just over looking that feature somehow.

[edved10062]

i have mine networked with the wireless adapter that they sell. mine downloads everyday no problems at all. I have the Free basic service and i dont think u can do anything else besides get updates and schedule information with the free service. unless im just over looking that feature somehow.

That's exactly what I needed to know. Is there a certain adapter that works best, or does anyone know of ones to avoid. I'm using a D-link wireless router, but I also have the router right near the Tivo, so a wired option would also work if possible.

[ashu]

That's exactly what I needed to know. Is there a certain adapter that works best, or does anyone know of ones to avoid. I'm using a D-link wireless router, but I also have the router right near the Tivo, so a wired option would also work if possible.

Check the tivo.com list (sorry, I'm not too lazy to post responses, but AM too lazy to post links).

I have Linksys USB200M's on all m TiVos (well, except the S3 that has ethernet) but I know that newer ones don't work :eek:

ledshoppe.com and a plethora of those cheap front-end-for-Taiwanese manufacturer stores sell dirt-cheap USB-ethernet adapters that may be worth trying, given the (sub-$10) price! I've had good luck with their white LED products :)

Yours local Frys/Microcenter should have a bunch of them as well ... easy to return if they don't work. The Linksys/Belkins are in the $20-30 range, usually.

[edved10062]

I just picked up a Linksys USB200M tonight...everything automatically switched over and is working great! :D

I was expecting at least a little bit of a setup fiasco, but it did everything itself! Thanks for everyone's input...now just have to work on that HD. :(

[lafos]

I think with v7 software, it'll use the network even with TiVo basic. IIRC, when I first got mine, I had to do the initial call over phone, then network could work. I won't swear to that as it was about 3 years ago.

[cgilly]

Is there any place that will try to fix my Toshiba for me? I don't have the time/skill to do it myself, but I have the new drive (larger) and the Instant Cake as recommended, but so far, no one can do it for me. I can't send it to Weaknees, even if I bought their drive, because the unit must be in working condition.

The person I have working on it now has an issue because she has SATA cables only. She might try a work around, but I'd like to find out if there is any other options for repair for me, because I know it will take a lot of time and effort on her part.

The reason for wanting to revive this box (I've given up on the shows on my old drive - no big deal), is that I have the $6.95/rate on this box - which won't transfer (per Tivo) to a new box. Also, we like the dvd feature of this unit, due to space constraints in our entertainment center.

Please let me know if anyone knows of any other repair options out there. I am in the central OH area.

Thanks.

[Chester_Lampwick]

The reason for wanting to revive this box (I've given up on the shows on my old drive - no big deal), is that I have the $6.95/rate on this box - which won't transfer (per Tivo) to a new box. Also, we like the dvd feature of this unit, due to space constraints in our entertainment center.


I don't know why a new box wouldn't be charged the same rate. It's $12.95 if you only own one TiVo, then $6.95 for each additional TiVo.

As for doing the InstantCake, any old PC will work. I'd say anything from PII to P4. Most new systems do have regular ATA as well as SATA. You could buy a used PC at a thrift store, suitable for the task for less than $50 if you rummage around.

[cgilly]

I don't know why a new box wouldn't be charged the same rate. It's $12.95 if you only own one TiVo, then $6.95 for each additional TiVo.
.



Thanks for the suggestions!

I have the reduced monthly rate of $6.95 for one box - I called Tivo a long time ago and asked if they would price-match my cable company's rate for their DVR, and they did. If I get a new box, I would go up to the higher monthly rate. If I'd add another box, yes, that box would be the $6.95 for the additional Tivo.

[ashu]

Well, you've been (IMO, unfairly) saving $6 a month ... send it to weaknees or someone for a paid repair :p

Have I mentioned I'm opinionated?

[cgilly]

Well, you've been (IMO, unfairly) saving $6 a month ... send it to weaknees or someone for a paid repair :p

Have I mentioned I'm opinionated?

I respect your opinion, however I don't understand it. Why is it unfair to ask a company to price match a competitor's price for a similar product? I see that as a huge plus for Tivo - to satisfy their customer's wants to keep their business. Trust that Tivo is getting their money out of me - I've kept paying my fee since June, even though my box isn't working, on the hopes that I can get it fixed and keep this lower rate. If you have other options for DVR service through your cable co, I don't see why you wouldn't contact Tivo regarding a price match. I enjoy the services Tivo provides, but I also work very hard and support a family of 5 (wow-that sounds like a lot - I just had twins 5 wks ago :o ), and pride myself in being wise with my money.

I would send it to weaknees, but as I mentioned, the unit must be in working condition for them to work on it. That is why my original post above asks if anyone knows of a place for me to send it that will work on a unit that is not working.

Does anyone know of a reputable, established company that will repair a Tivo that is not in working order?

Thanks!

[ashu]

Does anyone know of a reputable, established company that will repair a Tivo that is not in working order?

Thanks!

It's not that big a market ... see if you can find a local who is planning to do an upgrade sometime soon. Bring a 6 pack and join in the fun! It'll take barely a couple of hours total.

Congrats on the twins :)

[cgilly]

It's not that big a market ... see if you can find a local who is planning to do an upgrade sometime soon. Bring a 6 pack and join in the fun! It'll take barely a couple of hours total.

Congrats on the twins :)

Since I am the one nursing the twins - the 6 pack will have to wait! The "couple of hours" is the key problem for us right now!

Hoping I can find someone local...anyone in central Ohio??

[BHJK]

Not sure if this is the right thread, but has anyone had trouble with the remote control from the SD-400? Ours has worked through three different TV models, although lately some of the buttons are slow. We just got a Bravia LCD (woo hoo!) and alas the remote works only if all the planets are aligned and you hold your face just right. Does strange things (press the down button once and it goes down five or six options). Changed the batteries, reset it, not sure what else to try. Thx.