Transfer hard drive from dead S2 tivo to new same model unit

[sammyfi]

I have a 540 Series 2 Tivo that has recently stopped booting, no welcome screen, no front panel lights, the hard drive doesn't even spin up.

I've done a little troubleshooting, and it appears that the motherboard is dead, because the power supply is fine, and the hard drive passes a surface test in my PC.

I have another 540 Series 2 unit that I haven't been using, so I tried moving the good drive to that unit, and it does boot successfully, but after booting it shows a message saying that it detected a hardware problem and that until it is resolved, no recordings can be played or recorded.

So, I'm guessing that there must be some marker or signature on the drive that ties it to a specific motherboard. I'd like to keep all my settings, season passes, ratings, and program that are on this drive. Is there anyway to remove/change whatever is on the drive so it will work properly in a different unit that is the exact same version/model of hardware?

I've spent a lot of time looking through the forums, but all I seem to find is about doing hard drive upgrades on the SAME unit, or hacks for old series 1 units, or replacing failed hard drives. I can't seem to find anything about moving a good hard drive from a failed unit to a different one with the same hardware.

Any pointers to info or help would be much appreciated.

[mick66]

You have to do a Clear & Delete Everything in order to make the HD work in another 540 TiVo. You will not be able to save anything that is currently on the HD as far as settings and recordings are concerned.

[sammyfi]

Crap. I had hoped to be able to recover at least the shows off of it, since there's nothing wrong with the drive.

I've seen lots of tools for series1 tivos to do backups of season passes and settings, and other hacks to recover video from the older tivo's too. I guess there's nothing to be able to do that with the new Series 2 7.x release tivos because of the signed kernels? I guess if I could just recover the shows I haven't had a chance to watch yet to my pc or linux box, that would at least be something.

Ok, lets try another tack. I have access to surface mount desoldering equipment and from a casual look, I see that there is at least one rom chip on the board. Maybe some flash chips too but I haven't looked up part numbers yet. Is there some chip (that one or some other) that I can transplant from the old tivo motherboard to the replacement motherboard that will allow the new board to think it still the old one, and be able to use the hard drive without clearing all the settings and shows?

Thanks.

[Dkerr24]

Anything's possible, but I don't think anyone here has experience doing that. Good luck, let us know if you find a solution.

[classicsat]

Since you have the SMD rework tools, you might want to socket the ROM anyway, but the ID is on another programmable type chip.

[sammyfi]

I'm not really interested in hacking the box, other than to keep my programs and settings. So I'm not sure what benefit socketing the rom will be. But I am interested in finding out which chip holds the system ID that the hard drive is keyed to. Anyone know that for a 540 series board?
Thanks.

[lessd]

I'm not really interested in hacking the box, other than to keep my programs and settings. So I'm not sure what benefit socketing the rom will be. But I am interested in finding out which chip holds the system ID that the hard drive is keyed to. Anyone know that for a 540 series board?
Thanks.

That information could lead to theft of service which is illegal to discuss on this form.

How sure are you that the problem is not the power supply as the hard drive would spin up without any mother board. Have you tried replacing the power supply with a known good one?