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egoh
01-20-2007, 10:19 PM
Hello all,

It’s been some time since I had a Tivo. My series 1 HD died so I ended up building a MythTV box that I was using for a bunch of years. Recently, I decided to change back to a Tivo so we picked up a Series 2 a little over a month ago.

I immediately upgraded the HD to a Seagate 500GB drive and I’m using a Linksys USB200M to hook it up to the internet.

My Tivo works fine, but…it has an intermittent beep that come from the box a dozen times a day or so. It’s been driving me crazy since it was hard to locate but I’m sure it’s coming from the box (or the USB adaptor). It sounds like a beep you’d get from a piezo buzzer (or perhaps a small speaker). The crazy thing is, I don’t think Tivo or the USB adaptor have any type of speaker/buzzer built into them. If there is one inside the Tivo, I can’t find it.

I’m currently trying to isolate the problem further by using the USB adaptor with an extension cord. The HD I’m using is a Seagate that was pulled from my primary workstation and had only about 4 months of use on it. It was working flawlessly in my workstation do I don't really suspect it.

If anyone has any ideas/clues, please let me know. It’s driving me and my fiancée crazy. I’ve been working on my laptop with my head tilted towards the Tivo while I wait in hopes of locating the beep. :(

Thanks in advance for any info!
egoh
01-21-2007, 12:39 PM
OK, I've been able to eliminate the USB adaptor so the sound is definitely coming from the Tivo itself. Anyone have any ideas? Could a HD make an intermitent beep? It's not any sound I've ever heard from a HD before. It's not a whine (bad bearning - heard that a bunch of time with bad IBM drives) and it's not the standard HD seek clicking.

The sound is like a high pitched beep or chirp, similar to the beep sound from a digital watch.

Any ideas?

Thanks!
mrglobal
02-19-2007, 05:20 PM
I am having the same issue. The TV is turned off and I hear a beep occasionally also. Mystery.
stevel
02-19-2007, 05:36 PM
There is no sounding device inside a TiVo. The hard drive and fan are the only sound-emitting parts.
TydalForce
02-19-2007, 06:16 PM
I'd suspect the hard drive. It may be starting to fail, or something's out of whack.

Maybe a weird seek noise?

You mentioned you pulled the HD from a workstation... where's the original? Might be worth throwing that back in and see how it sounds. Or, clone the software onto another drive...
gastrof
02-19-2007, 06:36 PM
OK, I've been able to eliminate the USB adaptor so the sound is definitely coming from the Tivo itself. Anyone have any ideas? Could a HD make an intermitent beep? It's not any sound I've ever heard from a HD before. It's not a whine (bad bearning - heard that a bunch of time with bad IBM drives) and it's not the standard HD seek clicking.

The sound is like a high pitched beep or chirp, similar to the beep sound from a digital watch.

Any ideas?

Thanks!

I know a Buslink external USB hard drive I got for my computer started beeping, and when I finally called them about it (after WEEKS of it going on) they told me that was a warning sound that the drive was failing.

I wonder if some internal something-or-other was included in the drive you installed to give a warning of upcoming drive failure.

What type was it, and have you reported the noise to the drive's manufacturer?
classicsat
02-19-2007, 06:51 PM
I wonder if some internal something-or-other was included in the drive you installed to give a warning of upcoming drive failure.


If it is knowingly making a sound, it could be vibrating the seek servo at an audible frequency.
worachj
02-19-2007, 08:44 PM
Check anything that has a battery; UPS device, power strips, fire alarms, etc. My old stereo receiver has a battery backup for the station presets that beeps when the batteries are low, my wireless thermometer beeps when batteries are low. It’s hard determining what’s beeping sometimes.
Mike Farrington
02-19-2007, 10:25 PM
Read this, if you dare: http://archive2.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=239068

Then check the battery in your smoke detector.
egoh
02-20-2007, 11:37 AM
Sorry guys, I fixed this last week and forgot to post my findings.

It was driving me nuts for a while. I replaced my UPS and was unplugging everything I could think of. It turns out it was the hard drive after all. It was a Seagate 500GB drive (ST3500841A) with part number 9BD538-557. It's since been RMA'd and my original 80GB drive is back in the Tivo. Not a beep since.