Tivo Repair (Series 2 TCD130040)

[tcbeatie]

Good day all,

I apologize if this is a recurring thread; I did a search of the forums and was not able to find anything useful.

I have a Series 2 (TCD130040) with a lifetime service that I've had for probably 4 or 5 years now. I love my TiVo, and hate watching TV without it. Unfortunately, it's been going downhill the last year. It started freezing randomly. Last spring I replaced the hard drive myself, which seemed to work until just before Christmas when it started freezing again. After the holidays, I tried to replace the hard drive again, but it didn't help this time. I even tried sending the brand new Seagate hard drive to WeakNees to have them put a clean image on the drive, and that hasn't helped, it still freezes up.

I got an offer from TiVo to upgrade to a Series 3 and xfer my lifetime sub for the not small sum of $1000. I would rather try and fix my Series 2, or I have heard of transferring the sub to a refurbished unit. I researched "repair tivo" on google, and came up with weaknees (who say they don't repair the units themselves) and digitalrecorder.com which got a pretty scathing review.

Can anyone point me in a direction to get my TiVo back and working? Thanks!

[Cormode]

I'll give you $100 for your Tivo as is! PM to set it up.

... not interested. Well maybe this will help (http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=4436234&&#post4436234)

[tcbeatie]

I'll give you $100 for your Tivo as is! PM to set it up.

PM? I don't want to sell my TiVo, I want to fix it.

... not interested. Well maybe this will help (http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=4436234&&#post4436234)

I've done a bit of reading and have seen numerous mentions of power supply problems. I wish I felt that it was the issue. However, everything I've read about power supply issues talk about a lack of video. I don't have that problem. The problem is that it will freeze, randomly, such that no remote controls, nor front panel controls, will effect any change. This has happened while trying to change channels, in setup, at the main menu..

[MungoJerrie]

The problem is that it will freeze, randomly, such that no remote controls, nor front panel controls, will effect any change. This has happened while trying to change channels, in setup, at the main menu..
Those are typical symptoms of a hard drive going bad. I know you said you replaced it a year ago but did you use an image from the old drive? If so, you may have copied over some corrupted data that is cropping up again. I would pull the drive and run manufacturer's diagnostics on it and see if anything turns up. Also, you could try to restore a clean image to it and see if you still have problems. If you don't have a clean image, you could troll emule (some frown on that) or spend $20 on the InstantCake thing.

[tcbeatie]

Those are typical symptoms of a hard drive going bad. I know you said you replaced it a year ago but did you use an image from the old drive? If so, you may have copied over some corrupted data that is cropping up again. I would pull the drive and run manufacturer's diagnostics on it and see if anything turns up. Also, you could try to restore a clean image to it and see if you still have problems. If you don't have a clean image, you could troll emule (some frown on that) or spend $20 on the InstantCake thing.

The drive I replaced a year ago was a used drive, and so when it started failing again recently, I bought a brand new Seagate Barracuda 7200. I first tried to use my own backup image, and when that didn't seem to work, I sent it to WeakNees to have them put one of their clean and tested images on it. Still no glory.

[HomeUser]

Over-heating? Check the Fans and air-flow.

[tcbeatie]

Over-heating? Check the Fans and air-flow.

Thanks for the suggestion! I doubt that's the issue as the most recent time that it failed was within 10 minutes of being powered on. That said, I will test this tonight by taking the cover off.

[Cormode]

PM? I don't want to sell my TiVo, I want to fix it.

That was humor.

seriously, if weaknees tested the drive then I strongly suspect it is not a drive problem. However I did have a 9 month old drive fail in a tivo before.

The no video issue with a bad power supply occurs when the 3.3v line is unstable from the start and the CPU will not even initialize. If the CPU locks up due to bad power you will get your symptoms.

Over heating is just about inconceivable unless there is something you are not telling us. You've had the unit apart and you would know if it was jammed full of dust, you know how to plug the fan back in after replacing the hard drive, and the tivo isn't complaining about heat.

[tcbeatie]

That was humor.

Good, wasn't sure :)

seriously, if weaknees tested the drive then I strongly suspect it is not a drive problem. However I did have a 9 month old drive fail in a tivo before.

The no video issue with a bad power supply occurs when the 3.3v line is unstable from the start and the CPU will not even initialize. If the CPU locks up due to bad power you will get your symptoms.

Over heating is just about inconceivable unless there is something you are not telling us. You've had the unit apart and you would know if it was jammed full of dust, you know how to plug the fan back in after replacing the hard drive, and the tivo isn't complaining about heat.

Yes, I've had the unit apart, and have taken it apart and put it back together so many times now, and it's so damn easy, but I always remember to plug the fan back in. So it's starting to sound like it isn't disk, despite the fact that the freezing is a classic disk-based error, and I doubt it's the power supply or overheating. What else could be wrong? And is there a way to get it repaired? digitalrecorder.com touts that they can either repair, or transfer the serial # (lifetime sub) to a new box. But there was a pretty scathing review of them as well. I can't be the only one with this problem of an aging TiVo, what solutions are there?

[Cormode]

Other possible problems could a failure inside any of several chips attached to the PCB. Memory chip failure, CPU failure. A poor soldering joint somewhere. This goes on.

But essentially, if it isn't the hard drive, heat or the power supply then it is something soldered to the motherboard.

surgery can transplant an essential chip from one board to another to rescue the lifetime sub.

I have zero experience with digitalrecorder.com and can make no recommendation.

[tcbeatie]

surgery can transplant an essential chip from one board to another to rescue the lifetime sub.


Ok, does anyone know what the essential chip is? Or if there are folks capable of the repair?

[dtdionne]

tcbeatie, I have the EXACT SAME issue, in fact the way you speak about it gave me a quick "OH SHEIT" the kinda "OH SHEIT" you get when your dilligently trying to fix an issue, have posted on some forums and then run accross your own post when randomly googling...i swear I thought that you were I...

Have you gotten anywhere?

I have replaced my hard drive with a brand new 300G Barracuda directly imaged from my original drive.

Before I swapped out the drive, I was certain that my Tivo's freezing was related to the network. In fact for about 9 months I would just connect to the network long enough to force a guide update, then disconnect it from the network and run until the guide was out...rinse and repeat.

I did however open my shrine of ULTRA USEFUL computer tools and pull out my coveted 5 Port 10Mb Linksys HUB....yes I was that serious in my belief that someone/something was leaving a footprint, if ya know what I mean. Here's what I did:

1. I started remote concurrent and corrolated network captures on the outside, dmz, and inside interfaces on my firewall.
2. On the outside interface I had no filters and put the nic into non-promiscuious mode.
3. On the DMZ interface I had no filters and put the interface into promiscuious mode.
4. On the inside interface I filtered for all traffic to and from my Tivo's internal IP and my laptop's IP addy associated with it's wifi nic.
5. I connected the hub to an uplink.
6. I put my Laptop's wired nic into stealth mode and connected it to the hub and cranked up Ethereal with a local capture to make sure my laptop wasn't comprimized and after a 24hrs there was no traffic on any of the captures other then arps for my laptop's IP and knowing that most backdoors and root kits check in at least once every 24hrs I was reasonably sure that there wasnt anything "going on" on my network.
7. With the local capture still going on my laptops wired nic, I modified the viewing filter to only show traffic to and from my Tivo's IP.
8. I connected my Tivo to the hub and waited.
9. 11 min and 19 seconds later it froze and there was absolutley NOTHING out of the ordinary happening on the network...which was quite a disappointment.

When something is crashing a computer of anything that connects to a network and someone has very strongly deduced that it is network related and then nothing show's up in a network capture to explain or account for it or at least provide a hint or at the absolute very least show one single sign something just went bonkers...historically means that it's either a complete network card/bus failure at the hardware level or it has nothing what so ever to do with the network which means that it's not a network driver, or a DOS attack, etc.

Here is a symptom timeline for my tivo starting from the first time I experienced an issue.
Feb 2006 - Came home very late from work, turned on the tv and the screen was frozen, i fired off a stinging explative and just went to bed. Next morning I got up and it was still frozen and power cycled the tivo.
March - nothing to report
April - nothing to report
May - nothing to report
June - Tivo froze up again requiring a power cycle.
July - Froze up once, power cycle
Aug - 2 freezes, power cycle.
Sept - 2, pc
Oct - 4 pc
Nov - between 4 - 8, pc
Dec - not sure, i was out of town most of this month but it was locked up when i got home
Jan 07 - more then 15 less then 30, but now sometimes it would reboot instead of locking up
Feb - more then 60 less then 200, i found that it would usually reboot 2 - 3 times then lock up requiring me to power cycle it.
Mar - every 30 - 120 min...and I could take it no more
April, May - swapped the drive and for a few days it was fine with the network connected, then it rebooted so I pulled the network cable and it did not reboot or lock up but it started freezing for a few seconds every 20 min or so which over the course of 20 - 30 days got progressively worse but it would not lock up or reboot....until today, today it rebooted for the first time so I've got it on the operating table...the first thing I am going to do, like someone suggested is run some segate diag's on the drive.

Any help would really rule....

[classicsat]

Ok, does anyone know what the essential chip is? Or if there are folks capable of the repair?

I know, but I won't tell, as mucking with could be construed as "Theft Of Service", since you are at least violating the spirit of Lifetime.