Help - HR10-250 false temp error hang

[Drwho099]

My 2yr+ HR10-250 this week died with a false "temp too high" error. Unit will not boot anymore, and stops boot process with the internal temp too high message. I know the temp is not really too high (lid off & quite cool), and did not find any obvious problems looking at the mobo.

DirectTV is sending me a refurbished replacement, but they can't guarantee it will be another 250 or the HR20 instead. Other than the HR20 bug reports, my main concern is the wealth of shows stuck on my current drive - don't want to loose them if I can avoid that. I'm generally computer savy, but haven't bothered with any "upgrades" to the original unit (e.g. networking ability or other hacks).

Can anyone help we with the following advice:
- how reasonable is my assumption that the temp sensor simply went bad? (no problem with the unit & its location for 2yrs, then bam -- this error)
- is there a possible fix for the sensor (shorting it or cutting it out of the ckt?). If so, where is it on the board (component #)?
- if DTV does send another 250 unit, are the drives keyed somehow to the system itself -- i.e. should I be able to just move my old drive to a new 250 unit and be good to go.


Thanks in advance!

[litzdog911]

I've never seen anyone fix this problem. The temperature sensor is integrated on the motherboard. Let's hope somebody chimes in with a fix for you.

[litzdog911]

As far as simply swapping the old drive into your replacement HR10-250, assuming you get an HR10-250 ....

It's not that simple. You can move the hard drive, but you'll need to perform a "Clear and Delete Everything" before you can use that drive in your replacement Tivo. This is because the recordings are keyed to the old Tivo's motherboard. So you'll lose your recordings, unfortunately.

[BILLATS]

I had a unit that was doing same .I found a couple bad capacitors in power supply under heat sink(swollen).Also a couple diodes checked bad on underside of same board.Under 5.00 in parts and its been fine.Was locking up protected at 47? now 38 and normal.Try swapping the power supply when you get replacement unit would be the easiest,and you can do something with your lost recordings if it works out.Good luck.Oh yea,an r10 Power supply works in an hr10-250,except for OTA tuner inop(no signal) just to try since its no where near robust
enough for HR10-250.

[parzec]

I had an HR10-250 that had this error, too, that seems to be working OK now after discovering a workaround. In my situation, it seemed to be related to some sort of HDMI problem. If I booted my Tivo with HDMI connected, I would get the temp too high message screen and lock up. What I did is to switch from using HDMi to component and that fixed the problem. Later I learned, I could still use it with HDMI by just booting up the tivo with my LCD unpluggged from power -- note: so there is no HDMI signal it must be completley unplugged not just turned off -- and then after the Tivo was done with the boot up sequence, I could pulg in the HDMI with no problem. This occured when I was running 3.1f - after upgrading to 6.1c it seems to be working fine. This worked for me, hopefully it will work for you.

[TyroneShoes]

...it seemed to be related to some sort of HDMI problem. If I booted my Tivo with HDMI connected, I would get the temp too high message screen and lock up. What I did is to switch from using HDMi to component and that fixed the problem. Later I learned, I could still use it with HDMI by just booting up the tivo with my LCD unpluggged from power -- note: so there is no HDMI signal it must be completley unplugged not just turned off -- and then after the Tivo was done with the boot up sequence, I could pulg in the HDMI with no problem. This occured when I was running 3.1f - after upgrading to 6.1c it seems to be working fine. This worked for me, hopefully it will work for you.
Ditto. The temp sensor is apparently located close to the HDMI receiver chip. I'm still on 3.1, and connected by component (with equal quality to HDMI). If I ever allow 6.x, I'll see if HDMI works again. I have seen numerous reports of this workaround.

Drwho, I would expect about a 95% chance of a HR20. I would hook them up side-by-side (component on the HR10) until you can watch the old shows. This will also serve as a test-drive of the HR20. After a week or so, you may want to just send the HR20 back. Or not. Good luck.

[cstelter]

I've never seen anyone fix this problem. The temperature sensor is integrated on the motherboard. Let's hope somebody chimes in with a fix for you.

This thread (http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=305662&highlight=power+supply) and this one (http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=328212&highlight=power+supply) have pretty good reading material for the blue screen problem.

Check your power supply in addition to the hdmi card. Weaknees had HR10 power supplies last October (probably still do). After replacing the power supply in mine it's run fine since last October.

Also try simply disconnecting the power supply from the motherboard and reconnecting it first-- After taking the power supply out of mine I tried it in another and it at least booted the other box fine too. I was suspicious that simply disconnecting the connector may have had some effect.

[RichEM]

I had the same problem wiith the older of my two HR-10's. I replaced the power supply (http://www.weaknees.com/tivo-power-supply.php) and the problem has not resurfaced.

Weaknees shipped very quickly. The replacement required a torx driver and about twenty minutes. No recordings were harmed during the replacement.

[parzec]

I think the OP was abducted by aliens ... just suddenly disappeared.