My Unit Has Developed the Herky-Jerks

[RickAltman]

My four-year old Series II has served me well; now I wonder if it is about to die. Over the past four days, it has developed a profound case of stuttering across the entire interface. The floating text on the TiVo screens enter in halting fashion, the menus are very slow to display, and of primary importance, playback and live TV are inflicted with numerous fits and starts, in some cases lasting up to five seconds. Severe pixilation results as the decoder tries in vain to make sense of the incoming signal. In short, it's a mess.

I am hoping that a voice of authority will point the finger of suspicion squarely at my hard drive(s), because I know how to deal with that. And I am motivated by my lifetime service contract to try to salvage this unit. Therefore, I would be most grateful for any help in diagnosing this severely anti-social behavior.

My 12-year-old will have to watch American Idol live this week; I can only imagine her agony...



Rick A.
Pleasanton CA

[greg_burns]

Hook it up to your PC and check it with Hitachi Drive Fitness Test (http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/download.htm). But it sounds like a drive problem to me.

[dwit]

If you have a lifetime warranty, why not let them deal with it?

[RickAltman]

Thank you both for the quick replies. As far as I understand, a lifetime service contract is not the same as a lifetime warranty. And besides, as soon as I dropped the second drive into the box, there went the warranty...

[greg_burns]

Yeah, lifetime service is lifetime of the hardware not the owner. :) Luckily, hard drives are simple to replace and keep that lifetime service going helping that ROI.

[greg_burns]

And I am motivated by my lifetime warranty to try to salvage this unit.

You may want to fix that. ;)

[RickAltman]

Fix what? [pull up thread]...it all looks fine to me...[click Edit]...like I said, I don't have a warranty...[delete "warranty" and type "service contract"]...I bought the lifetime service contract...[click Save].

I don't see any problem...


(Thanks!)

[scandia101]

Most likely the HDD is your problem, but it could also be the power supply.
My 240 recently had a major stutter problem. I was contemplating replacing the HDD when the power supply all out failed. I replaced that and it's been stutter free ever since.