Toshiba RS-TX60 – is it dead or just wounded?

[dzoiane]

After being away for a few days I came home to find the two amber HDD and DVD lights on the front of my Toshiba RS-TX60 lit, but the clock not showing. When I unplug the unit and then plug it back in and have the tv on, I get the “Welcome – Powering Up” screen for just a few seconds; then the screen goes gray. The HDD and DVD lights are on while this happens, and I can hear the fan, but I still get no clock and the dvd tray won’t open.

Is this likely a hard drive issue, or there other possible causes? (I had sent some online scheduling requests while away – could this have messed up the unit?) If it is a hard drive issue, can the hard drive be replaced? I would really like to salvage the unit.

I have no technical knowledge or ability, so I would probably not attempt hard drive replacement myself, if a replacement is warranted. Does anyone have any ideas about where I could get this done in the San Francisco Bay Area? Could I buy a replacement hard drive (from weaknees or elsewhere) and have someone do the work? I’ve read some references in other threads about an image copied onto a new drive – forgive me, but I have no idea of what that is about – but would whoever replaces the hard drive need to get instructions about that?

I realize that there are lots of questions here; thank you in advance for your help with any of them.

[dwit]

Have you contacted Toshiba? The last I read, they repaired their units for about the same as Tivo repairs/replaces theirs'. About $150 or so, plus probably shipping.

If you have a friend or relative that has ever replaced/installed a PATA hard drive in a computer, and one of you has access to a spare, working PATA hard drive, it would be pretty simple to diagnose/repair. Order or download the Instant Cake cd for your particular unit. Instant cake is just the Tivo software plus the installation utility. Cost is $20 at http://dvrupgrade.com. Again, if you have a spare drive, this would maybe be the cheapest method to see if the drive is the issue. Clear detailed instructions are provided as well as plenty of forum support. If the spare drive works with Instant Cake, you could then do the procedure on a new, large capacity drive if desired. All this assumes the drive is the problem and it probably is.

Another option of course is to just buy the prepared(pre-imaged) drive from Weaknees or dvrupgrade.com and have a friend or relative install. Again, super, super easy. Could be a pretty expensive endeavor-and still a broken Tivo- if it turns out not to be a drive problem.

One last bit of hope in avoiding all the above is to perform the Tivo kickstart self diagnostics/self disk error recovery. This is done without disassembling the Tivo. You will have to search these forums for the procedure as I can't point you there. It has been described here often though.

ps: It also appears that you can send your unit to dvrupgrade.com for diagnosis/prognosis. Do a search for recertification at the dvrupgrade.com for explanation. Just to let you know: dvrupgrade.com is a sponser and active member of this forum and so is very reputable.

Weaknees may offer this service also but I didn't notice it there. Could have missed it though.

[dzoiane]

Thank you very much, dwit, for your detailed and very helpful reply. I've done searches for some of the terms in your reply, and I think that I now have a better understanding of what is going on. I do think it is very likely that is is a drive problem. I have also checked out the dvrupgrade website, as per your suggestion, and I think that they will be able to help me.

Thanks again for the info. and the tip!

---dzoiane

[TiVoEvan74]

What ever happened? What was the problem? Did you try dvrupgrade? Or come up with another solution?

We have 2 of these DVD units so it'll be good to know going forward.