Took Tivo apart, blow out dust, now not working

[240xtrm]

It is pretty much how the topic says. I took off the cover to blow out the dust with an air can. After doing so, I put the cover back and and now I'm getting that famous "Welcome! Powering up...." screen. Did I fried my HD in the process? Is the program recoverable from the old HD and transfer it over to a new HD from the store? The old drive was replace 3 years ago with a bigger 160GB HD which I bought from Weakness.com. I still have the original 40GB HD and I have not done anything to it yet. Any help would be great.

[jjberger2134]

I hope that you unplugged the unit when attempting to blow the dust out. This may be basic, but did you make sure that all of the connectors to the hard drive are secure? You may have accidentally moved/loosened that cable. Be careful not to touch any wires leading to the front panel. I have heard (true or not) that those wires, if touched or moved can short the whole system.

If the HD is toast, then you can use the old 40Gb drive as a backup until you can get a larger drive. Depending on your skill set, and the potential damage to the 160Gb drive, you may be able to use MFS tools to transfer the programs over to a new drive, or if that fails, you can use the image on the 40GB drive. Visit the upgrade center in this forum for more info on that.

[lastdeadcat]

That screen is ok if it is not presistent and doesn't go away soon. Probably you loosened a wire connector under the hood. Go back in and check all the little wire connectors for a snug fit. They may look tight, but they need to be verified by touch. That canned air might have caught a flat wire or ribbon bundle and just loosened the connector enough to cause problems. There is supposed to be an infamous white flat wire bundle or ribbon that can slip loose very easily at the connector causing problems.

Probably nothing permanent is done. A loose connector usually will work again if it is reconnected right.

[spacedoggy]

Can Air is in a liquid form before being spray on you electronics. I never use the stuff and bought a small air compressor. If you have to use the junk make sure your unit has been unplugged for more than a hour and don't plug it in after you use can air for a good hour. I get at least one PC a week from someone using this stuff. A good class action suit would make a lot of people money.

[240xtrm]

Thank you for the replies guys and spacedoggy, I have not heard of that before about using an air can sprayer on electronic stuff. I used the air can the minute after I took off the cover, and yes I unplug everything on the back. After putting the cover back on, I hook everything back up right away. I should have wait then. As for the 40Gig HD, that one was toasted first from a storm couple of years ago. That's why i upgraded to the 160Gig HD. The only thing I have not done is opening it back up and presson every plugs with my finger. I will do that later and reply back after doing so.

[HomeUser]

It probably is a loose connector on the drive. while you are in there check that the drive selection (Master, Slave, CS) jumper did not get dislodged also.

The infamous white cable goes to the IR sensor TiVo boots won't respond to remote commands also a little bit of gray smoke leeks out. See the formally sticky thread on this
WARNING: Please read before upgrading Series2 TiVo (http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=105719&highlight=white+cable)

[240xtrm]

Well guys, here is the update. I took off the cover, push in all the connections firmly, and still getting the same screen. It might be the HD for sure now.

[lessd]

Well guys, here is the update. I took off the cover, push in all the connections firmly, and still getting the same screen. It might be the HD for sure now.

Unfortionally it could be anything including that your main board or the power supply got zapped, from blowing air on the unit, I vacuum out any dust in a TiVo that i take apart, and wait at least 10 minutes before I open the case to make sure all power supply voltages have gone to zero. There is some voltage on the main board from the battery, before doing anything try removing the battery for about 15 or more minutes, that will reset the main board on all levels. (put the battery back in) If the unit then boots the clock will be way off so force a call home and all will be reset.