PDA

View Full Version : Dead DSR-708

Callindril
06-20-2009, 12:46 PM
My Downstairs DSR-708, which has been running great for 2+ years started acting a bit odd past few days, like it was stuttering every 2-3 seconds on any channel...Figured it was one of the two drives going bad, so I pulled em out and ran the WD Diag tests on em, and both came up clean, no errors...

So I put them back in the Tivo, tried to reboot it, and nothing...power was working, as the fan was spinning, but drives were not, and nothing on the TV and the green power light stayed out...

Thought Ok, could be a Power Supply issue, so I disconnected the drives from the power supply just to see if I could get the welcome screen up, and no joy...

So I removed the drives from the Tivo, and removed the IDE cable, thinking it might be the cable...grabbed a new spare IDE cable, and still no joy..same deal...drives dont spin, power light doesn't light, and nothing on the TV...

Pulled the IDE cable off the Tivo, and tried to boot that way...nothing on the TV...

Plugged in one drive to the power supply, left the IDE cable off, and powered up the Tivo....The drive spun, the power light came on, and the welcome screen flashed on the screen.... then it flashed off, and the power light went on, then they both flashed on and flashed off...and then both went blank and nothing...

So...Anyone ever hear of the IDE port on a Tivo going bad?

Any other suggestions on how to resurrect this poor box? Its my main one with about 400+ hours of movies and goodness on it...

Any help greatly appreciated...
rbtravis
06-20-2009, 02:57 PM
One or both of your drives are probably corrupted. I would suggest you replace the both with one large IDE drive. If you think it is something to do with the motherboard, such as the IDE channel CCS corp can fix it for you. http://www.ccscorporation.net/dss.htm
They are extremely good at resurrecting dead Tivos, Well worth the money, they reincarnated a RCA Directv TiVo DVR-40 for me.
Callindril
06-20-2009, 04:01 PM
Really dont think its the drives..I put my original drive (Kept in a safe box since I did the upgrade), and it does the same thing...no power light or screen ata ll with IDE cable plugged in, screen/power light flicker with no IDE cable...

Thanks for the repair place info...
wscannell
06-20-2009, 04:06 PM
Sounds like it might just be the power supply. Lights flashing on the front panel is a sign of power supply problems. The power supply really is just capable of running two drives, so running two drives puts a fair strain on the power supply.
Callindril
06-20-2009, 08:08 PM
Sounds like it might just be the power supply. Lights flashing on the front panel is a sign of power supply problems. The power supply really is just capable of running two drives, so running two drives puts a fair strain on the power supply.

Thats what I was thinking too, but would it still not boot or show anything with just one drive on it, if it was a power supply problem?

Or can the power supply get so bad that it wont power even a single drive? What if I hooked the drives upto an external power supply? Would it boot that way with no drive load on the power supply at all??
rbtravis
06-20-2009, 08:15 PM
Thats what I was thinking too, but would it still not boot or show anything with just one drive on it, if it was a power supply problem?

Or can the power supply get so bad that it wont power even a single drive? What if I hooked the drives upto an external power supply? Would it boot that way with no drive load on the power supply at all??CCS will fix the power supply also included in the fix it all price.:)
wscannell
06-20-2009, 10:55 PM
Thats what I was thinking too, but would it still not boot or show anything with just one drive on it, if it was a power supply problem?

Or can the power supply get so bad that it wont power even a single drive? What if I hooked the drives upto an external power supply? Would it boot that way with no drive load on the power supply at all??

The power supply can be so bad that it will not even power the mother board properly. However, it can put out some power which is what causes the flashing of lights on the front panel.
Callindril
06-26-2009, 11:40 AM
As a followup here, I sent the box to CSS, and they said the power-supply had gone bad, and they rebuilt it, as well as one of the tuners needing rebuilt...

Thanks for the suggestion on using them! Best $100 Ive spent in a while...