My Tivo is Dead. Can it be Saved?

[Snuggy&Bubbles]

Our Series 2 Tivo died last night. No audio and a black screen. The fan in the back is spinning, so it appears that the power supply does work. However, none of the front LEDs are lighting up, including the IR remote light. Given this, I think it is the motherboard, not the hard drive. Any thoughts?

Dan

And yes, my wife insisted on immediately purchasing an HD Tivo. I promise I did not sabotage the Tivo.

Dan

[gastrof]

I seem to recall someone saying that the power supply can go bad but still allow some parts of the machine to work.

Maybe a new power supply would help?

Let's see what others (who know for sure) will say.

[ZeoTiVo]

Do you have lifetime on the series 2? is that why the concern on fixing it?
if so - call Tivo and say your series 2 is dead in the water - then nicely find out if they will give you a deal on upgrade to Tivo HD and transfer of lifetime.
Otherwise just call and find out if they will give you a good upgrade price on a TiVo HD.

That is how I would "fix" the series 2. ;)

[tootal2]

I think its your hard drive that went bad. I had to replace the hard drive in my s2. you can order a new hard drive.




Our Series 2 Tivo died last night. No audio and a black screen. The fan in the back is spinning, so it appears that the power supply does work. However, none of the front LEDs are lighting up, including the IR remote light. Given this, I think it is the motherboard, not the hard drive. Any thoughts?

Dan

And yes, my wife insisted on immediately purchasing an HD Tivo. I promise I did not sabotage the Tivo.

Dan

[ZeoTiVo]

I think its your hard drive that went bad. I had to replace the hard drive in my s2. you can order a new hard drive.

typically if the hard drive is bad - the TiVo halts on the first powering up screens and just keeps showing that screen (the first screen image is in ROM memory)

So if the OP wants to tell us what happens at powering up, we could tell more.

[dlfl]

Do you have lifetime on the series 2? is that why the concern on fixing it?
if so - call Tivo and say your series 2 is dead in the water - then nicely find out if they will give you a deal on upgrade to Tivo HD and transfer of lifetime.
Otherwise just call and find out if they will give you a good upgrade price on a TiVo HD.

That is how I would "fix" the series 2. ;)
If you go to a HD, do you plan to get digital cable (and cable cards and possibly a tuning adapter)?

The HD is a good analog-only cable box too, except for a current known issue you should be aware of:

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=7097497#post7097497

I don't believe all analog-only HD users have this problem, but apparently a lot of them do. I used my HD as analog-only for a few weeks and did not have the problem.

The HD boxes are really aimed at HD digital cable use. If you want to stay analog-only (and thus no HD) forever, you might want to consider an S2 with increased hard drive capacity. In that case you need to determine whether your current S2 is repairable at a price that is better than buying another one. I can't tell from your symptoms what the likely problem is. But someone else probably will have a more informed opinion.

[mr.unnatural]

If nothing is lighting up on the front panel then there's a good chance it's the power supply. Take off the top of the case and look closely at the power supply board. Look at the large electrolytic capacitors and see if any of the tops are bulging. You'll have to look closely but you should be able to see if any of them look bad. If so, check the numbers on the side of the bad capacitor for the voltage and capacitance and get yourself a replacement capacitor from RatShack, Mouser Electronics, Digi-Key, or any local electronics supplier. You can go with a higher voltage, but not a lower one. Make sure the capacitance value is the same. Unplug the power supply board and swap out the capacitor using a soldering iron. The capacitor is polarized and the board should indicate which side is positive, as marked on the side of the capacitor.

If the power supply looks OK, check out the ribbon cable connected to the front panel. If the cable has become dislodged you probably burned out an inductor on the front panel control board. I believe it's labeled either L1 or L2. In any case, it will probably look charred. You can replace it with another inductor of the same value (I don' recall the exact value but it should be color coded to indicate what it is). You could also simply solder in a straight wire in place of the inductor. Many people have reported that this works with no ill effects.

If the power supply and cable look OK, pull the drive and test it in your PC using the drive manufacturer's diagnostic software. You can find the software on the manufacturer's website and download it for free. Run both the short and long tests to make sure the drive checks out OK. If it fails you'll have to replace the drive with a new one. You could check the manufacturer's website to see if the drive is still under warranty, but don't hold your breath. Chances are they'll tell you to go to the OEM manufacturer (i.e., Tivo) for any warranty replacement. Since you've already opened the Tivo you've voided the warranty so forget about going down that rabbit hole. Besiudes, Tivo's warranty is only about 1 year anyway and chances are it's already expired.

[Snuggy&Bubbles]

typically if the hard drive is bad - the TiVo halts on the first powering up screens and just keeps showing that screen (the first screen image is in ROM memory)

So if the OP wants to tell us what happens at powering up, we could tell more.

When I plugged in the TIVO, nothing happens. No start up screen, nothing. Does anyone know where I can get voltage information for the TIVO power supply? I might stick a mutlimeter to the connectors to see if it supplying juice to the motherboard and the HD.

If you go to a HD, do you plan to get digital cable (and cable cards and possibly a tuning adapter)?

The HD is a good analog-only cable box too, except for a current known issue you should be aware of:

I don't believe all analog-only HD users have this problem, but apparently a lot of them do. I used my HD as analog-only for a few weeks and did not have the problem.

The HD boxes are really aimed at HD digital cable use. If you want to stay analog-only (and thus no HD) forever, you might want to consider an S2 with increased hard drive capacity. In that case you need to determine whether your current S2 is repairable at a price that is better than buying another one. I can't tell from your symptoms what the likely problem is. But someone else probably will have a more informed opinion.

We will order a cable card from the cable company so we can access and record all of the digital cable channels. That reminds me... I need to order another HDMI cable an optical cable from Monoprice... Thanks.

Dan

[Dan203]

I had the same thing happen to one of my S2 TiVos once and it as the power supply. I'm not very good with a soldering iron, so I bought a replacement from Weaknees.com instead. I swapped it out and was back up and running in less then 20 minutes.

However unless the TiVo has lifetime, or contains irreplaceable programs, it's probably not worth fixing. Just buy a TiVo HD and be happy.

If you are going to fix it be sure to leave the TiVo unplugged for at least a few hours before you touch the power supply. There are some capacitors in there that can hold a charge even when it's unplugged and they will give you a nasty jolt if you accidentally touch one before it's had a chance to discharge.

Dan

[dlfl]

I believe the minimum power supply price at weakkness is $100. Definitely worth it if you have lifetime subcription or a lot of important recordings -- otherwise maybe not.

People have been buying HD's for as low as $50 from Sears:

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=425535

Here is the Sears link to find out what's available near you:

http://www.searsoutlet.com/HD-Digital-Video-Recorder/d/product_details.jsp?stxt=tivo&md=srh1_md&pn=1&ps=10&pid=21777&pmd=srh_nrb_md#inv_focus_link_0_2

These are factory new warranted units, although some may be missing all the extras that come in the box.

But these are the HD model, not the HD XL model. Thus you have only 21 hrs of HD recording capacity (160 GB). You can do like many of us have and upgrade the internal drive to 1 TB (157 HD hrs) for less than $100 using the detailed instructions in the Drive Expansion sticky thread (http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=370784). Be aware that opening the case to do this invalidates the warranty. One strategy is to delay the upgrade for the 90 days of full warranty.

[Snuggy&Bubbles]

If nothing is lighting up on the front panel then there's a good chance it's the power supply. Take off the top of the case and look closely at the power supply board. Look at the large electrolytic capacitors and see if any of the tops are bulging. You'll have to look closely but you should be able to see if any of them look bad. If so, check the numbers on the side of the bad capacitor for the voltage and capacitance and get yourself a replacement capacitor from RatShack, Mouser Electronics, Digi-Key, or any local electronics supplier. You can go with a higher voltage, but not a lower one. Make sure the capacitance value is the same. Unplug the power supply board and swap out the capacitor using a soldering iron. The capacitor is polarized and the board should indicate which side is positive, as marked on the side of the capacitor.

If the power supply looks OK, check out the ribbon cable connected to the front panel. If the cable has become dislodged you probably burned out an inductor on the front panel control board. I believe it's labeled either L1 or L2. In any case, it will probably look charred. You can replace it with another inductor of the same value (I don' recall the exact value but it should be color coded to indicate what it is). You could also simply solder in a straight wire in place of the inductor. Many people have reported that this works with no ill effects.

If the power supply and cable look OK, pull the drive and test it in your PC using the drive manufacturer's diagnostic software. You can find the software on the manufacturer's website and download it for free. Run both the short and long tests to make sure the drive checks out OK. If it fails you'll have to replace the drive with a new one. You could check the manufacturer's website to see if the drive is still under warranty, but don't hold your breath. Chances are they'll tell you to go to the OEM manufacturer (i.e., Tivo) for any warranty replacement. Since you've already opened the Tivo you've voided the warranty so forget about going down that rabbit hole. Besiudes, Tivo's warranty is only about 1 year anyway and chances are it's already expired.

I popped open the unit (6 years old and way out of warranty) and saw no bulging caps. I also checked the front lights and no problems there. I stuck the hard drive my old Ubuntu desktop and it would not recognize the drive. At this point, it looks like the drive is the dead part. I think I have an old 80 gig hard drive floating around, I just need to find it.

Does anyone have a link to easy to follow directions on how to format a hard drive for Tivo using a linux computer?

Thanks

Dan

Oh... regarding the units available at sears... I would rather buy a brand new one at full price than save a few bucks buying a reconditioned model given that I am shelling out big bucks for the lifetime plan.

[drey]

I have several spare Series2 power supplies (will fit TCD240 / TCD540, maybe others). PM me if you need one.

[dlfl]

.........Oh... regarding the units available at sears... I would rather buy a brand new one at full price than save a few bucks buying a reconditioned model given that I am shelling out big bucks for the lifetime plan.
The people who buy these say they are NOT reconditioned -- they are new. The theory is Sears lists them as reconditioned because they have been display models or some of the associated items (power cords, cables, etc.) have been lost. Very easy to check -- just call the store.

BTW, if you return a brand new TiVo on warranty, TiVo gives you a reconditioned model (because it's a lot quicker than waiting while they fix the one you returned). I wouldn't hesitate to take a reconditioned unit. They are tested just like the new ones -- and they don't start with old used units -- they're just the warranty returns, fixed and tested. From reading the forums here I'm convinced that most TiVo's returned on warranty for replacement have no defect at all -- the problems are due to some quirck of the cable signal, cable cards or tuning adapter. However if TiVo can't tell you how to fix the problem, they offer to replace it.

[mr.unnatural]

Does anyone have a link to easy to follow directions on how to format a hard drive for Tivo using a linux computer?

Thanks

Dan
Just restore a backup image of your Tivo to a new drive. The formatting is done automatically during the restore process. If you don't have a backup image, you can get one from DVRUpgrade for about $20. Just make sure you have the exact model of your Tivo because they don't give refunds if you download the wrong image. You burn the downloaded image to a CD-R and use it to boot up your PC with the Tivo drive installed. Follow the onscreen prompts and the image will be restored in no time.

There are links posted in the sticky threads for performing a Tivo image backup and restore. You can also check weaknees.com or dvrupgrade.com for procedures. MFSLive.org is another source for procedures and a Tivo boot disk you can download (no backup images, though).

[ZeoTiVo]

The HD boxes are really aimed at HD digital cable use. If you want to stay analog-only ....

actually the S3,TiVo HD and XL are the only way to go for TiVo Dual tuner digital cable. The HD is a benefit of digital and many of course get a newer Tivo for HD specifically.

but at this point in cable TV history - staying analog is an option that may be taken away by the cable company and within 5 or 10 years may not be an option anywhere. So I would fix a hard drive in my series 2 as that is cheap enough (and indeed have ) but I doubt I would spend 100$ on a power supply for it.

OP -call TiVo and see what they will do on upgrading you to an HD from that broken series 2 - you may be pleasantly surprised.

[mr.unnatural]

Paying $100 for a replacement power supply isn't a smart option, especially when you can buy a complete used Tivo on ebay for less than $50 these days.

[Snuggy&Bubbles]

Paying $100 for a replacement power supply isn't a smart option, especially when you can buy a complete used Tivo on ebay for less than $50 these days.

Excellent idea! A used Tivo will give me a functioning hard drive and a power supply for less than the power supply. That will kill two birds with 1 stone...

Dan

[flatcurve]

Paying $100 for a replacement power supply isn't a smart option, especially when you can buy a complete used Tivo on ebay for less than $50 these days.

Agreed. If the problem isn't exclusively your power supply (which it isn't in a lot of the units I see) then you're out that $100. A lot of times when PSUs go out, they can take a couple components on the motherboard with them.

But if you've got no video response when you plug the unit in, I can guarantee you that swapping the hard drive won't fix the problem. Even with no hard drive plugged in, any working TiVo will always display "Welcome, Powering Up..."