Replaced HD now failing to call in

[whatsup745]

Hi Folks

I'm new here and have never played with TiVo before now.
I have a Directv TiVo box on my account (but a friend uses it only) which died due to the harddrive crashing. Its an older model and originally only had a 40 gig HD which suited us just fine for this location.
I found a replacement drive which is a 320 gig and it was supposed to be somewhat plug & play.

I installed the unit and went thru the setup procedure and did the clear/erase phase. Now the unit is trying to dial in to complete the DVR authorization process but it Fails.
I have it connected to live phone jack and it does dial but wherever its dialing is not answering or responding.
I went thru the dial settings and have no prefixes or anything and it doesn't need any to dial out.
I inputed my local area code based on the phoneline being used (magicjack) and have tried a couple others too.

I seem to recall there being a "hack" of sorts that disabled the need to call in.
I am fluent with forums and how to navigate but have been unable in my brief search to locate any talk of the disabling of the call in to authorize mod.

Can anyone guide me in my quest to get this going for my friend..his wife is breathing fire down my back because I've been messing around with this for over 3 weeks now.

Thanks

Forgot to add this is a Series 2 TiVo
RCA DVR40 model Directv

[lillevig]

Originally Posted by whatsup745

Hi Folks

I'm new here and have never played with TiVo before now.
I have a Directv TiVo box on my account (but a friend uses it only) which died due to the harddrive crashing. Its an older model and originally only had a 40 gig HD which suited us just fine for this location.
I found a replacement drive which is a 320 gig and it was supposed to be somewhat plug & play.

I installed the unit and went thru the setup procedure and did the clear/erase phase. Now the unit is trying to dial in to complete the DVR authorization process but it Fails.
I have it connected to live phone jack and it does dial but wherever its dialing is not answering or responding.
I went thru the dial settings and have no prefixes or anything and it doesn't need any to dial out.
I inputed my local area code based on the phoneline being used (magicjack) and have tried a couple others too.

I seem to recall there being a "hack" of sorts that disabled the need to call in.
I am fluent with forums and how to navigate but have been unable in my brief search to locate any talk of the disabling of the call in to authorize mod.

Can anyone guide me in my quest to get this going for my friend..his wife is breathing fire down my back because I've been messing around with this for over 3 weeks now.

Thanks

Forgot to add this is a Series 2 TiVo
RCA DVR40 model Directv

I don't think there is any way to complete the Guided Setup without dialing in so a "hack" wouldn't do you any good. Besides, then you wouldn't get updated program info. Sometimes a new drive causes the dreaded "HW mismatch" error even if you did a C&DE because it may think that the TSN is all zeros. At least I've seen that with the S2 boxes when I've upgraded the drives in them. That usually required another C&DE but if you are stuck in Guided Setup then you can't get there from here. It's possible that the Tivo modem went out. If so, then you either need a Tivo USB wireless adapter, OR a USB to ethernet adapter and an ethernet connection, OR if there is a serial port on that box (looks like a stereo jack) then you can try the serial PPP method. Good luck.

[lillevig]

I just noticed that you said you are using "Magicjack". There have been various reports of Tivos not working well with VOIP connections. Maybe this is one of those boxes.

[lillevig]

One other thought - have you tried all of the different phone numbers available in your area?