Help me save my tivo

[rockg]

I hope some of you can help me. My tivo died last night. After resetting it, it just goes to the powering up screen and that's it. A little history about the unit.. it was purchased for us through weaknees about 3 years ago, it's a model TCD24004A with Dual Samsung 120 Gig hard drives in it along with TwinBreeze and PowerTrip and added fan.

I have been trying to read anything I can to solve this thing.. but I do need some help... probably lots. I can plug the unit in and it does get power to the fans. I am not sure if this a sure indication that it's the power supply or not. I opened it up and unplugged and replugged all the cable connections...still nothing.

Is there some sure fire way to know which it needs... power supply or hard drives ?? Would both drives go out at the same time ?? I am sorry my questions are not as technical as a lot of the posters... forgive me but it's all new to me... but I am willing to learn.

Thanks in advance for any help in leading me back to getting this thing working again... wife is going crazy !!


Edited note...... the thing is working now. Not sure what I did or what I didn't do... but it's working..... for how long I don't know. Sorry to post this but I couldn't find a place to delete my post.

[Pixel]

Perhaps an intermittent connection?

Were this mine, I'd make very sure all connections were solid. I'd also want to make a backup of the harddrives. BAckups are important.

Anything more and you'll need a more expert opinion than mine.

[HomeUser]

The TiVo will not work if either of hard drives fail. If a drive fails there usually is a green screen or reboot loop unless the drive is in complete no power up failure.

Because you have the screen with the "Powering up" message the power supply is probably ok. Listen for the spinning nose when the drives are powering up if one of the drives is not spinning there may be a problem with the power trip. (if you have the cover off don't get too close there are dangerous voltages in there)

look in the underground->upgrade for information on testing and replacing the hard drives you need the technical skills that would be required in replacing the hard drive in a desktop PC.

[rockg]

I really appreciate you getting back to me. It worked all night tonight so I am hoping just one of the cable connection had a little corosion or something.... but I know I am dreaming. I do like the idea of making copies of the hard drives though. How hard would that be ?? Would it be ? Not sure the exact procedure in doing that.... will have to look around more on the boards to see what I can come up with... but that's a great idea just in case they do go out.
Thanks again for all your help guys.

Rock G in SC

[gastrof]

To copy a hard drive you need to know how to work with computers and do that very thing with computer hard drives.

Are you familiar with the Operating System TiVo uses and would you be able to get a desktop computer running if it had a TiVo hard drive hooked into it, looking to be copied?

[rockg]

For right now, the tivo is still working... but having to keep my fingers crossed everytime I press the remote on.... but to answer you question, yes... i have messed around inside the computer before.... changed hard drives... added new cd's ... things like that... so the procedure is about on the same level ??
I tried looking around for the procedure... just in case... but never saw it here on the boards. It's probably there somewhere... I will keep looking just in case.

Thanks again for all the help... hopefully it was just a cable or something.. but i have a feeling i am just fooing myself..... thanks..... I'm sure I'll be back !!

RockG in SC

[unixb0y]

Originally Posted by rockg

For right now, the tivo is still working... but having to keep my fingers crossed everytime I press the remote on.... but to answer you question, yes... i have messed around inside the computer before.... changed hard drives... added new cd's ... things like that... so the procedure is about on the same level ??
I tried looking around for the procedure... just in case... but never saw it here on the boards. It's probably there somewhere... I will keep looking just in case.

Thanks again for all the help... hopefully it was just a cable or something.. but i have a feeling i am just fooing myself..... thanks..... I'm sure I'll be back !!

RockG in SC

Did it do it before the 7.3.1 update? Mine didn't.

[wscannell]

Originally Posted by rockg

F
I tried looking around for the procedure... just in case... but never saw it here on the boards. It's probably there somewhere...

Look at the Upgrade Forum for lots of info. Start with the stickys at the top. Also check out these instructions: http://tivo.upgrade-instructions.com/

[rockg]

Originally Posted by unixb0y

Did it do it before the 7.3.1 update? Mine didn't.

Nope... not at all. I haven't had a bit of trouble with it until the other day. It seems to be ok right now... but I have had to reboot once since then and always unplug my network cable before letting it reboot.

My father in law just emailed me about his sick tivo. He just ordered new drives for his... he has the same unit as mine... and he asks....

I have this little quick drive thing that I can pop an internal hard drive into and it plugs into my usb port.
Can I copy the entire disk onto my machine hard drive, load a blank 160 into the quick drive and write it all back so the second will be a fully functioning clone of the first?
Whatcha think? It there are complications to that allow me to propose one further option:
I get a second quick drive thing and load the blank 160 into that and just do a straight click and drag from the tivo drive to the blank. Any ideas if that would work? Anything I might look for like hidden files or something like that?

He is trying to learn how to copy... so I am going to steer him this way.

Thanks for all your help guys.... we're reading and learning as we go.