Service Level Help -- Went from "C" to "A"

[antennae]

Hi All,
I recently replaced the failed 120gb Maxtor drive in my Tivo with a 500gb Seagate. The process was straightforward, and I had the help of WinMFS--useful program, that.

After the upgrade, my service level seems to have downgraded from "C" to "A." This is peculiar because now, even when I replace the "original" upgrade drive (the 120), I still get the same situation.

As a result, I can get OS updates, and the usual mismosh of OS-level ads, but not the EPG. Instead I get an error message akin to: call-tivo-to-activate-service.

I have tried a lot of techniques to repair or workaround this:
- Clear and Delete Everything--goodbye TCM Bogart collection...
- Connect to Tivo
- Cold reboot of Tivo and router
- Kickstart 57

With hat in hand, I called Tivo too. Their suggestion at this point is to pay $149 for a replacement physical unit. I like the company, and appreciate the service, but this isn't a very good option for a software problem.

Has anyone encountered or heard of this issue before? The threads are light regarding it. And does anyone have any ideas with regard to a solution?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance.

Marc

[classicsat]

Does the TSN on the System Info screen match the one on the label?

Is the TiVo Unsubbed, TiVo Basic, regular TiVo service, or Product Lifetime?

[antennae]

Hi Classicsat,

Thanks for the quick follow up. In answer to your questions, my 240 has product lifetime service and, yes, the SNs match on the info screen and the back of the box.

Maybe a wrinkle is that I temporarily had an Instantcake HD image in the box while doing the upgrade. I saw that that doesn't work at all. (My guess is that the OS looks to match the SN on the crypto chip with a SN stored somewhere on the drive.) In any case, using WinMFS I then copied my "original" upgrade over to the larger drive and installed that drive. That's when the problem above hit.

Marc