Help needed on half dead tivo

[audi321]

Hi all, I had a power cut and after this I just have a green light on the tivo box. No picture at all.

I've rang tivo helpline and they were next to useless with help!

I cannot turn the tivo off, the green light stays on permanently. Reading some threads, I held down the tivo button as I turned the plug on and this time I got a orange button on the left and right. Left it for 15 mins and nothing (never got anything on screen either).

I also tried holding down pause as I switched on, again I got a orange light, but again it did nothing for 15 minutes.

I bought it a year ago from a mate, and when I open it, I see 2 hard drives (both 40gb).

Before I go dismantling it any further, is there any checks I can do to determine whether its the psu or hd failure? I see psu's are about £30 on ebay, but don't know whether this is the fault or not! I've tried swapping around the hd cable, but still can't get anything on the screen.

Any help appreciated!!

[blindlemon]

Most likely a failed hard drive. If you're getting a green light and/or orange lights when you power on then the PSU is probably OK.

Does either of the drives spin up at all when power is applied to the box?

[mikerr]

Originally Posted by audi321

I cannot turn the tivo off, the green light stays on permanently. Reading some threads, I held down the tivo button as I turned the plug on and this time I got a orange button on the left and right.

Once the orange LEDs are on, its waiting for you to enter the "kickstart codes":

--------
57 - mfs check
58 - perform mfs cleanup
-- both of these will cause the green screen and various mfs checks

52 - emergency reinstall
-- this will act like you've received new software but will reinstall the existing software on the alternate root partition and boot it, particularly useful so you don't have to go trolling for backup images when your hacks fail.
56 - software install
--------

57 and 58 often solve minor problems with disk corruption,
they run when the green screen is displayed.

[audi321]

Both drives seem to be spinning ok from the sound and feel.

Re the orange lights - As the screen is blank, how do i know it has accepted the 57/58/etc codes? Do I just punch these numbers in, or press select after? What should the lights do after this? How long does each test take to complete?

Sorry for so many questions - I want my little tivo back!!

[geezer466]

Have you changed the scart lead?

Always rule out the obvious stuff first....

[audi321]

Yes, just tried that and still no pic

[blindlemon]

Originally Posted by audi321

Re the orange lights - As the screen is blank, how do i know it has accepted the 57/58/etc codes? Do I just punch these numbers in, or press select after? What should the lights do after this? How long does each test take to complete?

OK,

Power on the TiVo (with no keys pressed on the remote). Does the left-hand LED turn orange (and then back to green) after about 5 or 7 seconds? Is there any flicker of activity of any kind on your TV screen?

If the left hand LED turns orange, then the TiVo is trying to boot from the main drive and you can enter the Kickstart codes. Power on again, and when the LED turns orange, hold down Pause on the remote until both LEDs turn orange. Then press 5 followed by 8 on the remote. The LEDs should flicker and the TiVo will continue to boot. Shortly afterwards you should see the green screen of death (GSOD) or a message saying "Loading new software". Just wait for these to disappear, which might take a couple of hours.

If you never see anything on the screen at all, check your connections to the TV (make sure you're using a fully wired SCART lead and your TV is set to accept PAL and/or RGB on that SCART input). If that fails try plugging an analogue TV into the RF output and run a tuning scan to see if it can find a signal.

Also try pressing "Aux" on the remote with a live source (eg. Freeview box) plugged into the AUX SCART socket of the TiVo.

If all the above fail but you still see the LEDs changing from green to orange etc. then I would suspect the video output of the TIVo has failed.

If you see a flicker on the TV at all (especially just after powering on the TiVo) then I would assume the drive has failed. However, drive failure where there is no output at all to the screen but the left LED changes from green to orange is pretty rare (not sure if I've ever seen it even).

[audi321]

When I turn the plug on, the left LED goes straight to green and doesn't change or flicker at all. The fan/drives all seem to start up ok.

Nothing at all on the screen no matter what i do, or any sound at all.

The only way I can get the LEDs to change colour is to hold down the pause or the Tivo button as I switch it on. But nothing ever appears on the screen, and more confusingly to me is that the power on/off button never seems to turn the light red or turn tivo off.

I'm scratching my head as we speak!

[blindlemon]

From what you say my money would be on a drive problem.

[audi321]

Both of them???

Can I run on just one drive? How do I know which one is dead?

I'm not that bothered about my programs that I've saved, but I would like to have all my settings back (ie. keywords/series link stuff) Is this possible?

Thanks in anticipation!

[blindlemon]

If the B drive has died then there is a slight chance of recovering the season passes etc.; if the A drive has died then it is all lost.

Pull the drives and test them in a PC with the manufacturer's utility. Do not boot into Windows with the drives attached. If they are Quantum or Maxtor you will need to run qunlock first to unlock them.

[Pete77]

You need a new hard drive sadly and almost certainly.

You can either do this yourself using the guide at www.steveconrad.co.uk/tivo/upgrade3.html

or

you can buy a complete pre-formatted drive to drop in from either of the following:-

www.tivocentral.co.uk

www.tivoheaven.co.uk

[AMc]

in the interest of completeness

http://www.tivoland.com/upgrade_center.html

[Pete77]

Originally Posted by AMc

in the interest of completeness

http://www.tivoland.com/upgrade_center.html

But be warned that he is now only part time compared to the other two and you might not see your replacement hard drive until well in to the New Year.

[audi321]

OK, I'm gonna test each drive on my pc to see which is dead.

My PC is sata drives, does this mean I can't do it on this machine?

Does anyone have an 'idiots guide' to doing this? I'm quite ok with computers, but I'm presuming I am looking at BIOS upon boot up rather than plugging it in and letting windows boot up?

Whats all this about making Tivo bootable?

Guide needed me thinks!

[audi321]

Forget my previous post - I've just read the steve conrad site properly!!

Duh!

[audi321]

Originally Posted by blindlemon

Pull the drives and test them in a PC with the manufacturer's utility. Do not boot into Windows with the drives attached. If they are Quantum or Maxtor you will need to run qunlock first to unlock them.

Is there any guides on how to do this?

[Pugwash]

It's down to the manufacturers. If you can find their web site they may offer low-level diagnostic software you can boot from off a floppy (if you have one!) or maybe CD.