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Roamio Pro - overhaul under way - Help!

Discussion in 'TiVo Roamio DVRs' started by DavidN1993, Feb 19, 2021.

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  1. Feb 19, 2021 #1 of 10
    DavidN1993

    DavidN1993 New Member

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    Okay ... power surge killed my Roamio Pro power supply...
    (15 year old S3 survivied and is going with me into the zombie apocalypse)

    Since I'm opening it up to fix/replace the PS I thought I would upgrade my HDD while I'm there, and have a WD Purple to drop in, but this is my first Roamio HDD upgrade.

    Question 1: Do I need to use MFS Tools to prepare the drive or transfer information?

    I was running TE4 and copied off what I could with PyTivo in anticipation of rolling back to TE3, so my S3 and Roamio could share files directly. I really don't want/need to transfer anything.


    Question 2: I recall that my Roamio initialized itself, there was no extensive guided setup like with my S3. So, is there a step in that process where I halt it and intialize it under TE3 instead of TE4, or do I have to let the restart/initialization finish and then roll it back?

    Thank You !
     
  2. Feb 20, 2021 #2 of 10
    slowbiscuit

    slowbiscuit FUBAR

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    Are you SURE it's the PS? I had a Roamio die after a close lightning hit a few years ago, it was definitely more than the PS.

    To answer your questions - you drop a new drive in and it loads the SW automatically. I'm not sure if you get TE4 now but you can downgrade afterwards if you want TE3 (and you do on a Roamio).
     
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  3. Feb 20, 2021 #3 of 10
    snerd

    snerd Well-Known Member

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    MFS Tools is only required if the new drive is larger than 3TB. You can go up to about 20TB by jumping through extra hoops, but for 3TB or less you can just pop in the new drive and run guided setup, then revert to TE3.
     
  4. Feb 21, 2021 at 6:04 PM #4 of 10
    DavidN1993

    DavidN1993 New Member

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    Yes, the new HDD is larger than 3Tb, so it sounds like I DO NEED to run MFS Tools...

    THANKS !

    btw, got a pointer to the latest download? It's been 10 years (or more) since I've done this.
     
  5. Feb 21, 2021 at 6:12 PM #5 of 10
    DavidN1993

    DavidN1993 New Member

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    Well .. "funny" you should mention that...
    I got a new PS from Weaknees and opened the box to change it out.
    Lo and behold, I could "see" nothing wrong with the old PS - no burst capacitors or burnt ends, nothing I could see with a large magnifying glass and good lighting.
    BUT I swapped PS anyway, and when I went to boot it up, got NOTHING. Zip. Nada.

    I think I'm stuck with sending it in for whatever repair it may require.

    Which kind of burns me, I paid good money for a premium media center surge protector, and at the time of the outage/surge, had a 65" TV, TiVO S3, 2 "tuning adapters," and my Dell media center PC all plugged in and either "on" or in standby. There were NO PROBLEMS with any other device, just the Roamio... Are they really that delicate?
     
  6. Feb 21, 2021 at 7:27 PM #6 of 10
    snerd

    snerd Well-Known Member

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    I'd suggest checking out DIY 10TB Roamio and MFS Tools 3.2
     
  7. Feb 21, 2021 at 8:04 PM #7 of 10
    WVZR1

    WVZR1 Active Member

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    I might go ahead and replace the CR2032 'coin battery' if you've never done it. A PC with a similar situation as yours when trying to boot will push CMOS error but I don't believe there's any way for the TiVo to hint an error. It just don't work maybe!

    That's sorta WAG except that I did have a power outage on a very old PC after a storm and I couldn't get it to run. Do you have the information required to check the Roamio using a 'meter' before just being at maybe Weaknees mercy? I'd think there's likely a user here on the TCF that should be able to supply you info!

    Since you've already got the Weaknees 'power supply' and it's not working maybe they'll share diagnostics before you just send it back for the core $$. A defective Weaknees 'power supply'? It's certainly possible.
     
    Last edited: Feb 21, 2021 at 8:35 PM
  8. Feb 21, 2021 at 10:34 PM #8 of 10
    DavidN1993

    DavidN1993 New Member

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    OMG ... the coin cell ... !! LOL So glad you mentioned that...
    As far as WAGs go, it's as good as any I've got left.
    When I saw that the drive was 2015 (I got the unit in 2018), I wondered about the battery, and ... didn't replace it.

    I have a meter, but visual inspection of the few bits and bobs not already on the PS sub-board didn't show anything I would try to put a meter on. I'll look around at other threads to see what anyone else has done... I'm local to Weaknees, but don't know if they're taking walk-ins while So Cal is still locked down. I was going to open a dialog with them, but thought I'd see what nuggets of wisdom I could glean from this community first.

    Thanks and Cheers !
     
  9. Feb 21, 2021 at 11:11 PM #9 of 10
    WVZR1

    WVZR1 Active Member

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    Reach out to Weaknees for sure and post back. I've a couple questions that a person 'local' to them that could do a 'walk-in' might be able to help me with. I don't speak and they're not particularly easy to attempt a technical CHAT with.
     
  10. Feb 22, 2021 at 11:02 PM #10 of 10
    WVZR1

    WVZR1 Active Member

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