[WPO]

Well hopefully the time will fix itself. You can force a connection with the Mini. The Bolt should connect once a day on it's own. Or you can force a connection by unplugging and plugging back in. When you do that it will connect to the service in about 1/2 hour. Good luck, I've never played with replacing an HDMI port myself but this situation may be worth a try since the Bolt is lifetime.

The MOCA connection was active but I needed to fix the Powerline ethernet and now I am synched properly with time and channel and can schedule from my Mini. My question for you is can I add another Mini without being able to see any screen from my Bolt with the bad HDMI port? I am able to watch recorded shows with the Tivo app on my Apple devices and can screen mirror them for play back on my Apple TV box ( I never knew this was possible before ) so I may not even need another Mini.
Thanks

 

[tommage1]

The MOCA connection was active but I needed to fix the Powerline ethernet and now I am synched properly with time and channel and can schedule from my Mini. My question for you is can I add another Mini without being able to see any screen from my Bolt with the bad HDMI port? I am able to watch recorded shows with the Tivo app on my Apple devices and can screen mirror them for play back on my Apple TV box ( I never knew this was possible before ) so I may not even need another Mini.
Thanks

Have not setup Minis in awhile, I'd guess yes but for a definitive answer maybe ask in the Mini forum. Good you are figuring out ways to make the best of the situation, at this point may not have to try the HDMI port replacement

 

[pl1]

The MOCA connection was active but I needed to fix the Powerline ethernet and now I am synched properly with time and channel and can schedule from my Mini. My question for you is can I add another Mini without being able to see any screen from my Bolt with the bad HDMI port? I am able to watch recorded shows with the Tivo app on my Apple devices and can screen mirror them for play back on my Apple TV box ( I never knew this was possible before ) so I may not even need another Mini.
Thanks

Yes, you select the Host Bolt from the mini. They just need to be on the same network and the same TiVo account.

 

[WPO]

Yes, you select the Host Bolt from the mini. They just need to be on the same network and the same TiVo account.

Great Thanks

 

[Robin A Baum]

I just tried what you suggested and looked on e bay. They do have some units priced really good with life time. There are also a few Used Bolts for under $80 with no life time. It would be cheaper for me to buy one of those Bolts and just use the hard drive to replace mine.

I purchased a non-lifetime Bolt on eBay and changed out the hard drive when my bolt died earlier this year.
I wanted the 3tb 6 tuner version unit for the storage. It had died the year before and I purchased a WD 2TB drive but it didn't last a full year.
Only issue I had was the new hard drive had the version 4 installed. Took some doing (and I don't remember what I did) but I finally got my version 3 back.
I read that they tend to overheat so I bought a laptop fan and put it under the unit after replacing the hard drive. Jury is still out on whether that works.

 

[bobfrank]

I purchased a non-lifetime Bolt on eBay and changed out the hard drive when my bolt died earlier this year.
I wanted the 3tb 6 tuner version unit for the storage. It had died the year before and I purchased a WD 2TB drive but it didn't last a full year.
Only issue I had was the new hard drive had the version 4 installed. Took some doing (and I don't remember what I did) but I finally got my version 3 back.
I read that they tend to overheat so I bought a laptop fan and put it under the unit after replacing the hard drive. Jury is still out on whether that works.

If the 2TB internal drive fails, and it probably will, think about going with an external drive that's not a 2 1/2 inch drive. Plenty of threads here on how to roll you own. Or, if you're lazy like me, Weaknees has a nice, easy to install kit with everything you need.

There are also plenty of threads here on how to upgrade your Tivo from TE4 to TE3. Lots of us here prefer TE3 like you do.

 

[John Waterman]

My 2017 Bolt with life time, was replaced in 2019 because of a HHD failure under the warrenty. Today the same thing has happened again. All lights flashing. Because of the failure, my mini in another room is not working. I can replace the HHD myself for $150 or send to Weeknees and they will do it for $200. Or for $586, I can get a brand new Edge with life time and their care program. I have read on here that the Edge has had a lot of problems. I am not sure if my Bolt has a resolution problem. But I have a Comcast DVR and the Bolt connected to the same 50 inch Samsung TV. The Comcast box has a very noticable better picture then the Bolt. So I am not sure if Comcast is doing something to restrict the resolution thru the cable card or not. But it is another thing to think about before I decide on what route to go. I started with a ser 2, then bought a HD with life time, which I still have sitting on a self and now the Bolt with life time. I prefer the Tivo remote over the Comcast one. The buttons on the Comcast remote are not easy to press and I haven't gotten use to using the voice commands. My wife says the Tivo is easier for her to use. If I don't replace the Bolt, I will have to get another Comcast box to replace the mini. That would cost an additional $108 a year. If the new Edge would last five years like the Bolt then it would work out to $116 a year. Basicly the same as renting the additional Comcast box. What direction would any of you go?
I will not go back to using the HD after having the Bolt. So I should just give it away. I bought the Tivo streaming device but found it hard to use. So that is sitting on the shelf also.

Why not just replace the hard drive? A new 500 gig hard drive is about $30 and takes less than an hour to replace.

 

[rburgie]

A used Roamio Pro with Lifetime from ebay for under $250 is the best alternative if you don't want to fix the Bolt.
$50 a year for 5 years

It's also possible the Bolt issue is a power supply.

IMHO I trust Weakness more than a seller on eBay.

TiVo Bolt VOX 500GB No TiVo Fees - "All-In" Service Included ($549 Value) | 4 Tuner | For Cable or Antenna (Renewed)

$299.99

 

[dianebrat]

IMHO I trust Weakness more than a seller on eBay.

TiVo Bolt VOX 500GB No TiVo Fees - "All-In" Service Included ($549 Value) | 4 Tuner | For Cable or Antenna (Renewed)

$299.99

I trust a Roamio a lot more than a Bolt...
and eBay has done a lot of work becoming more buyer focused, my recommendation stands.

 

[slowbiscuit]

Same here, there's no issue buying used Roamios or Bolts on ebay. If it doesn't work, send it back and ebay will make sure you get the refund if the seller doesn't do it.

 

[SNJpage1]

My Bolt was 6 years old and had already been fixed by Tivo once. So I decided to buy a new Edge and then go back and replace the HHD in the Bolt. Not sure why the HHD's are so expensive. Weeknees wants $150 for a replacement. Looks like E bay will be where I get a replacement. Will a Tivo only take a certain brand or type of HHD?

 

[dianebrat]

My Bolt was 6 years old and had already been fixed by Tivo once. So I decided to buy a new Edge and then go back and replace the HHD in the Bolt. Not sure why the HHD's are so expensive. Weeknees wants $150 for a replacement. Looks like E bay will be where I get a replacement. Will a Tivo only take a certain brand or type of HHD?

There are HDDs that will work in a bolt for $70 as long as 1TB is ok, any one of the bazillion Bolt HDD threads should get you what you need.

 

[seanandrsn]

My 2017 Bolt with life time, was replaced in 2019 because of a HHD failure under the warrenty. Today the same thing has happened again. All lights flashing. Because of the failure, my mini in another room is not working. I can replace the HHD myself for $150 or send to Weeknees and they will do it for $200. Or for $586, I can get a brand new Edge with life time and their care program. I have read on here that the Edge has had a lot of problems. I am not sure if my Bolt has a resolution problem. But I have a Comcast DVR and the Bolt connected to the same 50 inch Samsung TV. The Comcast box has a very noticable better picture then the Bolt. So I am not sure if Comcast is doing something to restrict the resolution thru the cable card or not. But it is another thing to think about before I decide on what route to go. I started with a ser 2, then bought a HD with life time, which I still have sitting on a self and now the Bolt with life time. I prefer the Tivo remote over the Comcast one. The buttons on the Comcast remote are not easy to press and I haven't gotten use to using the voice commands. My wife says the Tivo is easier for her to use. If I don't replace the Bolt, I will have to get another Comcast box to replace the mini. That would cost an additional $108 a year. If the new Edge would last five years like the Bolt then it would work out to $116 a year. Basicly the same as renting the additional Comcast box. What direction would any of you go?
I will not go back to using the HD after having the Bolt. So I should just give it away. I bought the Tivo streaming device but found it hard to use. So that is sitting on the shelf also.

I had the same issue where my HD failed on my Bolt. I purchased a replacement drive from Weaknees (smaller drive) and purchased a SSD HD from Amazon (1 TB) and then cloned the smaller drive on to the larger SSD drive giving me more recording space. With the SSD drive the unit runs cooler and it seems more responsive. I stored my replacement drive form Weakness incase the SSD drive fails as I could pick up another cheap SSD 1 TB drive from Amazon for about $80.

I've had this setup now since January of this year and I have not had any issues. I get it that Weaknees needs to charge for the software on the drive but now that I have a "master drive" I won't need to spend additional money at Weaknees in the future. I am quite comfortable changing the drive as the tutorial on their YouTube channel will walk you through it and I have the Torx driver so it's no big deal.

 

[cwerdna]

What's the deal with the software on the drive? On Bolt, with a compatible blank drive, once you boot with it, the software is (AFAIK) downloaded and installed onto the drive. I've done this w/the replacement 2.5" spinning drives I bought, partly to test them out and one I'm using.

 

[dianebrat]

What's the deal with the software on the drive? On Bolt, with a compatible blank drive, once you boot with it, the software is (AFAIK) downloaded and installed onto the drive. I've done this w/the replacement 2.5" spinning drives I bought, partly to test them out and one I'm using.

I have the same issue with that being discussed, the software on the drive means nothing in a Roamio or above, just put the right flavor blank drive in the unit, and like magic the OS gets installed from the flash memory, there's no reason to go to weaknees for a basic Roamio or Bolt drive replacement.

 

[cwerdna]

Thanks! I wasn't clear it came from flash memory on the Bolt itself or if fetched it over the wire/wireless from TiVo's servers.

But, most definitely on Bolts, a blank drive is fine. I think I went thru trying out 4 drives: the 3 replacements that I bought and a 100 to 160 gig laptop drive I had lying around to troubleshoot when the stock 3 TB drive died.

 

[ggieseke]

What's the deal with the software on the drive? On Bolt, with a compatible blank drive, once you boot with it, the software is (AFAIK) downloaded and installed onto the drive. I've done this w/the replacement 2.5" spinning drives I bought, partly to test them out and one I'm using.

The software is never on the drive at all. It lives exclusively in flash memory on the motherboard.

 

[SNJpage1]

I pulled the HHD out of the Bolt and connected to my PC by way of an USB adapter. I was able to see it and format it and copy files to and from it. Looks like it isn't the
HHD. However, as you can see, I can not make it one disk. E drive has 746 g of unallotted disk space and everything is greyed out to make it all one. Not sure if that is a failure or not.

 

[dianebrat]

I pulled the HHD out of the Bolt and connected to my PC by way of an USB adapter. I was able to see it and format it and copy files to and from it. Looks like it isn't the
HHD. However, as you can see, I can not make it one disk. E drive has 746 g of unallotted disk space and everything is greyed out to make it all one. Not sure if that is a failure or not.


View attachment 71996

Unfortunately by letting Windows add a signature and making it have a drive letter anything on it is now gone.
What you want to do is run the drive manufacturers diagnostics against the drive and do a "long test" that's the way you can tell if it's good or not.
You will need to delete all the partitions off the drive if if tests good and you decide to put it back in a Tivo

 

[SNJpage1]

I was able to regain the whole 3 TB by changing it from MBR to GPT. Ran HHD test and drive is healthy. So it looks like the four flashing lights is not a bad HHD. It took awhile. I haven't used command prompt to work on a HHD in a long time. I decided a few days ago to just bite the bullet and order a new Edge. It arrived on Sat and is up and running. I just hate the TE 4 software having used TE3 for the past 5 years. Not sure what to do with the bolt that has life time. Same as the Tivo HD with life time that is stting on a shelf.