There had been been reports very early on about the Coax Jack de-soldering from the Main Board.

What happens if you connect an antenna directly to your Bolt (without going through any splitters)?

-KP

 

That was indeed one of my tests. Same result: no channels found. (Well, it did find one plus its subs, four total, but it should have found ninety.)

 

Well, it shows that (at least) one tuner has some function. It doesn't 'prove' the signal from the Antenna is good. Or that the Coax Connector isn't loose.

During a signal strength test, does minor pressure on the coax connector have any effect?

Does the attached TV have an ATSC Tuner? What do the Signal Strengths look like on it? (it's NOT a great comparison, but is at least somewhat of a reference).

Are you able to turn and point the antenna?

I've seen very small adjustments make a very big difference on received signal strength on a TiVo.

-KP

 

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll try the pressure test this evening; I didn't do that yesterday. For clarity, I think I've eliminated all other variables besides the box itself. Cables, antenna, antenna location, etc.

 

Pressure test didn't help; alas.

I called TiVo and all is well that ends mostly well. They agreed to replace the box for $79 and transfer the lifetime service to the replacement. Maybe that's standard and I could have pressed for better, but the thing is out of warranty so I can't complain too much.

 

Just to close this off -- replacement box arrived today & connected it to the attic antenna. All is well again. Couple of side notes:

Of course the replacement is a "renewed" Bolt. I expected that. It would be nice, though, if the renewed units didn't look so... used. My (now old) Bolt that I am sending back looks like it could have just come out of the box. This one has scuffs all over the polycarbonate.

On that old Bolt and on my Premiere, I've managed to avoid the Hydra interface. I suspected this replacement Bolt might mean the end of that, and it did. It actually powered up with the old interface, but of course immediately updated itself on first connection. This is my first in-person exposure to Hydra. It's been well picked-over here on the forum so I'll not get into it except to say: I now feel everyone's pain. Sheesh.

 

Just to close this off -- replacement box arrived today & connected it to the attic antenna. All is well again. Couple of side notes:

Of course the replacement is a "renewed" Bolt. I expected that. It would be nice, though, if the renewed units didn't look so... used. My (now old) Bolt that I am sending back looks like it could have just come out of the box. This one has scuffs all over the polycarbonate.

(snip)

Assuming you're referring to the top cover(s) of the case, why not switch the two before you return the old box? There's no box-specific identifying information there AFAIK -- unless the old box is white and the new one is black, of course.

 

I'm absolutely speechless.

As posted yesterday, I got the replacement Bolt. Connected it to my antenna, set it up, everything was fine. The scan resulted in almost 100 channels as expected. Signal strengths in the 60's or better across the board, and stable picture on all channels. I went to bed.

Today, the next day, I just turned on the TV for the first time since then and was greeted with a blank screen and the same V53 error message I had started to get on my old Bolt. Went through the channels and nothing. Did a channel scan and it found only 4 channels, exactly what my broken Bolt had started doing. Brough the new Bolt into the room where the Roamio is, connected it to the antenna there, and got the same result. This new Bolt is now as dead as my old Bolt.

I can only conclude that the antenna or the the drop into that room is now frying Bolt tuners for some reason. (They don't send a power supply with replacement units, so that is the only other thing the old and new one have had in common as a trouble source.). Both the antenna and that cable have been in use for years. I have no idea (a) how that is possible, or (b) what to do from a TiVo (corporation) perspective. Will they sell me another renewed Bolt? It seems as though the problem is not with the hardware, but with my house. However that could be.

I'm really just stunned.

 

Could it be you are getting cell phone interference? A LTE filter might help. I do not live very close to any cell phone towers, but on my BOLT a LTE filter fixed issues I have been having for some time and my Roamio did not have. Just did not think it was a signal interference problem.

 

Thanks, but while I don't know for sure, I'm thinking that is not the cause. As I mentioned, the replacement Bolt worked just fine when I set it up. I wouldn't think an interference problem like that would go from non-existent to completely blocking the Bolt from tuning anything just like that.

 

Update: I went ahead and called TiVo. After talking through it, they granted me a one-time courtesy to replace this replacement at no charge. They think the issue is signal problem and not a hardware one, and I can hardly argue. However, after moving my Roamio to the same location and antenna connection as the Bolt, and providing them the diagnostics off a couple of the tuners (solid signal and not much noise and error correction), they agreed to the second swap.

I'm not sure what to do once I get the box. I moved the Roamio back off that connection right away just in case that particular drop is frying tuners somehow.

 

I tried a couple other things tonight, just to rule out everything I can besides a hardware issue.

I replaced the antenna splitter I have in the attic, which is decades old, with a new one. No change in performance on any TiVo including the failed Bolt.

That new splitter is amplified, so I plugged it in. I know amplifiers can cause as many problems as they solve, but regardless, it didn't solve this one. Failed Bolt still could not receive channels.

I picked up a new antenna. The one I have been using for years is an old rabbit-ears-plus-array model. Before my original Bolt failed completely, but as it was getting worse, I swapped in a new omnidirectional paper-thin antenna model to see if that would improve things, which it did not. I tried it again on the new failed Bolt and it did not help. So I picked up a third antenna, a big outdoor model just to see if I could get anything on the failed Bolt with it. Nope.

In addition, I have tested the failed new Bolt on the antenna drops in the two other rooms where I have happy TiVos, and it can't tune anything in either of those spots. As mentioned in a prior post, I've also tested one of the other TiVos in the spot where the Bolt normally is and it was fine.

So I'm comfortable concluding both Bolts have failed. Interestingly, they seem to have failed in exactly the same way. Which is to say that the only things either of them can tune now are the same non-network local and its subchannels, four in total. (Before the issue hit both Bolts, both of them could see about 100 channels.). I don't know what to conclude from that.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I'm pretty scared to connect the NEW new Bolt, when it arrives, to the antenna drop the other two have failed on. Besides the power brick, the only thing these two failed units have in common is the antenna connection they have been on. I'm a layperson when it comes to RF signals, but I don't see how an un-amplified signal traveling down a cable could be causing this. But it, or the cable drop itself, seems to be the cause somehow.

If I felt like playing chicken, I'd hook one of my other TiVos up to that drop for a day or two to see if the same thing happens to it, too. But I don't want to fry another lifetime box.

 

(snip)

As I mentioned in my previous post, I'm pretty scared to connect the NEW new Bolt, when it arrives, to the antenna drop the other two have failed on. Besides the power brick, the only thing these two failed units have in common is the antenna connection they have been on. I'm a layperson when it comes to RF signals, but I don't see how an un-amplified signal traveling down a cable could be causing this. But it, or the cable drop itself, seems to be the cause somehow.

If I felt like playing chicken, I'd hook one of my other TiVos up to that drop for a day or two to see if the same thing happens to it, too. But I don't want to fry another lifetime box.

Those weak RF signals coming in alone from an antenna are highly unlikely to overload a tuner to the point of failure. Even with the hottest preamp on the market in line I doubt it could be done. It looks like you have some other voltage being coupled into your antenna feed. Do you have a grounding block on your coax at the point where it enters the house (or anywhere else)? Do you have a voltmeter available that you could use to check for excessive voltage on the coax, either between the center conductor and the shield, between the center conductor and ground, or between the shield and ground?

 

New new Bolt is up and running. For posterity, a few comments following up on stuff I said earlier in the thread:

• The new Bolt gets all channels, as expected. Of course, the last new one did, too, and that lasted all of a day for whatever reason. We'll see how it goes.
• Also as expected, the Bolt has a little more trouble with some channels than my HD did for the last few days it took the Bolt's place. Love that old HD box.
• For a half-second when I took this Bolt out of the shipping box, I wondered if they had sent me a new one. The outer case was pristine and had the protective cling plastic on it. Then I realized this was a renewed box that had gotten a new outer case because the hard drive cover was on crooked.
• On setup, the box upgraded itself to TE4, as the last one had. I set up all my OnePasses and configs again, then decided to downgrade to TE3. That was quick and painless. TiVo could very reasonably accuse me of not having given TE4 a fair shot, having used it only for a few hours in the course of setting up and briefly interacting with these two renewed Bolts. And truth to tell, while the change was a little jarring, I think I would have adapted to it pretty quickly. The reason I gave up so fast anyway was that steering around in it just felt like moving through molasses. Everything felt like it took a half-beat longer than it should, or than it did on TE3.

 

Thank for you for this interesting post and followup. I've been trying to get some weak signals on my Bolt (which I get when I connect my antenna/amplifier to my TV directly, bypassing my Bolt). I'm starting to suspect the Bolt.

Trouble is I have lifetime service on my Bolt. Tivo didn't allow you to transfer lifetime service to the new Bolts, by any chance?

Anyone know if the Edge has better OTA tuning capability? My experience is my TV has better OTA tuning capability than my Bolt, and everyone seems to believe the Bolt is worse than S3. I'd shell out for an Edge if I could get as many OTA channels as my TV does directly.

 

Im having same trouble and on 3rd bolt, no luck. I think its soldering joint when unit heats up it unsolder one the joints leaving signal loss.

 

Hello, cmontyburns. Just a note to reinforce your experience with TiVo Bolts. I am on my third OTA after having the rf sensitivity fail on the first two. So far this one is good. Personally I think it is failure of an internal part rather than lightening or some other event and I strongly suspect TiVo is aware of the issue and that we are not the only two. In my case the sensitivity dropped off over a couple of weeks and I was stumped for the cause (I am connected to an antenna in the attic feeding a distribution amplifier). I also have a Roamio which works fine and TiVo tech support suggested swapping the two to determine if the antenna feed was at fault (very unlikely) and it was not. When my first Bolt failed they sent me a second unit for $50 but would not do it again and I bought the third on Amazon for $299. I also bought a $33 insurance policy just in case.
When I bought these I didn't realize there was an alternative from Tablo. If ever I need another I will look there.