[leiff]

My Bolt+ crashed a week ago, a little over a year old (thank goodness for extended warranty). Still have a PremiereXL, Roamio and Roamio Pro working just fine. But the most frustrating part (other than losing all my recordings on the Bolt) is the replacement came with the new UI. I hate it. Seems to take many more steps to do anything than the old UI. I called and asked them to switch me to the old UI - and it didn't work. They had to file a ticket on it. I hope to heck they figure it out soon because this new one is driving me crazy.

Were you doing anything to cool your Bolt that failed? Were you using power saver feature?

 

[ej42137]

My Bolt+ crashed a week ago, a little over a year old (thank goodness for extended warranty). Still have a PremiereXL, Roamio and Roamio Pro working just fine. But the most frustrating part (other than losing all my recordings on the Bolt) is the replacement came with the new UI. I hate it. Seems to take many more steps to do anything than the old UI. I called and asked them to switch me to the old UI - and it didn't work. They had to file a ticket on it. I hope to heck they figure it out soon because this new one is driving me crazy.

See link. The procedure is identical for Roamios and Bolts.

 

[mkrsm]

Were you doing anything to cool your Bolt that failed? Were you using power saver feature?

Just the power saver feature, set to medium. It was in a 2'x3' cabinet with an open front and it gets a bit hot in there, along with the tuning adapter.

 

[Sibedog]

Were you doing anything to cool your Bolt that failed? Were you using power saver feature?

No, not aware of that. What should I do with the new one?

 

[ohboy710]

Because everybody keeps saying its a cooling issue (and my last one died after 13 months) I took my current bolt and put it up onto some rubber feet so its about 1 inch off the cabinet now. I can feel with my hand that is seems cooler now and that was simple to do.

 

[aaronwt]

I just had a Bolt failure last week. I bought it in early 2016 (Sept 2015 build date). After the house power was turned off and on, the BOLT came up with all the front LEDs blinking. I think this indicates a hard drive failure. As others noted, the unit always ran quite hot, not good for hard drives. After trying a few things, Tivo customer service replaced the unit for a fee. I didn't have an extended warranty.

Now trying to figure out how to go back to the Tivo Classic interface.

One reason why a DVR should be connected to a UPS. Personally, I have never used a TiVo without it being connected to a UPS.

 

[darklyte]

My Bolt+ crashed a week ago, a little over a year old (thank goodness for extended warranty). Still have a PremiereXL, Roamio and Roamio Pro working just fine. But the most frustrating part (other than losing all my recordings on the Bolt) is the replacement came with the new UI. I hate it. Seems to take many more steps to do anything than the old UI. I called and asked them to switch me to the old UI - and it didn't work. They had to file a ticket on it. I hope to heck they figure it out soon because this new one is driving me crazy.

There are instructions around the forum that will tell you how to downgrade the UI, I've done it myself recently. Probably under one of the long "Hydra" threads.

Do you know or did they give you any explanation as to what went wrong with the unit?

 

[darklyte]

So after spending an excruciating 3 days with the Hydra UI on my Roamio and 6 Mini's (and with nasty family feedback), I posted the request to rollback on the Tivo forum site. I was sent a message to contact Tivo support directly to find out how. Tivo support was very helpful and gave me the following instructions which they OK'd for forum posting. KEEP IN MIND YOU WILL LOSE EVERYTHING!!!

For the Roamio:
1.) Go into Menu- Help- Reset to Defaults- Repeat Guided Setup- Select
2.) Press Thumbs Down 2 times (NOT 3!), now press Rewind 2 times, Now press Select (not Enter)
3.) Roamio will immediately go to that right arrow screen, then screen blank, then you'll get a message letting you know that the rollback process has begun

This exact method works on Bolts too

 

[JoeKustra]

How to Rollback Hydra from Roamio and Mini's v1

 

[Pokemon_Dad]

I bought a 2TB 4-tuner model from WeaKnees about two years ago. It immediately demonstrated more sensitivity to minor power fluctuations than any other product I'd ever owned, spontaneously rebooting as if possessed. Replacing an old surge protector fixed that, but no other component on the same protector had any problem, including all sorts of video and hi-fi boxes.

It was also noisier than it should have been, and within a year the noise (from a buzzing board component and the fan) was unbearable. I put it in the server closet where I don't have to listen to it, to just let it die a peaceful death while we access it with Minis, rather than send it in for repair ...regardless of warranty; I was too busy to deal with it. If it lasts in there three years I won't consider repairing it. The server closet is well-ventilated, and I elevated the Bolt for good measure.

A few times the Minis couldn't find it. I disabled the power-saving mode, and we haven't had that problem since. We can't browse the multiple tuners with Minis, but aside from that we're happier with it locked in the dungeon, um, I mean closet. Mostly. Luckily our main workhorse here is a Roamio Pro.

 

[RWS3]

I just had a Bolt failure last week. I bought it in early 2016 (Sept 2015 build date). After the house power was turned off and on, the BOLT came up with all the front LEDs blinking. ..... Tivo customer service replaced the unit for a fee. I didn't have an extended warranty.

Now trying to figure out how to go back to the Tivo Classic interface.

This just happened to me. Its sad how the new stuff is not as reliable as the old. My TivoHD is still running like a champ. I'm nervous about how long the replacement Bolt+ will work... Good luck to everyone else on the forum. I don't post often, but I've been with you guys for over a decade.

 

[XIBM]

I think high heat levels are killing Bolts and drives. A USB external fan blowing on the back of the Bolt is suggested.

 

[DocNo]

I do think the Bolt from a performance stand point is a worth upgrade from a Romio and Premiere. It's just the other issues with it that have been gone over in this thread. Luckily most of the downsides of the Bolt can be remedied if you really want to.

Just getting the hard drive out of the bolt case makes a huge difference. I just ran a regular SATA cable (NOT an eSATA) out the back to a 3.5" drive that I just sat on the shelf behind the Tivo. The hard drive is powered from an external power supply. I was cleaning out stuff in my basement and came across an old dead Premier so, I think I'm going to put the guts from the Bolt in the Premiere case. I'll be able to get the hard drive and the Bolt's guts in to the same case, get rid of that ugly white case with it's crease or whatever the heck it is, utilize the much larger fan in the Premiere case (and power it from the HD power supply to get rid of the aforementioned whine from the motherboard fan power header) and streamline things in my AV stack again.

Tivo was so close to having the perfect Tivo but for the horrible case they put the bolt in - along with the whole move to 2.5" hard drives. Just bonkers.

 

[pj1983]

(snip)
Just getting the hard drive out of the bolt case makes a huge difference. I just ran a regular SATA cable (NOT an eSATA) out the back to a 3.5" drive that I just sat on the shelf behind the Tivo. The hard drive is powered from an external power supply. I was cleaning out stuff in my basement and came across an old dead Premier so, I think I'm going to put the guts from the Bolt in the Premiere case. I'll be able to get the hard drive and the Bolt's guts in to the same case, get rid of that ugly white case with it's crease or whatever the heck it is, utilize the much larger fan in the Premiere case (and power it from the HD power supply to get rid of the aforementioned whine from the motherboard fan power header) and streamline things in my AV stack again. (snip)

Please post pictures of the Bolt-into-a-Premiere conversion when it's all done. I have a couple of Premieres I was planning to e-cycle but am intrigued by the notion of a Bolt in a Premiere form factor, especially if doing so increases reliability.

 

[mickrussom]

Are my concerns justified? Is there any pattern of several year old Bolts failing?
Thanks.

Yes, they are worse. My Tivo buddies complain about them, almost all the ones (we all have Bolt+) from 2016 have failed at least once. The hard drives are trash. They do seem to fail slowly, if you ever notice blocks or skips or audio "junk" or judder or any other anomalies on live TV or recording that arent signal/compression artifacts its a clue the HDD is going.

Tivo should really put the SMART status somewhere - there is no way they dont know these things are about to fail. Ill bet they sit on that data.

Another annoyance is the OnePass stuff only transfer if both boxes are "alive". After the warranty runs out on my bolt+ I think Im probably done. Cheap plastic, bad cooling, difficult hard drive add/upgrade/etc. There is such a short list of basic issues that would be trivial and easy to fix but Tivo doesnt seem to care. I dont mind spending $1K on a great DVR - but I feel the Series5 Roamio Pro was the last of the "good ones".

My observation between myself and my friends is the Bolts last 1.5 to 2 years. The stuttering and playback and live TV record anomalies are the warning sign.

These units should have a small SSD partition that is extra-reliable to hold all the "good stuff" (OnePass,etc) and the hard drive should be on a removeable tray to make swapping them trivial. The move to 2.5" from 3.5" was just stupid. The 3.5" drives are much more reliable and have been getting better every year. The lockouts (like not allowing 14TB drives) are childish.

Now I have to re-pair and re-setup a new Tivo after RMA.

 

[aspexil]

I commented on this post last year. We got our Bolt when it was released around Oct 2015 and it has been running just fine ever since. It does seem some people have received bad units but knock on wood things are still good here.

 

[aaronwt]

One of my Bolts with a 4TB Seagate is still running. I've been using the 4TB Seagate in Bolts since October 2015.

Sent from my Galaxy S10

 

[rjrsouthwest]

My bolt 500gb has been running fine since May 2016.

 

[tommiet]

6 months with no issues and it started with the video freezing and rebooting... Replacement on the way... Had to call twice to get someone to send me another Bolt.

NOTE: The refurb id is now listed on line and I can no longer manager my current Bolt on line OR remote access (not that remote access worked that great anyway.) ReCast handles my remote viewing today.....

 

[Tony Chick]

Replacement Bolt Vox #5 is on its way. This is simply the most unreliable piece of gear I've ever had, ANY power outage kills it even when plugged into UPS (?). My ancient Premiere XL4 just keeps on going though