[LDLemu4U]

I have a 4 yr old Philips DSR704 that just won't reboot. If I plug it in, it's stuck on the "Welcome, Powering up............". Is this dead or hard drive is gone.

 

[rminsk]

Most like a failed hard drive.

 

[Narf54321]

The bad news is, like rminsk indicated, the HDD probably died.
The good news is that hard drives are relatively cheap these days, so it should (hopefully) be easy to fix.

If not the drive, I'd start looking at the power supply unit.

 

[LDLemu4U]

Thanks, guys. I suppose if it is the power supply, the green "on" light and the fan won't work, right? The green light is on and the fan is working. Guess, it must be the hard drive.

 

[wolflord11]

If its the PS: No lights, no fans etc. No nothing.

If the lights are going, fans on etc, then its the HD. if its stuck on Welcome, Powering up............ then its the HD.

 

[LDLemu4U]

Thanks...WolfLord11!

 

[Narf54321]

Sometimes you can lose a capacitor inside the PSU, and get lights, etc but doesn't provide enough power to spin up the hard drive.

But the HDD has moving parts. I'd say more than 9-out-of-10 times its the hard drive dying.
It's a relatively easy fix.

 

[LDLemu4U]

It's really funny.....just received a phone call from a friend of mine, just a few minutes ago...exactly the same problem same model. When he turned on his unit, it was blank and could not operate the remote. So he proceeded to reboot his unit and guess what. He is stuck too on "Welcome, Powering up.........". I don't think we have busted our Hard Drive.....was there a software release for this generation of DTV Tivos. I think we have not taken the update as we do not have phone lines connected to the units.

 

[LDLemu4U]

Really at a loss now! How can I download the software if I'm stuck on the Welcome...Powering up.

 

[rbtravis]

Being stuck at Welcome Powering Up is the sign of a hard drive failure

 

[LDLemu4U]

Being stuck at Welcome Powering Up is the sign of a hard drive failure

Due to the 6.3e update. Is that right? Anybody else who do not have the 6.3e update experience this problem?

Will appreciate how you resolved this issue.

 

[Narf54321]

Really at a loss now! How can I download the software if I'm stuck on the Welcome...Powering up.

If he hard drive is well and truly dead, Look up Instant Cake. Or, check out the DVRupgrade.com and Weaknees sites for pre-formatted replacement drives.

 

[LDLemu4U]

UPDATE!

Tested it today! Working!

I am really surprised. I left it unplugged since last night. Tested it around 10amPacific and it booted up at once.

Now the BetterHalf will be very happy! She won't miss the latest episode of Prison Break.

What's odd, this unit broke down when D* released the new HD channels.

 

[cr33p]

UPDATE!

Tested it today! Working!

I am really surprised. I left it unplugged since last night. Tested it around 10amPacific and it booted up at once.

Now the BetterHalf will be very happy! She won't miss the latest episode of Prison Break.

What's odd, this unit broke down when D* released the new HD channels.

You may still want to look into replacing the hdd, the overnites rest might have allowed it to reboot again but it still may have an intermittent problem, and impending failure. You may want to still look into replacing the drive, especially since the fall season hasnt completely started yet. I saw a 400gb @ frys on sale for 79.00 free shipping. Good luck, pm me if you need an image

 

[LDLemu4U]

You may still want to look into replacing the hdd, the overnites rest might have allowed it to reboot again but it still may have an intermittent problem, and impending failure. You may want to still look into replacing the drive, especially since the fall season hasnt completely started yet. I saw a 400gb @ frys on sale for 79.00 free shipping. Good luck, pm me if you need an image

Thanks cr33p! I have 2 HR20s that will handle all my recordings from now on. This unit is just a backup and recording shows that are not on HD.

Thank you very much for the kind offer. I am not a techie and have not idea how to tinker with this.

 

[wolflord11]

I would replace the HD before its too late. Computer HD's do the same thing. You can try to boot it up, and every now and again you can get on, until the HD says goodbye for the last time.

 

[dollbaby]

I agree with the above posts, don't jump too hard for joy as I did. It may be OK for now but most likely will come back with a vengance pretty much until you are totally cooked. Good luck anyway.

SIDE NOTE BUT RELATED: I am not a techie either. I still have my old Hughes DVR that got stuck on the reboot loop when I tried to clear my lists. I hate the replacement I got so is there anyway I can go back to using my old Hughes if I replace the hard drive. I have no clue how to do this kind of thing, how difficult is it to someone with no electrical /programming skills? And, will I be able to call up direct tv and re-activate since I am not sold at all on this refurbished piece of garbage they sent me. Any help would be great, I am at a loss where to go with this I am so frustrated.

 

[wolflord11]

I agree with the above posts, don't jump too hard for joy as I did. It may be OK for now but most likely will come back with a vengance pretty much until you are totally cooked. Good luck anyway.

SIDE NOTE BUT RELATED: I am not a techie either. I still have my old Hughes DVR that got stuck on the reboot loop when I tried to clear my lists. I hate the replacement I got so is there anyway I can go back to using my old Hughes if I replace the hard drive. I have no clue how to do this kind of thing, how difficult is it to someone with no electrical /programming skills? And, will I be able to call up direct tv and re-activate since I am not sold at all on this refurbished piece of garbage they sent me. Any help would be great, I am at a loss where to go with this I am so frustrated.

Yes you can replace the HD in your Hughes unit. You need a HD, and an image etc. You can do all this yourself and is a great learning experience.

OR:

Places like weaknees etc sell HD Kits. Either you send them the unit, they replace the Drive and get it all up and running for you and send it back, or you can purchase the HD yourself. it comes in a kit with instructions and all that.

So Two options: Do it yourself, or pay and get someone else or a Company to do it for you

 

[rbtravis]

Yes you can replace the HD in your Hughes unit. You need a HD, and an image etc. You can do all this yourself and is a great learning experience.

OR:

Places like weaknees etc sell HD Kits. Either you send them the unit, they replace the Drive and get it all up and running for you and send it back, or you can purchase the HD yourself. it comes in a kit with instructions and all that.

So Two options: Do it yourself, or pay and get someone else or a Company to do it for you

Third option - the TiVo community also has a store and is offering a $25.00 off coupon. TCUP25 is the coupon code.

 

[skymac79]

I have (had) a Phillips DSR6000R01 that apparently went toes up today.
I wonder if it is related to a software upgrade by DirecTV. Also, I have had issues with it showing a discrepancy between whether it would record something or not. It would show that something was going to record on the to do list, but if you went into the history and went forward it would show that the same show was not going to record because the same show was already scheduled to record or in the now playing. But it was talking about the same episode on the same channel on the same day. Weird.

Anyway, I hope I can get at least one more boot up off of it. If I can't do that I guess I'll try to put in a bigger hard drive. I actually got DirecTV to replace it with an HD DVR (not TIVO) since I am going to upgrade to HD anyway, but it will be nice to have as an extra unit. I have/had three before this one died. Any ideas or suggestions would be helpful. Thanks.

I also just read about SpinRite and how it now does TiVo disks. Has anyone had any experience with this yet? I've also heard that putting a hard disk in a freezer overnight sometimes improves the odds of it reading correctly (maybe only once, but that may be enough). What is the best way to copy the entire disk if I can get it to read once more? Any thoughts or ideas on how best to proceed would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, again.