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Tivo Bolt Cooling and Hard Drive Upgraded Chassis

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4K views 13 replies 4 participants last post by  V7Goose  
#1 ·
Inspired by other forum members that have performed "surgery" on their Tivo boxes, I decided to take a different approach. We all know that the laptop drives are a constant headache to replace and the terrible cooling design of the Bolt chassis. So, I decided to get creative and eliminate both problems by recycling a Tivo HD chassis and power supply.

I picked up a used Tivo HD at a garage sale for $15, a couple of fans off Amazon along with other bits and pieces from old computer hardware. As we know, the Tivo Bolt motherboard will not power an internal 3.5" hard drive, but problem eliminated with the Tivo HD power supply. The only modifications to the Boly motherboard were 1. tapping into the 12 volt input as well as extending the "ir receiver" from the motherboard to the Tivo HD ir receiver which is located in the front fascia of the Tivo HD Case.

Soldered a (2) wire connector to the 12 volt input from the Tivo HD power supply and soldered a (3) wire connector to the ir receiver located in the faceplate of the Tivo HD. Very simple to do if you have ever done any computer mod's ( many years ago with my son). For the cable card socket I had to remove part of the original Tivo HD baseplate and removed a section of the rear panel of the Tivo HD to accommodate the rear panel design of the Bolt. The new rear panel was fashioned for 1/16" abs plastic. Installed a couple of atx motherboard standoffs to secure the Bolt motherboard as well as the 3.5" hard drive bay.

Overall, a pretty easy modification if you have pc modding experience, know how to solder correctly and want to build a more elegant home for the "cheap Bolt plastic chassis". If you use rf only for the remote, the only soldering required would be for the 12 volt input, which eliminated the cheap low voltage wall warts Tivo uses on all their current devices.

Pictures attached, will be happy to provide feedback and help for anyone that would like to perform the upgrade as well.
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#2 ·
I also replaced the corroded rubber feet with some premium feet from a long since retired and no longer functioning dvd player! Doing so raises the chassis for better air flow in the cable card bay.
 
#3 ·
You did an excellent job there - thanx for posting!

I wanted to do this years ago, but I never bothered to put the time in. My white Bolts are just so butt-ugly I try to keep them totally hidden, and they are both already converted to external drives. Your conversion looks very professional.
 
W
#4 · (Edited)
Are your 'White Bolts' Lifetime or on a subscription?


OP - what standoffs did you use for the fan stands on the Bolt motherboard? Did the fan match the heatsink anchor dimension exactly? I never completed my project using a very old HDR212 cabinet. The heatsink and fan on the HDD is just because you could or you believe required?
 
#6 ·
I removed the Bolt motherboard heatsink standoffs and replaced with nylon screws/nuts after applying artic silver to the cleaned chip. The heatsink lined up with the 80mm x10mm brushless fan. On the hard drive, I had the heatsink from another project and figured "why not". Old pc builder theory of heat is the worst enemy to long life. I considered the original design of the Bolt from a cooling standpoint as a joke, wanted to eliminate the use of the 2.5" drives (basically impossible to find new). Not an expensive project and well worth the improvement in system temps. I will not miss the "dumb design" of the bolt case and would probably do the same if it were an Edge box
 
M
#7 ·
Very interested in doing this. Never been an admirer of Bolt chassis design.What did you use as solder points on the Bolt motherboard? I couldn't see any. Really curious how you extended ir to front of HD box. A lot of wiring running along front that HD. I was thinking of using a premiere box if it has a ir on chassis and not motherboard.
 
#8 ·
Two solder points on the 12 volt input and 3 for the ir extension. All solder points are on the bottom of the Bolt motherboard. The 3 wire extension goes from the Bolt motherboard to the ir receiver located on the front circuit board of the Tivo Hd. Very easy to do, make sure the 12 volt solder points are correct for 12 volt +/- and same order 1.2.3 on the ir receivers. Most of the wiring I added was leftover from computer power supplies and most were "sleeved" which may look bulky, but cleaner appearance. If you don't add extra fans, very little wiring involved. Good luck!
 
M
#9 ·
Probably time to crack open the Bolt. I'm on the fence with adding additional fans, thinking one on motherboard heatsink would be a bad idea. I'm assuming you just pulled 12v pins out of old HD motherboard connector to power Bolt, correct?
 
#14 ·
Just a reminder for anyone considering this mod - when buying or re-activating any old Series 3 chassis, make sure to carefully inspect the power supply caps. As most TiVo old-timers know, this was a MAJOR issue with these boxes (and other electronics manufactured in the mid 2000s) as they got older. If the electrolytic caps on your HD power supply have not been replaced, you are headed for almost certain problems. Certainly you should try to make sure the old HD box boots on its own before you begin to put the parts from your Bolt in there.
 
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