[Resist]

You don't need a capacitor tester, it's pretty obvious when they have failed by the bulging, and do them all, don't waste your efforts only doing 1 or two.
If you have basic soldering skills it's a 30 minute job and well worth doing.
If you've done the hack to the motherboard the cap replacement should be in your skill set.

Well, many years ago when my box had an issue and I read about capacitors being the problem, I opened my Tivo and found only one bulging, so I only bought and replaced the one. Never had another issue again. Of course now it's been retired for years, replaced by several Tivo generations. But at this point I've never try to repair a Tivo that is that old, just not worth it and probably worth more in parting it out.

 

[dianebrat]

Well, many years ago when my box had an issue and I read about capacitors being the problem, I opened my Tivo and found only one bulging, so I only bought and replaced the one. Never had another issue again. Of course now it's been retired for years, replaced by several Tivo generations. But at this point I've never try to repair a Tivo that is that old, just not worth it and probably worth more in parting it out.

You definitely got lucky, that is not the norm.
That being said, if you have firends or family with soldering skills, it's just as easy to replace 10+ as it is to do 1 or 2, on a 1-10 soldering skills needed, this is a 2.

 

[Wil]

You definitely got lucky, that is not the norm.
That being said, if you have friends or family with soldering skills, it's just as easy to replace [them all] as it is to do 1 or 2

Absolutely correct and that's what I did late in my experience with the Tivo models affected by the original faulty caps; makes a lot of sense to anticipate and get the job done right. But I do have to say that before I really thought that out, the first 15-20 I did, mostly HR10-250s, I replaced only the 2-3 usual suspects and those machines ran for years without issue.

 

[Hank]

My Series 3 HD (TCD652160) died last night. Started a reboot loop. After I unplugged, when power was restored, the lights on the front panel blinked rapidly (never really coming on) accompanied by a soft click sound. Figured it was the power. I had been running what was a partially recapped 3Y power supply that I purchased from eBay when I started having reboot trouble some years ago. I throught it had been fully recapped, but it turns out that it was only partially recapped (I see that now). Some caps that clearly weren't replaced were bulging now (and I see that those caps definitely had the original factory solder).

Anyway, I still had the AC-BEL power supply that originally shipped with my TiVo and about a year ago, I ordered new, high quality Nichicon caps for it from Digi-Key... all 10 caps... just in case. So I had them on hand and ready.

This afternoon I recapped the AC-BEL... swapped it in and now the Series 3 HD is working again! Note that I have a 1TB WD Black in there that I installed before I ever turned the unit on for the first time... that was back in 2009. It still works great.

Just thought I'd share and say thanks to this forum and some of the posters on this thread for prolonging the life of this Series 3 HD that just won't die.

Note that the feet on the bottom of the unit had completely disintegrated. If you still have an original Series 3 HD, you may want to check yours. Mine were in slimy little pieces (gotta love how some plastic or rubber fails). I replaced the feet temporarily with some dense shipping foam, plastic juice bottle caps and gaffers tape to raise the unit back up a half inch until I can get some new feet for it.

I still have a Lifetime S3 for sale that has had the cap replacement done: Four All-in Tivos for sale: Bolt, Roamio, Roamio Plus...