TiVo Community Forums Archives - Need diagnosis confirmed: power surge --> dead HD?

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Need diagnosis confirmed: power surge --> dead HD?
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Posted by: Rosenkavalier

Long time TiVo user, etc. I've got an old 112 (about 2 years old), hacked with MFSTools 2 to add a 120GB drive. I've never had any major problems with the unit before.

This morning, there was a huge power surge, followed by power loss for about 10 seconds. When the power came back, the TiVo began to restart.

The problem: the unit locked up at the first start-up screen. I unplugged it, waited a few seconds, and plugged it back in. This time, the unit successfully rebooted (although it took much longer than normal). When the startup video ran, it was stuttering badly (I haven't had stuttering problems of note before).

So I went to the System menu and selected Restart. The machine powered cycled on its own, and tried to restart -- but locked up again at the first start-up screen.

I've tried about 5 additional times now, but the unit just won't go completely reboot (still locks up at the first screen). Given that the unit is receiving power, and that it did manage to boot once with video problems, my best guess is hard drive failure.

It's hacked, and old enough to be out of warranty anyway. Is it worth buying a new HD, or should I start shopping for a new TiVo? Thanks.

Posted by: tivoupgrade

Although most failures are hard-drive related, in this particular case, it may very well be a problem with the power supply or system board... power surges are definitely not good for the internal circuitry, and without sending your unit somewhere for diagnostics, the best test would be to try a new drive with a clean image of the operating system on it and see if you can replicate the failure. If that ends up being the case, shopping for a new TiVo isn't necessary, you can ship the unit to Philips for repair for less than $150.

Posted by: Rosenkavalier

Well, I finally managed to find my Maxtor CD with the PowerMax software, and ran the diagnostics on the drive. It reported an unfixable error, and the drive is still under warranty. So I'm having a new drive cross-shipped, and will give that one a try.

If it turns out to be a drive problem only, all I'll be out is the FedEx cost to send back the bad drive, and the programs I recorded since my last upgrade (I still have the old drives, and should be able to recover the older stuff).

For the first time, I'm glad that the new TV season is starting so late... :)

Posted by: weaknees

In our experience, if you get any video out at all that looks right, even if it stops there, the power supply is OK. So if you get "Powering Up" or further, then in almost all cases, the power supply isn't the culprit. Sometimes, in DirecTiVos, it's the Parlex cable, and in any TiVo it can be, in addition to a drive problem, an IDE or drive power cable. But if you get clean video out at all, the power supply generally works OK.

Michael