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Upgrade Tivo, lose warranty?
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Posted by: rlc1

I have a fairly new 80-hour Tivo Series-2. I bought an extended 3-year warranty from Circuit City. If I upgrade the drive by replacing the factory drive with a bigger drive, and the Tivo then breaks down within the warranty period, could I put the factory drive back in and still have it fixed under warranty? I think the meat of this question is, will a factory service center (or Circuit City, if it comes down to the extended warranty) consider the warranty to be void just because I've opened up the Tivo case and messed around in there?

And before you say that there would be no way for them to tell that I've opened it up, read my other post about a tampered cable box: http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-v...hreadid=138215. In this case, nothing was "added" to my dad's cable box yet Comcast said they had "indisputable proof" that his box was tampered with. It may be a stretch to compare these two things, though.

Posted by: LostCluster

What the person did to the cable box was to change jumper switch settings into the configuration that decoded the pay channels... when he handed back the box they noticed that the jumpers were in place to decode everything yet he never paid for the pay channels... bingo! Had he known how move them back to the way he got them, all would have been well.

Posted by: phone1

AFAIK, Series 2's have no tamper seal on the case. I didn't see one on mine. I think you're safe in assuming that if you restore it to factory condition before sending it in for repair. Unless you are exceptionally hamfisted, replacing the stock drive shouldn't cause any other problems with the unit.

The most lkely point of failure is the replacement drive anyway, and you'll have the drive manufacturer's warranty for that.

Posted by: Y-ASK

quote:
Originally posted by phone1
hamfisted

Hehehehe! :D

He said hamfisted...

Shutup! I don't care what you think,:D I thought is was funny...

Y-ASK

PS It didn't pass the spell check but still funny

Posted by: rseligman

If they get it working again with the original disk, they might look at the Setup screen and see that the data hasn't been updated in months/years. Or, less likely, they could look at the log files and see the date of the last log message.

Posted by: rlc1

Very good point, rseligman. This is the scenario I'm afraid of: I upgrade it, it breaks down at some point, but the breakdown is not hard-drive related. I install the original drive in, send it in for repair, they notice that it hasn't been updated in several months and determine that I tampered with it. Warranty void. I'm screwed.

Ah well, I guess 80 hours is good enough for now :)

Posted by: phone1

quote:
Originally posted by rseligman
If they get it working again with the original disk, they might look at the Setup screen and see that the data hasn't been updated in months/years. Or, less likely, they could look at the log files and see the date of the last log message.

If it's working to the extent that you can get to the setup screen, then clear and delete everything. (True, it might be an old SW version if they check.) As to viewing log files? I doubt very seriously they put returned units under this much scrutiny. Remember he's taking it back to CC where some clerk is going to make the exchange. Some equally bored and uninterested individual will probably then return it to wherever they do (the manufacturer?) to be refurbished.

The first thing they'll do during the refurbishing process is toss the old drive regardless of the problem.

In any case, the only problems we've been seeing here on Series 2's are drive related. Even the modems seem to be holding up, unlike Series 1's.

(Good idea to put yours on a UPS with modem protection anyway.)

Posted by: rlc1

More good points, phone1. I do remember the Circuity City folks saying that all I had to do was bring it in and have it replaced, with no great hassle (at least that's how they convinced me to buy the ext. warranty). I'll just have to do some thinking about this.

Also, I've already got it on a UPS with modem protection. I think that not having this on my old ReplayTV unit is what caused it to start having problems. We have frequent short-term power losses in my area.

Posted by: phone1

Excellent - don't deprive yourself. The only thing better than a TiVo is an upgraded TiVo! :)

Posted by: rseligman

quote:
Originally posted by phone1
If it's working to the extent that you can get to the setup screen, then clear and delete everything.

I said "if they get it working again", not if "you" get it working again. "They" being the repair guys.

But I agree these are unlikely scenarios, and they aren't fatal. rlc1, my scenarios don't prove tampering, they only prove inactivity. While someone may tilt their head at you when you say something like "I stopped using it for a year, then took it out and tried to hook it up again, and it wouldn't work", they can't prove you opened the box based on it.

I didn't mean to discourage your upgrade. In fact, I'd say you should go for it. With no tamper-proof seal, it would be hard even for TiVo to determine if a box was opened, and certainly the collective intelligence of CC technicians is nothing to worry about.

Posted by: pimpshiznid

Just remember to use a torx driver on the screws, and not try to use a phillips, and mess up the screws...