TiVo Community Forums Archives - Different PC, Same result

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Different PC, Same result
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Posted by: dvdude

This is the second time I've attempted to upgrade my wife's TiVo, but this time I decided to persist, not that it helped much....:(

I put the drive in the PC, jumpered as master, on the secondary IDE port (the CD drive is on the same port jumpered as slave) using the end connector. Fire up the PC and.....it hangs detecting the IDE drives. I remove the TiVo drive, enter the BIOS, disable drive auto-detection, connect back - same result.

I try jumpering the drive as slave, connecting it to the center connector on the primary channel, PC boots but drive is not detected. Go into the BIOS and set primary slave to not-autodetect, same result.

So finally I try all the "legal" combinations of drive jumpering and cables (including cable select) and still nothing. Linux can't see it (not surprising since the BIOS can't find it).

The drive exhibits the same behavior in each case - there's an LED on the interface board that flashes - ten flashes, then a pause, with the pattern repeating over and over.

Just to make sure that I'm not going nuts, I dig out the original drive from my machine (another Quantum lct-20) and try all possible combinations with that, they all work!

Both drives come from single drive SAT-T60's. The drive I'm having a problem with works perfectly in the TiVo. I know that I should be able to use BlessTivo on a fresh drive and just plug it in and see what happens, but I'd really like to at least take a backup first.

Is it just possible that I may have a non-tinkerable TiVo?

Andy

Posted by: gmhanna

Some drives may not be ATA compatible. Make sure your using a Non-ATA cable and your not plugged into the ATA controller on your motherboard.

Hope that helps...

Glenn

Posted by: dvdude

Can you please elaborate?

I tried using the cable out of the TiVo and I also tried forcing PIO mode on the controller (Mode 0). I tried turning off block fetch. I tried disabling ATA/33 support in the BIOS.

I'm not sure I understand what you mean by "not plugged into the ATA controller on your motherboard", I thought ATA compatibility was determined by the controller used (in this case, VIA KT133 chipset on an Abit KT7 - the other machine is KT400 on a Soyo KT400 Dragon Ultra Platinum). The Soyo DUP also has a highpoint RAID controller which I know is not compatible with ATAPI devices but Linux can't see the drives connected there (I get a message saying it lost the interrupt). I haven't tried connecting the TiVo drive to the RAID ports but I suppose I could try that. If that were to work, I'd need to include support for the controller (and I've absolutely no idea how to do that).

Andy

Posted by: gmhanna

Some motherboards have 4 drive controllers (2) ATA-133 controllers and (2) ATAPI drive type controllers. ATA controllers such as the ATA-133 is also known as the RAID controllers. I believe in the Soyo the ATA controller is an HPT-366 controller or something like that. I have a SOYO dragon motherboard myself, although I am using an older SOYO board for Linux, but still 4 controllers. I am using the ATAPI type controller for the Tivo drive. The same type as the CD Drive is hooked up to. I have mine on Auto and its selecting PIO 4.

If you plug your hard drive into an ATA controller and the drive is not ATA compatible or in ATA Mode, it won't work. There are two different types of drive cables. The cable that you use hook up a CDROM with and a higher wired cable for ATA hard drives. The ribbon cables for the ATA drives are much thinner wire. You can sometimes hook up the HD to an ATA controller with the CD Drive type cable.

I just wanted to make sure you didn't have a compatability problem with the controller, because thats what it sounded like first off, but it could be something else.

Since your hooking this up to a SOYO MB, do you see the drive getting reconized by the BIOS before the Blue Screen for the ATA devices? Are you sure the jumper on the drive is set to Master or Slave and not Cable Select? If its set to Slave, you need a Master on the same cable.

Hope this helps...

Glenn

Posted by: dvdude

The KT7 motherboard does not have RAID, and therefore has only two controllers. The KT400 has the hiphppoint RAID controller but the MFSTOOLS 2.0 CD image does not have support for it.

I undertand that ATA/66 cables are 80 conductor and I did use such a cable initially, but the stock TiVo cable appears to be 40 conductor and so should've been OK.

Manual de-selection of ATA/33 support and forcing PIO mode should have meant that this wasn't an issue, but obviously something is hosed.

Am I sure that the jumper settings are correct? I believe I am, based on the fact that the other lct-20 drive works fine with the same jumper config.

I've got a really old PC lying around somewhere, maybe I should dig it out.

Thanks for the input.

Andy

Posted by: gmhanna

Sounds like everything is right, it should work...

Glenn

Posted by: dvdude

I feel the same way - sadly, my computer doesn't :(