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My Tivo is sick
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Posted by: madaschmo

I have a Phillips Directv with Tivo.
It locks up every time I go into the Tivo menu so I can do any real troubleshooting. Directv says it's not their problem since it's out of warrenty.

What's the thinking on this?
Should I get a new unit or try to get Phillips to repair the old one?
Are the new ones better or worse?

Posted by: futerfas

It could be a bad hard drive. What you can do is replace the hard drive with one at www.weaknees.com

Posted by: JohnJr

It was working fine and then all of a sudden this started happening? Can you repeat guided setup?

-John

Posted by: madaschmo

quote:
Originally posted by JohnJr
It was working fine and then all of a sudden this started happening? Can you repeat guided setup?

-John

Yes, it was a perfectly happy healthy Tivo then it froze. I had to power down to reboot. Ever since then I can watch live TV and change channels just fine. But if I pause or go into into any menu the Tivo freezes and can only be restarted by unplugging. I think that means I can't redo the guided setup because I can't get to it.

DirecTV wants $99 for a replacement but says there may be as much as a two month wait (which I guess blows that guy's theory about Tivo going out of business.... there is a waiting list to get one.)

Posted by: phone1

quote:
Originally posted by madaschmo
Should I get a new unit or try to get Phillips to repair the old one?
Are the new ones better or worse?

There's not any difference in functionality or features. The processor is faster, but it doesn't seem tp have any impact on performance from what I've read here.

I'm sure Philips will charge at least $100 to repair yours, so if that's what you want to spend, just replace it (they're available at retail for $99). Since it's probably the drive, you could also put that money towards an upgrade - either do it yourself, or buy a pre-formatted kit as mentioned.

Posted by: zacks

Cable TV is the answer maybe

Posted by: Alcatraz

You can't repeat guided setup on a DTV unit anyway. Looks like a hard drive is the correct answer. You'll get a lot more bang for your buck spending the repair/shipping fees on a drive and doing it yourself.

Worst case: it's not the drive and you have extra storage eagerly awaiting to be added to the repaired unit! (not so bad)

Posted by: madaschmo

quote:
Originally posted by Alcatraz
You can't repeat guided setup on a DTV unit anyway. Looks like a hard drive is the correct answer. You'll get a lot more bang for your buck spending the repair/shipping fees on a drive and doing it yourself.

Worst case: it's not the drive and you have extra storage eagerly awaiting to be added to the repaired unit! (not so bad)

Thank you everyone...
I'm not comfy with Linux and if there is no chance to redo the guided setup I think I'll just blow the $99 for a new DirecTV with Tivo.

If I get two can I send programs back and forth between them?

Posted by: lethcoeb

madaschmo,
As for the hard drive option, buying one from Weaknees did the trick for me - no Linux required, just popped out the bad drive, installed the new one. Took about 10 minutes. Surprisingly painless.

Posted by: willardcpa

Pardon me for asking, but have you tried navigating around the menus with the buttons on the front, or are you just using the remote.

Posted by: madaschmo

quote:
Originally posted by lethcoeb
madaschmo,
As for the hard drive option, buying one from Weaknees did the trick for me - no Linux required, just popped out the bad drive, installed the new one. Took about 10 minutes. Surprisingly painless.

How do you get the Tivo software on it?

Posted by: madaschmo

quote:
Originally posted by willardcpa
Pardon me for asking, but have you tried navigating around the menus with the buttons on the front, or are you just using the remote.

Buttons on the front...
There are buttons on the front? I guess they would put some there.. I just never thought about using anything but the remote. I'll try that tonight. Thanks.

Posted by: dgh

quote:
Originally posted by madaschmo
How do you get the Tivo software on it?

Weaknees ships them with the software installed.

Posted by: willardcpa

As for the new harddrive from Weaknees option - it comes with the tivo software installed. Just make sure that you order the one to replace your hard drive, not on to add to your hard drive, since you want to replace yours. (If in fact your hard drive is failing)

Posted by: Seminole

For 99.00 why not just buy a new one and have it up and running tonight

Posted by: tomo_kun

Reboot. it helps sometimes (or it *may* give you the GSOD)

Posted by: madaschmo

quote:
Originally posted by Seminole
For 99.00 why not just buy a new one and have it up and running tonight

It's funny. I called them up to cancel the service and all of a sudden there is no waiting list -they can rush me a new Tivo. Real funny.

Posted by: Seminole

Thats great

Posted by: pv

Good news! You can probably still rescue the old one though, and then (with a multiswitch) you can record 4 things at once!

The lockup sounds like database corruption, or hard disk trouble. If you have a geek-saavy friend handy and can find a backup on the net (hint: do a woe-is-me here in the forum), you should be able to restore your current disk, which should get you on your feet again. Total cost - a rotary debugger (the kind with tomato sauce on it) for the geeky friend. PV