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Originally posted by bplein
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When you use the WD, do you get lights on the front?
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Very hard to tell, especially because many SATA/IDE adapters do not work in TiVos. The problem with a drive not spinning with the IDE connected is a known motherboard problem that we can fix. But I'm not sure if you have that, given your SATA drive spinning (complicated by the adapter issue).
When you use the WD, do you get lights on the front? -
I will check... I had it upside down on the open PC case. But I am sure they are on, as I could hear drive seeking for a few seconds after the startup. I didn't test the video output with the WD, however. Maybe I should do that. But after testing with the WD, I tried my old hard drives again and they failed to spin up.Originally posted by WK-Jeff View Post
It could be that the SATA-IDE adapter is masking the cable problem (could allow the drive to spin up despite other problems). I can create another PATA drive and try that tonight, but I have no reason to believe that it will work any better than the other 2 existing PATA drives.
Any other testing ideas? Thanks in advance. Trying to figure out if I should just buy another DVR40 on ebay and try out the power supply, or use it for the motherboard, or....Comment
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By the way, what's the process and charge for doing this if indeed I determine this to be my problem?Originally posted by WK-Jeff View PostComment
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Been here a long time . . .Comment
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Is there any way I can definitively rule out (or in!) the power supply? I've got a digital multimeter, is there a way to test it to determine if it's putting out the correct power/load?
Before I spend a hundred on a service, or a power supply, it's probably better to figure it out.Comment
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Best bet would be to scavenge a known-working IDE drive to test in there, or trying the IDE drive you have in a computer to see if it spins up.Been here a long time . . .Comment
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OK, well I blew it.
I'm a technical guy. I work on cars, computers, anything. I tested with another IDE drive and it would not spin with the IDE cable connected, but it would spin up without it. So it looks like the motherboard.
So, I take a look, see that there is an NVRAM battery just like any other motherboard. Figure it wouldn't hurt to remove it for a while, replace it and see if it's a "soft" error.
I broke the clip that holds it in place and completes the circuit! DOH!
I know these things too! Very frustrating
Soooo, is that something you can replace, or did I just work my way into buying another DirecTV Tivo?Comment
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The problem wasn't the battery--it was a series of chips on the motheboard, which can be repaired. I haven't actually repaired the battery clip; I'd have to take a look. If you are interested in having us try to repair your unit, send us an email. See:
Contact weaKneesComment
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I've got a line on a used SD-DVR40, I'll transfer my account over to that one.
Thanks for the help.Comment
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so it sounds like I've got a power supply issue but maybe someone here can confirm it. Last night my series 2 Tivo started rebooting on its own. eventually I unplugged it and it restarted ok. today it died completely. When plugged in, the fan works but the lights on the front don't come on and it's a completely black screen. no welcome message or anything.
so does this sound like a power supply issue? I haven't pulled out the hard drives or anything else yet.Comment
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Yup - that really does sound like a power supply issue.Been here a long time . . .Comment
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ugh - new hard drive and still no go!
I just replaced the hard drive in my 5-year-old TCD240040 with a drive from Weaknees. Before replacement, it seemed like it positively was a hard drive issue. My screen was freezing and the only way to get things working was to unplug and re-plug. Things worked fine from there but freezing frequency was increasing. One day I got the Green Screen of Death. It said it would be trying to fix itself for 3 hours but next thing I knew it was back on Live TV. Upon playing a show back, played for a few minutes then the screen went completely black and TiVo became unresponsive. Had to unplug to restart. There was also one time when I saw the left light blink very fast in yellow and green when trying to restart. Okay, so I got the new hard drive and replaced it and all seemed fine - did the guided setup and everything but after an hour or two I turned the TV on to find the screen black and TiVo unresponsive. Unplugged it for fear of doing damage to new hard drive (I think I could have damaged the old one this way). Do you think it is a power supply issue?Comment
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Your symptoms sound drive-related to me (green screen, etc.). When you plug the TIVO back in, what happens now?Comment
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After I installed the hard drive, I ran the guided setup and everything seemed fine. I turned the TV off. An hour or two later, I turned the TV back on and the screen was black. The yellow light on the left responded to the remote, but nothing happened on the screen. No Tivo central, no green play bar. When I unplugged and re-plugged, it started back up just fine.Comment
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If this happens once, then I would not be concerned. If it happens repeatedly with a brand new drive, then you might have something else going on with the unit (power supply, motherboard).Comment
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