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Tivo Bolt Plus with the Flashing Lights of Death

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  • WK-Michael
    replied
    Originally posted by Vinylm View Post
    Hi. Same problem here.
    Are the FLOD only up when there’s a boot failure?
    Can I take this drive and recover the tivo files elsewhere?
    Which is a better option? Repair the bolt+ or purchase your roamio 3TB instead?
    Neither will see tivo desktop, but the windows pc saw the old bolt+ and sees my Roamio.
    Well, the Bolt is faster than the Roamio and has 4K support, etc. If you have lifetime service on it, it's worth fixing. And it might be worth fixing even if you don't.

    But the Roamio does use the desktop-sized 3.5" drives, and those do seem to last longer than laptop-sized 2.5" drives.

    Leave a comment:

  • Vinylm
    replied
    Hi. Same problem here.
    Are the FLOD only up when there’s a boot failure?
    Can I take this drive and recover the tivo files elsewhere?
    Which is a better option? Repair the bolt+ or purchase your roamio 3TB instead?
    Neither will see tivo desktop, but the windows pc saw the old bolt+ and sees my Roamio.

    Leave a comment:

  • WK-Michael
    replied
    We've recently learned that smaller drives are OK in the Bolt Plus and Bolt VOX 3TB. See this page:

    https://www.weaknees.com/bolx.php

    Next, we don't recommend any internal drives larger than 3TB because those drives just aren't suitable for TiVos and don't work reliably. Maybe one will come one day, but the current options show early faliures.

    For any external, yes, your unit has to come here for installation by us.

    Leave a comment:

  • topher352
    replied
    I woke up yesterday to the death flash. So it sounds like I need a new HD.

    Originally posted by WK-Michael View Post

    Only the 3 TB will work in a Bolt Plus.
    Does this mean strictly the 3TB, or the 3TB and the larger options listed?

    For the >3TB options, it says it requires installation by you... is that only to keep the existing drive contents? Is it possible to order a fresh clean setup for self-install in one of the >3TB sizes?

    Leave a comment:

  • WK-Michael
    replied
    That's likely to be a bad hard drive. We have replacements for that here:

    https://www.weaknees.com/bolt.php

    Leave a comment:

  • fadden
    replied
    My TiVo Bolt+ 3TB has gone into the four-flashing-light mode after 2.5 years (Sep 2016). It has had a long-standing problem where, if it lost power, you had to wait 20-30 minutes before powering it on again or it'd just sit there with no lights. Found some threads suggesting that it's a power supply problem; replacing the external A/C adapter didn't help me. I'm assuming that the no-lights problem has nothing to do with the hard drive, so simply replacing the drive wouldn't fix the other issue (which I'm guessing will turn into a total failure at some point).

    Leave a comment:

  • WK-Michael
    replied
    Nope - standby mode just cuts the video output. It doesn't put less stress on the unit. But it also shouldn't hurt.

    Leave a comment:

  • Willy92
    replied
    Oh...
    Since we have had it, we have never shut it off,(enter into stand by). Just recently, I had to re-boot it to get it going, a couple of times. Since then, I've started entering into stand by before we go to bed. Will this help? Have I been causing the drive to overheat by never shutting it off.

    Leave a comment:

  • WK-Michael
    replied
    AIP - All in Plan - is about the guide data and OS updates. It's not a hardware warranty.

    We use the same 3 TB drive that TiVo does for Bolts.

    Leave a comment:

  • Willy92
    replied
    Originally posted by redrhino View Post
    ... I'm feeling a bit annoyed and a bit worried...
    I'm worried with all the failures that I'm seeing of the Tivo Bolts.

    I bought one of your units modified with the 3TB drive. Is the drive that you use considered better than that in the oem Tivo units? I also signed up through Tivo for the lifetime service, which now, accoring to my Tivo account, has been changed over to the "all in one" service. Since my unit is modified(by you) is my "all in one service" good with you or Tivo.

    Leave a comment:

  • WK-Michael
    replied
    Originally posted by redrhino View Post
    Well, at least I had purchased the extended warranty and they claim they're sending a replacement (a refurb 3T Bolt Vox) ...

    I am wondering if you have the impression that the new hard drives (or SSDs, I dunno) are now of a different quality than the earlier ones. I have had several boxes for years without any drive problems but this one bit the dust in 19 months.
    These Bolts use laptop 2.5" drives. I'd say we don't have nearly as much experience with them as with the desktop 3.5" drives, but from what we've seen, we'd agree they aren't quite as robust as the latest desktops (which are really amazing).

    SSDs are really not right for streaming video applications at all.

    Leave a comment:

  • redrhino
    replied
    Originally posted by WK-Michael View Post
    Once these drives fail, there's almost always no way to recover any content, unfortunately.
    Well, at least I had purchased the extended warranty and they claim they're sending a replacement (a refurb 3T Bolt Vox) ...

    I am wondering if you have the impression that the new hard drives (or SSDs, I dunno) are now of a different quality than the earlier ones. I have had several boxes for years without any drive problems but this one bit the dust in 19 months.

    Leave a comment:

  • WK-Michael
    replied
    Once these drives fail, there's almost always no way to recover any content, unfortunately.

    Leave a comment:

  • redrhino
    replied
    I just had this same problem (flashing lights of death) ... but fortunately still have 1.5 years left on my extended warranty for the Bolt+ with lifetime service. Even so, with losing some content (shows transferred from earlier TiVo boxes) and noting that the lifespan of this drive has been less than any of my other TiVos (dating back to the 240 model), I'm feeling a bit annoyed and a bit worried.

    So now the question, with the box being sent back for RMA ... is it likely that, had I tried to pull it myself, it could be a situation where I could have recovered content? (Note: I've put hard drives in all my other TiVos before this one and don't find that sort of thing daunting.) Admittedly glad I bought the extended warranty, but even so ... they won't send me back the dead drive for me to poke at.

    Leave a comment:

  • WK-Michael
    replied
    Originally posted by Welker View Post
    Hi Michael, I think I have a faulty drive too. In your experience, would you suggest even bothering with getting a new drive or do you think it's better to just get the whole new unit?
    It's a Bolt Plus?

    Do you have lifetime service on it?

    Even if you don't, it's $200 less to get just the drive. I'd go that way. There's nothing else there that's likely to fail at all.

    Leave a comment:

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