Tivo loses signal from cable box through RF AND Composite

[max4677]

Hello all,

I have a Series 2 80 GB that recently has been exhibiting problems I have not been able to find help on.

About 2 months ago, Comcast switched over several channels I like to digital only. The first and second boxes they sent me were old junkers that were constantly missing channels from the Tivo and its own remote. I finally got them to give me a DCH70 and things were golden.

Then about a week ago, the unit started stuttering and claiming it was losing signal from the box. It was connected through the composite connections. So I switched it to the RF in and that was ok for a day. After a reboot of the Tivo things were ok for another day or two. It then started stuttering and losing siginal. It looked like I was trying to watch swiggle porn or something. Connecting the cable box straight to the TV and to my 40 hoir Tivo cleared the problem.

I moved the 80 unit upstairs and set it to analog only without a box. It held up for a week or so and now it is having trouble with direct analog input as well. It is currently off for the night and plugging the power in might buy me some more time.

Is there a fix for this that will keep my lifetime sub in place?

I've posted this in both Tivo and Tivocommunity forums and still no luck...

[max4677]

I plugged it back in last night and this morning it seemed to be ok. I'm sure it will drop back out again at some point though.

[WK-Jeff]

If the problem is getting worse as the box heats up, it could be a motherboard problem. That would explain why the box works when the board is cool, but starts to malfunction after it is on for awhile.

If this is the case, we can likely repair it, but we'd have to get the box to take a look.

[max4677]

I had opened it up when I first found the problem and it looked spotless in terms of dust and anything obviously scorched.

I do plan on getting an upgrade replacement disk for the 40GB unit. My wife and I haven't decided on what to do with the flaky 80.

Current options were either getting a TiVoHD or finding a unit on eBay with a lifetime sub. I'm pretty sure its Best Buy extended warranty is now expired (this is the second replacement on that policy!), so there's no taking it back to them.

I wasn't aware that the motherboard could be replaced and keep the subscription intact. I'm guessing that is worst case scenario. You wouldn't happen to know what it would cost? The hard drive in it also seems to chatter a bit more than the on in the 40GB unit. The dying one is a TCD540080.

[WK-Michael]

You can email us for more info on the repair options: [email protected].

[max4677]

We placed an order to upgrade the working 40 to 80. Since I moved the failing TiVo into a quieter room, I noticed that during playback on shows that were affected by the above problem, the hard drive seemed to make more noise. I can't imagine it being anymore than a coincidence, but I figured it is worth a try to put the working 40 in there and see what happens.

If it still continues the errors, I'll be in contact to figure out my repair options.

Thanks again!

[WK-Michael]

OK - sounds like a good test.

[max4677]

The upgrade went well last night. I had transferred all of the shows on the 40 up to the dying unit and every show seems to be in perfect viewing condition.

All TiVoCasts the bad unit has downloaded are perfectly fine. I deleted all of its season passes, so the only thing it attempts to get are suggestions which all fail within a second or two.

Once we watch everything I transferred, I'll try out the 40 in it. If that doesn't help, I'll look into repair costs. If that doesn't work out I will probably keep the bad unit as a front end for downloading TivoCasts and transferring from the working unit up to the bedroom and replace it with an HD.

Could the the 40 or the old unit's 80 be used to further upgrade the freshly upgraded unit easily? Would it be as simple as finding a dual ported IDE cable and just attaching it as a slave or is there more to it?

[WK-Michael]

Before reusing the drives, you should really test them fully with the manufacturer's diagnostics. But, yes, you could reuse them.

[max4677]

Was there a software update this past Sunday? The failing Tivo started to work normally starting with all recordings. I had not turned it off since the last time I reported here. It just magically started working on 1/25. All recordings that were done on 1/24 (including one at 10PM) were 10 second partials with no picture.

I still went ahead and removed the original 80GB drive and put it along with the other Tivo's original 40GB drive through Seagate's SeaTools long drive tests. Both drives passed without any errors and neither drive had any SMART notifications either.

I guess I will put the 80GB back in and let it run with some season passes and see if it starts up again.

At least I was able to convince my wife to upgrade the other one because of this!