# roamio basic fan noise- high pitch whine



## leiff (Aug 24, 2005)

I cant keep this roamio basic. It emits a high pitched Srill whine i cant handle. its a directional whine and it seems to be coming from the right side of the Romeo and I can't hear it unless my head is tilted in certain directions. Anyone know how fan noise compares to basic vs plus? Im wondering if i should swap out my basic for another and hope for a more quiet fan or get a roamio plus. Anyone know how xl4 premier fan compares to roamio plus? The fan in my roamio sounds louder than my xl4 and i was already eextreamly upset with the noise of my xl4. For me every tivo s 3 4 & now 5. Every new version is louder than the one that precedes it! Very unhappy


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## tivosupport_jaron (Oct 17, 2013)

leiff,
The noise from the fan on your premiere and roamio should not be noticed at all. I am thinking you need to replace those boxes. 
Thanks,
Jaron


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## leiff (Aug 24, 2005)

Since i dont want to pay return shipping to my online vendor ; how does this sound:
I buy roamio basic from bestbuy and return my one from abt in person to bestbuy?


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## andyf (Feb 23, 2000)

Sounds dishonest.


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## ThAbtO (Apr 6, 2000)

leiff said:


> I cant keep this roamio basic. It emits a high pitched Srill whine i cant handle. its a directional whine and it seems to be coming from the right side of the Romeo and I can't hear it unless my head is tilted in certain directions. Anyone know how fan noise compares to basic vs plus? Im wondering if i should swap out my basic for another and hope for a more quiet fan or get a roamio plus. Anyone know how xl4 premier fan compares to roamio plus? The fan in my roamio sounds louder than my xl4 and i was already eextreamly upset with the noise of my xl4. For me every tivo s 3 4 & now 5. Every new version is louder than the one that precedes it! Very unhappy


Most likely the noise is the hard drive (it sits on the right side) and not the fan (which is tiny and sits in the middle of the Tivo.)


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## leiff (Aug 24, 2005)

I can hear the hardeive sure enough. But the high pitch tone almost sounds like a mosquito. Also i am dissapointed with remote. I have tivo hooked up with a 30 ft. HdmI cable to second room/tv. Ive always used slide blutooth remote from this second room without a problem. Now the roamio remote frequently shows a red light and fails commands. And extremely frequently when i rappidly hit ff trying to activate 2x or 3x ff - the remote balks and does nothing. Im only about 20 ft from roamio with one wall in-between. I was expecting superior results to slide not worse.


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## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

Get something slightly smaller around than the holes over the fan blades, something non-conductive and able to stand a little pressure, like maybe a cheap "artist's" paintbrush plastic handle, and stick it in to stop the fan blades for just a moment, no longer.

If the noise goes away, it was the fan making it.

If not, then the fan's not to blame.

DO NOT USE ANYTHING METAL OR OTHERWISE CONDUCTIVE, OR ANYTHING LIKELY TO BREAK AND THROW PIECES AROUND INSIDE OR OUTSIDE THE TIVO CASE.

To give you an idea how sturdy it needs to be, or doesn't, you could stick a finger in there to stop it and it would sting a bit but probably not break the skin.


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## leiff (Aug 24, 2005)

Since my roamio is the basic this will imvolve removing case. Is there hope i can fix high pitch whine if open? If not, i dont want to risk damaging something and be refused for return.


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## leiff (Aug 24, 2005)

How about keeping the lid off my basic roamio and going fanless? Ill be able to monitor temps from within settings menu right?


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## kettledrum (Nov 17, 2003)

I can remember the same type of sound you are describing being a problem on U-Verse DVRs a number of years ago. It was definitely heat related. 

If this is similar then maybe you can prevent it by putting an external fan blowing on the unit or putting it in a more open area of your setup if you currently have it in a tight space in your cabinet.


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## leiff (Aug 24, 2005)

Its not in a tight place. Its right on my compter desk. I'd like to disable fan and see if it will run cool enough with lid off. Will this void warranty?


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## steve614 (May 1, 2006)

Technically yes, but as long as you don't mention it to TiVo, how are they to know?


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## ltxi (Feb 14, 2010)

leiff said:


> Its not in a tight place. Its right on my compter desk. I'd like to disable fan and see if it will run cool enough with lid off. Will this void warranty?


Uh...none of this strikes me as good. At the least, exchange it. Personally, I'd go to the more conventional, bigger box Plus or Pro.


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## leiff (Aug 24, 2005)

Is the plus fan quiter than the basic? Or more quiet than premier for that matter? Part of the reason im selling my xl4 is fan noise.


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## ltxi (Feb 14, 2010)

I would intuitively believe it would be if I understand the Basic's airflow setup/path correctly. The Plus' fan noise is the same or quieter than my Premiere, judging by my sample of three Plus units. They're all certainly close enough to same to have not attracted my attention while doing set-ups on a table top. The fan noise of an S3HD is distinctly louder, but was never objectionable to me in years of collocated with the TVs use.


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## DCGOO (Nov 10, 2013)

ltxi said:


> Uh...none of this strikes me as good. At the least, exchange it. Personally, I'd go to the more conventional, bigger box Plus or Pro.


Only problem with that is the Basic is the only model that works OTA.


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## scn101 (Aug 13, 2013)

Did you ever figure out if it was fan noise? Did you resolve the issue?

I have a premiere and the fan noise was an issue until I took the fan blade off the spindle and lubed it with grease. It is still noticeable in a quiet room but not a problem now.


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## leiff (Aug 24, 2005)

Im going to see if i can keep the lid off and completely disable fan. In settings is a mt setting. Motherboard temp setting. Mine says 38. Tivo told me there would be an on screen message warning me if temps get too high so well see


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## ltxi (Feb 14, 2010)

DCGOO said:


> Only problem with that is the Basic is the only model that works OTA.


OTA is a dnc for me and judging from the OPs original post not an issue for him, either.


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## nws alpine (Nov 7, 2013)

I wouldn't return it locally as the serial number is on the box. Would cause some issues if the new owner tried to activate it from the box like most do. That or bestbuy would check the serial to see if it matches which some will do.


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## leiff (Aug 24, 2005)

the wire connecting the fan to the motherboard was easy to pop out With needle nose pliars without doing damage. it didn't produce any error message. Now i can enjoy blissful silence. I expect my basic Romeo to run cooler even though the fan is off, because im keeping the lid off of it. when the lid was on, the top lid was always hot to the touch. In system settings i see MBT. I assume stands for motherboard temperature. mine reads 34. I also removed the wifi lan module board from the TiVo. it popped right out after removing a screw. I confirmed I was able to reattach the board and wifi function resumed. I'm keeping the wifi bored off just because I'm paranoid of any unnecessary WiFi signals.


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## scn101 (Aug 13, 2013)

I am surprised that you find the Roamio noisy. I am sensitive to noise and my old Premiere took some finessing with its fan (replaced it, extra grease on the fan shaft, rubber isolation O-rings to mount the fan, etc.) to get it quiet enough. I could still hear it across the room but since it was a steady white noise it isn't troublesome.

I've had my Roamio (basic OTA model) for about a month now. It is very quiet. Much quieter than the Premiere. After one week I replaced its Seagate 500GB HDD with the same model HDD that I had in my Premiere, the 2TB WD20EURS. No perceivable change in volume, certainly not from a couple of feet away.

AFAIK, the Roamio is a hit. Quiet, fast menus, Netflix works (finally), all in all an improvement over the Premiere.


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## CloudAtlas (Oct 29, 2013)

scn101 said:


> AFAIK, the Roamio is a hit. Quiet, fast menus, Netflix works (finally), all in all an improvement over the Premiere.


The Roamio T6 looks to be what cable vendors have wanted - lots of tuners and storage with a modern platform that supports apps and whole home viewing + streaming. That's a big challenge for even large Cable vendors. Roamio with Mini might be the reason Comcast is continuing the TiVo rollout.

And with installation support from the cable vendor the TiVo burden falls on the cable company.


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## Darr247 (Mar 21, 2010)

What's the secret of getting the top off the Roamio?

I removed the T8 torx screw from the center rear, and as I bow it up the rear tabs on the sides let loose, but how do you get the rest of the side tabs to unlatch?

Do you need 3 (or more) hands?

edit:
Nevermind... I tried and tried pushing in on the center (only the center tabs actually latch) from the end while holding it bowed in the back/middle as far as I dared, to no avail. 3 hands *would* help in this instance. 

So, I used the padded handles of a pair of wire strippers to hold it bowed up in the middle (one on each side of the screw tab), then from the back inserted a 7'' long plastic scribe (really a Tupperware Citrus Peeler) under the edge of the tab on the left side (the right-side looking at it from the front)... barely twisted the plastic scribe and the lid popped right open... then it tips up and the latch on the 'upper lip' of the Tivo 'smile' in front unhooks.

I can't believe how fast the Tivo OS readies a blank 2TB drive (WD20EURS gives 316 hours of HD, for what it's worth). Now to copy the season passes over on tivo.com from the S3-THX and Premiere XL it's replacing.

Thanks anyway!


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## nooneuknow (Feb 5, 2011)

Anybody else notice that the fan now changes pitch in proportion to how "busy" to TiVo is? Software 20.4.2 made this instantly noticeable to me.

I wanted to climb the walls when I pulled out three Premieres *and* a TiVo HD, and replaced them with just two continuously whiny jet-engine-like base Roamios, in a rather small bedroom.

In other threads there's always been argument over which was more annoying, the hard drive, or the fan, with more being annoyed by hard drive seeking noises, than the fan. For me, I couldn't even hear the hard drives over the fans, until 20.4.2. Now I don't hear the fans, unless the TiVo is very "busy".

What's odd is, I can only hear the drive seeking sounds with one ear, while my other ear can't hear them at all. Same goes for if I press each ear to my laptop as a "what the heck?" test. Yet both ears can equally hear the fans. This is new. I guess I must need an ear cleaning treatment from shoving earplugs in every night until now, to be able to sleep in a room with base Roamios before 20.4.2.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

I have not noticed any issues like that with my Roamio Basic. But it has plenty of clearance all around it. Like any TiVo, with a fan and hard drive, I can easily hear it. But I haven't noticed any abnormal sounds from it.


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## svelund (May 28, 2015)

A easy way to solve the problem for most of us of a noisy TiVo is to move the TiVo box to a new location. This will work no matter what the cause of the noise, fan, hard drive, or whatever. In my case I drilled a hole in the floor between the living room and the garage. I routed the TiVo wires (power, coax cable and the HDMI cable) to the garage, moved the TiVo box there and re-connected the wires. Presto-no noise.


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## jim-j (Nov 24, 2013)

svelund said:


> A easy way to solve the problem for most of us of a noisy TiVo is to move the TiVo box to a new location.


Does the TV remote works through walls?


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## series5orpremier (Jul 6, 2013)

jim-j said:


> Does the TV remote works through walls?


Yes, a TiVo Roamio remote does work through walls. The TV remote doesn't have to.


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## MP414 (Jul 19, 2016)

For the last few days, my TiVo Roamio was getting progressively louder. It was absolutely horrendous and annoying how loud it was, even when in standby mode.

Well, my issue was resolved and it was very inexpensive and easy to fix. Here's how I did it:

1. Purchase a can of compressed air.
2. Purchase a product called "DeoxIT DN5."
3. Unplug the TiVo unit from the power supply and remove all cables.
4. Use a T9 bolt or similar to remove the center screw in the back of the TiVo unit.
5. Carefully pop off the top of the TiVo unit.
6. Put your finger on one side of the fan to prevent it from spinning and gently use the compressed air to remove any dust and/or embedded dirt.
7. Use very little of the DeoxIT DN5 on the fan.

** Be careful not to spray on the motherboard or any of the other circuitry.**

8. Put unit back together.
9. Plug in and give it about 2-3 minutes of the fan to work in the solution.
10. See if the noise level decreased for you.

Mine is now as quiet as a mouse once again!


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