# New fan too powerful for tivo?



## xaviorffviii (Jul 8, 2010)

I just recently replaced my Tivos "TCD649080DT" hdd with a "Western Digital 1 TB SATA2 7200rpm 32MB Hard Drive WD10EALS (Caviar Blue)".

Went off without a hitch (minus the 10 hours of my life).

However I wanted to replace the internal fan to compensate for the extra heat the WD 1tb hdd will probably create over time. After some searching I found this fan

www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000NWGYA0/ref=oss_product

These are the specifications from Cables Unlimited website

"wBearing Ball Voltage Input: 12 
Amperage: 0.34
Current Input: 0.37 
Power: 4.44 
Speed: 470010% 
Air Flow: 33.95 
Static Pressure: 5.09 
Noise Level: 40.19 
Weight : 45.9 
Frame: Plastic Material UL 94V-0 
Blade: Plastic Material UL 94V-0 
Dielectric Strenth: 50/60 Hz, 500 VAC, 1 minute (between lead conductor and frame) 
Insulation Resistance:50M ohm min. at 500 VDC(between lead wire(+) and frame) 
Operating Temperature: -10C to + 65C"

I hooked up the new fan, and the tivo shutoff after a minute. I assume this is because the amperage was too high?

I installed the old fan back in, and the tivo is fine. 
However is there any way I can still use the new fan by plugging it directly into the power supply? Or is the amperage too high?

Or is there anything I can do to still use this fan with my Tivo?

Thank you in advanced,
-David Bouffard


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## xaviorffviii (Jul 8, 2010)

bump


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## lessd (Jan 23, 2005)

xaviorffviii said:


> I just recently replaced my Tivos "TCD649080DT" hdd with a "Western Digital 1 TB SATA2 7200rpm 32MB Hard Drive WD10EALS (Caviar Blue)".
> 
> Went off without a hitch (minus the 10 hours of my life).
> 
> ...


Just use the original TiVo fan unless you have a reason to change fans because the internal temp reading goes up very high as you have the TiVo in a somewhat closed cabinet. The original fan will adj speed as needed in almost all cases.


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## xaviorffviii (Jul 8, 2010)

lessd said:


> Just use the original TiVo fan unless you have a reason to change fans because the internal temp reading goes up very high as you have the TiVo in a somewhat closed cabinet. The original fan will adj speed as needed in almost all cases.


I heard the WD 7200 Rpm hdds run hotter, so I wanted to just be sure. Tivo says its running around 53c temp (Normal). I don't mind putting in the extra work, even if it is overkill just to sleep better at night.

I didn't know the original fan adjusted speed. Mine only has the positive and negative wires, I thought the motherboard needed the white wire to tell it to change speed?

Thanks for the response, If I have no good option I'm probably just gonna leave the old one in. Id just feel better if I had this new beast of a fan in there.

-David


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## ronsch (Sep 7, 2001)

I have three TiVos in close proximity to each other so I just point one of those round oscillating fans directly at them from a couple of feet away. It makes a noticeable difference especially when I'm at work and have the A/C set to a warmer than normal level.


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## xaviorffviii (Jul 8, 2010)

ronsch said:


> I have three TiVos in close proximity to each other so I just point one of those round oscillating fans directly at them from a couple of feet away. It makes a noticeable difference especially when I'm at work and have the A/C set to a warmer than normal level.


I'm probably going to end up doing that, I'm assuming I can't hook up this new fan to the Tivo in any way?


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## lessd (Jan 23, 2005)

xaviorffviii said:


> I heard the WD 7200 Rpm hdds run hotter, so I wanted to just be sure. Tivo says its running around 53c temp (Normal). I don't mind putting in the extra work, even if it is overkill just to sleep better at night.
> 
> I didn't know the original fan adjusted speed. Mine only has the positive and negative wires, I thought the motherboard needed the white wire to tell it to change speed?
> 
> ...


The extra wire used on a fan is so a computer can tell what speed the fan is going, the TiVo just makes a voltage adj if the temp gets too hot, I have never heard of any overheating on a working TiVo fan system.


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## xaviorffviii (Jul 8, 2010)

lessd said:


> The extra wire used on a fan is so a computer can tell what speed the fan is going, the TiVo just makes a voltage adj if the temp gets too hot, I have never heard of any overheating on a working TiVo fan system.


I read this from PVRblog, This guy put a 7200 rpm hdd in his tivo and he said it fried.



> A bit of very sound advice: replace the internal fan on your TiVo!
> 
> 7200 RPM drives increase the internal temperature far too much, and that dinky fan in there won't cut it.
> 
> ...


So I'm not really worried about the temp right now, but I'm worried over time it could create a major problem I want to avoid. Especially during the winter when we have the heat blasting


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## lessd (Jan 23, 2005)

_A bit of very sound advice: replace the internal fan on your TiVo!

7200 RPM drives increase the internal temperature far too much, and that dinky fan in there won't cut it.

Get a temperature controlled 60mm fan and replace the one currently on the box. That way when it gets too hot (and it will, trust me) the fan scales up to compensate for it.

I made the mistake of putting a 7200 RPM drive in mine, and it burned out in six months_

Many people have replaced their TiVo hard drives with 7200rpm drives for many years and i never saw any posts that the TiVo was overheating because of this, the fan in the TiVo runs slower after the boot is finished and can speed up if the temp goes up. I don't know where this overheating speculation is coming from. The temp of my TiVos went up 2 to 3 C with a drive upgrade, no problem.


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## ronsch (Sep 7, 2001)

lessd said:


> _A bit of very sound advice: replace the internal fan on your TiVo!
> 
> 7200 RPM drives increase the internal temperature far too much, and that dinky fan in there won't cut it.
> 
> ...


Agreed. Besides, even with the heat blasting during winter I'd be willing to bet that the overall ambient temperature in your house will be lower than it is now unless you heat it up far more than you A/C it now.


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## krusir (Feb 12, 2008)

I have not check mine. Do you have three wires in TiVo's original fan? The yellow one is for speed sensor. Since TiVo has speed control, I think it must have this wire. 

Your fan only has two wires.... which make TiVo think the rpm is zero. This could be the reason it automatically shuts down.


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## lessd (Jan 23, 2005)

krusir said:


> I have not check mine. Do you have three wires in TiVo's original fan? The yellow one is for speed sensor. Since TiVo has speed control, I think it must have this wire.
> 
> Your fan only has two wires.... which make TiVo think the rpm is zero. This could be the reason it automatically shuts down.


TiVos do not use a three wire system, they do not use feedback on fan speed. Below a certain temp the TiVo fan runs at its slowest, if the temp goes up I assume the fan speed would go up, never tested this so the TiVo may have only two speeds fast and slow, past some temp the speed just goes to fast (same speed as the start of a power boot cycle)


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## kdeanda (Dec 15, 2000)

xaviorffviii said:


> I didn't know the original fan adjusted speed. Mine only has the positive and negative wires, I thought the motherboard needed the white wire to tell it to change speed?


As far as I'm aware, Tivos adjusts fan speed by pulsing the fan supply power in relation to the system board temperature - no special fan monitoring hardware. (an Australian member some years ago wrote a comprehensive technical document on how Tivo manages the fan, but I can't locate it at the moment.) Any plain replacement fan that just takes 12VDC and fits the case (60x25mm on all models?) should work fine. As lessd mentioned, using a 3 wire model shouldn't matter as a tach line isn't used in Tivos (all?).... just leave that wire disconnected if present on the replacement.

However, if you install a replacement fan that's got it's own internal speed control circuitry, you'll likely need to tap into clean 12V and not use the modulated supply provided for the original fan. (probably just adding a splitter off the HDD power connector is the easiest.) If this is the sort of fan you (the OP) acquired, it may be that it's internal speed control appears as a short or some other fault to the Tivo mainboard with it's modulated DC supply, causing the lockup.


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