# Is my TiVo dying after 6 years???



## Snowyowl (Dec 16, 2001)

Has anyone else had a problem wit their TiVo such that it is locking-up when left "On"...? I have had my TiVo for 6 years now - and almost never had any problems. Suddenly, out of the blue, it has "crashed" twice, two nights running - as follow:

Came to it last nght - the green light was on - but no response to the TiVo button - or any other button. Pulled the power out and put it in again - and the TiVo successfully re-booted.

This morning - same state of affairs - but this time tried pulling the power out and putting it in again some 10 times with no success. Each time the green light on - but no SCART output and no response to anything. Tried taking out all other cables and no luck. Finally - at the point of giving up - tried one more time and this time saw the green light blip in response to the TiVo button, and on connecting back to the Tivo - it was successfully working... 

Obviously a relief that it is working - but a little nervous that it may happen again - and next tim3e the patient may not revover in Recuss!!! Has anyone else had anything like this? Any ideas? Are there any internal re-sets or anything else I can do? It kind of feels like hardware to me - but could it be software? On the very few occasions in teh past 6 years that I have had some sort of lock-up, the unit has re-booted when cycling the power....

Igor


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## PaulWilkinsUK (Mar 20, 2006)

Just thinking that your PSU might be on the way out... Its a common thing on TiVos apparently. TiVoHeaven has a healthy supply, or at least did have...


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## Snowyowl (Dec 16, 2001)

Happened twice again - once with the green light off - no response and no video out but the fan still going - and once with the green light on, but the video frozen in a blocky messy picture...

So - does anyone have any gut feel or exoerience on whether this is more likely to be a dodgy PSU or a HD problem???? 

How easy or difficult is it to get hold of a replacement PSU?


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## Raisltin Majere (Mar 13, 2004)

Snowyowl said:


> How easy or difficult is it to get hold of a replacement PSU?


Relatively easy


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## Raisltin Majere (Mar 13, 2004)

Thinking about it, don't order one yet. I'm pretty sure the owner of that site will be able to diagnose the problem, he'll probably be around soon enough. May need more info though.

If he doesn't come along soon and you're prepared to spend money with him, I'm sure he wouldn't mind advising you from the "contact us" link on his site. I admit I don't _know_ him, but from what I've seen on here (and from ordering from him) he won't try a "oh, golly, looks like you need a new PSU and HD" scam.


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## blindlemon (May 12, 2002)

Thanks Raisltin 

Unfortunately though, I have to say that "video frozen in a blocky messy picture" sounds more like a drive problem than a failing PSU. Of course, replacing the PSU is a good idea anyway given the age of the machine, but I doubt whether it will be a cure. Personally, I'd replace the drive first.


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## Snowyowl (Dec 16, 2001)

TiVoHeaven and Raisltin Majeire - thanks for the help so far.

I think I am likley to go for a combined HD and PSU upgrade - in the belief that this is likely to solve my problem and get me a bigger TiVo in the process. I assume it really is unlikely to be the motherboard, in your experience?

Will likely contact TiVoHeaven to order the bits...

Am feeling more cheerful - death of a TiVo would be like the death of a friend!


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## blindlemon (May 12, 2002)

Snowyowl said:


> I assume it really is unlikely to be the motherboard, in your experience?


I can't guarantee that, unfortunately, but from what you have described it certainly sounds like a classic case of drive failure - as at least 95% of TiVo problems are.


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## Snowyowl (Dec 16, 2001)

BlindLemon: Another "crash" tonight - does this also suggest HD failure?:

TiVo "failed" with both green and red light on. Frozen and non-responsive to remote with output on SCART showing the grey "do youwant to delete" overlay you get at the end of watching a recording which I had been watching. On Re-boot, the programme that was being recorded at the time (Torchwood) seems to have stopped recording half way through at the time of the crash - with the green bar just indicating a partial recording...

Can a HD failure result in a crash that freezes the recorder up completely and hangs it up without causing a spontaneous re-boot - requring a cycling of the power?

I have now had the following in 48 hours - having had no previous freezes in 6 years:
- green light on, no response, no video output, requring several re-powering cycles to get it to re-boot (2 or 3 times)
- green light on, no response, blocky frozen video output, requring power cycle to re-start (once)
- no lights, no response, no output, requring power cycle to re-start
- green and red light, frzozen on last video output at time of crash, requiring re-boot...

Can all these, in your experience, be typical of things that can happen with a HD fault?


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## Olly (Sep 29, 2001)

I don't think the state of the lights is relevant. What you describe is classic hard drive failure. In fact if it's lasted six years you have done very well in my experience.


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## cyril (Sep 5, 2001)

I agree, it seems as though you have a drive failure, which is far more common than a PSU failure. Most of my 8 TiVos are now 6 years old, and only 2 of them have had PSU failures whereas around half have had drive failures.

I think the drives probably have a MTBF of around 6 years in real world TiVo use, so anybody still using the original TiVo drives should probably order a new larger drive now.


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## AMc (Mar 22, 2002)

...or accept that they may need to do an upgrade in a hurry at some point. 

When I upgraded to a 120GB A drive I kept the older 30GB drive from my 2 drive unit as a B. I was well aware that even then it was 2 years old and on borrowed time. Now it's 5 years old and still going...for now but I know it will fail soon. 

I keep watching the cost of drives falling and the capacity increasing. I also know that getting a back up of my machine now is going to be difficult (as a 2 drive, upgraded and expanded to 2 drives) so I'm not too worried.

Today you can pick up 250GB of Samsung for £55 from PCWorld or wait a couple of days from an online supplier. If you want a preconfigured drive then you pay for the installation which is fair enough and the turn around time is probably about the same as waiting for a vanilla drive from Komplett and doing the upgrade yourself.

Good luck with your problem Snowyowl


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## harey (Nov 13, 2002)

My TiVo started to do this a month or so ago, and a new drive has fixed it. 

First couple of times of locking up, a re-cycle with the power cured the problem for a few days; then the same again... After a couple of weeks of this it was getting to the point of locking up minutes after rebooting.

It would either be locked up or running so slow and picture starting to fall behind the live feed...

Chris


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## Snowyowl (Dec 16, 2001)

Thanks everyone - I have ordered a new drive and will report back when I have fitted it....


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