# DirecTivo not powering up



## kturcotte (Dec 9, 2002)

One of my DirecTivos, SD-DVR 80, seems to have stopped working-kind of. Worked find yesterday. When I got up today, all that appears to be working is the fan. No lights on the front are lit, no a/v out. I even unplugged it from the surge protector for 1 minute, and plugged it back in, and nothing. The other 2 DirecTivos connected to the surge protector are working just fine, so it isn't the surge protector. Basically, the only thing working on it is the fan. Is the receiver basically fried?


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## stevel (Aug 23, 2000)

When you plug it back in, you get nothing but the fan? No disk spinup? Sounds as if the power supply is shot.


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## kturcotte (Dec 9, 2002)

stevel said:


> When you plug it back in, you get nothing but the fan? No disk spinup? Sounds as if the power supply is shot.


That's EXACTLY what happens. Bought it from Value Electronics last month (Been a few days over 30). What's their return policy?


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## Guindalf (Jun 13, 2001)

Robert (ValueElectronics) is a frequent contributor to these boards and although I have no personal experience, from what I've seen, will do everything he can to help. Drop him an email or give him a call.

If you'd owned the box little longer, I might have suggested taking the cover off the box and checking the fuses, but talk to Robert first.


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## kturcotte (Dec 9, 2002)

I called them,, gave them my address and order number, and they said Directv would send me out a new receiver, probably an R15, which I want NOTHING to do with. If I were to purchase a power supply from weaknees, and switched the bad with the new, would everything be JUST as I left it, when everything was working?


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## rbtravis (Aug 9, 2005)

Paul Sartori sells Tivo series II power supplies and other parts at reasonable prices. You can contact him direct or do a search for "TIVO power supply" under "Consumer Electronics" on EBay. He is an honest seller with good products and usually half of weakness price. Your will need a Torx 10 driver to replace the power supply and remove the cover. Also a small flat head screwdriver for cover removal after Torx screws are removed. Insert flat head screwdriver under cover flaps in back and twist to remove cover. BE SURE TO DO THIS WITH THE POWER DISCONNECTED!


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## kturcotte (Dec 9, 2002)

I downloaded Western Digital's software, opened my computer case up, disconnected my XP drives, and put the Tivo drive in. As soon I plugged the power cable back in and turned the computer on, the Tivo hard drive sprang to life. I ran the software, and everything checked out fine. I know I'm going to have get a power supply, but in the mean time, would it be possible to just run a long extension cable from my computer's hard drive to the Tivo hard drive, or could that cause problems?


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## rbtravis (Aug 9, 2005)

The power supply powers both the motherboard and the drive. Your solution powers the drive but not the motherboard. I don't think it will work that way


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## kturcotte (Dec 9, 2002)

I connected the new power supply, and the same thing happened.
What's interesting, though, is that if I disconnect the little cable that connects to the motherboard, the hard drive spins up. Of course, as soon as I reconnect that cable, the hard drive spins back down. What could be the problem there?
Also, is there anyway to find out what I had for season passes on the hard drive?


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## stevel (Aug 23, 2000)

Which "little cable" is that? The IDE ribbon cable for the hard drive? If so, then that means the motherboard is not sending the spin-up signal to the drive. (With the cable disconnected, the drive spins up as soon as power is applied.)

If you inserted this drive in another Series 2 DTiVo of similar vintage, you could at least, I think, view the season passes.


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## kturcotte (Dec 9, 2002)

I have 2 HDVR2s. What EXACTLY would happen if I removed one of their hard drives and inserted the hard drive from the SD-DVR80?


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## stevel (Aug 23, 2000)

Probably wouldn't boot. The DVR80 software would want to see a RID chip and the HDVR2 wouldn't have it.

If it did, you would get "Error #51" if you tried to record or watch anything. I am speculating that it might allow viewing of the SP list, but maybe not...


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## Diana Collins (Aug 21, 2002)

We've been down this road already on DBSForums....when the ribbon cable between the power supply and the motherboard is disconnected, the drive spins up...when reconnected, the drive stops. As I said at my site, this indicates a failure in the IDE controller and/or CPU of the motherboard. Since the mobo *IS* the TiVo, your system is dead. A new mobo is like a new unit - even if from the same make and model as the dead unit, you will get "Error 51" when you try to access the NP List or make a recording. After a C&DE you'll be okay, but you will lose all your current recordings.

Since the unit in question was never hacked (so all the recordings are encrypted) there is no practical way to salvage the recordings or settings on it. It is possible to extract video directly from the disk, but it is not a novice activity. There is some work being done on a Linux core module for mfs, which would make it a bit easier, but that is still likely weeks or months from reality.


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