# green light nothing else-ok to swap drive?



## SCOOBY.C (Oct 26, 2002)

As some might have read i bought a second hand lifetime sub 250gb + cachecard tivo and have been having problems as it kept saying account closed. Unfortunately its now got worse! The tivo is now sitting with just the green light on and nothing else with no response from the remote(s). From what i've read this could be hdd connections or complete failure, psu failure or motherboard failure 
My question now is can i take the hdd from my unmodded tivo and see what happens? (should i disconnect the cache card first)
Has anybody else any suggestions about what to try. Not feeling to good just now having paid £200 for the tivo and its worse than my old one


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## blindlemon (May 12, 2002)

Most likely drive failure or a disconnected drive. 

If both TiVos are on the same software version then yes, the drives are completely interchangeable. 

If you only want to test a box by putting a working drive in temporarily then it doesn't matter what software version either have as long as you don't let it make a daily call.


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## SCOOBY.C (Oct 26, 2002)

thanks, i'll disconnect the phone lead before giving it a try tomorrow.:up:


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## SCOOBY.C (Oct 26, 2002)

the plot thickens, i disconnected the drive and tried all the connections and it seemed to make no difference. Put it back together and left it on for 5 mins and it started working ok for some reason (apart from my account details but thats a different issue, i think!) now seems to be working ok but if you tap the hdd it interferes with my digital tv, a bit like it does if there is any electrical switching/ mobile phone ringing. Has anybody any more ideas eg does this confirm the hdd is about to go


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## TrainManG (Apr 21, 2003)

Also, often caused by a modem failure or lock-up. Low 5V rail on the PSU has been known to cause it as well.

You did the right thing by letting it 'cool off' for a few minutes.

I guess, by the posts from you in this forum, that it may have been on and off quite a few times.

I doubt that the HDD is dying yet. It can't be more than a couple of years old. Some people are still getting good results from the original 40 Gig HDDs.

Just a quick question about your Lifetime Service. Did the original owner transfer it to you or was it one of the 'VIP' machines that were issued free to a select goup of people at the launch of TiVo in the UK. Some of those have been closed by TiVo now.

Good luck.

Geoff.


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## SCOOBY.C (Oct 26, 2002)

thanks for the reply, but no to it being on and off, its been sitting on for the last 4 days if that makes a difference.
regards lifetime, owner transferred across a valid lifetime sub as confirmed by tivo.


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## TrainManG (Apr 21, 2003)

I hope you've been 'Power Off''ing and unplugging it when you tried all the leads!


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## SCOOBY.C (Oct 26, 2002)

TrainManG said:


> I hope you've been 'Power Off''ing and unplugging it when you tried all the leads!


yea, qualified electronics engineer just never tinkered with my tivo much before (might b forced to now!)


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## TrainManG (Apr 21, 2003)

Excellent news!:up:

When they work, they're brilliant and tend to carry on for a long time.

When they 'go into one' they can be very frustrating, and involve a lot of expletives.

Geoff.


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## SCOOBY.C (Oct 26, 2002)

ok now got my account working (although only temporary i've been told  ) and when i first powered it up it went into this "stuck" mode again but this time i noticed after a short while the green light changed to orange and then back to green. Nothing happened then for approximately 5 mins (i was on here searching!) when i heard the tivo startup and away it went as normal to tivo central. Has anyone got any advice to what is wrong and what i can do to prevent it? Thanks in advance, sc.


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## blindlemon (May 12, 2002)

Most likely a drive problem


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## ColinYounger (Aug 9, 2006)

You'll need to post one of the TiVo logs here - probably messages or Omessages (depending on whether you've done a daily call since reboot).


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## SCOOBY.C (Oct 26, 2002)

hmm, i'll try and post my log here but you'll need to push me in the right direction as to how i'd get that first! Thanks for all the help so far though


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## ColinYounger (Aug 9, 2006)

You can ftp the files off your TiVo and add as an attachment to a message (preferred).

Or you can view the log in Tivoweb and cut n paste any interesting looking messages.

tclient and Otclient might be useful too.


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## SCOOBY.C (Oct 26, 2002)

sorry, should have made it clearer, i've just received this tivo and have never networked one before so if anyone could point me to a guide for connecting my laptop to my tivo would be greatly appreciated. I know all about the physical connections etc so i'm not completely lost but not far off i suppose! Thanks again for the posts.


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## ColinYounger (Aug 9, 2006)

Ah. Not easy without a network card. 

Try googling for backdoor codes on series 1 Tivo and viewing log.


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## SCOOBY.C (Oct 26, 2002)

ok thanks, now i can get to the log via backdoor, what am i looking for exactly? Theres hundreds of pages by the look of it before i get to when i switched the machine on yesterday but is that where i have to look?
PS i have a cache card fitted by the previous owner just i haven't connected to my pc (yet) as there seems to be lots of instructions for connecting and modding hdds all in one but nothing for just connecting straight to the pc.


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## SCOOBY.C (Oct 26, 2002)

ok, found the messages and 0messages does any of this make sense or help?
Thanks for all the patience here!


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## ColinYounger (Aug 9, 2006)

Nothing exciting there. What about tclient and Otclient?


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## SCOOBY.C (Oct 26, 2002)

nothing in tclient








and again thanks for the help, much appreciated


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## ColinYounger (Aug 9, 2006)

Otclient just shows the end of a daily call. There's probably more there if you page down, but this is starting to get painful. 

I think your new project should be to get your TiVo networked. We're not going to find anything like this. Sorry!


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## SCOOBY.C (Oct 26, 2002)

ok, sorry for being a pain, looks like i'll have to scan google then! thanks again, sc.


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## ColinYounger (Aug 9, 2006)

Scooby - you're not being a pain, but the process is painful for both of us.

Why not start a new thread (or search for a thread) asking how to network your TiVo?


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## SCOOBY.C (Oct 26, 2002)

colin- now networked and looking for any suggestions! cheers.


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## blindlemon (May 12, 2002)

Install TiVoWeb - use twinst.zip if you want to do it the easy way - then view the logs via your browser.

However, if the problem you're having is a long wait at startup before you get the "powering up..." message, then that points to a drive hardware problem, not something to do with the daily call.

My honest advice would be to obtain another drive - 250gb or larger - and do a piped backup->restore to that. Your system software and MFS seem to be OK so the backup *should* work. Carrying on with a dodgy drive is a recipe for disaster IMHO.

Edit: just noticed from another thread that you have been having random reboots while the TiVo is in standby. This could be due to drive corruption *or* a failing PSU, so it might be an idea to replace both.


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## SCOOBY.C (Oct 26, 2002)

ok, many thanks for your help. I can look at the tivo over my network by putting its ip in IE and it has backup options etc so i'll have to read up on tivoweb now! When you mention installing tivoweb above do you mean the pc or on tivo? Its just i already have it on the tivo, thanks.

Update- i think i'll try the powersupply first. I now remember just before it came out of standby the digital picture on my tv broke up slightly, in the same way as a mobile ringing close to it or any larger electrical loads turning on in the house (causing a very slight voltage difference) suggesting that the power supply isn't keeping a steady voltage. I have my old tivo which has been fine (typical!) so i can swap them over hopefully.


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## SCOOBY.C (Oct 26, 2002)

an update on this that might help some others - i swapped the power supply from my original and it seems to have cured the problem, 3 weeks now with no problems


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