# please help



## sk8er116 (Feb 23, 2006)

i have done all the research possible for one man to do by himself. i recently bought a 250 gb drive to add to my tivo tcd5400 model. i used mfstools to add the drive to the factory drive. i then realized that i was not able to use the full 250. i found the weakness lba48 cd to use instead. my idiot friend that was helping me at the time allowed the 250gb drive to boot all the way into windows. now i am stuck. i am currently writing zeros to the 250 gb drive to start all over. but i am haveing a problem with my tivo booting up it only goes to the loading page and no further. is it possible that it is looking for the drive that is not there and this is why it is not booting up??? i am really bummed that i am without my tivo for the time being please help!!!!! i am going insane trying to figure this out i do not want to have to start all over!!!!!


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## Gunnyman (Jul 10, 2003)

start over.


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## sk8er116 (Feb 23, 2006)

what do you suggest that i use to do so???? i have heard that if you use a software like instant cake that you have to redo all the updates and reconnect it to a phone line(which i donot have access to) is there anything else that could work??? when you say start over do you mean with the 40gb stock drive or the 250 gb drive???


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## Gunnyman (Jul 10, 2003)

grab instantcake for your tivo model
I THINK you can get 7.xx if so, you can do guided setup from the network.
You have to start over because the two drives have been "married"


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## sk8er116 (Feb 23, 2006)

so what would you do would you start over with the 40 gb drive and then add the 250 again or just cut the losses and just use the 250??


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## Gunnyman (Jul 10, 2003)

I am not a huge fan of two drives in a Tivo. When something goes wrong, it's tough to find out which drive is to blame.
If you can't get instantcake with 7.x on it, can you take the unit to a fiend's house to dial in?


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## sk8er116 (Feb 23, 2006)

thank you very much for the help i am going to start over and make my friend pay for the instant cake and let me use his phone connection


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## sk8er116 (Feb 23, 2006)

i am looking at the instant cake web page and it looks like the available version for my model is TiVo TCD540040, TCD540080, TCD540140 [5.3-01-2-540]. with this i will have to connect to a phone line if i am not mistaken!!! correct???


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## Gunnyman (Jul 10, 2003)

yes you 'MIGHT"
there's some reports of the #401 trick working on SOME units and allows the network to be used for guided setup search here for more information on that


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## sk8er116 (Feb 23, 2006)

what do you mean by the #401 trick ????


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## Gunnyman (Jul 10, 2003)

I dunno the full details but I think I read someplace that if you use #401 as your dial prefix, it will SOMETIMES use the network to do the guided setup calls.
Details can be found in these forums someplace.


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## sk8er116 (Feb 23, 2006)

thank you for all the help i am totally looking forward to having my tivo back


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## gthassell (Apr 22, 2003)

but the code is actually ,#401 - don't forget the comma.


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## Arcady (Oct 14, 2004)

I used ,#401 to get a 240 series (with 4.0.1b) to connect via network on setup. It should work fine with a 540 series.


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## sk8er116 (Feb 23, 2006)

i actually everything to somewhat of a working order. i still have a error #51 but i am taking care of that. i made a image of my friends stock drive and restored it to my bad stock drive booted up fine but with that error 51. does anyone know if i do a clear and delete everything will that error go away???


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## willardcpa (Feb 23, 2001)

Gunnyman said:


> ....take the unit to a fiend's house....


I don't know about that advice, I usually try to keep as much distance as I can between me a "fiends"


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## Arcady (Oct 14, 2004)

C&DE will fix the 51 error.


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## sk8er116 (Feb 23, 2006)

i would like to extend a big thanks to evryone that help me in my quest of upgrading my tivo. i have to say that you guys are the most helpful and knowledge filled people that i have ever had a chance to chat with. :up:  

Thanks Big & Tasty


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## Gunnyman (Jul 10, 2003)

did the ,#401 tick work?


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