# Swaping Unit Parts - Need someone with knowledge



## Moe Joe (Sep 26, 2007)

Hello all I am a newbie please help me with my situation. It goes as follows;

I recently purchased a used SVR-2000 Tivo with lifetime subscription. The outside appearance is well, really ruff. I have the opportunity to purchase another SVR-2000 Tivo that is in new condition. My question is can I swap the main board from the ruff Tivo and put it in the newer conditioned Tivo and keep my lifetime subscription intact. Is there many obstacles in doing this. 

I need someones educated opinion on this.

Thanks in advance


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## robomeister (Feb 4, 2005)

Yes, that would work. But, obviously, the TiVo Serial Number (TSN) on the back wouldn't match the TSN in the System Information page in the TiVo.

What do you mean by ruff? Looks like it was thrown down some stairs? sat on by a 300 lb linebacker? really dirty? water damage?

Another alternative would be to replace the face plate of the ruff TiVo with the nice faceplate of the newer TiVo. But if the metal case is damaged, then moving the motherboard might be the easiest solution.

I did something similar recently. I put a Humax DRT800 motherboard, which has an active subscription, into a Toshiba RS-TX20 case. The motherboard in the Toshiba had some issues (blown modem, some electrical damage). The newly formed TiVo had no problems working, as these TiVos are essentially the same. But the TSN of the case doesn't match the TSN of the motherboard. But it works!

Hope that helps,
robomeister


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## Moe Joe (Sep 26, 2007)

robomeister - thanks for the reply

The case is bent, no telling what really happened to it!!!

What will the harddrive pickup when I put the old motherboard into the newer system? I don't think the newer system has ever been used before (or atleast that is what I have been told)
Will there be any conflicts? and
Is it difficult to pull the motherboard out or is it similar to computer, which I think it would be?

Thanks


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## classicsat (Feb 18, 2004)

Move all the electronic bits from the one DVR to the other (as in mainboard/drives as a set). 

If the bottom of the case is fine, just move the front and top from the cosmetically good unit to the other one.


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## Moe Joe (Sep 26, 2007)

Do you think there might be a conflict if I use the Hard Drive that is in the good unit? If so why?

Remember I am a newbie, so I may be a bit slow.


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## Moe Joe (Sep 26, 2007)

I want to use all parts from the good unit if possible, I believe it has never been used, except for the motherboard because I have lifetime sub on the old motherboard.


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## robomeister (Feb 4, 2005)

Well, at a minimum, you need to move the motherboard. This has the lifetime subscription tied to it. If both Tivos are the same model, which you indicated in your first post, then the "new" hard drive will work, but when you start up the newly constructed TiVo, you'll get a hardware error, #51 I believe. This is because the TiVo Serial Number (TSN) on the hard drive doesn't match the TSN of the motherboard. You'll have to do a Clear and Delete Everything to clear this error. This means that all the shows will be deleted. Then you'll have to do the Initial Guided Setup again.

But if you move the motherboard and the hard drive from the "bent" TiVo to the new one, then when you start up the newly constructed TiVo, you'll be good to go.

So I recommend moving the motherboard and the hard drive.

Hope that helps,
robomeister


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## WO312 (Jan 24, 2003)

robomeister said:


> Well, at a minimum, you need to move the motherboard. This has the lifetime subscription tied to it. If both Tivos are the same model, which you indicated in your first post, then the "new" hard drive will work, but when you start up the newly constructed TiVo, you'll get a hardware error, #51 I believe. This is because the TiVo Serial Number (TSN) on the hard drive doesn't match the TSN of the motherboard. You'll have to do a Clear and Delete Everything to clear this error. This means that all the shows will be deleted. Then you'll have to do the Initial Guided Setup again.
> 
> But if you move the motherboard and the hard drive from the "bent" TiVo to the new one, then when you start up the newly constructed TiVo, you'll be good to go.
> 
> ...


Based on my experiences, with a Series 1, the MB and the hard drive are totally separate. Series 2 is different - they are tied together. So I don't believe you will get any error messages with the old MB and new drive.

The key with a Series 1 is the MB. As you have said, the TSN is on the MB. So, if you put the old MB in the new Tivo but use the new drive, the new drive will then reflect the old MB TSN. However, what you will have is whatever programs were on the new drive, if any. You will have no access to whatever programs were on the old drive. With the new drive, you will have to do a Guided setup for your current location.

If you want to use the new drive but finish viewing the old drive programs, then swap drives until you have finished viewing, then stay strictly with the new drive.

If it were me, I would stay with whatever drive had the highest capacity, or upgrade to a larger drive if both of them are small drives.


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## mick66 (Oct 15, 2004)

WO312 said:


> Based on my experiences, with a Series 1, the MB and the hard drive are totally separate. Series 2 is different - they are tied together. So I don't believe you will get any error messages with the old MB and new drive.


you are correcet about this

But then you contradict yourself with the following


> The key with a Series 1 is the MB. As you have said, the TSN is on the MB. So, if you put the old MB in the new Tivo but use the new drive, the new drive will then reflect the old MB TSN. However, what you will have is whatever programs were on the new drive, if any. You will have no access to whatever programs were on the old drive. With the new drive, you will have to do a Guided setup for your current location.
> 
> If you want to use the new drive but finish viewing the old drive programs, then swap drives until you have finished viewing, then stay strictly with the new drive.
> 
> If it were me, I would stay with whatever drive had the highest capacity, or upgrade to a larger drive if both of them are small drives.


S1 Tivo hard drives can be swapped to any like machine (Philips to any other Philips and Sony to any other Sony) and be 100% usable w/o have to do anything. In this case, the settings and recordings on the HD are playable in any other Sony SVR2000.


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## Moe Joe (Sep 26, 2007)

Thanks everyone for taking the time to respond.  

So to rehash, I should be ok using all components, excluding the motherboard - due to thats where the lifetime sub resides and at most I will just have to reconfigure some settings. I don't mind loosing any of the programs.

I have another question. Would it be possible to use both drives, one as a master and one as a slave, or will they have conflicts there.

Thanks


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## classicsat (Feb 18, 2004)

You can, but have to treat the other as empty and prepare it as such.


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## Moe Joe (Sep 26, 2007)

classicsat,
Would you recommend or not recommend doing that. Just curious. Like I said I am brand new at this so all feedback is greatly appreciated, and I want to thank everyone for taking the time out of there day to help me.

Moe Joe


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## WO312 (Jan 24, 2003)

mick66 said:


> you are correcet about this
> 
> But then you contradict yourself with the following
> 
> S1 Tivo hard drives can be swapped to any like machine (Philips to any other Philips and Sony to any other Sony) and be 100% usable w/o have to do anything. In this case, the settings and recordings on the HD are playable in any other Sony SVR2000.


mick, I don't think that I contradicted myself. I merely said that he would have to do a guided setup with the new drive. I assumed (perhaps incorrectly), that the new Tivo came from a different locality (like purchased from ebay). If indeed it came from his home town, then it would not need a setup.

Hope that clears up any confusion for future viewers of this thread.


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## MonkeyBoy668 (Mar 18, 2005)

Moe Joe said:


> classicsat,
> Would you recommend or not recommend doing that. Just curious. Like I said I am brand new at this so all feedback is greatly appreciated, and I want to thank everyone for taking the time out of there day to help me.
> 
> Moe Joe


Personally, I probably will never do a dual HD arrangement again, just stick to single drives with the capacity I want.

The theory involved is similar to those of RAID arrays. You take the lowest MTBF of any drive in the array, then divide that by the # of drives in the array. That's your likelihood of a failure in that array. Now with a Tivo you're only talking about dividing the MTBF by 1 or 2 (you can only have 1 or 2 drives), not silly numbers like 10, 20, etc. in a RAID. But still, halving your reliability isn't anything to sneeze at, especially since there's no redundancy in Tivo - drive failure means data loss. And data loss gives me a headache.

I had two dual drive setups fail (it took a while, they both worked fine out of the gate), but I've been on this single large-capacity drive setup for longer than the two of them combined. Maybe I'm just unlucky, but the theory I've expressed is definitely sound... I work with RAID groups on a regular basis...


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## Moe Joe (Sep 26, 2007)

I will keep that in mind. I think I am only going to do a single drive and then eventually buy a larger one. :up:


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## classicsat (Feb 18, 2004)

I'd not recommend dual drives with smaller and/or older drives.


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## mick66 (Oct 15, 2004)

WO312 said:


> mick, I don't think that I contradicted myself. I merely said that he would have to do a guided setup with the new drive. I assumed (perhaps incorrectly), that the new Tivo came from a different locality (like purchased from ebay). If indeed it came from his home town, then it would not need a setup.
> 
> Hope that clears up any confusion for future viewers of this thread.


You were of course correct about guided setup, but I wasn't referring to that.



WO312 said:


> The key with a Series 1 is the MB. As you have said, the TSN is on the MB. So, if you put the old MB in the new Tivo but use the new drive, the new drive will then reflect the old MB TSN. However, what you will have is whatever programs were on the new drive, if any. You will have no access to whatever programs were on the old drive.


The new drive mixed with the old MB will result in the drive showing the wrong TSN, but only until the Tivo makes it's first contact with the mothership. And just how does he lose access to the recordings on the old drive?

Forgive me if I misunderstood it the first time around, but after re-reading this, I don't know how anyone other than you could know what it means considering that it's all only half of the necessary information.


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## mr.bill (Jul 3, 2005)

Just a few quick questions before I mess things up!!

I have a sony t60 with lifetime. Its been acting weird recently (remote not responding sometimes). 

So I picked up 2 t60s (I figure good for parts). Both have 120gig hdd in them. I was going to activate one, but directv wants me to spend $20 for a new card... So I had a thought of swapping the hdd

1st question: can I swap the 40 gig hdd out of my t60 with the lifetime with one from the t60's with the 120gigs? Will I have any problems? 

If I read this thread correctly, it should not be a problem to do this swap. I would just have to delete all files and redo setup. If this is not correct, please let me know!! I do not want to risk my lifetime account!

2nd question: I think one of the t60's I got was hacked. Not sure what the hack did but its running something called extreme 3.1. It also has some weird boot screen. says something like"---- presents". I would assume I do NOT want to put that 120gig hdd in my t60!

3rd question: For some reason one of the t60 remotes just eats batteries. It will drain a battery in about a week. Any ideas whats wrong with it? I took it apart and I could not see anything obvious(the tv button was stuck down, but I fixed that). the led works and flashes when I push any button(all buttons work). When I first put in batteries, the led flashes twice. I don't have access to my working remote to check that now.

last question: For some reason I could not get this t60 remote to control the volume for my sony tv set. It will turn the tv on in off (In sat mode), but it will not adjust the volume. The remote that came with the my original t60 controls the volume fine. I went into the menu and tried all 8 codes that the t60 listed for sony and none of them worked properly. Any ideas? thanks for any help!


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## classicsat (Feb 18, 2004)

You can move the drive with a C&DE.

Can't help with the remote issue.


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## mr.bill (Jul 3, 2005)

classicsat said:


> You can move the drive with a C&DE.
> 
> Can't help with the remote issue.


thanks for the reply. 
I assume I do the clear and delete after I put the 120gig drive into the t60 that currrenty has 40gig drive(My working unit).

I will give it a shot next time I have a chance.


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## Arcady (Oct 14, 2004)

There's no such thing as a T60 with lifetime. DirecTiVo lifetime goes with your DirecTV account, not any particular box.


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