# What's wrong with my S3?



## loubob57 (Mar 19, 2001)

I ordered this S3 the day they were announced so I guess it's as old as an S3 can be unless you work for TiVo. 

Anyhow, last night I noticed it was stuck on the menu page and the clock had an old time on it. So I tried rebooting but it sat there with all the front LEDs lit for a long time. So I tried again and those went out this time but the display stayed blank. Both times no video was coming out. I didn't listen for any hard drive clicking, I may do that tonight. I've read about bulged PS caps and will also check those.

Anything else I can easily check?


----------



## steve614 (May 1, 2006)

Based on the number of S3 OLED's with capacitor plague being reported here and the description of your symptoms, my guess is its going to be the power supply.


----------



## blacknoi (Jan 23, 2006)

My original S3 just had a power supply failure, where it wouldn't power up at all, and a slight ticking noise internally. No caps were obvious so I replaced the whole power supply.

Its been working fine ever since.


----------



## loubob57 (Mar 19, 2001)

No clicking noises indicating a bad hard drive. So I pulled it out and removed the cover. Sure enough the top of C701 is bulged a bit. So I need to find a 2200 μF capacitor to replace it.

ETA: Just ordered 4 of them from Amazon for $10.44.

4pcs Rubycon ZL 2200uF 25v 105c Radial Electrolytic Capacitor Low ESR


----------



## Saturn (Apr 10, 2001)

When my S3 capacitors started bulging I just replaced them all. Actually I think I may have missed one or two under the heatsink that I didn't see at first.

I ordered from Mouser. They will ship USPS First Class Mail if you ask them to in your order notes and you will save a couple dollars.

These are all low ESR and good brands, in case anybody wants to save the hour or two it can take to track them all down. 

1x https://www.mouser.com/Search/Produ...tualkey14000000virtualkey140-RXK102M0JBK0820P
2x https://www.mouser.com/Search/Produ...71virtualkey66720000virtualkey667-EEU-FR1C471
4x https://www.mouser.com/Search/Produ...32virtualkey66720000virtualkey667-EEU-FR1A332
1x https://www.mouser.com/Search/Produ...22virtualkey66720000virtualkey667-EEU-FR1C222
1x https://www.mouser.com/Search/Produ...Lvirtualkey66720000virtualkey667-EEU-FR1E222L

It was under $10 shipped for all of them.


----------



## loubob57 (Mar 19, 2001)

*SUCCESS!*

The capacitors came in the mail today.
I soldered in the new one and it works. Yay! :up:


----------



## loubob57 (Mar 19, 2001)

Hmmmm

Here we are a little over a month later and the S3 started freezing the picture and audio sporadically. Could it be the power supply problem caused the hard drive to dork up? Or maybe it's just a coincidence?


----------



## steve614 (May 1, 2006)

Could be just a coincedence. How old is the hard drive?

I suppose it would be possible that a bad power supply *could* damage the electronics on the hard drive circuit board.

I would start by running the kickstart codes (54 & 57) or at least take the drive out of the Tivo and make a truncated backup now while it is still working.

When you open the Tivo, double check the capacitors you didn't replace.


----------



## loubob57 (Mar 19, 2001)

steve614 said:


> Could be just a coincedence. How old is the hard drive?
> 
> I suppose it would be possible that a bad power supply *could* damage the electronics on the hard drive circuit board.
> 
> ...


This S3 was purchased in April 2006. The hard drive is original.

I popped the cover off and looked at all the caps and none are bulged.

It seems to have settled down, but I'll keep an eye on it.


----------



## teasip (Aug 24, 2002)

FWIW, I'm using Verizon FiOS/cablecard with a S3 HD that has a 1TB HD that I placed myself a year or so ago. I've noticed the same brief periods of lag/audio drop as well on several channels. Using HDMI to set and Toslink to old 5.1 receiver. I've had my cover off previously and haven't noticed any cap bulges but I do have a backup of both the original drive which I have stored away, as well as the 1TB drive.


----------



## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

Saturn said:


> When my S3 capacitors started bulging I just replaced them all. Actually I think I may have missed one or two under the heatsink that I didn't see at first.
> 
> I ordered from Mouser. They will ship USPS First Class Mail if you ask them to in your order notes and you will save a couple dollars.
> 
> ...


"...I may have missed one or two under the heatsink that I didn't see at first."

And where do you think the ones most likely to be going bad are most likely to be located.

Actually, the ones most likely to be going bad will be on the +5V and +12V outputs, + lead connected to red or yellow wire and - lead to black wires.


----------



## loubob57 (Mar 19, 2001)

The symptoms are still there. It will run fine for 15 minutes then the audio will drop out and the picture will freeze for a second or two and it will do that 3 or 4 times. Then it will run fine for 10-15 minutes again. Lather, rinse, ... It is also slow on responding to remote button pushes sometimes.

Does that sound like power supply or hard drive?


----------



## lillevig (Dec 7, 2010)

How's your signal strength? Low signal input can cause similar problems on digital channels.


----------



## loubob57 (Mar 19, 2001)

lillevig said:


> How's your signal strength? Low signal input can cause similar problems on digital channels.


Never had a problem with signal strength. I've got a rooftop antenna and am about 30 miles from the transmitters.


----------



## slowbiscuit (Sep 19, 2006)

loubob57 said:


> The symptoms are still there. It will run fine for 15 minutes then the audio will drop out and the picture will freeze for a second or two and it will do that 3 or 4 times. Then it will run fine for 10-15 minutes again. Lather, rinse, ... It is also slow on responding to remote button pushes sometimes.
> 
> Does that sound like power supply or hard drive?


Definitely the HD IMO, had the same problem on a Hitachi 1TB a few months ago. Would freeze/resume on various shows and got worse over time to the point where the Tivo would reboot.

You need to backup/upsize the drive now before it fails, especially since its the original S3 drive.


----------



## loubob57 (Mar 19, 2001)

I was just going to get a replacement drive from Weaknees.


----------



## Teeps (Aug 16, 2001)

loubob57 said:


> I was just going to get a replacement drive from Weaknees.


That'll work.
Now would be a good time to get a larger drive.


----------



## mattack (Apr 9, 2001)

steve614 said:


> I suppose it would be possible that a bad power supply *could* damage the electronics on the hard drive circuit board.


I don't have absolute proof, but I had a S3 whose hard drive died (doesn't even show up as an attached device to a computer), but still spins up when it gets power... THEN the S3 itself died VERY soon after.. or maybe it was the same time, I honestly don't remember now..

But I got a S3 that supposedly arrived today to hopefully use for parts (power supply first), to revive my lifetime S3, then hope to buy an exact drive on eBay to revive my recordings.. If that works, then I'll likely transfer the recordings & sell the fixed S3 and get an XL4 for the more tuners.


----------



## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

mattack said:


> I don't have absolute proof, but I had a S3 whose hard drive died (doesn't even show up as an attached device to a computer), but still spins up when it gets power... THEN the S3 itself died VERY soon after.. or maybe it was the same time, I honestly don't remember now..
> 
> But I got a S3 that supposedly arrived today to hopefully use for parts (power supply first), to revive my lifetime S3, then hope to buy an exact drive on eBay to revive my recordings.. If that works, then I'll likely transfer the recordings & sell the fixed S3 and get an XL4 for the more tuners.


"...then hope to buy an exact drive on eBay to revive my recordings.. "

Are you talking about a paddle board swap, or putting the current platter assembly into the new drive?


----------



## loubob57 (Mar 19, 2001)

It seemed to work pretty well this evening, but that doesn't matter too much because ... I ordered a Premiere yesterday to replace this S3 and it showed up today! So now I have 2 Premieres a 45 Hr and a 75 Hr.

Since the S3 has lifetime it would be worth it to fix it so I'll try copying this drive to another SATA drive I have from an old computer. But there's no rush now.


----------



## mattack (Apr 9, 2001)

unitron said:


> "...then hope to buy an exact drive on eBay to revive my recordings.. "
> 
> Are you talking about a paddle board swap, or putting the current platter assembly into the new drive?


A controller card swap.. Since the drive DOES get power and spins (I can feel it), it seems to me that it's not *completely* unreasonable that the controller died. I do not want to pass on myths, but "supposedly" drive recovery companies often also "just" swap controller cards, and I have seen a few anecdotal examples of people saying they successfully swapped controller cards to 'revive' a drive. (Not a drive on a Tivo, but that part is irrelevant.)

Though my probably-futile dreams are on hold, because they sent me a Tivo HD instead of an OLED S3. (Looking at the original auction again, there definitely were mentions of BOTH the OLED S3 and Tivo HD model #s, but it also mentioned OLED, 250 GB hard drive, etc... I contacted the seller, and will go through the eBay dispute process if necessary.)

Heck, if I had access to a clean room, etc., I would even be curious about the latter.. (yes, I know it's "only" TV recordings)


----------



## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

mattack said:


> A controller card swap.. Since the drive DOES get power and spins (I can feel it), it seems to me that it's not *completely* unreasonable that the controller died. I do not want to pass on myths, but "supposedly" drive recovery companies often also "just" swap controller cards, and I have seen a few anecdotal examples of people saying they successfully swapped controller cards to 'revive' a drive. (Not a drive on a Tivo, but that part is irrelevant.)
> 
> Though my probably-futile dreams are on hold, because they sent me a Tivo HD instead of an OLED S3. (Looking at the original auction again, there definitely were mentions of BOTH the OLED S3 and Tivo HD model #s, but it also mentioned OLED, 250 GB hard drive, etc... I contacted the seller, and will go through the eBay dispute process if necessary.)
> 
> Heck, if I had access to a clean room, etc., I would even be curious about the latter.. (yes, I know it's "only" TV recordings)


Yeah, but they're *your* TV recordings!


----------



## loubob57 (Mar 19, 2001)

loubob57 said:


> It seemed to work pretty well this evening, but that doesn't matter too much because ... I ordered a Premiere yesterday to replace this S3 and it showed up today! So now I have 2 Premieres a 45 Hr and a 75 Hr.
> 
> Since the S3 has lifetime it would be worth it to fix it so I'll try copying this drive to another SATA drive I have from an old computer. But there's no rush now.


I made a backup of my S3 drive and copied onto an old Seagate 1 TB drive I had. The process was pretty easy, but it did take 2 tries to get past a disk error. The old "inode error" that I'm not alone in seeing. Anyhow, I'll see if it works OK as a bedroom TiVo, or maybe sell it to a friend.


----------



## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

loubob57 said:


> I made a backup of my S3 drive and copied onto an old Seagate 1 TB drive I had. The process was pretty easy, but it did take 2 tries to get past a disk error. The old "inode error" that I'm not alone in seeing. Anyhow, I'll see if it works OK as a bedroom TiVo, or maybe sell it to a friend.


You know that cap you replaced? It was probably in parallel (+ lead connected to same place, - lead connected to same place) with another cap of the same rating.

Which means that other cap was doing double duty.

You ordered like 4 of them, right?

Get the soldering iron back out.

Can't hurt, might help.

It doesn't have to show a bulge or a leak to be less than perfect.


----------



## Hank (May 31, 2000)

Saturn said:


> When my S3 capacitors started bulging I just replaced them all. Actually I think I may have missed one or two under the heatsink that I didn't see at first.
> 
> These are all low ESR and good brands, in case anybody wants to save the hour or two it can take to track them all down.
> 
> ...


thread bump ---

Thanks for all your footwork. Ordered just now! The 2 470uF 16V were back ordered, but I got the rest, plus 2x 2200uF 6.3V caps that weren't on your list, but in my PS.


----------



## HerronScott (Jan 1, 2002)

In case anyone is looking for a parts list for the original S3 OLED power supply. I posted what I bought in this thread.

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=9131293#post9131293

TiVo S3 OLED capacitor list:
3Y power supply: CP-1104 R2
TiVo PN: SPWR-00008-000 Rev A3

I went ahead and replaced 11 of the 15 capacitors to hopefully preemptively catch any of the other primary ones that might fail. The ones that I replaced fall into 3 main groups on the power supply board so that's how I've listed them starting with the ones that were bulging on mine.

C401 2200uF 6.3V Panasonic EEU-FR0J222 Digikey P14365-ND $0.81
C402 2200uF 6.3V Panasonic EEU-FR0J222 Digikey P14365-ND $0.81

C601 2200uF 16V Panasonic EEU-FR1C222 Digikey P14402-ND $1.01
C701 2200uF 25V Panasonic EEU-FR1E222L Digikey P14428-ND $1.43
C501 3300uF 10V Panasonic EEU-FR1A332 Digikey P14383-ND $1.01
C502 3300uF 10V Panasonic EEU-FR1A332 Digikey P14383-ND $1.01
C503 3300uF 10V Panasonic EEU-FR1A332 Digikey P14383-ND $1.01

C50? 3300uF 10V Panasonic EEU-FR1A332 Digikey P14383-ND $1.01
C603 470uF 16V Panasonic EEU-FR1C471 Digikey P14394-ND $0.49
C702 470uF 16V Panasonic EEU-FR1C471 Digikey P14394-ND $0.49
C403 1000uF 6.3V Panasonic EEU-FM0J102 Digikey P12340-ND $0.51

All are rated at [email protected] except for the last 3 which are [email protected] and [email protected] Cost was $9.59 in parts plus $0.48 tax and $4.91 S&H for a total of $14.98.

Scott


----------



## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

As far as I know the original S3 only used the one power supply model, but the S3 HD, and, I suspect therefore the HD XL, used at least 2 different models, so HD owners should open it up before ordering capacitors, not after.


----------



## HerronScott (Jan 1, 2002)

unitron said:


> As far as I know the original S3 only used the one power supply model, but the S3 HD, and, I suspect therefore the HD XL, used at least 2 different models, so HD owners should open it up before ordering capacitors, not after.


Actually good thing to know as I just picked up a TiVoHD for my son to take to college and after upgrading the stock 160GB drive to 2TB, I also checked out the power supply and capacitors. This particular power supply was SPWR-00011-000 Rev B0 (model ST7002-BW0G) and looked to be a far simpler design than what's in my 2 S3 OLED units. There were only 6 capactors that I would consider replacing in it versus the 11 in the OLED models.

Scott


----------



## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

HerronScott said:


> Actually good thing to know as I just picked up a TiVoHD for my son to take to college and after upgrading the stock 160GB drive to 2TB, I also checked out the power supply and capacitors. This particular power supply was SPWR-00011-000 Rev B0 (model ST7002-BW0G) and looked to be a far simpler design than what's in my 2 S3 OLED units. There were only 6 capactors that I would consider replacing in it versus the 11 in the OLED models.
> 
> Scott


What brand and model of 2TB drive did you use and has it given any trouble?


----------



## HerronScott (Jan 1, 2002)

I used a WD20EURS and no trouble so far however my son hasn't used it much so far at school yet since the new season for most shows hasn't started.

Scott


----------



## lrhorer (Aug 31, 2003)

HerronScott said:


> Cost was $9.59 in parts plus $0.48 tax and $4.91 S&H for a total of $14.98.


Don't you just *HATE* spending over $5 in shipping and tax to get under $10 worth of materials?


----------



## Hank (May 31, 2000)

lrhorer said:


> Don't you just *HATE* spending over $5 in shipping and tax to get under $10 worth of materials?


No, what I hate is spending $150 on a replacement hard drive when the HD was fine and the PS was bad.


----------



## Regardie (Dec 10, 2007)

My Series3 OLED started to have problems pairing with the CableCards on FIOS so I got Verizon to send out a new set. I pulled the TiVo out of the cabinet to get access for the CCs and found it full of dust. So I opened it up and blew out all the dust.

I put the lid back on it and powered it up, reboot loop. it made me sad.

So I did what any smart user would do, I turned to the forums to find a solution and I found this thread.

So I read up on the capacitor problem and sure enough, both my 6.3V, 2200mf caps were bulging.

So I ordered a full set of caps from Digikey, not quite the list from above, I picked some Rubycon over the Panasonics, (got two sets since I'm sure my other S3 OLED will have the same problem.

I added the 200v 470mf cap to the list, even though I saw some people say it is fine. I left out the three little ones that don't have a direct bearing on the power rails and were not on the above list either.

Tonight I took the time to recap the supply and put it all back together, plugged it in and it fired right up. Even the CCs came right up. I will swap out the CCs when I get some time, upgrading from S-card to M-Card to deal with the copy flag on HBO.

So thanks to everyone who made this $14 plus shippng fix possible.

I will add that it really is not that hard if you have any skill whatsoever with a soldering iron.


----------



## Hank (May 31, 2000)

Interesting. My parents have a Tivo HD, and Verizon just sent them two new CCs. They can't get them paired, so they're having a tech come out on Wednesday. I wonder if their PS is having the same problem. Otherwise, their Tivo *was* working properly. Does anyone have a list of caps for the Tivo HD, so next time I go to my parents, I can fix their PS? Thanks.


----------



## lrhorer (Aug 31, 2003)

Regardie said:


> I will add that it really is not that hard if you have any skill whatsoever with a soldering iron.


Absolutely. It's not a multi-layer board with hyper-fine traces and the components are not SMDs, with pads that lift off the board if you look at them wrong and form solder bridges just to mess with the technician doing the soldering. They are nice, big, robust pads that can take a lot of abuse, and don't require a magnifying glass, a hair fine soldering tip, or the steady hands of a surgeon.


----------



## HerronScott (Jan 1, 2002)

Hank said:


> Does anyone have a list of caps for the Tivo HD, so next time I go to my parents, I can fix their PS? Thanks.


Hank,

I just purchased a TiVoHD for my son and inventoried the power supply for the capacitors used and came up with the list below in case it ever has issues.

Note that Unitron has indicated that there are at least 2 different models of power supplies for the TiVoHD series so your list could be different. Also, I've not actually ordered or replaced these yet so it would be best if you both check your power supply model to see if it is the same and I'd like to have someone else validate the parts list since I was reading the capacitor sizes in place.

It is interesting that the TiVoHD power supply has far fewer capacitors than the TiVo S3 OLED.

TiVoHD capacitor list:
Acbel Polytech power supply: ST7002-BW0G
TiVo PN: SPWR-00011-000 Rev B0

C14 2200uF 16V Panasonic EEU-FR1C222 Digikey P14402-ND $1.01
C27 2200uF 16V Panasonic EEU-FR1C222 Digikey P14402-ND $1.01
C?? 2200uF 16V Panasonic EEU-FR1C222 Digikey P14402-ND $1.01
C31 1000uF 16V Panasonic EEU-FR1C102L Digikey P14397-ND $0.71

C15 1000uF 6.3V Panasonic EEU-FM0J102 Digikey P12340-ND $0.51
C20 470uF 16V Panasonic EEU-FR1C471 Digikey P14394-ND $0.49

All are rated at [email protected] except for the last 3 which are 9000hrs @105C, [email protected] and [email protected]

Scott


----------



## Hank (May 31, 2000)

Thanks.. it will be a while until I get down there next.


----------



## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

Hank said:


> Interesting. My parents have a Tivo HD, and Verizon just sent them two new CCs. They can't get them paired, so they're having a tech come out on Wednesday. I wonder if their PS is having the same problem. Otherwise, their Tivo *was* working properly. Does anyone have a list of caps for the Tivo HD, so next time I go to my parents, I can fix their PS? Thanks.


There are at least two different models of power supply that have been used in the HD.

You'll need low ESR, high temp (105 degrees) caps.

If you go there with 4 3300uF 16V and 4 2200uF 16V, that'll probably cover whatever you find that needs replacing.

The capacitors that have their negative leads attached to ground/the black wires (via the copper on the bottom of the circuit board)and their positive leads directly connected (via the copper on the bottom of the circuit board) to either the +12V output (the yellow wires) or the +5V output (the red wires) are the ones almost certain to be already bad, going bad, or most likely to go bad.

A 16V cap is the lowest rating you'd use on a +12V line.

I'd prefer a 6.3 V or a 10 V on the +5 output, but a 16 V is better than nothing or a bad cap.


----------



## Hank (May 31, 2000)

All done -- success!

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=9274445#post9274445

thanks everyone.

BTW, my parent's Tivo HD is working fine now that Verizon ran all new cable to and inside their house. So no PS problem with their box. Yet.


----------



## loubob57 (Mar 19, 2001)

My S3 has locked up a couple times in the last two days. So I'm gonna head to Fry's and buy the rest of the capacitors to replace all of them on the PS board.


----------



## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

loubob57 said:


> My S3 has locked up a couple times in the last two days. So I'm gonna head to Fry's and buy the rest of the capacitors to replace all of them on the PS board.


While you have the machine apart, hook the hard drive to something that'll boot from the Ultimate Boot CD and run the manufacturer's long diagnostic.

But if it's a GigaByte brand motherboard, say so first so we can discuss the necessary precautions to avoid having it put a Host Protected Area on the TiVo drive at boot.


----------



## loubob57 (Mar 19, 2001)

Another cap was bulging, so that was the culprit.

I went to Fry's and got the closest caps I could find. In several cases I couldn't find 10V so went with the 25V versions instead. Should work OK, they are just a bit bulkier than the originals. I soldered in 10 new caps and it booted up fine.

With the other one I replaced six months ago I think that covers the 11 that HerronScott mentions in post #26.

ETA: Didn't see the suggestion about the Ultimate Boot CD until after I was done. If it acts up again I'll give that a try.


----------



## Blahman (Mar 4, 2002)

HerronScott said:


> In case anyone is looking for a parts list for the original S3 OLED power supply. I posted what I bought in this thread.
> 
> http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=9131293#post9131293
> 
> ...


I was feeling bored, plus one of the S3 units I got in for spare parts needed some caps replaced so I took the list of 11 S3 OLED TCD648250B Capacitors from above and made a Project on Mouser.com and shared it to make ordering the parts easier.

To access the project, click on the url listed below or copy and paste it into your web browser:

http://www.mouser.com/ProjectManager/ProjectDetail.aspx?AccessID=1a42eea4c1

Or you can access the project by going to http://www.mouser.com/ and click on the EZ Buy option on the top navigation bar. You can also click on this link or copy and paste it into your browser: http://www.mouser.com/Tools/Tools.aspx. Then enter the following access number listed below into the Project Access ID function.

1a42eea4c1

MERCHANDISE TOTAL: $6.09 (USD)


----------



## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

Blahman said:


> I was feeling bored, plus one of the S3 units I got in for spare parts needed some caps replaced so I took the list of 11 S3 OLED TCD648250B Capacitors from above and made a Project on Mouser.com and shared it to make ordering the parts easier.
> 
> To access the project, click on the url listed below or copy and paste it into your web browser:
> 
> ...


You don't live any where near Detroit, do you?

I'm trying to help this guy

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=9456115#post9456115

with the version of the S3 HD power supply I've never seen in person (the one similar in appearance and layout to the 648's supply), and I'm worried he's going to get in over his head somewhere along the line.


----------



## Blahman (Mar 4, 2002)

unitron said:


> You don't live any where near Detroit, do you?
> 
> I'm trying to help this guy
> 
> ...


Unfortunately no, at least 10 hours of driving to get there. Sorry.


----------



## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

Blahman said:


> Unfortunately no, at least 10 hours of driving to get there. Sorry.


Feel free to drop in on that other thread and see if there's anything you think it might help him to hear.


----------



## antalo (May 9, 2001)

Blahman said:


> I was feeling bored, plus one of the S3 units I got in for spare parts needed some caps replaced so I took the list of 11 S3 OLED TCD648250B Capacitors from above and made a Project on Mouser.com and shared it to make ordering the parts easier.
> 
> To access the project, click on the url listed below or copy and paste it into your web browser:
> 
> ...


Did you create that project list or Scott ? I would like to get a project list for the S2 power supply The 240 and 540 series have the same power supply. 
Thanks for the outstanding work.


----------



## Blahman (Mar 4, 2002)

antalo said:


> Did you create that project list or Scott ? I would like to get a project list for the S2 power supply The 240 and 540 series have the same power supply.
> Thanks for the outstanding work.


HerronScott created the list of parts. I had to order them, so while I was on Mouser I saved out the project and shared it.

HerronScott , thank you again for that list. Just had to swap in my recently refurbished power supply into one of my Lifetime units. Your part list and the fact that it I already did the work meant very little downtime on the unit itself.

Just to note the symptoms from the unit while it had that failing PS in for others: Reboots, Lost channels, One Cable-Card lost pairing, random stuck on powering up, TiVo software corruption. All of those symptoms started in a matter of a 2 day window. Replaced PSU with the one refurbed using the parts purchased, TiVo software was force re-installed with Kickstart code to fix last of issues, and the S3 has been fine since.


----------



## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

antalo said:


> Did you create that project list or Scott ? I would like to get a project list for the S2 power supply The 240 and 540 series have the same power supply.
> Thanks for the outstanding work.


Actually the 240 and the 540 have similar supplies with the same pinout, but the 540 supply has a little less ampacity than the 240, and probably should not be used in a 240 for extended periods, although it should be okay for a short period for test purposes.


----------



## HerronScott (Jan 1, 2002)

Blahman said:


> HerronScott created the list of parts. I had to order them, so while I was on Mouser I saved out the project and shared it.
> 
> HerronScott , thank you again for that list. Just had to swap in my recently refurbished power supply into one of my Lifetime units. Your part list and the fact that it I already did the work meant very little downtime on the unit itself.


Glad it helped someone else and I think your project at Mouser was a great idea as well! Waiting for the off-season to pre-emptively repair the power supply in my second S3 OLED which has some bulging caps but is still working.

Scott


----------



## lew (Mar 12, 2002)

lrhorer said:


> Don't you just *HATE* spending over $5 in shipping and tax to get under $10 worth of materials?


The company which delivers the product gets paid. Would you rather pay $10 and get free shipping? Order one item and there isn't a difference. Order two items and paying for shipping would cost less, probably around $15 instead of $20.

Order from monoprice and some of us keeping adding stuff until the shipping charge bumps up to the next level, then drop that last item.


----------



## Strapped4Cash (Feb 29, 2008)

Bulging C401 and C402 were the culprit in my S3. Thanks for the list and everyone's input. It made my fix quick and painless.


----------



## jack2377 (Mar 8, 2007)

Thanks so much guys for the capacitor parts list and Mouser project list! My S3 was stuck in an endless reboot cycle. I checked and found several bulged electrolytic cases. I replaced all the electrolytics on the secondary side and now Tivo is happy again. The Mouser project list saved me a bunch of time running down low ESR parts, thanks so much!


----------



## Hank (May 31, 2000)

I'm surprised there isn't a bigger market for this. I had a VIZIO TV power supply go bad due to the Capacitor Plague, and there are dozens of capacitor repair kits for TVs on ebay and Amazon for $10-$15 which include all the required caps, but NONE of these kits for Tivos.


----------



## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

Hank said:


> I'm surprised there isn't a bigger market for this. I had a VIZIO TV power supply go bad due to the Capacitor Plague, and there are dozens of capacitor repair kits for TVs on ebay and Amazon for $10-$15 which include all the required caps, but NONE of these kits for Tivos.


The guy at lcdalternatives.com expressed some interest, but needed to know what caps to stock for which models.

It's not like there's any hope of getting hold of a service manual for any of them.


----------



## squint (Jun 15, 2008)

Hank said:


> I'm surprised there isn't a bigger market for this. I had a VIZIO TV power supply go bad due to the Capacitor Plague, and there are dozens of capacitor repair kits for TVs on ebay and Amazon for $10-$15 which include all the required caps, but NONE of these kits for Tivos.


I ordered 380 capacitors at one point and I believe I managed to get the price down to $7 for the 648250B and maybe $3-4 for the 652/658. I never actually sold capacitor kits, just used them for power supplies people sent me to fix or for broken lifetime S3s I bought really cheap off of eBay.


----------

