# Series 3 HD tivo HD problems



## Cutfirst (Sep 2, 2012)

I have a HighDef tivo and had a WD external hard drive hooked up through ESata. Has worked great for over 3 years. Then a short time ago the tivo started getting stuck on "Welcome! Powering up..." screen. I researched these forums and the problem seemed to point to a hard drive problem after the initial steps of evaluation failed. My first thought was the tivo hard drive because I have had multiple tivo HD fail in the past. But before I went to gutting my tivo and replacing the internal hard drive, I tried uninstalling the external HD and poof. It would work. So naturally I blamed the external HD and bought a new one ... hooked it up ... and now same problem. Best thought I have now is to blame the ESata port on the tivo itself and I have no clue how to problem shoot that one.

Any help would be appreciated.


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## L David Matheny (Jan 29, 2011)

Cutfirst said:


> I have a HighDef tivo and had a WD external hard drive hooked up through ESata. Has worked great for over 3 years. Then a short time ago the tivo started getting stuck on "Welcome! Powering up..." screen. I researched these forums and the problem seemed to point to a hard drive problem after the initial steps of evaluation failed. My first thought was the tivo hard drive because I have had multiple tivo HD fail in the past. But before I went to gutting my tivo and replacing the internal hard drive, I tried uninstalling the external HD and poof. It would work. So naturally I blamed the external HD and bought a new one ... hooked it up ... and now same problem. Best thought I have now is to blame the ESata port on the tivo itself and I have no clue how to problem shoot that one.
> 
> Any help would be appreciated.


Try a different eSATA cable, maybe several even. It seems that eSATA is not a very robust connection method. And it may also be that some cables happen to fit the TiVo's eSATA connector better than others.


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## Cutfirst (Sep 2, 2012)

I did try that. I used both my old Esata and the new one that came with the new external hard drive.

On a completely different note ... anyone interested in a brand spanking new 1TB external hard drive?


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## L David Matheny (Jan 29, 2011)

Cutfirst said:


> I did try that. I used both my old Esata and the new one that came with the new external hard drive.
> 
> On a completely different note ... anyone interested in a brand spanking new 1TB external hard drive?


You might still want to pull the internal drive and run the manufacturer's diagnostics on it before you assume that it wasn't the problem. Or maybe (as you said) the eSATA port has actually failed somehow. The answer to that would be to stop using it and just upgrade the internal drive.


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## Cutfirst (Sep 2, 2012)

Well I am able to remove the external hard drive and wipe the TIVO. Then it all works fine ... albeit with a tiny internal hard drive. Next thought is a new internal hard drive upgrade.


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