# Series1...maybe motherboard?



## chips34 (Dec 26, 2011)

Hi I have two series1 tivo's , one tive is having a problem booting up but since the HD was making a lot of noise i thought that was the problem so i had a quickview HD and clone it but still would not boot so i took the HD from the good tivo and put it into the non working tivo and started right up so i would think its the tivo it self and not the HD.......it starts to boot and the screen flickers and reboots for a few mins and then gets stuck on the "your recorder is starting up" error.......I guess if its a tivo MB problem its not worth fixing or is it? Thanks


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## Automan (Oct 29, 2000)

Power supply unit?

Automan.


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## rickynumber18 (Feb 28, 2007)

I don't think you can just swap HDDs from one TiVo to another either. I tried that years ago when I had a couple of TiVo and it caused no end of headaches.


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## spitfires (Dec 19, 2006)

If you took the disc from a working TiVo and installed it and it worked then the original HD is faulty. (Hint: if you clone a non-bootable TiVo disc then all you usually end up with is _2_ non-bootable discs  ).

Sure way to tell is to install the suspect disc in your working TiVo - if it now _doesn't _boot then you have confirmed the disc as being the fault.

Don't forget that hard discs should only be expected to last 2-3 years, after that you are on borrowed time (yes yes I know someone will come along and say they've had a disc running for a gazillion years blah blah, but the point is that after 2-3 years you should be _planning_ for failure).


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## TCM2007 (Dec 25, 2006)

rickynumber18 said:


> I don't think you can just swap HDDs from one TiVo to another either. I tried that years ago when I had a couple of TiVo and it caused no end of headaches.


Yes you can.


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## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

TCM2007 said:


> Yes you can.


You can swap drives from one TiVo to another of the same model but it'll give you an error message when it discovers the mismatch in TiVo Service Numbers, and you'll have to let it clear and delete everything and go through Guided Setup again.

I think if you do a clear and delete everything on the "good" drive first and then move it to the other machine it'll just boot up to Guided Setup, but I can't swear to that.


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## chips34 (Dec 26, 2011)

Yes they are the same model tivo's ....i thought it was a hard drive problem but like i said when i put in the HD from the working drive i get the same bootup problem...............

So maybe it is a bad power unit.....


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## spitfires (Dec 19, 2006)

unitron said:


> You can swap drives from one TiVo to another of the same model but it'll give you an error message when it discovers the mismatch in TiVo Service Numbers


I swap discs between Tivos all the time and I've never seen any such error message. Are you sure you are thinking about _S1_ Tivos and not later models?



chips34 said:


> i thought it was a hard drive problem but like i said when i put in the HD from the working drive i get the same bootup problem


  That's not what you said here:


chips34 said:


> i took the HD from the good tivo and put it into the non working tivo and started right up


I read that as you took the disc from a working Tivo, placed it in your suspect Tivo and it started ok. Thereby proving the original disc as faulty.


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## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

spitfires said:


> I swap discs between Tivos all the time and I've never seen any such error message. Are you sure you are thinking about _S1_ Tivos and not later models?...


Perhaps the S1s just go straight to guided setup, and straighten out the TSN difference that way.

I have 2, but one's a Philips and one's a Sony, so even though you can swap images if you use the wrong remote, it's not going to be an accurate indication of swapping drives between 2 indentical Philips units.

When you swap drives you can't watch on the second unit shows recorded on the first, can you?


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## katman (Jun 4, 2002)

unitron said:


> I have 2, but one's a Philips and one's a Sony, so even though you can swap images if you use the wrong remote, it's not going to be an accurate indication of swapping drives between 2 indentical Philips units.


This being the UK forum we only ever had the Thomson model. I would suspect that being motherboards from differnt manufacturers could possible cause some problems as well with regard to drivers for the actual hardware on the boards unless they were a truely identical design.


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## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

katman said:


> This being the UK forum we only ever had the Thomson model. I would suspect that being motherboards from differnt manufacturers could possible cause some problems as well with regard to drivers for the actual hardware on the boards unless they were a truely identical design.


The Philips and Sony boards are nearly identical, and the software's close enough that either will work on either, now that there are no more updates coming down, but you have to use the remote control that matches the software, not the box.


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## katman (Jun 4, 2002)

OK, didnt know that, just guessing


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## spitfires (Dec 19, 2006)

unitron said:


> When you swap drives you can't watch on the second unit shows recorded on the first, can you?


Yes you can with the S1 Thomson - just take the disc out and pop it in another TiVo and it works straight away (no GS or whatever is required - it just works :up: )


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## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

spitfires said:


> Yes you can with the S1 Thomson - just take the disc out and pop it in another TiVo and it works straight away (no GS or whatever is required - it just works :up: )


And the content providers didn't scream to high heaven about that?


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## Furball (Dec 6, 2001)

spitfires said:


> (yes yes I know someone will come along and say they've had a disc running for a gazillion years blah blah, but the point is that after 2-3 years you should be _planning_ for failure).


Blah blah 9yrs plus now blah blah 

Furball


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## spitfires (Dec 19, 2006)

unitron said:


> And the content providers didn't scream to high heaven about that?


 No, why would they? 
I'm not _copying _the programme. It's no different to recording a programme on a VHS tape and then watching it on a different machine.


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