# HDMI blackout after HD upgrade



## Solman (Nov 26, 2006)

I've done about 6 HD upgrades with my 5 tivos without a problem until now. I have two tivo series 3 on OTAs and decided to upgrade both to 2 TB. I have always split the signal on RCA to other TVs in house with the HDMI going to my main (60") TV in my living room. I now experience a momentary blackout on both tivos that occurs about 3-5 times during a half hour show. I lose both sound and video, but only on HDMI-all other TVs on the RCA cables work fine. I also have a premiere (no upgrade) that is unaffected. I tried several hdmi cables as well as switch the inputs at the tv with solving the issue. 

Could this possibly be a problem with both of the new drives. Any other ideas? I went so far as to replace my hdmi cables with expensive cables from monoprice to no avail. Ironically I can watch the two series 3s in any room other than the living room but lose the hdmi. I am out of ideas---Help!!!


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## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

Solman said:


> I've done about 6 HD upgrades with my 5 tivos without a problem until now. I have two tivo series 3 on OTAs and decided to upgrade both to 2 TB. I have always split the signal on RCA to other TVs in house with the HDMI going to my main (60") TV in my living room. I now experience a momentary blackout on both tivos that occurs about 3-5 times during a half hour show. I lose both sound and video, but only on HDMI-all other TVs on the RCA cables work fine. I also have a premiere (no upgrade) that is unaffected. I tried several hdmi cables as well as switch the inputs at the tv with solving the issue.
> 
> Could this possibly be a problem with both of the new drives. Any other ideas? I went so far as to replace my hdmi cables with expensive cables from monoprice to no avail. Ironically I can watch the two series 3s in any room other than the living room but lose the hdmi. I am out of ideas---Help!!!


Did you unhook all the cables and stuff from both 652s and move them to somewhere better for opening them up and removing the drives?

(did you take advantage of having them open to eyeball the power supply capacitors?)

It's a very long shot, but perhaps you managed to slightly damage the HDMI jacks on both machines, or their solder connections to their respective motherboards.


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## Solman (Nov 26, 2006)

unitron said:


> Did you unhook all the cables and stuff from both 652s and move them to somewhere better for opening them up and removing the drives?
> 
> (did you take advantage of having them open to eyeball the power supply capacitors?)
> 
> It's a very long shot, but perhaps you managed to slightly damage the HDMI jacks on both machines, or their solder connections to their respective motherboards.


I did unhook the cables and moved them out of the way before replacing the drives-I was very careful with this procedure. Likewise, I was just as careful with the entire procedure. I can't imagine that I did anything that would cause not one, but two tivos the same problem. I did not check out the capacitors and would not know what to look for. This is the fifth and sixth time I've done this process and never had a problem before. I am stumped!


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## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

Solman said:


> I did unhook the cables and moved them out of the way before replacing the drives-I was very careful with this procedure. Likewise, I was just as careful with the entire procedure. I can't imagine that I did anything that would cause not one, but two tivos the same problem. I did not check out the capacitors and would not know what to look for. This is the fifth and sixth time I've done this process and never had a problem before. I am stumped!


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague

will give you an overview of the problem, and here's a picture

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=8824333#post8824333

that shows just how subtle the visual clue can be, but a cap can be bad and not show visually, so it also helps to check the power supply's DC outputs with a voltmeter.

I don't see how a new hard drive could possibly be causing your HDMI problem, and for the problem to hit both units simultaneously is really strange and reduces the chance of it being caused by any expanation I can come up with.

Did you image each new drive from the drive it was to replace, or did you do both from the same image? (I'm grasping at straws here).


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