# Stuck at "Powering Up..." Think MoBo is ill



## QBiN (May 23, 2006)

Ok, I *tried* to go the DIY route, because I figured I know my way around PC's and I have a EE degree. No luck.

I turned on the TV on connected to my SA1 Philips HDR112. It was stuck at the "powering up" screen. A couple of power cycles... nothing. Leaving it cold for a day... nothing.

So I tried a fresh Hard Drive following the advice of many stickies here. It's a Western Digital WD800JB. I imaged it using InstantCake. Popped it in using the same stock IDE cable and power connector........ nothing. Crap!

I thought, maybe the power supply. So I bought a new SA1 power supply from weaknees... nada.

HELP! What now? I've replaced the PS and the HD with no change. It has Lifetime service, so I'm reluctant to throw it away altogether.

I even tried going in through the serial console, but apparently, the default "factory" password doesn't work for me. Any ideas? Wisdom? Condolences?


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## funtoupgrade (Mar 15, 2005)

Have you tried replacing the hard drive cable? Is the fresh hard drive known to work? If so and you can't figure out how to get this unit going you can send it Philips and for $80 they will send you a refurbed unit with lifetime moved to it. This price is only if hard drive is good. Here is a link:

http://system.s2gstore.com/site/TiVo/index.htm

If you do end up sending it in stick the old power supply back in.


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## HomeUser (Jan 12, 2003)

Here is the oblatory did you set the jumper to stand alone Master? Some TiVos do not work with the drive set to Cable Select.


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## QBiN (May 23, 2006)

The replacement drive is brand-new out of the protective anti-static bag. I ran "mfstools info" on it after I ran InstantCake just to verify the image took while still connected to my spare PC. And it seems it did.

The drive is hard-jumpered to be Master, but I didn't try replacing the IDE cable. Partly because I didn't have a spare cable that didn't block out that one pin that Philips insisted on including that's usually missing from a standard IDE connector.

How likely is it that it's the cable? Have IDE cables in the SA1's really been known to go bad?!


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## HomeUser (Jan 12, 2003)

Was the TiVo working before you attempted the upgrade? 

If you power on the TiVo without a drive do you get the same "stuck at the "powering up" screen" symptom? 

FWIW, the WD800JB the jumpers should be removed in a single drive configuration. 

In your position I would try "maketivobootable" just to see what happens.


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## QBiN (May 23, 2006)

HomeUser said:


> Was the TiVo working before you attempted the upgrade?
> 
> If you power on the TiVo without a drive do you get the same "stuck at the "powering up" screen" symptom?
> 
> ...


Yeah, the Tivo was fine... it was a totally stock 14hour. I wasn't trying to upgrade, either. I only grabbed the new 80GB drive after the factory Quantum drive appeared to have croaked. The original Quantum won't spin-up. It just clicks. It wouldn't show up in my Bios on my linux box either.

So that led me to believe it was the drive. But I'll boot the new replacement drive and try the "maketivobootable" command. Although, I'd be pleasantly surprised if that did it because I would have thought InstantCake should have taken care of all of that.

I'll report back later tonight. Thanks for the ongoing advice/tips!


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## QBiN (May 23, 2006)

SUCCESS!

You got me on the right track. The replacement drive was, indeed, not bootable. For some reason, InstantCake, though appearing to have worked, wasn't properly setting the Master Boot Record correctly.

The folks at PTVUpgrade said that this occurs occasionally with certain mobo chipsets and they can't predict which. Fortunately they have a workaround.

Search the DVR-playground forums for the workaround.

I used their work-around, and presto! the replacement drive is now bootable. I'm going through Guided Setup now.

Thanks all for the help!


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## HomeUser (Jan 12, 2003)

Congratulations, After getting it all setup you might want to make a small backup using MFSTools or with Instant Cake if it has that option. Before putting the tools away.


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