# Confirmed: Bolt is overheating and causing signal loss



## CommanderVimes (Jul 4, 2018)

*Problem Statement*
At some point a couple of months ago my Tivo Mini became unable to properly display HD channels. They would be pixelated and halting. SD channels worked ok (mostly). Upstairs Bolt appeared to be working fine.

*My Setup*
My only other box is a Bolt which runs the Moca network. Fairly simple configuration with two TVs and two Tivo's. Should be easy to isolate the problem, right? Keep in mind this had been working fine for the better part of a 1.5 years, so we have a baseline of "stuff was working".

*The Journey*
For the past several weeks I've gone a familiar route bouncing back and forth between Tivo and my cable provider. Tivo has been pretty adamant that the signal is wonky, need attenuators, and so on.

Cable company has been out several times to check the lines. Last guy was pretty experienced and tightened up my Moca configuration. He put a PoE filter and reduced the splits down to just the two cables with a higher quality splitter. Something that could have been done sooner, but again... everything had been working.

I had also monkeyed around with the signal levels, trying to hit the magic (but moving) target of SNR 29-35 keeping signal strength above 80. I didn't have attenuators on hand, but was able to daisy chain a few splitters to hit SNR:30 & SS:80. Still... same problem.

*Replacement Mini*
At this point Tivo reached the end of the script so they sent a replacement mini. Quite a few hours involved in switching those, while also waiting 2-3 days for the mini to finish "downloading", with the final result being... same problem. Put my old mini back and sent back the broken replacement.

*The AHA Moment*
I went to switch some cabling around on the Bolt almost burned my fingers on the cable connector. The connection was crazy hot, along with other areas of the chassis that were too hot to touch for long. So after weeks of trying to figure out cabling and signaling, I was now looking into heat capacity of the unit.

From several resources, including some posts on this board (many thanks!) I learned about ODT and other potential issues this unit has with cooling. First thing I wondered is with all those minutes (hours?) spent on the phone talking with Tivo support about SNR and all the other acronyms they care about to prove bad signal, why is not on the script to ask about temperature? Pretty basic problem if a device is overheating. This part I find especially frustrating.

Just from the specs, the unit is supposed to handle room temps up to 95 F and shut down if it gets too hot. Makes sense, but what tells it to shut down? The temp sensor in the core could be in range while other onboard components are melting. Most PCs have shut down switches if the core overheats, but if the power supply burns hot and melts stuff around it the PC will soldier on (and have a lot of really weird problems).

My bolt had an ODT of 72... that's flipping hot for a device. Tivo also doesn't appear to have an operating range for ODT, which is really baffling. If it doesn't shut down at that point... then when!? At that temperature it could not display HD video without pixelating; nor could it record without pixelating. This was the same issue I'd had on the mini for weeks that now is being seen on the Bolt.

*The Big Test*
So the intermittent nature of the problem made this more challenging, since depending on the temperature of the box things worked sometimes. Still, the ultimate test is cooling down the Bolt and seeing if order is restored (assuming parts aren't melted). So the Bolt was turned off for 2-3 hours and allowed to completely cool. Upon restarting it came up at ODT 36.

And at that temperature everything... worked.

All of the problems were gone. I could watch all the channels on the Mini without pixelating, record and playback with no issues.

*Remaining Problem to Solve*
So moving forward I need to figure out how to keep the Bolt cooler. I'll do more research but don't really want to crack the box open as some have done.

The Bolt sits in a large, open closet in a good sized stand on a shelf to itself. Other components are also on their shelves with a lot of ventilation. So it's not getting super heated by neighbor components or sitting on hot things. It just can't operate on its own without overheating.

Maybe this will help someone else to check temp much sooner and save time. There is without a doubt a temperature above which the Bolt will not operate properly.


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## cwerdna (Feb 22, 2001)

Just buy a USB-powered laptop cooler w/fan(s).

I've posted a few times on this:
BOLT Stock Cooling SUCKS
BOLT Stock Cooling SUCKS
New Bolts MAY Have Better Fans
Bolt USBs - Power Specs

Since it is warmer these days with the aforementioned non-adjustable Zalman cooler, my ODT is currently 60 C. IIRC, I've seen it at 62 C in afternoons.

My house has no AC other than a "portable" rolling AC I only use on the hottest of days upstairs. The Bolt+ is downstairs so it gains no benefit from the "portable" AC.


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## fcfc2 (Feb 19, 2015)

The cooling on the Bolt series has been a source of complaints since the beginning. It has even been alleged that the crooked case design was an attempt to help overcome an otherwise incredibly poorly ventilated case....and for some folks like you this is not sufficient. 
Since you are unwilling to open the case, you have limited options. A few folks have benefited by simply putting "legs" of some sort to raise the unit and allow for better circulation, but this may not be sufficient for you, so the next alternative would be some sort of USB fan/ laptop cooler which you can plug into one of the Bolts USB ports as previously suggested to force more air in and around your Bolt. 
If you are paying monthly, you could possibly get Tivo to replace the unit but then you will need to transfer the recordings to your replacement...and this may not solve the problem long term.


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## CommanderVimes (Jul 4, 2018)

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm just now finding out about the cooling and design issues that have apparently been a problem for a while... which makes it more frustrating that it never came up on any of the Tivo support calls. However the Bolt is indeed in an upstairs room that gets quite a bit warmer in the Summer. 

I'm not opposed to cracking the box but would prefer to try other options first. Primarily I need to figure what a good target range is for my box.


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## Mikeguy (Jul 28, 2005)

Possibilities:









https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B073VKC134/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=AW13UINL7OIS9&psc=1









https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01MZ6T8VF/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?smid=A2AW0W4FKP16S5&psc=1









https://www.amazon.com/AC-Infinity-...rd_wg=czCyl&psc=1&refRID=SGBXTS626AW12B7FXD2V









https://www.amazon.com/Havit-HV-F20...1530717047&sr=1-6&keywords=laptop+cooling+pad


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## cwerdna (Feb 22, 2001)

If you have a Fry's near you, perhaps subscribe to their "bacn" (Official Gmail Blog: Gmail eats your Bacn) email list for ads and promo codes.

Sometimes, USB-powered laptop coolers with fans are available for cheap.

Since most are cheap, I doubt most of them are intended for 24/7 operation over several years, so I figure I'll pick up some spares every now as replacements when the bearings on one finally crap out. So far, none have hit that yet.

Newegg, New, Laptop Cooling Pads, Laptop Accessories, Computer Systems - Newegg.com has some, but I see some of the ones I bought for cheap from Fry's on sale are much more $ at Newegg.

Honestly, I doubt elevating a TiVo Bolt alone will be anywhere near as effective as a decent laptop cooling pad w/a fan.


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## jadziedzic (Apr 20, 2009)

Re the burning hot coax connector on the Bolt: I encountered the same issue (and same pixelation issues) about two years ago on a Bolt+. After I pulled the Bolt+ out of my A/V and let it cool down it started working properly again. I checked the ODT and it tended to run hot. Unfortunately, a year later the Bolt+ died completely (unable to record or view any channel on any tuner, but prior recordings play back fine), and I suspect it was due to thermal issues that borked something on the motherboard.


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## krkaufman (Nov 25, 2003)

CommanderVimes said:


> So moving forward I need to figure out how to keep the Bolt cooler. I'll do more research but don't really want to crack the box open as some have done.


So this is probably not the route you'd wanna take... My Awesome BOLT Cooling Mods ;-)

edit: p.s. Yet another BOLT temp thread: Bolt + ODT Temp


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## jlb (Dec 13, 2001)

Mine is running hot at 71 right now but a lot of that HAS to be the insanely warm weather we have been having. I received yesterday one of the AC Infinity fans that *Mikeguy* posted above. I have it blowing across the box for now as I work towards putting my riser solution together (4 caps from 48oz bottles of Stok brand cold brew coffee). I just need to get some cork to glue on top to make the top non-slip and also try to fashion something to the underside to protect the trunk it will sit on.


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## CommanderVimes (Jul 4, 2018)

An update...

After speaking with Tivo (for quite a while), they are sending out a replacement Bolt. Of course if this is a design issue then another Bolt won't matter; however I'm curious to see how hot another Bolt runs in the same environment. I'm just going to plug in the replacement without activating to monitor for a bit to see how it does.

The person I talked to did have some target ODT numbers this time, though. She she it should be in range of ~45-52, which is more or less standard temp for a non-overclocked CPU.

I have other concerns... some echoed by others on the board.



jadziedzic said:


> Re the burning hot coax connector on the Bolt: I encountered the same issue (and same pixelation issues) about two years ago on a Bolt+. After I pulled the Bolt+ out of my A/V and let it cool down it started working properly again. I checked the ODT and it tended to run hot. Unfortunately, a year later the Bolt+ died completely (unable to record or view any channel on any tuner, but prior recordings play back fine), and I suspect it was due to thermal issues that borked something on the motherboard.


This is the big one - that running so hot for so long will eventually kill the system. Mine acted exactly the same, with everything working fine after a reboot (unplug->let cool->plug back in) but eventually crawling back to max temp of 72. Since then I've had no issues with pixelation but also haven't added to the load of the system by running any apps.

I can't prove it but think the Amazon Prime Video app is especially taxing on the system. Around the time I switched over to use this app from another device I first started having issues, primarily having the system freeze up and needing to reset the network connection. In retrospect this was one of the first signs of overheating. I had run Netflix and a couple others for quite a while with no issues.

The Havit cooling pad listed above should get here shortly and will see how it affects both systems. I've gone back to running all my apps through the XBox. If I can't get either box to run at a decent temp then I'll start looking at some of the mod options listed above. Long term seems like the best option is keeping the mobo and components in range no matter how it's done.


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

CommanderVimes said:


> I can't prove it but think the Amazon Prime Video app is especially taxing on the system.


I have found network activity raises my temperature also.


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## UCLABB (May 29, 2012)

CommanderVimes said:


> An update...
> 
> After speaking with Tivo (for quite a while), they are sending out a replacement Bolt. Of course if this is a design issue then another Bolt won't matter; however I'm curious to see how hot another Bolt runs in the same environment. I'm just going to plug in the replacement without activating to monitor for a bit to see how it does.
> 
> ...


Well, the TiVo person is full of it. Without some rather extraordinary measures, there's no way to get the temps that low. She's probably referring to the Roamio temps taken at a different location.

I have my Bolt elevated in a open cabinet with a fan blowing air under it. ODT is 61, room temp is 80 degrees Fahrenheit. Normally the ODT is about 52, but with this horrible hot weather....


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## cwerdna (Feb 22, 2001)

JoeKustra said:


> I have found network activity raises my temperature also.


Yep. If I'm downloading shows from my Bolt+ to my iPad, that makes the ODT go up.

FWIW, last night, when my room temp was ~77 F (~25 C), I had my variable speed dual fan laptop cooler (posted about it earlier, not a Zalman) going near full and ODT was ~58 C (~136 F).

But seriously, buying USB-powered laptop cooler containing fan(s) is the easiest and method of least resistance. As I said, you can sometimes pick them up cheap.


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## TivoJD (Feb 8, 2005)

CommanderVimes said:


> An update...
> 
> After speaking with Tivo (for quite a while), they are sending out a replacement Bolt. Of course if this is a design issue then another Bolt won't matter; however I'm curious to see how hot another Bolt runs in the same environment. I'm just going to plug in the replacement without activating to monitor for a bit to see how it does.
> 
> ...


I have a white bolt 500 GB, it's in my bedroom that is usually 74-76 degrees Fahrenheit, ceiling fan in room runs almost always and Bolt is directly under the central air conditioning vent and ODT is 62-64 usually. If recording, I have seen as high as 67.


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## cwerdna (Feb 22, 2001)

cwerdna said:


> FWIW, last night, when my room temp was ~77 F (~25 C), I had my variable speed dual fan laptop cooler (posted about it earlier, not a Zalman) going near full and ODT was ~58 C (~136 F).


To followup, came home to a room temp of 79 F (~26 C) and the above laptop cooler was near full speed (actually the dial can go about 3 swipes from lowest to highest and it had been swiped twice). ODT was 59 C (~138 F). I'm going to turn the cooler to full.

The cooler is a Thermaltake Massive 14 that I picked up for cheap after rebate from Fry's awhile ago.


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## Mikeguy (Jul 28, 2005)

CommanderVimes said:


> The person I talked to did have some target ODT numbers this time, though. She she it should be in range of ~45-52, which is more or less standard temp for a non-overclocked CPU.


She is smoking something. My room temp currently is 74F, and my Bolt box, not doing much of anything special, currently is at 59 ODT; earlier today, when the room temp. was in the upper 70F degrees, ODT was at 62. This is the normal range I tend to see. The Bolt box is in an open area, on a solid shelf, on 4 water bottle cap risers.


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## cwerdna (Feb 22, 2001)

cwerdna said:


> To followup, came home to a room temp of 79 F (~26 C) and the above laptop cooler was near full speed (actually the dial can go about 3 swipes from lowest to highest and it had been swiped twice). ODT was 59 C (~138 F). I'm going to turn the cooler to full.
> 
> The cooler is a Thermaltake Massive 14 that I picked up for cheap after rebate from Fry's awhile ago.


To followup, I was able to use a room fan to try to blow out a pocket of hot air that accumulated above my Bolt+ (it's on a wire shelf underneath a large CD changer). Now with room temp at 76 F (~24.4 C), ODT is at 55 C (131 F) with the laptop cooler on full.


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## chicagobrownblue (May 29, 2008)

I first became aware of the overheating problem when TCF members upgraded the original Bolt HD to 3TB. Just one of many reasons I did not buy a Bolt. I'm at 3TB on my Roamio Basic which is showing 37 (98.6F). Maybe they can put the Bolt system board in a black Roamio chassis with a 3.5" drive?


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

chicagobrownblue said:


> I first became aware of the overheating problem when TCF members upgraded the original Bolt HD to 3TB. Just one of many reasons I did not buy a Bolt. I'm at 3TB on my Roamio Basic which is showing 37 (98.6F). Maybe they can put the Bolt system board in a black Roamio chassis with a 3.5" drive?


There is zero probability of a Bolt system board working in a Roamio case.


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## BobCamp1 (May 15, 2002)

The OP has a defective Tivo. He should exchange it for a different one.

In this case, there's probably a short somewhere in the BGA. Probably happened during manufacturing. This short is causing a lot of current to flow somewhere it shouldn't be, and abnormally heating up the FPGA. That's why the ODT is above 70. I think the cooling is a red herring and the Tivo is just bad.

An On Die Temperature of 72 is normal. Many people here have an ODT in the low 70's and don't have a problem. In a Tivo an ODT of 72 is on the high side, but normal. I've never seen it above 80 C in a Tivo.


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## Mikeguy (Jul 28, 2005)

chicagobrownblue said:


> I first became aware of the overheating problem when TCF members upgraded the original Bolt HD to 3TB. Just one of many reasons I did not buy a Bolt. I'm at 3TB on my Roamio Basic which is showing 37 (98.6F). Maybe they can put the Bolt system board in a black Roamio chassis with a 3.5" drive?


I may be incorrect, but I thought that I had read that one can't compare the ODT between different models--they are measured differently.


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

Mikeguy said:


> I may be incorrect, but I thought that I had read that one can't compare the ODT between different models--they are measured differently.


That's true. Also, the temps for an A92, A93 and Mini VOX are not the same. But you can't cool down the Mini VOX. My Roamio, and I'm sure a Bolt, are very dependent on room temp. I also get a rise of 2 or 3 degrees during network operations.

I do agree with the thread title.


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## chicagobrownblue (May 29, 2008)

JoeKustra said:


> There is zero probability of a Bolt system board working in a Roamio case.


To expand my explanation: Tivo can engineer a Bolt system board into a Roamio sized box (bigger should be cooler) to use 3.5" drives which run cooler with an eye towards better cooling the chips that run hot. The 3.5" drives are also available in the much larger sizes than some Tivo fans prefer.

Otherwise, I'll just keep my fully functional basic Roamio which meets my needs.


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## chicagobrownblue (May 29, 2008)

Mikeguy said:


> I may be incorrect, but I thought that I had read that one can't compare the ODT between different models--they are measured differently.


So, is my Roamio running hotter than the Bolt reported here? I think not. The Bolt runs hotter, hot enough to cause problems for the OP and many others. If they fix that problem, I might buy a new Tivo and pay monthly or annually for service. I have not seen much if any reports of Roamios suffering from overheating.

Once you get out into the real world you'll find that perfect metrics that are perfectly comparable don't exist. You use what you have.


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

chicagobrownblue said:


> Otherwise, I'll just keep my fully functional basic Roamio which meets my needs.


Me too. But things to ponder: Bolts are faster. More speed. Maybe more power?
The parts of what we see: The sensor. The software that reads the sensor. The software that converts the sensor reading and then displays its results.
Many variables. And then there are Mini boxes. Mini VOX in 75F room has 55C MBT. (Series6 with MBT?)


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## Mikeguy (Jul 28, 2005)

chicagobrownblue said:


> So, is my Roamio running hotter than the Bolt reported here? I think not. The Bolt runs hotter, hot enough to cause problems for the OP and many others. If they fix that problem, I might buy a new Tivo and pay monthly or annually for service. I have not seen much if any reports of Roamios suffering from overheating.
> 
> Once you get out into the real world you'll find that perfect metrics that are perfectly comparable don't exist. You use what you have.


It's not a case of perfect metrics--just comparable metrics. Roamio ODT ≠ Bolt ODT.

I initially was concerned, with reports here, of Bolt box fan noise and running hot, before buying my Bolt. As far as I see, no temp. issue with my Bolt and the noise level is a bit less than that of my Toshiba Series 2 TiVo box.


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## tarheelblue32 (Jan 13, 2014)

CommanderVimes said:


> From several resources, including some posts on this board (many thanks!) I learned about ODT and other potential issues this unit has with cooling. First thing I wondered is with all those minutes (hours?) spent on the phone talking with Tivo support about SNR and all the other acronyms they care about to prove bad signal, why is not on the script to ask about temperature? Pretty basic problem if a device is overheating. This part I find especially frustrating.


Because an electronic device that can't properly regulate its temperature is a design flaw, and if TiVo allows its customer service employees to admit that the Bolt overheating is a known issue it could open themselves up to legal liability.


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## UCLABB (May 29, 2012)

Mikeguy said:


> It's not a case of perfect metrics--just comparable metrics. Roamio ODT ≠ Bolt ODT.
> 
> I initially was concerned, with reports here, of Bolt box fan noise and running hot, before buying my Bolt. As far as I see, no temp. issue with my Bolt and the noise level is a bit less than that of my Toshiba Series 2 TiVo box.


Not sure it's true that Roamio odt is different than Bolt. The Roamio has a temp for "MBT" in system info which is somewhere on the motherboard, I know not where. But it clearly isn't on the processor. My Roamio mbt is 43 with no extra cooling.


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## Skotyman (May 27, 2018)

Laptop fans are a great idea, only I use high quality ones on my laptops and they still can add quite a bit of noise. I'm going to have to check if my Bolt VOX is running hot, I noticed early on that my Cisco signal converter gets very hot.


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## cwerdna (Feb 22, 2001)

BobCamp1 said:


> In this case, there's probably a short somewhere in the BGA. Probably happened during manufacturing. This short is causing a lot of current to flow somewhere it shouldn't be, and abnormally heating up the FPGA.


I doubt the Broadcom BCM7449 pictured near the bottom of TiVo Bolt Teardown is actually an FPGA (Field-programmable gate array - Wikipedia).

For me w/the same cooler and the Bolt+ re-positioned slightly better to try to push more air into the tiny inlets room temp at 78 F (~25.6 C), ODT was at 56 C (132.8 F) with the laptop cooler on full. Now it's risen to 57 C (134.6 F).

Also, for the record, I've disabled power saving. It's set to manual, so my TiVo's always buffering. It often has at least 1 or 2 channels recording something, besides the bufferring.


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## rdrrepair (Nov 24, 2006)

ODT > On Die Temperature. Thanks for throwing that in there Bob.


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## BobCamp1 (May 15, 2002)

cwerdna said:


> I doubt the Broadcom BCM7449 pictured near the bottom of TiVo Bolt Teardown is actually an FPGA (Field-programmable gate array - Wikipedia).
> 
> For me w/the same cooler and the Bolt+ re-positioned slightly better to try to push more air into the tiny inlets room temp at 78 F (~25.6 C), ODT was at 56 C (132.8 F) with the laptop cooler on full. Now it's risen to 57 C (134.6 F).
> 
> Also, for the record, I've disabled power saving. It's set to manual, so my TiVo's always buffering. It often has at least 1 or 2 channels recording something, besides the bufferring.


Most chipsets these days are FPGAs and microprocessors combined. It's performing video encoding and decoding -- that's typically done by an FPGA because it's really efficient and so that they can correct bugs after launch. If you're saying it's not field programmable, then that part would be even more tolerant of heat.

There is a gigantic difference between on die temperature, motherboard temperature, and case temperature. People who have no clue how hot embedded chipsets get are claiming it's too hot. 70C is actually relatively cool. The ODT of your smartphone can get up to around 90C and it has no ventilation at all. I don't see anybody using USB fans for that.

I'm guessing that there's a 30-35 C difference between the ODT and the actual internal case temperature. I have everything needed to confirm that (temperature chamber and 30 thermocouples) except an actual Bolt that I can use for this. I'm not drilling holes into my (wife's) Bolt's case.

Somebody else said there are all these were overheating issues with Bolts. I haven't read a single thread that has proven the Bolt is overheating, including this one. I see a lot of threads from people who THINK the Bolt is overheating.

The Bolt's design is adequate. The fan is too noisy, and if it fails the unit probably will overheat because there are no vents on the sides or top. Although that is one gigantic heat sink in there. I'd be most concerned about the hard drive, as it should be less than 60 C but there's a simple test for that. Touch it for five seconds. Did you get a second or third degree burn? If not, it's less than 60 C.

There is room for improvement and it is sad because it wouldn't have cost that much more (especially adding a separate temp. sensor on the main board), but it is totally unnecessary to supplement the cooling system.


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## BobCamp1 (May 15, 2002)

If the OP is still around, there are several other issues that can cause the symptoms he's seeing:

Defective chipset
Defective soldering of the chipset's Ball Grid Array
Defective electrical components and/or soldering
Tin whiskers 
Corrosion in the coaxial cable or connectors
New electrical interference

If the Bolt works when you cool the heck out of it and NOT just when it's been powered down for several hours, that Bolt is defective. It may continue to work when supercooled, or it may get worse. My ODT is 65 C when the ambient temp. is 26 C and the coax connection is hot but does not cause me pain when I disconnect it (~40 C). The OP's Bolt may have a defect involving the coax. connection, which in turn affects the MoCA networking function.


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## CommanderVimes (Jul 4, 2018)

As a follow up (and hopefully resolution) this is what I have found. Thanks again for all the help from the board.

I ordered one of the laptop coolers mentioned above which bought me a 4 or 5 C degree drop, so basically from 72/73 down to a steady state of 68 C. That was at a room temperature of 86 F. A picture of the media alcove is below, which shows that the Tivo unit is about as free from neighboring heat producers as it can be. However that alcove doesn't get great air flow, so it's likely a couple degrees warmer. Not ideal for a device but shouldn't be "too" hot.

I monitored for about a week at different room temperatures. As one would expect there was a fairly linear relationship between room temperature and ODT. When we cooled the room down to use it (normally at night to around 78 F) the ODT would drop to the high 50's C, which is in line with what others have reported. After the initial hard reboot I didn't have any more problems with pixelation but also didn't stress it out by running any apps. Even though it was running fine at this point I was still concerned about board elements from overheating.

During that time Tivo sent me a replacement device, so I plugged that one in and monitored. It ran at the same temperature, settling in with ODT at 68 C (still with the cooling fan). I'm fairly comfortable at this point running with the replacement device knowing that the Bolt's just run a little hotter. I'll still keep running the apps on other devices just to try and make sure not to recreate the environment which caused the original to overheat.


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## Chapman11 (Sep 26, 2018)

Thanks for everyone's comments. I was able to finally figure out the cause of the signal loss. 2 fan solution in place and the system is working good again. Now, I need to read up on a DVR expander......


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## srothkin (Sep 13, 2006)

Chapman11 said:


> Now, I need to read up on a DVR expander......


I recommend against the DVR expander. Better to simply put a larger hard drive inside. The big problem will come when the drives reach the end of their lives and you look to replace the drives instead of replacing the entire Tivo (I wish I knew this before I went the expander route with my Roamio).

From what I've been able to gather from reading the forums here and asking some questions of the nice tech support folks at Weaknees, even with the Bolt one can buy another drive of the same size and use a computer to clone (full bit-by-bit copy) the internal drive when it comes time to replace it (I successfully did this twice with my old Tivo Series 3 before I replaced it with the Roamio) and all the recordings/settings will be there when booting up the Bolt with the new hard drive. You might even be able to upgrade the internal drive to a larger size by using WinMFS or equivalent to copy (partition level instead of raw bit-by-bit) -- this worked on the Series 3 but I'm not sure if it would work on the Bolt because supposedly the bolt stores the indices of the the recordings on internal flash memory instead of on the hard drive.

But changing the expander hard drive supposedly will cause the Tivo to clear out all the programs (because of the CableCard code requirements) even after its been cloned.


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## D.A.Rudy (Nov 13, 2018)

I have a similar problem which I think is related to Bolt cooling.

Setup: I used to have two TiVo series 3 HDs, replaced them with a single TiVo Bolt.

Initially the bolt worked fine, all channels clear. After a while tho, I started getting pixilation, on some channels but not all. First instinct was to call the cable company, which came out and tinkered with wires and connectors and measured the signal strength as fine on their end. But on the Bolt, the image continued to degrade to the point where every channel was scrambled. DVR reported signal strength of 65-70%, so at that point I figured it was the Bolt.

TiVo support sent me a replacement Bolt. Initially the new bolt worked fine - crystal clear on all channels. Signal strength 92%+ on the DVR diagnostics menu. Overnight I transferred all of my recorded programs from the old Bolt (programs recorded when it was still working) to the new one. Woke up this morning to discover that the new bolt, which WAS working fine, suddenly had pixelation on every channel and the signal strength is down to 75%...

My theory is that the bolt has a cooling program and is overheating, causing damage to the tuners. The replacement failed sooner because it was subjected to higher stress (the copying of hours of programming), which built up the heat faster. Plus it was now sitting next to a second bolt (the old one) which was also giving off heat.

TiVo support is sending me another Bolt. I am going to try out some of the cooling solutions that people have shared. Wish me luck.


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## kpeters59 (Jun 19, 2007)

Try lifting it up on taller 'feet' and removing the CableCard Cover?

-KP


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## pgoelz (May 1, 2005)

Another thing to try if you feel your Bolt is running too hot is to simply turn it upside down so the air intakes and fan exhaust face upwards. I put mine upside down on a small piece of foam (reduces the fan noise slightly) and although the ODT did not change, the case and surrounding area definitely feel cooler. Its easy to try. 

If you look at the case you will see that the fan and air intakes both face each other across the surface the Bolt is resting on, so the hot exhaust just gets circulated back into the case. Flip it over and that problem is gone. It even looks better to my eye (aside from the upside down Tivo logo). 

Paul


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