# Bolt Beeping..



## koof (Dec 27, 2015)

Hi everyone. I’ll preface this by saying I’m kind of illiterate when it comes to anything TiVo - I’ve had a Premiere for a few years and just upgraded. I still don’t fully understand them.

So I bought a used, “like new” Bolt on eBay. I don’t doubt that’s the case, it seems to be in extremely good condition (perfect, really), no signs of wear on the device or remote.. It was upgraded to 2TB, so that was a definite plus (no more worrying about shows getting deleted and such). I started transferring the shows (after several phone calls) from my Premiere to the Bolt yesterday, and the Bolt keeps making beeping noises periodically. I’m trying to figure out whether or not I should be worried.. Nothing is visibly happening when it beeps, and since I just hooked it up yesterday, I haven’t had time to see whether or not it beeps even when not transferring content.. Could someone with some technical background or knowledge give me some insight as to whether or not this is normal? I wonder what questions I should be asking the seller, if this happens to not be normal... Thank you.


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## kpeters59 (Jun 19, 2007)

I'd start with checking the System Temperature.

It's in System Info.

-KP


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## koof (Dec 27, 2015)

kpeters59 said:


> I'd start with checking the System Temperature.
> 
> It's in System Info.
> 
> -KP


I believe if I checked it correctly, it's 61°.. is that normal? I will say, it felt somewhat warm yesterday, but I didn't know how to check that at the time. It also makes a constant noise, like a computer constantly on.. I didn't get that with my Premiere, so I don't know if that's normal for Bolts or not..


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## kpeters59 (Jun 19, 2007)

141*F is pretty toasty, but not that unheard of.

Is there anything you can do to maybe relocate it temporarily to try to get the temp to drop. Maybe that will stop the beeping. I wasn't even aware they _could_ beep, so it's mostly a wag...

-KP


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## koof (Dec 27, 2015)

kpeters59 said:


> 141*F is pretty toasty, but not that unheard of.
> 
> Is there anything you can do to maybe relocate it temporarily to try to get the temp to drop. Maybe that will stop the beeping. I wasn't even aware they _could_ beep, so it's mostly a wag...
> 
> -KP


It's sitting on my dresser in the open with nothing blocking it.. I'm not sure what I could do to bring it down?


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## kpeters59 (Jun 19, 2007)

Well, there's no shortage of discussion about how to lower a Bolt's internal temp, but lifting the Bolt on 'feet' seems like the best 'bang for the buck'...

-KP


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## Tony_T (Nov 2, 2017)

61°C (ODT in System Info) is normal for the Bolt
(mine is at 59° right now).
Didn't know that the Bolt beeped. The Remote does (I use a Harmony, and keep the TiVo remote next to the Bolt. I once hit the 'find remote' button on the back of the Bolt by accident and took a minute for me to figure out where the beeping was coming from )


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## krkaufman (Nov 25, 2003)

kpeters59 said:


> I wasn't even aware they _could_ beep





Tony_T said:


> Didn't know that the Bolt beeped. The Remote does


Yes, are you sure it's the BOLT beeping and not its remote control? My Roamio's RF remote control was beeping at me the other night... I'm assuming because the batteries were critically low. Replaced the batteries and all was well again.


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## koof (Dec 27, 2015)

Tony_T said:


> 61°C (ODT in System Info) is normal for the Bolt
> (mine is at 59° right now).
> Didn't know that the Bolt beeped. The Remote does (I use a Harmony, and keep the TiVo remote next to the Bolt. I once hit the 'find remote' button on the back of the Bolt by accident and took a minute for me to figure out where the beeping was coming from )


It's coming from the actual system.. I was wondering if maybe it had to do with transferring content, or if it had to do with the hard drive.. This is all foreign to me lol.


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## Tony_T (Nov 2, 2017)

Moving parts are the fan and hard drive (no speaker in the bolt).
I would suspect the hard drive 
(run with the case open to see if you can isolate the sound).
Did you install the drive? If not, since the Tivo is used, I would consider buying another 2T Hard Drive. (I use the WD20NPVZ)


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## rdrrepair (Nov 24, 2006)

Is a UPS hooked to it? Those things beep


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## koof (Dec 27, 2015)

Tony_T said:


> Moving parts are the fan and hard drive (no speaker in the bolt).
> I would suspect the hard drive (run with the case open to see if you can isolate the sound).
> Did you install the drive? If not, since the Tivo is used, I would consider buying another 2T Hard Drive. (I use the WD20NPVZ)


I can check when I get the chance.. I did not install the drive, I purchased it that way. I don't know that I'm capable of doing it myself.. I definitely don't want to spend $100 extra and make an unsuccessful attempt either :/


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## koof (Dec 27, 2015)

rdrrepair said:


> Is a UPS hooked to it? Those things beep


I don't know what that is, so I don't think so, ha.


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## krkaufman (Nov 25, 2003)

koof said:


> I don't know what that is, so I don't think so, ha.


UPS == Uninterruptible Power Supply (battery backup)


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## Tony_T (Nov 2, 2017)

koof said:


> I can check when I get the chance.. I did not install the drive, I purchased it that way. I don't know that I'm capable of doing it myself.. *I definitely don't want to spend $100 extra and make an unsuccessful attempt either *:/


Then, don't open the case, the HD is located on the left front, listen there. If the HD is beeping consider returning the Bolt to the eBay Seller.


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## HerronScott (Jan 1, 2002)

I can't see how the Bolt itself would be beeping as others have mentioned above since no speaker. Squeaking maybe from the moving parts (fan or hard drive) but that seems unlikely to be mistaken for beeping.

Any chance you could record this and post it somewhere so we could see/hear it?

Scott


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## mattyro7878 (Nov 27, 2014)

how often are the beeps and are you absolutely sure it is the Bolt beeping? I have been tricked trying to locate sounds sometimes. Check your smoke detectors. Those are designed to be heard everywhere.


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## CIR-Engineering (Sep 24, 2017)

The fan speed modulation on early BOLT's caused a beeping sound to come from the circuit board. What's the manufacture date. If it's early than there is no problem.

craigr


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## HerronScott (Jan 1, 2002)

OP was last seen Friday at 9:58am.... 

Scott


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## koof (Dec 27, 2015)

Sorry I haven’t updated.. I don’t want to leave anyone hanging. I contacted the seller who said he never had the issue I was having, but it seemed the beeping stopped after transferring everything from my old TiVo to the Bolt, so I just left it. Turns out it didn’t stop, it still beeps occasionally (though it doesn’t happen as often). I can’t pinpoint why, because it’s not always when something is recording either. I guess I’ve just decided to keep it, and I’m just praying it won’t die ok me. And I guess I can do what a PP said and check the manufacture date.


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## koof (Dec 27, 2015)

HerronScott said:


> I can't see how the Bolt itself would be beeping as others have mentioned above since no speaker. Squeaking maybe from the moving parts (fan or hard drive) but that seems unlikely to be mistaken for beeping.
> 
> Any chance you could record this and post it somewhere so we could see/hear it?
> 
> Scott


It's so intermittent, I could be waiting quite some time, and I just don't have the energy to do that. I did try while I was transferring, but naturally, it didn't beep when I needed it to.


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## XIBM (Mar 9, 2013)

Point a fan at it. You can get a usb fan for a few bucks and plug it into the bolt and cool it. See other threads on hot bolts.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

What kind of hard drive is it? I remember a 1TB Toshiba hard drive making a weird noise in the Bolt. I had to remove it because it was annoying. Since I could easily hear it from twenty feet away. But in any device that didn't constantly write multiple streams to the hard drive it was quiet.


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## koof (Dec 27, 2015)

aaronwt said:


> What kind of hard drive is it? I remember a 1TB Toshiba hard drive making a weird noise in the Bolt. I had to remove it because it was annoying. Since I could easily hear it from twenty feet away. But in any device that didn't constantly write multiple streams to the hard drive it was quiet.


I'm not sure specifically, but the seller said he believes it's a Seagate (2TB)..


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## Donbadabon (Mar 5, 2002)

I know this is a 2 year old thread, but my Bolt OTA started this annoying beeping/chirping. It seemed random and it took me awhile to figure out it was actually coming from the Bolt.

It's been chirping off and on for the past 2 months, and then last week it started doing it every few minutes. It was driving me crazy.

Listening closely, it sounded like the read/write heads of the hard drive were trying to find a location on the drive, and then the drive would kind of shut down and chirp. And then spin back up again.

I never saw any visual indication on the unit that anything was wrong, and I never saw an issue with the recordings. It was just maddening to hear that chirp! Especially since it had increased frequency to every few minutes.

I tried rebooting, leaving it unplugged overnight, tried the Kickstart 54 code, which no longer works. But it still chirped. I tried putting it to sleep, still chirped.

So I had an idea. Maybe there was a bad spot on the drive, and the heads kept hitting that spot. Maybe if there was less data on the drive, it wouldn't reach that spot and wouldn't chirp.

I started permanently deleting my deleted recordings. 

As we know, we can go back into those recordings and recover a show, so I assumed that the TiVo was actually keeping them all on the drive until it HAD to delete them to make room. So in order to make room on the drive, I deleted them, one by one. I couldn't find a bulk-delete option.

It took a LONG time. But I just kept watching my TV in the little window, and deleted. And deleted. And deleted.

It has been 7 days, and I have not heard a single chirp. It is running quiet as a mouse.

Maybe there is no technical reason for what I did to work, but SOMETHING happened after I did this and it hasn't chirped since.


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## kpeters59 (Jun 19, 2007)

You can 'bulk delete' with KMTTG.

-KP


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## Donbadabon (Mar 5, 2002)

kpeters59 said:


> You can 'bulk delete' with KMTTG.


Well dang. That would've be a LOT easier. lol

Still beep-free this morning. Very happy about that.


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