Aargh, my Tivo Died

[gandalf252002 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close gandalf252002]

My life as I know it is over! My Tivo just starting conking out on me. Shows just stop randomly in the middle, and then the darn thing starts rebooting. Three shows have now been lost, and who knows what else I'm going to loose. To make matters worse, you can not just walk into a store here in Canada and pick up a new one. Tomorrow I get to open the sucker up and see if there is anything I can do to save it. I have to admit, I will be lossed without my PVR for the next little while.

[bigfrank Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close bigfrank]

Before you open it find out if it is still under warranty. Also call your cable or satellite company. You may be able to get a new one if you sign a 1 year agreement.

[Glitter Brunello Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Glitter Brunello]

Mine has had numerous problems, has needed a lot of resetting. Tivo will likely give you incentives to upgrade to the new box, especially if yours is acting up; they are marketing it heavily. My cable company is in the DVR business so makes Tivo problems. I am getting ready to bail and go with DVR, though it is far inferior to Tivo.

[gandalf252002 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close gandalf252002]

This being Canadian, kills me. I can not upgrade to the Premiere which they are offering for $99. It uses requires the use of a cable card, which the Canadian companies do not use. As for a warranty, it has probably long since expired since it is over 2 years old. The box was not purchased in store as they are not readily availabe (I purchased this one on eBay). I am told BestBuy sells them, but have never seen one.

The consideration to upgrade my cable to digital (I have been holding out) would also be for and additional station TSN2 so I would be not be missing as many Nascar races. However as you mention Glitter research has been that there will be dissapointment in going to a regular PVR.

Mine has had numerous problems, has needed a lot of resetting. Tivo will likely give you incentives to upgrade to the new box, especially if yours is acting up; they are marketing it heavily. My cable company is in the DVR business so makes Tivo problems. I am getting ready to bail and go with DVR, though it is far inferior to Tivo.

Before you open it find out if it is still under warranty. Also call your cable or satellite company. You may be able to get a new one if you sign a 1 year agreement.

[petew Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close petew]

The most likely cause is the hard drive gone bad. This can easily be replaced check out TiVo Community for help and advice.

[gandalf252002 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close gandalf252002]

That's what I have been thinking and is why I am going to open the box. HOPEFULLY it might just be a loose cable or connection etc. I have been looking at HD's and for simplicity will probably go with one that has the software already loaded. I wanted a bigger HD any ways, so this might be a blessing in disguise.

The most likely cause is the hard drive gone bad. This can easily be replaced check out TiVo Community for help and advice.

[petew Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close petew]

That's what I have been thinking and is why I am going to open the box.

If you have a suitable PC download the disk manufacturers diagnostic utility. Then pop out the disk drive from the Tivo and move it to your PC and run diagnostics. Tivo tend to use Western Digital drives and the WDC data lifeguard diagnostics disk can be dowloaded for free as an ISO image that can be burned to CD and booted from.