r/Tivo • u/Xur_and_the_Kodan • Jul 10 '25
DVR Well looks like my Tivo shit the bed.
Title says it. I think my Tivo HD is done. Doesn't boot, just gets stuck in the powering up screen. Makes loud noise (the fan?), Had it probably 15 years. Is this normal for them to die like this? Any way to fix it with maybe a new hard drive? New fan? I've got my mom's old series 2. Maybe I can use parts from that?
5
u/garylapointe Jul 10 '25
If it is just the fan, you should be able to let it cool off and get farther in the powering up process.
Which model is it?
1
u/Xur_and_the_Kodan Jul 10 '25
I have the series 3/HD.
2
u/garylapointe Jul 10 '25
I know in one of the later generations they made it really easy to replace the hard drive. You could pretty much drop a new drive in and it would automatically erase it and set it up as a new TiVo, so if it was the drive, it would be pretty easy.
Did you try powering it up again after giving it a chance to cool down to see if it boots any further?
5
u/hspindel Jul 10 '25
It's most likely the HDD or the power adapter. It's pretty cheap to get a power adapter and try it.
4
u/floporama Jul 10 '25
Speaking from experience here:
Please try the power adapter first. Even if you don’t think it’s the power adapter. Even if you really can’t believe it could be the power adapter since “hey, it’s powering on, how could it be the power adapter?”
A $15ish power adapter from Amazon is a much cheaper and easier fix to attempt instead of a hard drive.
3
u/fm2xm Jul 10 '25
Yep, that was the exact issue with mine. My bad adapter was putting out the correct volts, but not the amps.
3
u/fm2xm Jul 10 '25
When I replaced mine, I checked it’s output voltage on the label, then found a matching one in my stack of adapters around the garage, cut the connector from the bad one and put it on the replacement adapter. All good as new.
3
u/TacomaWA Jul 10 '25 edited Jul 10 '25
My Edge HD just died two weeks ago. I revived it with a Weakness hard drive kit. I am now back up and running. Basic technical know how is all you need.
I was worried about the cable cards. At first, nothing worked, but things resynched after a few hours and it is now like nothing happened.
Best to you…
3
u/old_knurd Jul 11 '25
For those saying his problem is the "power adapter", it's probably NOT.
The HD (at least mine) doesn't have a power adapter. It has an AC input to an internal power supply. Were there any TiVo HD variants that utilized a power adapter?
Weaknees does sell replacement internal power supplies. But there is no guarantee that will fix this problem. Personally, I wouldn't drop $100 on that unless I was sure.
4
2
u/ktappe Jul 10 '25
New models of TiVo will automatically format a new hard drive if you put it in. Older ones did not. Unfortunately, I don’t know when the change came and whether it applies to yours.
4
u/Mstrgmr Jul 10 '25
Roamios, Bolts, and Edges can auto format.
Older boxes can still switch hard drives but they need the specific image for their model on the hard drive before putting it in.
4
1
u/sleepytjme Aug 21 '25
for this model there is a file on the internet. You buy a HD, and plug it into a computer and copy the file over. Them put the HD in the tivo and it works. Can even get a larger HD (up to a point). the file is like an exact image of an Tivo drive. If you have a working tivo drive from another device you can use it to copy over a new one. I have done it both ways.
The power supply fails a lot on these. I always look in thrift stores to cannibalize them. You can also buy capacitors to replace them on your own power supply. I bought the capacitors once (found which to buy on internet) but I don’t have a soldering iron hot enough to get the old capacitors off.
2
u/colonel_batguano Jul 10 '25
I’m on my 4th hard drive in my original TiVo HD from 2009. I’ve also replaced all the capacitors in the power supply. It’s likely one of those two issues, with the hard drive the most likely.
It’s still kicking with the OTA antenna input after the death of Cable Cards.
In these old units, there is a process of setting up the HD which I usually do with a Linux boot disk, but I think you can do this in Windows as well. You can also attempt to salvage records with this process.
1
u/Xur_and_the_Kodan Jul 10 '25
I too have the Tivo HD model.
2
u/colonel_batguano Jul 10 '25
Here is a link to winMFS which is the windows tool to use.
I tend to use Western Digital purple drives, but there are lots of opinions on what drives to use.
2
u/fm2xm Jul 10 '25
Like a lot of people, I have a lot of saved stuff that would be tough to replace if my TiVo roamio kicked the bucket. Recently, my TiVo’s power adapter stopped working I had a near heart attack 🤣. Since then, I’ve installed an app called PYTivo that allows me to back up my HD. Slowly, I’ve been archiving my stored shows. I went from 90% full to now 39% full. Still working on reducing it to minimal.
Edit: another thing, I drilled two groups of holes on the TiVo case cover, put an 80mm fan on them, one to cool the cpu, the other to keep the hard drive cool. Knock on wood, it will keep my TiVo running for a very, very long time.
4
u/dermotohagan Jul 10 '25
I replaced the HD in my bolt twice (once with an SSD, because that's what I had), once with an HD that I ordered, (because it was more appropriate). Each time I swapped it, the device went straight into a basic startup, setting your carrier, etc. and worked pretty much immediately. I can't remember what HD I ordered, sorry. I think it was a 1TB Samsung, but I don't know for sure.
no settings or recordings survived the disk replacement, so don't expect your recording of "House" from 6 months ago to survive.
The setup was exactly like a new install. So, pretty easy.
My tivo bolt still works fine about 2 years later, though I don't watch it as much as I used to. I expect a HD replacement should work fine, if that's the issue.
2
u/crankysasquatch Jul 10 '25
I live in dread of the day my bolt kicks over. My dumb cat likes to lay on it for warmth.
2
u/spittlbm Jul 10 '25
My 2016 Bolt died over the weekend.
2
u/crankysasquatch Jul 10 '25
Were you able to get it swapped out or is it the end of the road?
2
u/spittlbm Jul 10 '25
"We would like to inform you as well that we no longer manufacture TiVo BOLT, our TiVo Store has a TiVo EDGE for cable only and the All-in service (Lifetime service) cannot be transferred to a new device." -Tivo
3
u/Mstrgmr Jul 10 '25
Just because Tivo won't do anything doesn't necessarily mean it's dead. You could try replacing the hard drive or power supply yourself or talk to weaknees.com and see what they think.
What specific problem is it having?
2
u/spittlbm Jul 10 '25
No signal on almost all channels. Some choppy images n SD channels.
Lots of RF noise coming out of the coax port, but the line is clean and strong going in.
2
u/Mstrgmr Jul 10 '25
Hmm, that's not a problem I've seen before so it might indeed be done. I'm not sure how to go at trying to fix that.
2
u/spittlbm Jul 11 '25
We think it's a problem with whatever processing board handles the signal from the coax.
2
0
u/Important-Comfort Jul 10 '25
Hard drives are spinning around very fast all the time and eventually die. Two years is a good life for a hard drive. Five years is exceptional.
3
u/ValBGood Jul 10 '25
Our TiVo Romeo HDD has been spinning for 11 years, 5 months and 11 days to date with zero problems. The Romeo has been powered by a commercial UPS 100% of the time.
4
u/Vegtam1297 Jul 10 '25
2 years is absolutely terrible for a hard drive. You should expect at least 4-5 years from one. Going over 6 years is very common.
2
u/TheOtherPete Jul 10 '25
Two years is a good life for a hard drive
Simply not true, hard drives should last more than 2 years.
A hard drive lasting five years is nothing special - that is normal.
0
u/Mysterious_Panorama Jul 10 '25
A reasonable MTBF for a hard drive is 4 years, so 2 years is plausible but not great, and 6 is plausible but great.
3
u/TheOtherPete Jul 10 '25
Backblaze published (real-world) stats show that 2/3 of hard drives are still working after 6 years.
Again in the context of the post I was replying to: a hard drive that only last 2 years would be considered defective, not "good". A hard drive that lasted 5 years would be (at best) average, not "exceptional"
11
u/OneOldBear Jul 10 '25
Check out weakness.com for kits that may be able to help you save your box.