trying to repair/upgrade a Series II Model 140060 TIVO.

[mkatz60]

I am trying to repair/upgrade a Series II Model 140060 TIVO.

I am a computer engineer and this is my 5th Tivo Instant Cake upgrade so I have some idea what I am doing in terms of hardware.

When I received the unit the 60GB Western Digital hard drive was not spinning up.

When the unit was powered on with the original drive there was no "Welcome Powering Up" message or any other indication of boot.

On my 1st attempt to Instant Cake I use the existing 60GB drive as the primary drive and a Western Digital 500GB drive as the slave drive.

This did not work (no "Welcome Powering Up" screen), the 60 GB drive did not spin up when connected to the IDE cable that is connected to the TIVO. The drive would spin up if disconnected from the IDE cable.

I then tried just the 500 GB drive configured as single drive/master. After running instant cake on this drive and installing it in the Tivo I would get the "Welcome Powering Up" message on occasional power ups. The screen would then clear and then I would see nothing on the screen. I have left it in this state for over an hour just to see if the Tivo was rebuilding.

The "Welcome Powering Up" screen only appears at all on 1 out of about 10 power up sequences and when it does appear it disappears withing just a few seconds and then nothing

I have tried the following additional also:

1. I have tried a 160 GB Western Digital drive that was removed (working) during a different Tivo upgrade.

2. I have tried the original 2 connector IDE cable as well as 3 different new 3 connector IDE cables.

3. I have measured the voltage at the drive power connector (12 @ 11.9V & 5V @ 4.98V).

4. I have measured the voltages on the main voltage regulator on the main board (3.05V in and 1.78V out).

5. Removed the 3V lithium backup battery for an hour.

6. Re-seat both ends of the flex cable from the power supply to the main board.

7. Re-seat the main board end of the flex cable that goes from the main board to the front panel.

8. Instant Caking the 500GB drive configured as the master and the 160 GB drive as the slave.

9. I have tried using both an S-Video cable and an RCA composite cable.

None of these fixes the problem.

Do you have any ideas?

Thank you.

[Lou Jacob]

When I received the unit the 60GB Western Digital hard drive was not spinning up.



Did you run diagnostics on the drive to determine whether the source of the problem is the drive? If not, then you should do that. If there is nothing wrong with the drive, then you may very well have a problem with the unit, itself.

[mkatz60]

I tried both the 60GB drive and a brand new 500GB drive with the same problem. I have run the diagnostics on both drives and they pass.

[mkatz60]

I have tried three different hard disk drives. The 60GB, an old 160GB and the new 500GB drive.

Does the Welcome message only from ROM on the Tivo mainboard or is it loaded from the hard disk as part of the boot up process.