HDVR2 On its way out?

[fredandbetty]

Ok, well sorry to say the HDVR2 that i have had since 1/17/03 is pretty much DOA! :nono2:

It started Sunday, with the picture freezing, and not responding to remote commands, and i did the 'clear and delete' everything, to no avail, i started that a little after 9 a.m. , and i went through and after about TWO and a half hours, I FINALLY got the setup screen, went through it, and it wanted to update the list of call in numbers so it started the procedure of calling, and you could see the little disk spinning on the left and then it just STOPPED and rebooted!! it did that at least 8 more times!! i watched it for a bit, and figured since i haven't had it call in about 3 months, it would take a bit, so i left it alone for awhile.

well i came back after a half hour, and it was still frozen at the SAME spot, and i pulled the plug after figuring out that none of the buttons would respond or the remote either. Went through this for about 8 to 10 times, and i could not get it to call at all, but i did get channel 201 to come back up, so i changed to our local channel and that was blank, but i had every other channel, so i went and refreshed the services on that box, and it came up, so i tried the phone call again, and it again froze, well, i tried that about 4 more times and it would not do any kind of phone call ( so i could not use the dvr ) so i did the hard reboot ONE MORE TIME and got it back to 'normal'.

the wife gives me a call at work and says it froze again!! so that's what did it, its been 5 good years and i'm going to just keep it around and maybe decide to replace the hard drive if i get in a 'tinkering' mood!

I spent a good chunk of my morning on getting that box to work and i tried everything and am out of ideas, from what i have read, it time to gently retire it ( especially since all i have to do is touch the power cord and it reboots! i do not want or need that risk of a fire hazard in my home... ( hey, i don't wanna take a chance, call me silly ( ok, i asked for that! :p ) but i'd rather replace the box than my home):)

If anyone has any other ideas, feel free to ask, or add!

[Stuart Sweet]

You have my deepest sympathies. It's hard to see a beloved friend suffer.

If you want to stay with the TiVo system I would suggest buying another one wherever you could find it. They ought not to be terribly expensive. It's time to put this one down, I'm sorry to have to tell you.

[fredandbetty]

See, ITS TRUE!!!The Shadow DOES know EVERYTHING!! :)

Thanks Stuart!!! I appreciate the condolences! Guess i'll have to brush up on the R-15 and its features, Guess i have some reading to do...

[Stuart Sweet]

Well I'm not sure the Shadow knows everything, but he does know this:

My HDVR2 was a very solid piece of equipment that had one, count'em one, unexplained lockup in its life. I didn't care for the look of it, the champagne-gold looked kind of odd with everything else in the rack, but it was a performer. As far as I know it's still doing yeoman work in a friend's guest room, now close to 5 years old.

[captain_video]

It sounds like your hard drive is toast. It's a relatively simple process to restore a backup image to a drive and get yourself up and running again. If you don't have a backup image then get an InstantCake image from DVRUpgrade and a new IDE hard drive from any vendor and you're all set. Your HDVR2 still has a lot of life left in it so don't give up just yet.

[fredandbetty]

It sounds like your hard drive is toast. It's a relatively simple process to restore a backup image to a drive and get yourself up and running again. If you don't have a backup image then get an InstantCake image from DVRUpgrade and a new IDE hard drive from any vendor and you're all set. Your HDVR2 still has a lot of life left in it so don't give up just yet.


Thanks cap'n, i may keep it around and tinker with it if i get bored... LOL!!!

[M.Wong]

I fought the HDVR2s locking up for the past 13 months. Finally gave up after all kinds of resets and even a new hard drive in one of them. :(

Caved in - now I have an HR-20 for HD and an R15 for SD. Those HDVRs were flawless until a year ago and I sure did not want to give up my TiVo based system. But, it has been downright luxurious not having to deal with reboots, and I don’t miss my TiVos as much as I expected.

[FlyerTom]

While it's true that the hard drive may have gone south on your box, it's also possible that the power supply has failed. If the little green light doesn't flicker when you use your remote, that could be an indication that the PS has given up the ghost. I picked up a pair of used HDVR2's off of eBay for $44 just for spare parts and replaced the PS in my bedroom unit. The box works like the proverbial charm.

[fredandbetty]

While it's true that the hard drive may have gone south on your box, it's also possible that the power supply has failed. If the little green light doesn't flicker when you use your remote, that could be an indication that the PS has given up the ghost. I picked up a pair of used HDVR2's off of eBay for $44 just for spare parts and replaced the PS in my bedroom unit. The box works like the proverbial charm.

Hmm after reading this, i went and checked, and it does flicker, i even get power to the box, but it just locks up after a bit and i can't complete a phone call to connect with the 'mothership' lol!!
thanks for the advice though...:)