"Severe Error" on HR10-250

[uwahusky]

Today when I got home my HR10-250 was continuously re-booting and would then give an error message on green screen saying Severe Error, leave the machine plugged in and connected to a phone line. If the problem hadn't gone away after 3 hours, call DirecTV.

My wife indicated this had been going on all day.

So I called DirecTV. They offered to give me a new HR10-250 but on lease, however I wouldn't have to pay the lease, only give the box back when I was done, if I sent them my current, defective box. The lady at DirecTV said this error was indicative of a HD malfunction.

I'm considering this option but wondering if anyone has seen or experienced this? I would like to just get my box fixed, if that's possible but I don't have the knowledge to re-image or re-install new HDs, etc. My box is modded with an additional 250gb HD but my friend did it for me.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!!

[Wolffpack]

Today when I got home my HR10-250 was continuously re-booting and would then give an error message on green screen saying Severe Error, leave the machine plugged in and connected to a phone line. If the problem hadn't gone away after 3 hours, call DirecTV.

My wife indicated this had been going on all day.

So I called DirecTV. They offered to give me a new HR10-250 but on lease, however I wouldn't have to pay the lease, only give the box back when I was done, if I sent them my current, defective box. The lady at DirecTV said this error was indicative of a HD malfunction.

I'm considering this option but wondering if anyone has seen or experienced this? I would like to just get my box fixed, if that's possible but I don't have the knowledge to re-image or re-install new HDs, etc. My box is modded with an additional 250gb HD but my friend did it for me.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!!
Green screen usually indicates a hard drive problem. How old is your unit? It has a 1 year warranty and if it's less than one year old you should get a replacement owned by you. No lease. If it's older than one year and DTV is willing to give you one with no up front, it might me worth considering.

Also, green screen could mean either of the drives could be failing. Can you have the friend that did the hack look at it?

[uwahusky]

Thanks for taking the time to read my post and respond!

I am considering the DirecTV offer. I just want to make sure I've looked at every other alternative.

The friend that installed the HD is now gone. I was wondering if you or anyone knew of a company that I can send this to and have them look at and fix the problem, either with a new HD or possibly just taking out the one that is defective.

The unit will probably need to be re-imaged, regardless but if it's not too much money, it could be worth it.

Any thoughts?

[Wolffpack]

Do you have the original drive or was that used with the additional drive? How much do you know about swaping drives in a PC? If you know that and are willing to read a bit, you probably can fix this yourself.

As far as companies go, I'm not sure. ptvupgrad.com does have kits you can purchase. I've never used them as I do all my own stuff. But you may want to give those folks a look if you don't want to try yourself.

I've hacked my HR10-250, it's not that tough.

I guess it really depends on your comfort level with trying this yourself.

[Chris Blount]

One of these kits should work for you:

http://www.weaknees.com/hughes_hr10_250.php

[newsposter]

from that page: is the adding of a 2nd drive truly no more than installing the drives on the bracket, fans, then rebooting?

I guess it's because i have a factory setup still that this is possible from what I read...correct?

I did use hinsdale to copy my failing drive then add another one at the same time a few years ago (T60) but I dont want to go through that fun process again. I can only imagine how long it would take with a full HD drive

If for 200 bucks I can literally drop a drive it and it somehow automatically marries the old drive and doubles my space, that's 70+ bucks fee to them well worth it in my opinion

[uwahusky]

Isn't it the case that the PC I use to format the drives to work in the HR10-250 needs to be a FAT system (not NTFS)?

[uwahusky]

So I think I'm going to send it back to DirecTV and take them up on their offer to send me a new (refurb'd) box that they own but I won't have to pay a monthly lease on. This pretty much solves my problem and gets me a box that works.

The only thing I'm out is I don't own the box but by the time I'm done using that box or the one I use, they'll both be worthless.

Before I do, I noticed there are people on eBay selling already formatted drives on eBay. I may go that route. Those drives should be pretty much plug n play.

Anyone have any thoughts before I go one way or the other?

Also, if one of my 250gb drives is bad but not the other, would I be getting this error or do people think both of my drives are fried?

[bpratt]

Sixteen months ago shortly after purchasing my HR10-250, I added an additional 300 Gig hard disk from WeaKnees. About a month ago that added drive failed. I contacted WeaKnees and even though their warrenty had expired, they had me send them both drives. For $79 they tested both drives, found the added drive was the failing drive and they then replaced the failed drive and sent both drives back to me. I simply installed the two drives and my system has been working perfectly since.

If you originally purchased your upgrade from WeaKnees, contact them. For a total cost to me of $79 plus one way shipping, I got my problem solved.

Also, I also live in Salt Lake City. If you need help with removing or replacing drives, I would be willing to help you.

[newsposter]

Isn't it the case that the PC I use to format the drives to work in the HR10-250 needs to be a FAT system (not NTFS)?

Unless something has changed it the past 2 years (it may have), i dont see why it even matters what your PC has. You are supposed to unhook all your windows drives from your PC so you dont risk corrupting the tivo (or is it windows?) drives at all. I was doing a transfer from one drive to another then adding one so needed 3 open cables anyway. Plus if your PC drive is disconnected, no chance of messing that up at all. :)

This may have changed since I did my stuff 2 years ago, sorry i dont know more.

[Wolffpack]

Isn't it the case that the PC I use to format the drives to work in the HR10-250 needs to be a FAT system (not NTFS)?
You would need a FAT32 partition to store the image you want to restore. Or maybe you could restore it from CD once you've booted Linux. That should be possible.

[uwahusky]

I called DirecTV back today to take them up on their offer only to find out they also want me to re-up for another 2 year commitment. So I'm holding off.

I'm leaning towards ordering some plug and play drives from weakness.com but would also like to know if both of my HDs is bad or if it's just one. Any ideas?

Can I simply plug them in to a PC and see if they show up?

OK, so I plugged them in to my PC and they did not show up. I'm guessing this is user error, not necessarily bad HDs. Any thoughts?

[bpratt]

OK, so I plugged them in to my PC and they did not show up. I'm guessing this is user error, not necessarily bad HDs. Any thoughts?


TiVo uses Linux as an opperating system and disk format. Windows cannot read a Linux disk. Linux, however can read and write to a windows FAT32 drive, or it can read from a windows NTFS drive.

On versions of Windows prior to XP service pack 2, if you put a TiVo disk on a Windows system, windows would write a signature on the disk and make it unusable to TiVo. I think XP now asks permission to write the signature.

To test your disks you need to identify what brand of disks they are and then get the diagnostic boot CD or floppy from the manufacturer. You can find and download them on the internet. Their programs can be used to identify problems on their disks. Make sure you run the non-distructive tests.

[cabanaboy1977]

I called DirecTV back today to take them up on their offer only to find out they also want me to re-up for another 2 year commitment. So I'm holding off.

I'm leaning towards ordering some plug and play drives from weakness.com but would also like to know if both of my HDs is bad or if it's just one. Any ideas?

Can I simply plug them in to a PC and see if they show up?

OK, so I plugged them in to my PC and they did not show up. I'm guessing this is user error, not necessarily bad HDs. Any thoughts?

Do you have the replacement plan with D*? If you do the box they send you should still be yours and not a lease.