Try unplugging the DVD burner internally from the IDE and power cables. See if your unit boots. We've seen some situations where problems like this are caused by a bad burner. Please tell us what you find.

Hi Michael,

I tried the instructions you provided above to no avail with the new HDD and my old HDD. The fan and the HDD's both power up with no problem, but the front lights never come on and the screen stays at Welcome! Powering Up.

If it never booted with our drive, then you should email us at [email protected] so we can verify that the order was for the right model number.

I verified with WeaKnees technical support that I received the correct drive. The jumper placement is in the Master position. (I even tried the drive with the jumper in the Cable Select position).

Hi Michael,

Out of curiosity, how does the boot order then go on the Tivo? From looking at some other posts, it appears that the Welcome Powering Up screen is checking for hardware devices. If the old and replacement drive are spinning, the fan is spinning and the DVD burner is disconnected, what other item(s) could be causing the Pioneer 810H Tivo to hang at the Welcome Powering Up screen? Thanks.

Basically, that's right. There could be a bad cable in there, or the power supply may not be suppling enough power to the hard drive. Finally, there are a bunch of motherboard problems that could cause this, and most aren't worth finding and fixing.

Pioneer 810H Gray Screen of Death

Hello,

I'm having the same problem with my Pioneer 810H (300GB upgrade from WK): no lights/lcd on the front of the unit and start-up hangs on the gray “Welcome. Powering up…” screen.

Thinking it was a bad hard drive, I replaced it with a 40GB unit from a working TiVo TCD540040 (http://www.tivopedia.com/model-tivo-tcd540040.php). I also tried the 300GB hard drive in the working TiVo without success. In both of these attempts, I tried the jumpers on DS Master (original Pioneer state) and then CS Enabled (original TiVo state). After reading the forum, I tried unplugging the DVD burner power and IDE cables and repeating the HD configurations. Still no success.

QUESTIONS
=========
1) Is there any reason why the 40GB HD wouldn’t work in the Pioneer (e.g., firmware or OS mismatch, security bits on drive, etc)? When I put it back in the TiVo-brand unit, it works just fine.

2) If the DVD burner went bad, does simply disconnecting the power and IDE cables (but not the two-wire connector) allow the start-up process to successfully bypass that step, i.e., hardware is optional? Note that with the power and IDE cables connected, the open/close button on the front of the unit does not work. The tray doesn’t even try to open.

3) What do no lights on the front of the Pioneer imply? The only way I can get anything to turn on is to press the large DVD button on the left while holding down the little pause button on the right. Doing this turns on the blue light (only while both buttons are pressed, releasing either one turns off the light). I assume this is some kind of service mode check, but I don’t know what it means. I would think some light would come on almost immediately to provide user feedback – perhaps this indicates a power supply problem. (?)

4) When I put the 300GB drive in the working TiVo unit, the start-up process continues for about 1-2 minutes before the hardware restarts. It does this continually until I disconnect the power. What can be inferred from this behavior?

5) Is there a battery backup I can disconnect on the Pioneer motherboard to force a lower-level reset of the unit?

6) Is there anything else I could try to resolve this issue?


Thanks In Advance,
Bob

1. You cannot move drives around from unit to unit--it won't work.
2. Sometimes, yes.
3. You can't really glean too much from this; it is often a power supply, but not always.
4. See #1.
5. No.
6. Try a known working Pioneer drive, and possibly a new power supply. See:

Pioneer 810H Hard drive

TiVo Power Supply

Can you help me understand #1 better so that I have confidence ordering a Pioneer hard drive?
(or point me to a forum post with this information)

Thanks

The software is completely different. It's like trying to use an engine from a Toyota in a Saab. Completely different.