That could be either the DVD burner or the hard drive. Do you get the problems only on certain shows?

We have both replacement parts.

Not w/ certain shows ... that I have noticed.

Thanks Michael for the reply!

No, the black recordings do not seem to relate to certain shows ... but now that you mention that, the SEASON PASS does seem to have glitch with certain shows. My regular SEASON PASS shows on Wednesday afternoon are consistently not recorded. All other scheduled recording requests seem to go as planned. Does TiVo practice discrimination?

The black (blank) TiVo recordings apparently result from TiVo using only two of the three digits for the scheduled channel. When we stop the recording, change channels up or down, and then return immediately to the original, black, recorded channel ... the picture is fine. (???)

NOTE: I hooked the TiVo and satellite receiver to a UPS because I thought that might help with the necessity for the too-frequent "repeat guided set-up". It hasn't.
The indicator we need to repeat guided set-up is when we completely lose our 'guide' (i.e. clicking the GUIDE/LIVE TV button yields the same as the INFO button.)

I guess if I have another hard drive failure or burner failure, I will have to decide which of my TiVo units to send in for repair. I had best call you for help with that choice, as one unit had paid-up lifetime service.

And Thanks again!

~ john

That could be a hard drive failure still, but it sounds like you have your channel changing set too fast. If you do Guided Setup again, choose the slowest speed for your code.

I will try that. And I will call before I send in a unit for repair.

Thanks