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A long sad story that hasn't ended
In the summer of 2008, after 5+ years of good service, our Hughs DVR2 DirecTivo began getting sick -- it would have bursts of pixillation in recordings on almost any channel. These were short enough that we just fast-forwarded over them, but they got more frequent and longer.
Then in September, the DVR2 began turning up frozen on a black screen, and have to be manually rebooted. In October it began to reboot itself spontaneously while we were watching it.
All these problems are documented at length in Tivo forums and on the Weaknees FAQ pages. It looked like the power supply (for the rebooting and freezing) and the sat-tuner chips for the pixillation. So on November 26, 2008 we shipped the Tivo off to Weaknees for those repairs (RO# 239810).
At that point we went off for ten days in Hawaii, hoping to have a repaired Tivo on return.
Weaknees repair swapped out the power supply and found that the machine ran well and didn't pixillate -- they said. They placed a phone call to our cell and left a message asking, did we want to continue with the chip repairs? But we didn't get that message for days -- possibly because we were "roaming" in Hawaii? -- and when we got home, no Tivo. Called Weaknees and ok'd sending the machine back, refunding the prepaid cost of the sat chips. Between travel and miscommunications it was December 11 before the box shipped.
We set up the Tivo with a schedule of recordings and went off for another two week trip. Just after we left, on the afternoon of 12/16/08, the Tivo started a recording and on what was probably the last second of that recording, it froze up: locked up with the final frame of the program displayed. When we returned home on 12/27 and turned on the TV we found it that way, still hung on that program of 12/16.
We forced a reboot but over the next two days we saw repeated freezes, spontaneous reboots while we were watching programs, and heavy and frequent pixillation on all channels. In other words, it was just as bad as it was before or worse -- the new power supply hadn't fixed a thing.
At this point, tired of being without TV, I opted to just get a refurb. I placed order #594541 with Weaknees for a refurbished DVR2 with new access card, and paid for overnight shipping. It arrived on 12/31 and I went to set it up.
It bombed. It would boot ("Powering up...") then say "Almost there..." and then go to the infamous Green Screen "A Serious Error Has Occurred." After a few minutes it would reboot itself and repeat the cycle. The refurb unit was a complete D.O.A. I scrambled to get it to a UPS store that was still open on New Year's Eve and shipped it back to Weaknees on what was now RO 244629.
Days without TV passed -- Weaknees people were apparently at CES or somewhere -- but finally on 1/14/09 the repaired box shipped and arrived on Friday 1/16/09. The note inside said that the hard drive had been replaced and "PROBLEM SOLVED."
With eager anticipation I plugged it in; it came up; it went into Guided Setup; it found the satellites; it said "Acquiring information from Satellite" and, knowing this takes a while, I left the room. When I returned, the box was rebooting: "Powering up..."
Uh-oh.
And it went to the "Almost there" screen and then it went to the Green Screen. And after a few minutes it rebooted and did that again... and again...
I had some quite testy conversation (testy on my side) with Weaknees support. I was (and remain) quite angry that after
1. A failed repair
2. A D.O.A. refurb
3. Another failed repair
4. Six weeks without a reliable TV, and two weeks with no TV at all,
the best they would offer was, to exchange the refurb DVR2 for another. When I wanted to get it sooner than sometime late next week, the only accomodation they would offer is they could do an "advance exchange" shipping the replacement now -- but only provided I would allow them to bill my credit card for the second box, refunding it after I returned the bad one.
They would ship it "overnight" meaning Monday, this being Friday, because I'd paid for overnight on the first refurb order. Could I please have it tomorrow (Saturday)? Only if I pay the extra $25 UPS fee for saturday delivery.
To be continued: when the new, new box arrives Monday I will update this. I sure hope that one works.
Then in September, the DVR2 began turning up frozen on a black screen, and have to be manually rebooted. In October it began to reboot itself spontaneously while we were watching it.
All these problems are documented at length in Tivo forums and on the Weaknees FAQ pages. It looked like the power supply (for the rebooting and freezing) and the sat-tuner chips for the pixillation. So on November 26, 2008 we shipped the Tivo off to Weaknees for those repairs (RO# 239810).
At that point we went off for ten days in Hawaii, hoping to have a repaired Tivo on return.
Weaknees repair swapped out the power supply and found that the machine ran well and didn't pixillate -- they said. They placed a phone call to our cell and left a message asking, did we want to continue with the chip repairs? But we didn't get that message for days -- possibly because we were "roaming" in Hawaii? -- and when we got home, no Tivo. Called Weaknees and ok'd sending the machine back, refunding the prepaid cost of the sat chips. Between travel and miscommunications it was December 11 before the box shipped.
We set up the Tivo with a schedule of recordings and went off for another two week trip. Just after we left, on the afternoon of 12/16/08, the Tivo started a recording and on what was probably the last second of that recording, it froze up: locked up with the final frame of the program displayed. When we returned home on 12/27 and turned on the TV we found it that way, still hung on that program of 12/16.
We forced a reboot but over the next two days we saw repeated freezes, spontaneous reboots while we were watching programs, and heavy and frequent pixillation on all channels. In other words, it was just as bad as it was before or worse -- the new power supply hadn't fixed a thing.
At this point, tired of being without TV, I opted to just get a refurb. I placed order #594541 with Weaknees for a refurbished DVR2 with new access card, and paid for overnight shipping. It arrived on 12/31 and I went to set it up.
It bombed. It would boot ("Powering up...") then say "Almost there..." and then go to the infamous Green Screen "A Serious Error Has Occurred." After a few minutes it would reboot itself and repeat the cycle. The refurb unit was a complete D.O.A. I scrambled to get it to a UPS store that was still open on New Year's Eve and shipped it back to Weaknees on what was now RO 244629.
Days without TV passed -- Weaknees people were apparently at CES or somewhere -- but finally on 1/14/09 the repaired box shipped and arrived on Friday 1/16/09. The note inside said that the hard drive had been replaced and "PROBLEM SOLVED."
With eager anticipation I plugged it in; it came up; it went into Guided Setup; it found the satellites; it said "Acquiring information from Satellite" and, knowing this takes a while, I left the room. When I returned, the box was rebooting: "Powering up..."
Uh-oh.
And it went to the "Almost there" screen and then it went to the Green Screen. And after a few minutes it rebooted and did that again... and again...
I had some quite testy conversation (testy on my side) with Weaknees support. I was (and remain) quite angry that after
1. A failed repair
2. A D.O.A. refurb
3. Another failed repair
4. Six weeks without a reliable TV, and two weeks with no TV at all,
the best they would offer was, to exchange the refurb DVR2 for another. When I wanted to get it sooner than sometime late next week, the only accomodation they would offer is they could do an "advance exchange" shipping the replacement now -- but only provided I would allow them to bill my credit card for the second box, refunding it after I returned the bad one.
They would ship it "overnight" meaning Monday, this being Friday, because I'd paid for overnight on the first refurb order. Could I please have it tomorrow (Saturday)? Only if I pay the extra $25 UPS fee for saturday delivery.
To be continued: when the new, new box arrives Monday I will update this. I sure hope that one works.
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