So I don't understand - did this unit have a lifetime TiVo subscription?

Start Up Reboot and KickStart Failure

The unit does NOT have a lifetime subscription....and has been working nicely since I purchased on ebay more than three months ago.

My general understanding is unit can and should function with Mcard as cable signal processer and provide cable channel access and fundamental pause/record feature without a full blown subscription (channel guide, to do, series record, scheduled record etc).....it should act like an old fashioned manual vcr.

This looks like a start up problem, not a subscription cancelled problem, but that is why I am asking for help here.

You're right about the physical problem, but I was pretty sure you couldn't use the unit at all without a subscription - not for decoding CableCARD signals or anything. I haven't seen or heard of this use successfully.

Tivo Without Subscription ???

Thanks for the confirmation on the physical hardware issues. I still have to figure out if it is worth cost of repair.

Do you think it is most likely hard drive ?

Maybe I misread, and I know it is an odd use as I suggest, but I thought I had seen others who described the unit defaulting to a featureless system which allows manual pause/record once subscription runs out. As long as the system OS is functional (without features or guide, do you really need updates ?) it should display cable channels based on the Mcard.

I think I had read on one forum that the pause was only good for up to 30minutes max without a subscription.

Given the low cost of 500GB hard drives, I am surprised at how expensive a replacement drive with an ISO OS image appears to cost.

Yes - that certainly sounds like a bad drive. Be sure to use an AV drive to replace it.

Reboot failure - not Hard Drive / not power supply ???

Turns out it is not the drive, and it is not the power supply (or power supply doesn't show obvious signs).

I have two premier's so I moved the suspect drive to the working box and it fully starts up eventually displaying a hardware sync error which is expected since hard drive, motherboard, and cablecard are no longer matched up. Unit processed channel selections and displayed Guide correctly.

I went back to bad Premier unit and checked power supply output.

Getting 12v on one leg, getting 5v on three legs as expected for moly connect leading to mboard.

from power supply at hard drive, get 12v on one leg, 5v on second leg.

At this stage, I am out of what I know are removable, repairable parts...except the SATA connector which I am tempted to cut or break away from power harness and see if a bad SATA connector is my issue.

Do CPROM go bad ? If there is power outage, and CMOS battery is dead, will I lose ROM start up ?

While I enjoy solving technical puzzles like this, I am dissappointed a three year old box would fail in this manner. Makes me hesitate to buy another as replacement and certainly makes me hesitate to by a lifetime service plan married to the motherboard.

Thanks again for guidance. I am still looking at 1TB drives for my S3 HD and the working Premier. Need to get past this problem first.

Since you have two units, why not try taking the power supply from the good one and installing it in the bad one?