Hate to say it, but the repair through TiVo might be your best option.

If it's not upgraded, and you don't have lifetime service, though, you could just get a new unit:

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

I have upgraded it with a more powerful harddrive.

I've read a lot of this sites posts and ya'll are very helpful. In all the posts I've read I've not once heard anybody suggest that the TIVO fix is the recomended one.

Is this problem really that unique?

It sounds like a motherboard problem, and only TiVo can really deal with the obscure ones. Generally, they just swap the unit and move your subscription over, so you'll need to put it back to stock condition before you send it, or you'll lose your larger hard drive.

ok - thanks for the suggestion you have been extremely helpful.

So i got my new Tivo unit today from TIVO and took out the stock harddrive and installed the old bigger drive. It now says that I have a harddrive problem. Do I need to erase and reformat the harddrive to make it compatible with this new unit?

If you take a hard drive out of unit A and install it into unit B (of the same make and model) you will get a hardware error and need to perform a "Clear & Delete Everything" before you can properly use the TiVo. Find that operation in the Test and Reset System menu.

What if it's a different model? Unit A - the old one - was a 540040 and the new one is a 540080 - I think I got the #'s right but you get the picture.

Is the only way to save the programing to move it to a computer? If so is there a program that is compatible with a mac?


P.S. - I need to thank you for selling me the junk 40G for cheap. I didn't have the original drive to send back to TIVO and they would have taken my bigger drive. Thanks.

Brent

No problem in this case. The critical model part is the TCD540xxx. The difference between those two was that the xx40 came with a 40GB drive and the xx80 came with, you guessed it, and 80 gig.

You should be able to transfer the programming to a computer using TiVo to Go, but not sure if you can bring it back on to a different TiVo...unless they're using the same media access key. I'll check.

As for TiVo2Go for Mac users, yes. You need to use a Roxio product that was released last year. Here's the link for Roxio's Toast 8:

http://www.weaknees.com/toast

And here's a quote from Roxio's site:

"Toast helps you take your favorite TV shows to go. With TiVoToGo, you can watch your favorite TiVo shows on your Mac, burn them to a DVD, or export them to your iPod or PSP. You can add transferred television shows to Toast directly from TiVo Transfer by selecting a show and clicking the "Toast It" button or by using the steps below."

Thanks - That is super helpful. Let me know if/when you find out if I can move it back onto the TIVO harddrive. If I can't I'm not sure $80 bones for the program is worth it other than that it would be a good excuse to buy some fun new toy.

Brent