Tivo still going strong - finally got the cable card installed. had a problem or 2 with the m-card, as the provisioning didn't go too well (missing channels because a couple numbers were transposed during the "tech call in".) otherwise, all of the misery was somewhat self induced - bad image - that's been taken care of with a fresh (older) image. Thanks again for all the assist in trouble shooting ideas. I had given up on this box when I stumbled upon the older image and decided to give it another go.

The problems from a bad image sure made me think it was a hardware problem of some sort - live and learn I guess.

Edit: FYI - Series-4: Signal strength 83, SNR 36
Series-3: Signal strength 90, SNR 33 (this one is the older HD - never had any probs)
Series-3: Signal strength 87, SNR 35 (this is the one from eBay - seems fine now.)

1.5 weeks ago the TiVo HD had a random reboot when changing channels. I've suspected that the fan on this unit was "ailing" since I couldn't feel any movement of air out of the back of the unit after boot up. The fan seems ok through the 1st "powering up" screen, then seems to move so slowly you can't feel any air movement. The reported temp was also showing 42c (normal) (Ambient was 25c)
I purchased an EVERCOOL FAN-EC7025M12CA through Newegg hoping to "fix" this... when i 1st powered the system on, I thought I'd made a noisy mistake, but when the TiVo gets to the "Almost there..." screen, the fan slows way down to a nice quiet whisper and you can still feel air moving out the back of the TiVo. Now the TiVo shows a cooler 35c (ambient was 26c)

Really hoping this helps cure any ills temp might play on the newer TiVo.

The one glitch is all I've had since putting on the fresh image. (it's been about a month now - very happy with this TiVo finally )