Sounds like a power supply and/or motherboard problem to me. I'd suggest you consider a flat fee repair, see:

TiVo Flat-fee repairs

Hughes DVR40 DirecTV Tivo problem

I have a Hughes DVR40 Series 2 DirecTV Tivo that is on its 3rd HDD. I have been running on a Samsung Spinpoint 160G for the last 6 years. Recently I have gotten a lot of odd behavior, different from past HDD failurs. It started with me receiving several messages from DirecTV that I needed to activate my DVR. Then I stated to get stuttering and some pixellation of the picture when watching live video. Now, when I am using the guide, it will suddenly disappear from the screen as if I dismissed it. That also happens with the info screen. I am also unable to enter my security code to unlock "content blocked" video. When I select a "content blocked" recording in the "Now Playing" list, the password screen pops up, and then immediately goes away before I can enter any numbers. In addition, I am also getting occasional invalid access card errors. When I run a systems test, the signal strength on both tuners is in the mid 90's. The access card sometimes passes and sometimes fails. Recorded video that is not content blocked, seems to play OK, i.e. without any skipping or pixellation.

Another odd thing is that if I unplug the unit for a few hours and plug it back in, I get no lights, and no video output for a few minutes. It sounds like the HDD spins up, but I get no indication of any activity. After a few minutes, I will get the green and red lights on the front panel flash alternately, and finally the green light will come on solid and I'll get the "Powering up" messages. From this point it will progress normally up to the acquiring satellite info screen. Then about half of the time it will reboot before the process completes. It then usually finishes correctly the second time.

So my question is, are these symptoms consistent with an HDD failure, or am I having some other problem, like a power supply or main board problem?

Sure - the sooner the better!

See this site for info about copying your data:

http://tivo.upgrade-instructions.com

Hard Drive Issue

I suspect the hard drive in my Series 2 is rapidly approaching the final curtain. It is making a clicking noise it didn't formerly make. I suspect it is the read/write heads moving back and forth. My question is if there is a way to copy the drive contents to a new drive while the old drive is still working.

Try adding a uninterruptible power supply (UPS) before you swap anything.

I kept getting the overheating message even at a cold start up. I swapped the PS from another unit and the problem got better but did not go away. I was still getting resets when I checked messages and it was recording. It was not the power supply. Actually it was low AC voltage going to the power supply.

I put a UPS on my TIVO and now it boots up and runs fine.

OK - tell us how it goes!

So by the way, new drive behaved same as the first one. with room quieter I was actually able to hear it (damm it's a quiet drive) trying to spin up and failing (or at least that's what it sounds like to me)

So I've ordered a replacement PS, which should be here today. Here's hoping that's the last bit needed to get this baby working again.

Sorry for the delay - you should have a response now.

Michael,

I appreciate your dedication to be responding here at times that are obviously not during work hours. I just wish I'd gotten a response today from the folks at the email address.

Is there some way I can check to make sure the right software is on the new drive?

The folks behind the 'info' address asked about the lights on the adaptor card and I told them the same thing I had posted here, (first green, then green and red) but have had no response back since this am (9 hours ago)

Our restocking fee is 15%, minimum of $15. We do offer free ground shipping and discounted faster options. There is no refund for expedited shipping, and you'd have to pay return shipping to us if you were to return the power supply.

well I know for sure one of the drives is bad (or as sure as I can be, giving it's failing Seagate's diags.) but I suppose in the process, that could have placed enough strain on the PS to cause a problem (in theory anyway) especially since that doesn't exactly look like a terribly robust PS.

In that case, would we still be seeing the kind of signals from the drive (green, then green & red)?

Is there some way (using the weaknees boot CD and my PC) to easily verify that the disk has the right boot image and such on it? I'm a bit loath to buy a new PS if the problem is that somehow I didn't get the right bits on the replacement drive.

If I order the PS and that's not the problem, how much am I out for shipping and restock etc?

Yup - that could be a bad power supply. And if the PS doesn't have enough juice to spin up the drive or send the right signaling to the motherboard, it can look a bit like a drive issue.

order # and tivo model mailed.

A bit more info: original drives were Maxtor 120gb
I downloaded the windows version of the Seagate diagnostics, and slapped both original drives into the PC.
The 'slave' drive passes both long and short diags
The 'Master" drive passed the short, but fails the long diags.. I figure that indicates that it has a pretty seriously failure on at some spot on the platter, larger than can be repaired by using 'spare' sectors or remapping.

The strange part is that after the new drive failed to start, I put the old ones back (this is before running diags) and placing an ear to each one, it distinctly sounded like they were trying over and over to 'spin up' but not getting started. There was also none of the 'gryo effect' when moving them around that I'm used to with a running drive.

Not sure if that indicates some other issue (like a problem with the power supply?)

Yes, it should have.

Email your order number and TiVo model number to [email protected] so we can check them in our database.

well if windows would not be able to read the disk format, then yeah obviously backing up the homeserver is a bust..

In any event, that's a moot point. Since I now could not get the tivo past the powering up screen, I decided that at least one or maybe both of the installed drives must have failed completely. So I gave up on the idea of retaining any programming and went straight to installing the new replacement drive

However I'm stuck at the same point, the system won't go past the initial powering up screen. I cant even get it into kickstart mode

I've reseated all the cables twice. What I'm seeing is that when I power on I get a green LED on the back of the IDE/Sata adaptor, a little bit later I get a steady red LED also. and nothing else happens.

What now? it should have just booted up from the new drive right?