Tivo - worth keeping?

[renrow]

Hi
My Tivo worked in a fashion manually after the plug was pulled in 2017 but suddenly started flashing a green light and no picture. Had it since 2009 and originally thought I'd bin it but looked on the net and found this site. Worth persevering and what are the options.
Cheers

[Darren King]

The flashing green light is a problem with the motherboard and easily repairable. The unit can also have the PROM chip changed and software patched at the same time to bring back the Guide Data and clock synchronisation.

[andymoz]

Hi Darren,I had a faulty motherboard I sent you last year,with a similar but not the same problem.Flashing green light/motherboard issue.
It was unrepairable. Shame,but it would have been interesting to see if you had more time to look.I guess you binned it by now.
I never got around to organizing anything with you re disposal or return of board.
Keep up the good work
Andrew

[Darren King]

Hi Andrew

Actually I do still have the board intact as we left it because as you said there was no official word on what you wanted to do. One small point to know is that I *never* bin anything TiVo related as it is the only source of parts available.

No I didn't and won't be looking further into this board. You may recall in our emails that yes, although I was able to get your TiVo operational again after your attempt of PROM modding it - albeit briefly - it failed again with the flashing green light issue, but as you mentioned above it is definitely NOT the usual "flashing green light" issue as what happens with these boards with MTEK branded RAM. I also conversed with you via email at the time I did some further investigation and sent you a photo of a length of solder that was attached (melted) at one end onto a component and bridging several others, but upon removal that did not restore operation.

As emailed this board *MAY* have a faulty RAM chip that has failed in a way unique to this board only, but as I can't diagnose down to the one of four RAM chips with my usual diagnosis given this board is not responding they way it should for a RAM issue, it would make repairs to this board uneconomical. As you can appreciate by already knowing what the board look like the RAM chips have a much finer pin pitch and although they don't pose an issue for me to rework I don't like the idea of replacing them blindly only to get to the last one and still have the fault.... and RAM chips are not cheap only to maybe faced with it NOT being the issue. Bear in mind that I've only ever known the "flashing green light" to be RAM related (and at that only the MTEK branded RAM as the HYNIX branded RAM does not fail, and the NANYA branded RAM does something completely different), but the "flashing green light" is actually a general data bus issue so there is a high chance it is something else. Given what I found already for all we know there's another rouge slither of solder stuck under something shorting out the data bus and I'll only by luck find it (or not....).

I understand this board had a hard disk married to it with programs you wanted to keep, but unfortunately unless you wanted to incur what could be a hefty repair cost then again I consider this board unrepairable. I did however offer another board at a cheap price if it was just a matter of wanting another functional TiVo (without the recordings, of course).

But if you wanted this board back as is then drop me an email and I'll arrange to get it back to you.

[andymoz]

Hi Darren,
Thanks for your reply.It's quite comprehensive and I have learned quite a lot reading it.
I do appreciate the work you do.I will email you regarding my faulty board.

Kind regards
Andrew.