So here's a thought...

Found this link http://archive.tivocommunity.com/tiv...c/21596-1.html

which seems to tell me that the crypto -gsn command reads the chips stored ID and that then ends up in some other variable. My good tivo just returns the same number system info shows as my tivo service number when I run on the good box.

Now, if I hack the launch script so that instead of reading the real Tivo ID using the crypto -gsn command, I simply assign an arbitrary number of the right format to the variable the real S/N normally ends up in, I should be able to fool the script into thinking it has read the crypto chip OK?

And outside US the actual number doesn't really matter so long as I have one(and I'm not unlucky enough to pick an ID someone else in NZ has), the script should run successfully...

Going to give that a try now...