Fix TiVo

TiVo Repair and Troubleshooting: TiVo is Dead and Will not Power On


Your TiVo: Symptoms you may be experiencing

Your TiVo is dead, and by this we mean that there are no lights lit on the front when you plug it in. For purposes of this troubleshooting section, your FAN MAY OR MAY NOT BE SPINNING. The primary symptom is really simple: No lights on the front.

Fix my TiVo! - Solutions

As a general rule, no lights on the front indicates a power supply failure. The power supply may be strong enough to power the fan, but will not send power to the front panel. Your hard drive may or may not be spinning. Here is some additional information about TiVo power supply troubleshooting. Keep in mind that if your hard drive spins only without the drive cable connected, it is possible that you need a TiVo motherboard repair. Also remember that if your TiVo is dead and does not power on at all, that can mask other problems, such as a bad hard drive or bad motherboard. In other words, if something took out your power supply (like a power surge), then that power event could have damaged another component in your TiVo, but you can't figure that out unless/until you try a power supply. For that reason, a flat-fee repair or diagnosis may be a decent bet.

If you want to try a power supply, we have found one reliable source; click here for weaKnees' TiVo power supply page.

More Information about this problem

Many people believe that if a TiVo fan is spinning, the power supply cannot be the problem. However, TiVo power supplies power many different things at one time. They power the hard drive, the fan, and various other components on the motherboard. The cable connecting the power supply to the motherboard has many pins, and different parts of the power supply are responsible for sending power through the various pins on that cable. If a power supply is bad, it is very common to see a TiVo fan continue to spin. Similarly, in some models, if a TiVo has lights lit on the front but has no video output at all (not even the "Welcome Powering Up" screen), then that, too, can be indicative of a bad power supply. See, for example, the TiVo black screen problem with the TiVo series TCD140060 and TCD130040 units.

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