My TiVo is Toast

It is now hit and miss with my TiVo.

Late last night it worked great. No HD, but at least it was working again.

I checked it first thing this morning...still working. Big exhale, now it is only a matter of getting the cable cards working again. I came home tonight and all was still well...until I tried to fast forward the show I was watching. When it got to the end, it stuck in freeze frame. No combination of button pushing and grumbling seemed to be able to convince TiVo to behave.

After I cycled the power (by yanking the plug) the TiVo lapsed into the now familiar dance I will call the Reboot Boogie. It stayed working long enough for me to check the internal temp: 50 C. For those of us who are 'merican, that is about 122 F. TiVo said that 50 C is "Normal", but when I checked our Series 2 TiVo, I found to to be 45 C or 113 F and labeled as "Normal". In the past both of them had consistently been around 40 C (104 F). From my previous experience as a Computer Tech I knew that when electronics get warmer than are comfortable to touch with your bare hand, things stop working too well. I think that 122 F qualifies as warmer than I would want to touch for very long.

I quickly went to the command that allowed me to shut down the machine gracefully and then unplugged the machine. I plan on cracking open the case and blow out all the dust it has accumulated over the last year and a half. I have revived more PCs than I can remember with this trick, and I hope it will be just what the doctor ordered.