How do I fix my Tivo?

Question

It's a Toshiba RS-TX20. I bought lifetime service so replacing it is out of the question. I came home from work tonight to find that it keeps rebooting. It will go as far as telling me "Just a few more minutes" and it even connects to my wireless network. Then it reboots again. Every once in a while it makes a clicking sound but it's NOT a constant click, click, click or anything like that. Tomorrow I'm planning on taking it apart and blowing out the dust. I'm also going to disconnect and reconnect all connectors, like to the hard drive. If all else fails, I'm buying a new drive for this Tivo from Weaknees. Is this a hard drive or software error or is there some funky hardware issue with this Toshiba model?

Answer 1

call the company???

Answer 2

Sounds like your drive is toast.

The lifetime service is transferable to a new unit if you get it replaced by the company but since you mention you want to poke around inside, that'll violate the warranty.

But since you aren't afraid of replacing the drive, I'd just go ahead and do that.  Your lifetime service is tied to the motherboard, not the hard drive, so you should be fine.

I upgraded my Tivo's drive myself, and then had to do it again when those drives died after 6 years of constant use.