wkstewart
12-18-2007, 02:51 PM
Hi folks,
Thoughts or comments appreciated.
Neuby. Have a old hughes GXCEBOT directtivo unit that recently decided to not go past the "welcome powering up" screen.
Had previously put an expansion drive in. Now I am thinking about what the best approach is to getting back to some level of functionality.
So far I have taken the drives out and looked everything over. Nothing apparent in the unit.
The A drive is a Quantum LCT20 40GB and the expansion drive is a WD 80GB. I just this morning successfully downloaded instantcake with the idea of re-initing the drives to see if that might help. I have to wait till after work to go home and work more on this.
Question 1:, the A drive does not seem to power up when the data (ribbon) cable is attached, is there a reason for this? If I pull out the data cable and just attach the power it spins up fine. If I leave the data cable attached and power on the unit the drive seems not to spin at all. (the expansion drive seems to spin with or without the data cable, did I mess up the jumpers??) .
I have tried, unsuccessfully to get serial output from the unit via a serial cable I built. Got hyperterminal setup and checked out and also metered the cable to make sure it meets the wiring spec. Not sure if it is possible to get output from a series 1 unit that has not been configured to do so? Question 2; Should I be seeing output on the console, assuming my cable and hyperterminal are setup correctly?
I was thinking that if drive A was hosed in some permanent way I would try to at least get up and running on the expansion drive. I realize I will have to reset the jumpers, etc on the drive itself. From what I have read instantcake can do this but I want to confirm. Question 3; Can I use the instantcake software to set the expansion drive up as a new drive A?
I am focused on the drives because a support person at Weakness indicated that this is likely the problem given where the unit was failing. Question 4; does this ring true? (I am a bit wary since they suggested that I buy a new drive kit right away)
If you have some thoughts on how to proceed I would be appreciative. My kids (and me) love tivo and we're having some issues in possibly letting Tivo go and considering the new DirectTV DVR my brother wants to give me.
TIA,
Bill
Thoughts or comments appreciated.
Neuby. Have a old hughes GXCEBOT directtivo unit that recently decided to not go past the "welcome powering up" screen.
Had previously put an expansion drive in. Now I am thinking about what the best approach is to getting back to some level of functionality.
So far I have taken the drives out and looked everything over. Nothing apparent in the unit.
The A drive is a Quantum LCT20 40GB and the expansion drive is a WD 80GB. I just this morning successfully downloaded instantcake with the idea of re-initing the drives to see if that might help. I have to wait till after work to go home and work more on this.
Question 1:, the A drive does not seem to power up when the data (ribbon) cable is attached, is there a reason for this? If I pull out the data cable and just attach the power it spins up fine. If I leave the data cable attached and power on the unit the drive seems not to spin at all. (the expansion drive seems to spin with or without the data cable, did I mess up the jumpers??) .
I have tried, unsuccessfully to get serial output from the unit via a serial cable I built. Got hyperterminal setup and checked out and also metered the cable to make sure it meets the wiring spec. Not sure if it is possible to get output from a series 1 unit that has not been configured to do so? Question 2; Should I be seeing output on the console, assuming my cable and hyperterminal are setup correctly?
I was thinking that if drive A was hosed in some permanent way I would try to at least get up and running on the expansion drive. I realize I will have to reset the jumpers, etc on the drive itself. From what I have read instantcake can do this but I want to confirm. Question 3; Can I use the instantcake software to set the expansion drive up as a new drive A?
I am focused on the drives because a support person at Weakness indicated that this is likely the problem given where the unit was failing. Question 4; does this ring true? (I am a bit wary since they suggested that I buy a new drive kit right away)
If you have some thoughts on how to proceed I would be appreciative. My kids (and me) love tivo and we're having some issues in possibly letting Tivo go and considering the new DirectTV DVR my brother wants to give me.
TIA,
Bill