T-60 HD continually running... ?

[burnett]

i just finally got xtreme installed, and powered up the tivo, it did all the updates, i watched tv on it for about 5 or 6 hours and everything seems ok. i turned the receiver off but the hard drive continues to run even with the power to the receiver off. i'm new to tivo, is this normal? i went back to it 3 hours after i cut if off and the hard drive was still running, so i unplugged it. is it suppose to run all the time??


thanks

burnett

[zabs]

There has been some debate as to this as of recently. From what I can see is that the hard drives NEVER spin down in either of my tivos when they enter standby. (this is no big deal, spinning does not generally kill a drive alone.)

Also from my expirience, though I have yet to test it again:
Putting the tivo in standby will NOT stop the 30 min buffering of live TV, which does put unnecessary strain on the hard drives over time (in my opinion.) The only thing I have found to counter act this is to turn both tuners to a channel I don't receive (ie 1000 and 1001 etc.) This does stop the crunching noises and I assume stops the writting of the drives.

My best advice: get an UPS for your tivo. Power loss and power surges will kill its wimpy power supply long before most drives fail. If you have to get new drives at any time, get ones with 3yr warranties....yer gonna need it. Tivo is rough on drives in general.
Try to keep heat down in the tivo. Run with the cover off if you can stand the site and sound of bare electronics and hard drives crunching away. This will also prevent premature HD melt down.

[captain_video]

Placing the DTivo in standby only mutes the audio and video outputs. The DTivo drive runs constantly which is why cooling can be an issue if not properly privided for. You will notice that the DTivo still records when placed in standby so it's never actually turned off. The only way to turn off a DTivo is to pull the plug.

[Plohish]

I upgraded my Sony T-6o from factory installed software to Xtreme 2.5.2. One thing I noticed right away is that the driver is much much louder. I had to completely shut down the system for a night since it wouldn't stop spinning. Before the only sound that I could hear from Tivo is just the fan humming.

Can it be because Acoustic Management is disabled after the upgrade (assuming that it was installed in the first place)?

Any suggestions are welcomed.

[zabs]

Accoustic management would be handled by the drive's manufacturer's drive utilities and would not affected by the Xtreme install.

So if it was disabled from the factory by default, you will have to find their utilities and adjust the accoustic properties.

[Plohish]

Zabs, then I don't think the problem lies in accoustic software since before the upgrade the hard drive was "silent"

What else could it be?

[burnett]

THANKS for all the feedback fellows. i didn't know if i had a defective unit or what. as long as it suppose to be that way. you would think that would wear the hd out a lot quicker, but i guess they did all that research bfore they made they that way.


THANKS AGAIN for the info.

[zabs]

Plohish,
I can't think of any reason the same drive would be louder after Xtreme was installed.

Other than a few tweaks, 25Xtreme is very much the same as 2.5.1 of the stock tivo software.

Most people notice a jump in noise when they upgrade because they move from a 5400 rpm drive to a 7200 rpm drive and the whining noise from the drive spinning is considerably louder.

[BubbleLamp]

Could be you now have 2 tuners enabled, so the heads are gonna thrash a lot more.

[burnett]

since i don't watch tv during the week that much, hardly ever. would it hurt anything if i killed the power to the tivo till the weekend??

[zabs]

It shouldn't hurt as the tivo keeps guide data for 2+ weeks a at a time. If you skip a weekend you might be hurting for a bit (out of guide data) but I don't think you would miss any recordings....