TCD140060 Lifetime. Not the Power Supply?

[Dave20042004]

One of my friends has a TCD140 (Lifetime) with the LED's all lit up and no picture. From all I've read on the internet this is a power supply problem.
http://www.weaknees.com/tcd140060-repair.php

Before replacing the power supply, I plugged the unit in and verified that all the LED's lit up, fan spins and no video. I unplugged the unit, popped the old power supply out and very quickly replaced it with one from eklecticsystems. I was surprised to find that this did not solve the problem. Upon plugging the unit in, all the LED's light up and the fan spins but no video at all. I turned the mother board connector ribbon end for end (suggested in the sticky) with no change.

Given the success rate of people having resolved this problem by replacing the PS:
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb...d.php?t=247903

I emailed eklecticsystems and they replied that they don't have any more PS's for that model and feel it is "unlikely that you've got two bad power supplies since you're getting the same response from both".

I also see that the hard drive light goes on (but does not spin up) so maybe they're right? I verified the hard drive was OK by successfully backing it up with MFSTools. Does anyone have any suggestions to help me troubleshoot?

Thanks in advance
Dave

[PlainBill]

I'm not familiar with the power supply on the Series 2 SA units, but check the capacitors on both power supplies. The tops of them should be flat. If you have any that have bulging tops, you have identified the problem. Another test: Power the system on with the hard drive disconnected from both power and the main board. If you still have the same problem most likely the main board is bad.

PlainBill

[Dave20042004]

Hi Bill,
Thanks for the reply.
1. Capacitor caps all appear flat on the old and newly purchased PS's
2. I get the same results with HD disconnected from PS and MB.

However, I tried a few of other things:
1. I disconnected the PS to MB leaving the HD connected to PS & MB. This time, upon plugging in the unit, the hard drive spun up. No Video. Also, I repeated this phenomena on the old PS. Both PS's OK?
2. I then reconnected the PS to MB leaving the HD connected to PS but disconnected the HD to MB. The hard drive spun up. No video. While it was spun up, I reconnected the HD to MB. The HD remained spinning but No Video.
3. If I have both the PS to MB and HD to PS and HD to MB, no spin up, no video, just the fan and those pesky leds stuck on in front. BTW, I tried diconnecting that ribbon cable too, no change.

Earlier today I called a Tivo repair shop to get an opinion. I didn't have the above knoledge to talk about but he said a PS or MB might give the same symptoms. He said "if it's not the PS it could be a transistor on the MB. We would replace whatever makes most sense, sometimes even the entire motherboard. The TCD130 and TCD140's are fairly easy to move the Lifetime service chip, even between them. TCD240's are more difficult". I think the TCD240's are much more durable. Anyway, I hope this tidbit helps someone out in the future. Repair costs are steep! $99 for PS up to $199 for MB.

So, I'm looking for a bad transistor on the MB or is there something I'm overlooking? Also, any chance someone has a schematic for this unit?

Again, thanks in advance,
Dave

[Dave20042004]

Bill,
On closer inspection, there is one capacitor that appears bulged a little on top. If fact the same capacitor is bulged on both PS's.

It reads F 3300 microfarad.

After doing some searching, I found your advise here:
http://dealdatabase.com/forum/showth...t=41177&page=2

Now I have to figure out how to replace it. I'm not that skilled at soldering but I have two to play with.

Thanks for your help,
Dave

Update: I watched a Youtube video on capacitor replacements. So far I've fixed two TCD140 PS's and one TCD240 PS. It's a piece of cake!