I wasn't the only one sick. My poor neglected TiVo, FayeFaye, which hadn't been used since we moved (since it doesn't support HDTV), finally got booted up Wednesday night. I had been hoping to sell it to my friend at work.Except it stuck at the "Welcome, powering up" screen.
I left it on overnight, thinking maybe it needed time for juice to get to the capacitors inside. Alas, poor TiVo was dead as a doornail.
So naturally, I cracked it open and did an autopsy (which is always fun, since the power supply is unshielded and I risk electrocution by getting anywhere near it). It turns out the 120 GB second hard drive I added was so badly fried it wouldn't even be recognized by my computer's BIOS. No problem, I took it out and fired the TiVo up.
Problem is, as part of the upgrade, the original hard drive needed the second to exist. It was like they were conjoined twins, except instead of sharing a heart they were sharing the OS.
Luckily, I still had the backup I took a couple years ago when I added the second hard drive. Lo and behold, after much tampering and swearing, the backup was restored. I put the hard drive back in the TiVo and did a "plug and pray".
And like that, TiVo lived again. Albeit with 1/4 of the capacity it used to have and none of the shows. Goodbye, 24 season 4. So long, Alias season 4. Farewell, Fullmetal Alchemist and Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex.
Funny thing is I went through all that trouble, and I probably still won't be using it since it doesn't support high-def. Worse still, TiVo went nutty with rebates and these things are $50 now, so it doesn't even have much resale value without the extra hard drive. Still, there's a sense of accomplishment in raising the electronic dead.
If anyone wants to buy a slightly-used 40-hour Series 2 TiVo with an upgrade kit (but no upgrade), give me a holler.
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