I have just completed a repair on my beloved TiVo. After six hours of effort, my TiVo is once again beaming at me with a happy green light. But this was no cakewalk.
Anyone who knows me at all knows I love my TiVo. Anyone foolish enough to ask what it is will hear an empassioned speech about how it changed my life. Or at least my TV viewing habits. I love TiVo so much, I have two. Plus a cable box DVR, which is really the bastard stepchild and gets no love.
But the saga starts a few months ago, when my second TiVo, my NEWER TiVo, started acting out. It wouldn’t always listen to what I wanted it to do, it would sometimes stop recording mid-show, and need some time in the quiet corner. But then it got worse, it wouldn’t get past the loading screen. And finally, when I went to turn it on, all I heard was an evil “click-click-click”. We all know what that means. Ok, you probably don’t. But it means HARD DRIVE FAILURE! NOO!! All the hours of TV, lost and gone forever. And who would record all my upcoming shows? Well, after some frantic shuffling between my backup TiVo and the evil Comcast DVR, I worked things out. It’s the summer, after all, and there isn’t much on anyway.
But I needed to salvage my best loved TiVo. The fall TV season is approaching, so what was I to do? Well. I bought a new hard drive. And I thought it would be simple, a matter of hooking up some drives, running a few commands, and voila, better than new.
Well, it wasn’t simple. Let me see. I bashed my head several times on my desk. I stubbed my toe. I cracked my ankle. And those are just the injuries to me. I managed to kill two more hard drives, and am now down one computer.
But. But. Ultimately, I was successful! Though I really can’t explain it, because I just kept trying the same commands in different configurations, they finally worked. I am now looking at my lovely 288 hour capacity TiVo. It loves me. I know it does. And it won’t fail me like it did before.
But I’m left with a lingering disquiet. Will TiVo fail me again? Will it crack in my hour of need? Can I ever really trust it again?
3 Responses to “The Trials and Tribulations of Loving TiVo”
Sometimes when my antenna is in perfect alignment and the barometric pressure is stablized I can watch CBS..or at least I think it is.
“Anyone foolish enough to ask what it is will hear an empassioned speech about how it changed my life.”
That’s me, right?
I wonder when it comes to Finland..
Someone still uses an antenna?!? What is this archaic device of which you speak?
Everyone needs a TiVo. Even in foreign lands.