TiVo Repair and Troubleshooting: TiVo Rebooting at "Almost There"

Your TiVo: Symptoms you may be experiencing

TiVo and DIRECTV have made DVRs for many years which incorporate both companies' technology: the TiVo DVR integrated with DIRECTV tuning capabilities. As such, these units can have certain specific problems that don't apply to cable/antenna/FiOS TiVo DVRs.

Fix my TiVo! - Solutions

Standard Definition DIRECTV TiVo DVRs

All Standard Definition (SD) DIRECTV TiVos have two tuners on the motherboard. A common problem, especially in the second generation of these units, is that a satellite tuner fails. This generally occurs first on the SAT2 input.

The failure can result in pixellated images, or in complete inoperation - where the tuner just displays a black screen, potentially overlayed with the channel banner. Most commonly, the unit needs a tuner repair. WeaKnees can perform a DIRECTV TiVo satellite tuner repair. One SD unit, the last one made, the R10, does have a red "reset" button inside the access card door, and pressing this button can often fix tuner problems. All other SD models need to have physical chips replaced on the motherboard to fix tuner issues.

High Definition DIRECTV TiVo DVRs

There are two HD models made collaboratively by TiVo and DIRECTV.

The HR10-250 was the earlier model and can experience a specific set of problems (see HR10 overheating) and has tuners that can fail like the SD models. WeaKnees can fix tuners on this model also.

The current DIRECTV TiVo DVR is the THR22. You can get complete TiVo THR22 info here. This unit has a very different internal architecture from all other DIRECTV TiVo models. As a relatively new unit, we haven't seen consistent problems with it yet; we'll update this page if/when specific common problems emerge.