Coolest Tivo in Town

• 26th Jul 2007 • Technology

I almost died the other day when I had a blue-screen on my Tivo. Now, this isn’t just a Tivo. It’s a DirecTivo. Back in the day, DirecTV and Tivo worked together, and made these kick-ass DVRs. Then, DirecTV got greedy and ended the relationship with Tivo, and made these crappy DVRs themselves. I have one of the crappy ones (in my office), which forgets the timezone and reboots on its own whenever it feels like it. I also have 2 of the DirecTivo’s: one in the livingroom, one in the bedroom.

So when the one in the livingroom died the other day, I was heartbroken. Time for electrical surgery.

I cut the warning label and went in… blew out the dust, put it back together and it overheated again. So I figured the fan was bad. It’s a basic 60mm fan, but has a funky connection on it that plugs into the motherboard. Since CompUSA is closed, I headed to US iTek, but they didn’t carry it, either. They had a basic case fan, with a typical power connection. Luckily, I remembered that while in the Tivo, the hard drive has one of those power lines, so I bought the new fan and stuck it in – this thing is powerful, yet quiet. A nice $9 upgrade.

Then Office Depot had laptop cooling pads on sale for $20 this week, powered by USB. So I have one of those under the Tivo, sucking off the hot air and blowing it back in the room. Not what I want during the summer, but the hot air will be a welcome addition come winter.

So with the new fan and cooling pad, overheating shouldn’t be a problem again, and my DirecTivo should live longer… at least long enough for DirecTV to start working with Tivo again (I hope!)

3 Comments Comments Feed

  1. Eileen (August 1, 2007, 3:21 am).

    I am so with you on the Directv- Tivo thing. We have two of them! If they ever break I will go insane! We couldn’t believe it when we heard Directv was not offering the Tivo anymore. Insane!

  2. Eric (August 1, 2007, 8:23 am).

    Sounds like they may be working together again:

    DIRECTV to Introduce Additional TiVo Features

    Launching in early 2008, the new software download will provide these customers with DVR enhancements offered with the TiVo service, including a Recently Deleted Folder and Overlap Protection(TM), as well as DIRECTV’s Remote Booking feature.

    The ongoing support is good, but I’d really like to be able to get a NEW DirecTivo unit, and not a crappy DirecTV DVR.

  3. Use your DVRs USB Ports to Power Other Devices - Nagel Family Website (April 4, 2008, 3:59 pm).

    [...] the living room, I have a notebook cooling pad under the Tivo, again plugged into the USB port in the back. If they’re there, put them to use! addthis_url [...]

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