Had to Replace My TiVo Series 3 Power Supply

Three days ago I pulled the power chord on my TiVo Series 3. As I have done several times recently, I was taking my Series 3 to take it to a friend’s house to see how many over-the-air HDTV channels TiVo could receive in his neighbourhood.

Embarrassingly, when I got to my friends house, plugging the S3 in yielded only a a soft, staccato tick, tick, tick. Later, at home, I removed the cover and isolated the ticking as coming from the power supply (see the circled area in the picture above – click image for larger view).

Happily, a quick Goggle search lead me to this weaknees trouble shooting page where I identified the tick, tick, tick sound as a classic sign that the TiVo’s power supply was caput. A few emails back and forth with weaknees support and I was off.

Getting Started

I ordered a replacement power supply from Weaknees (U.S. $99) (here) and had it shipped overnight via UPS to Canada for another U.S. $49.52. It arrived this morning. UPS charged me a further Cdn $15.65 GST to take delivery.

Note: I would normally ship to Canada via the slow/cheap road of U.S. Post to Canada Post, but I wanted my  TiVo back for election night tonight (Go Barack!).

Halfway There

Replacing the power supply was simple. Two torx screw drivers, size T10 and T8 (not T15 as identified on weaknees site) are required to remove and replace the pertinent screws. Three connector plugs need to be removed and replaced (a power connector to the motherboard, another to the SATA drive and the integrated SATA connector to the motherboard). It was simple. It took me 5 minutes. Anyone could do this.

It’s Alive

As you can see from the pictures, the replacement unit worked without a hitch. My S3 is back.

Back Where it Belongs

Note: The lonely empty space on the bottom right of my TV stand is where my Xbox 360 usually sits. The day after my S3’s power supply bit the dust, I experienced my first red-ring-of-death. That unit has been shipped back to Microsoft for repairs (details here). In the mean time, my PS3 is going to get a little love with Resistance 2 (just out today).

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