DirecTV® Tivo® Hughes HR10-250 High Definition TiVo Unit Repair

Boy, what a neat unit. You need to have a bit of an "early-adopters" attitude to run one of these at times. They really are great but prone to be a bit flakey at times. A faster Microprocessor would be great. Unplugging them and letting them reboot seems like a reasonable thing to do sometimes. Sometimes, My personal unit likes to be unplugged the day after storms and brown-outs even though it is on a battery backup. 

Currently, They  do offer the only reasonable method of HD recording to the masses.

However. We see two real problems with this unit. Both are apparent only in the older units.

The older unit has an HDMI bd that says "HUGHES HDMI CARD 1034054"

To date we have seen no bad cards marked as 1035849. Please do not send these newer HDMI boards to CCS without a prior E-mail describing your symptoms.

The HDMI output is either unreliable or does not work at all.  Symptoms are:

 TiVo not recognizing the cable, Color shifts, Works at times, or Never worked since the day you got it and this is your third unit.

We fix these! We think it is a shame that they fail. The technology is actually quite good. We hear that some people are constantly changing units to get a working HDMI jack. We fix them and fix them correctly. Just that simple. We take the time to do this rework. It is not an easy fix. It appears the "big guys" do not want to be bothered to take the time to do it right. We DO take the time. We offer this repair @ two levels. Removal and repair of just the HDMI bd is pretty easy. (The units run fine with the board pulled). Takes less than a week to have your board back. Please see "pricing" page for details. Send an email and we will be happy to explain how to pull the board.

The units  also like to lose recording, run slow, lock-up, etc. We see this problem described on user forums as  a potential software problem. We see it as a likely intermittent mechanical failure with the hard drive. We feel we have a good fix for this. We can't promise "crisp" menus but we do feel as the units run better with fewer flakey events once we do a physical modification to the Hard Drive.

A lot of the other misc problems reported on forums are likely just passing signal issues that DirecTV and their content provider are working on.

Or course, blown modems, Tuner failure, and bad power supplies are always good reasons to send a unit in for repair.

DirecTV® Standard Definition Tivo®. Shown in the three common flavors.

These look Very Similar from the outside. Even more so from the inside.

Shown (from top) Philips, Sony, Hughes

The Direct TV Tivo  generates more enthusiasm from it's owners than virtually any other home entertainment product. It's menus have  "personality" and if left alone to it's own devices, it records things to surprise you based upon past shows watched (optionally) . As with all items repaired by CCS, we work to the individual component level on all repairs.

If you want to really enjoy satellite TV you need a DVR (Digital Video Recorder)

The TiVo 28% acquisition problem is described here. We can fix this problem but so can you! This problem is resolved by an update to the TiVo software. We can force this update if yours will not update.

Common failures of the Direct TV Tivo with most likely fault:

Problem: When powered, unit sticks at "Welcome...Powering Up"

Cause: Hard Drive is bad or corrupted

Problem: When powered, unit sticks at "Almost there..."

Cause: Modem is Blown

Problem: When powered, unit Cycles between the above two screens and appears to reboot.

Cause: Power Supply not correctly supplying 3.3 Volts to the Main Circuit Bd.

Modem Problems: All phone in house dead until the unit is unplugged, the unit "answers" the phone before it rings, Cannot make a test call regardless of options set.

Tuner Problems: One or  Both Tuners will not get Picture, One tuner gets Odd Transponders on signal level screen but not evens (or visa versa)

Problem: Breaking up or Tiling of Picture especially on replay of recorded programs

Cause: Can be a tuner problem or a slow hard drive, but often times due to hard drive needing to be cleaned up. This can be a simple matter of deleting some recorded programs to let TiVo get some "breathing room" A total system reset is advised prior to sending for repairs.   Also, a hard drive that is constantly run at capacity will often times cause menus to appear sluggish or sticky.

Please understand that when we say a tuner or modem has failed, that we are referring to an un-separable section of a large circuit board that contains many parts. We feel it is beyond the scope of most individuals to correct these problems themselves. For this reason, we do not sell parts or kits, just our expertise. (If your business was in the laying of  sod would you sell grass seed?)

Notes on Off-Air TiVo (not Direct TV units):

We certainly can work on both types of Tivo. An off-air Tivo will generally behave as above. The most common problem we see with the off-air Tivo is certainly modem related.

If your off-air TiVo is ghosting signals it is Very likely that you have bad or marginal cables instead of a bad TiVo. Ghosting is caused by a reflection of some signal that results in a slight time delay or shift of a portion of the picture. Some tuner inputs are more sensitive to this than others (and sometimes your television or VCR will compensate for it better than the Tivo tuner). Please make sure you have eliminated signal source problems before you send your unit in for repair.

Misc Picture of a Direct TV Tivo

Inside the TiVo Some people call this two parts. We call it thousands.	TiVo Micro This is rarely bad. We just thought it was a good Picture.	TiVo Modem The Modem can often be the problem	TiVo Tuner We fix these. This is not a part. The parts in it are parts

 Satellite TV is at it's finest with a PVR ( Personal Video Recorder )