TiVo is HOT! Very HOT!

[BrainDamage]

I am at my wits end with this TiVo.

I have two of them. One of them runs very cool. As a matter of fact, if I put my hand on the cover, it feels cool to the touch. It is not even warm.

The other unit, which is a dual drive unit, is VERY warm. I can not keep my hand on it for long at all without it getting too hot.

I have replaced the cooling fan in the unit, and, I even added a hard disk cooler to one of the drives. The hard disk cooler fits on the hard disk and has two small fans on it. I can not add one to the other drive because of its position over the IDE cable.

Even with the extra circulation, the unit was way too hot.

I tried adding a 4" fan to the cover by cutting a hole in the cover and placing the fan so that it pulls the air out of the TiVo.. but, the power supply in the TiVo will not handle the extra fan. With the extra fan the TiVo reboots every minute or so. Without the fan the TiVo does not reboot at all. I guess it is just a low wattage power supply. These guys were not thinking about extra fans when they built the unit.

Anyway, I need a suggestion on what to do to keep this sucker cool.

Please.

I have already tried THIS (http://home.pacbell.net/arn-py/tivo/), but it did not work.

[markAdeck]

I have a computer geek friend that is also a refrigeration expert. He somehow ran cooling tubes through his tower that was running at too high of a temperture. Brain, if you are interested I would call him on the phone and put your ? to him.

[JJBliss]

Hey man........


Check this out. I think it's what you might be looking for.

Begin Edit:

I edited out the URL because BrainDamage already saw it. If anyone else is interested, look for Zerus Notebook Coolers out on the web somewhere.


End Edit:

If the URL isn't OK, I can PM it to you..

Hope it works.

JJ Bliss

[BrainDamage]

JJBliss -

Neat idea. I have seen these before.

I am thinking that I may have to hook up a second power supply and just run more fans.

I am not sure about the link you posted though. It is to a commercial site, although it is informative.

You might want to edit it just in case.

Thanks for the idea.. I might run with that.

markAdeck -
I might just put the TiVo next to my room A/C instead and blow arctic air through it. :eek:

[KapperDog]

BD. My dual drive (twin 120GB) TIVO runs hot as hell (61C) and I never have a problem with it.

My single drive unit runs at about 45C.

Are you having a problem from overheating?

[Bradleyfl]

Replace the 4" fan you added with one that runs off of 110 vac. Find a good spot for a 12 vdc relay to control this fan. Power the relay from the 12 vdc power supply inside the TiVo, use the relay to switch the 110 vac wall voltage the new fan will use. When you turn on the unit the relay will be turned on also, when the relay turns on it will power the fan from the 110 vac from the wall. These fans run much faster and will move much more air. If you hunt a little bit you'll be able to find one thats not to loud. I have added this mod to a few stereos that were old and replacing the output transistors was out of the question. Good luck.

[JustCuz]

I hacked my TiVo to cool it...hack into it, really. :D

http://www.geocities.com/justcuzdss/DTiVoWP.htm

There is some drilling and chopping involved, but it has worked for my DTiVo quite well. I have absolutely no trouble with heat anymore.

[BrainDamage]

Originally posted by JustCuz
I hacked my TiVo to cool it...hack into it, really. :D

http://www.geocities.com/justcuzdss/DTiVoWP.htm

There is some drilling and chopping involved, but it has worked for my DTiVo quite well. I have absolutely no trouble with heat anymore.

Looks simple enough. I have to go get some tools to make the holes for the fan, but that should not be too much of an issue.

Thanks!

[belboz]

Some people don't like this one, but it will run nice and cool with the cover off. Maybe more ventilation holes in the cover would help?

[BrainDamage]

I tried with the cover off. That did not work. The problem with that is that there is really no air flow.

It is the flow of air that keeps it cool.

[belboz]

The cover off should make a drastic difference in cooling. Do you have your Tivo in some kind of shelf or enclosure that will trap heat inside? In that case increased airflow may just recirculate hot air.

[osbo]

I had the same problem but with a computer power supply, it was running, but way to slow (was one of those silent fans) I went to one of the computers store in NW 72nd Av (where the plane when down back in 97) in Miami and I brought a new fan, just a regular, replace the old one, also I had to clean the inside, problem fix (the fan was like 5 bucks)
Good luck!

Osbo

[JustCuz]

Yeah...running with the cover off SHOULD eliminate your heat issues. Since it does not, I'd suspect that there is something else going on. Using 7200rpm drives? Some say they get hotter, others say they stay cooler. Your milage may vary, I suppose. But, before you go drilling holes, I would try to figure out why it's getting so hot even without a cover. Are you experiencing reboots or stuttering, etc? What's the internal temperature as reported by the DTiVo? Just curious as to what, if anything, prompted your concern other than it being hot enough to fry an egg on the cover. ;) Just removing that black padding really does make the drives stay cooler.