Do I need a new hard drive?

 
Hard drive failure is the most common failure with all ReplayTv model recorders. Hard drives work extremely hard in PVR's and will failure in time. When used in a ReplayTv, typical failures occur around 1 to 3 years of service. General failure symptoms are:
 
1- Clunk, beep or whine sound from inside the recorder, indicating mechanical failure. 
 
2- Unexpected missing recordings and or guide data.
 
3- Unit freezes requiring reboot to work again.
 
4-  Pixilated video.

5- Video stutter, I.E. live TV (or delayed live TV) plays for a little, then pauses a little and repeats. This type of failure is caused by the hard drives inability to maintain the data stream ahead of demand.

6- Failure to boot I.E. stuck at the "Please Wait.." screen. A failing hard drive is incapable of storing and retrieving data properly. This results in operating system corruption and ultimately failure to boot. Operating system corruption can occur on a good drive as well, especially upon rebooting to correct a minor operating malfunction. None the less, hard drive integrity is always suspect in failure to boot situations.

 

Replaytv 2000, 3000 and Panasonic Showstopper specific hard drive failure description:

Green power light  stays on continuously. Unit will not respond to remote control signal.

You can hear hard drive spin up upon plugging the power cord in and remains spinning from then on.

"Please Wait" is displayed on the TV screen. "Please Wait" may or may not flash every 10 seconds. The Replay never advances to any other screen. Replacing the hard drive will likely fix this.

 

Please be aware, when the drive has failed in a Replaytv model 4000, 4500, 5000 and 5500 using coaxial out to TV. The cable signal will continuously bypass through the replay as if it isn't even connected to the TV. This is important to know, because the "Please Wait" screen mentioned, is only output through the A/V (RCA) or super Video ports. In other words, you will never see the "Please wait" screen when using the Replay RF output port.

 

Replaytv 4000 and 4500 specific hard drive failure description:

The red power light  continuously blinks. Using A/V cables out to the TV, you will see "Please Wait' on the screen approximately 10 seconds after plugging the power cord in. The "Please Wait" may flicker every 10 seconds or so, or it may stay on constantly.

With RF coaxial cable connected to the TV. The cable signal will bypass through the unit as if the Replay isn't even there and remain that way indefinitely.

The hard drive should start spinning within seconds of plugging in the unit power cord, and remain spinning until the power cord is unplugged.

Replacing the hard drive will likely fix this.

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Replaytv 5000 and 5500 specific hard drive failure description:

Blue power light stays on constantly. Using A/V out to TV, you will see "Please Wait' on the screen approximately 10 seconds after plugging the power cord in. The "Please Wait" may flicker every 10 seconds or so, or it may stay at a constant "Please wait".

With RF coaxial cable connected to the TV, with the TV tuned to channel 3, and with the Replay power cable disconnected. The cable signal should bypass through the unit as if the Replay isn't even there. Upon plugging the power cord in, the TV screen should go black for approximately 10 to 30 seconds or so. Then cable signal will again bypass through the replay as if it isn't connected. This condition will remain indefinitely.

The hard drive should start spinning within seconds of plugging in the unit power cord, and remain spinning until the power cord is unplugged.

If the above is what you're experiencing, most likely replacing the hard drive will fix it. If what you see happening is different, the problem could be with the power supply, 12 wire power supply connector or the motherboard.

 

 

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