• You did the upgrade and now it won't boot???

There are two "Please wait ..." type screens during boot up (see "----Note:" below). The first is displayed by the motherboard and will appear on the composite and s-video outputs even if there is no hard drive in the ReplayTV:

If you never see the initial "Please wait ..." screen (shown above) on the composite or s-video outputs as the ReplayTV boots up, that indicates a problem with the motherboard that is not field repairable. 

If you see the initial "Please wait ..." screen, that will be followed by a slight flicker and the second screen that's generated by the software if the hard drive and software are both functional:

or you'll see the flicker and the first "Please wait ..." repeatedly in a reboot loop.

----Note:  the initial "Please wait ..." screen is only visible when using s-video or composite out from the ReplayTV to the TV.  If you're using the ReplayTV RF output to the television, the initial "Please wait ..." screen will not be displayed.  To aid in diagnosing a problem, you should try to view the s-video or composite output from the ReplayTV.  If the ReplayTV is able to boot from the hard drive and load the software, the "One moment please ..."screen should be displayed on all ReplayTV outputs.----

If you never see the second screen ("One moment please ..."):

1) You did not follow the RTVPatch instructions correctly
2) The drive jumper is not set correctly (*see below for more information on setting drive jumpers)
3) The IDE cable is defective
4) The power cable is not plugged in to the drive
5) You used the wrong image
6) The image download was corrupt
7) If you used RTVPatch version 2.5.3, try RTVPatch version 2.4,
    if you used 2.4, try 2.5.3.
8) You used an incompatible USB external drive enclosure.  Hook the drive up to an IDE controller in
    the computer and try again.
9) You allowed Windows Disk Administrator to write to the drive.  (You should never allow Windows to write
    to or manage a ReplayTV drive).  If Windows has put a signature on the drive, you may need to low
    level format the first 100 MB or so with the drive's manufacturer utility and then use RTVPatch again.

If you eliminate 1 through 9, then I'd suggest using a different drive. If the different drive works, then you know there's a problem with the first drive you were using.

If you have eliminated 1 through 9, tried a different drive, double checked everything again, and still can't get the ReplayTV to boot, you possibly have a problem with the motherboard or the power supply.

Mike Menard at www.replaytvparts.com offers repair as well as replacement motherboards and power supplies for many ReplayTV models.

* Regarding drive jumpers -
Pay close attention to drive jumpers.  The 5XXX series of ReplayTVs use the cable select setting, while older series ReplayTVs may need to have the drive set to master.  Some hard drives have only master/slave/cable select jumper settings, while some drives (particularly Western Digital) have an additional "master/single" drive jumper setting.  When hooking the drive up to your computer, if it's the only drive on the cable, you should use the cable select or single drive setting, if available, or the master jumper setting.  In a single drive ReplayTV, you usually want it set to cable select or master (master/single).

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