Don't go, TiVo!

Is our TiVo dying?

We got it nearly two years ago, as an early Christmas present from my mom. It performed admirably until this summer, when it started slowing down a lot. Periodically, TiVo would even lose the programming information. Repeating Guided Setup worked, but only temporarily--about a month or so.

Searches through the mess of links that Google returns gave some information. In particular, what was happening was our hard drive was not downloading the latest software update, from 7.2.2something to 7.3. TiVo was trying to log on and download the update every night at 2am, but nothing doing--it was stuck. Not even the program information would download. Eventually, it would be lost through lack of updates, even though there had been no other indication that something was wrong.

The search results consensus was that the hard drive is going, and it would be best to get a new one, as soon as possible. (Horrors if we have to watch shows "live" once more.) Even a call to TiVo customer service verified this assessment. (But of course it would. What company wouldn't want us to buy a completely new set of hardware?)

Until a few weeks ago ... when TiVo finally updated, through no doings of our own, its software version. We're now truckin' along on version 7.3, the latest, top-o'-the-line version (so we get the KidZone--whoo-hew!). The only drawback is TiVo is even slower than before, if possible. Changing channels takes about 3-4 seconds. Is this an issue with the updated software or with the hard drive?

Time will tell. Soon, we'll see if we get the "TiVo unable to update" message once more.