I think my TiVo is conking out.

It's a 4-years-old series 2. I'd updated it with a 240G hard drive couple of years ago and it's been working beautifully, but yesterday, it abrupted switched off. I could see the machine was trying to run, since I could still hear the hum of the fan, but there was no green light in the front of the machine and screen remained black. I unplugged it and plugged it in again, then it rebooted, leading to the TiVo logo with "your recorder is starting up, please wait a moment." After a couple of minutes of that, the screen went black again and the green light went out. I thought the machine might be overheated, so I unplugged the unit, let it cool overnight and rebooted again this morning -- the same thing.

I can't send it for service since I'd opened up the box. I fear this might be hard drive failure, but is there anything else I should try before getting another drive from Weakknees? I have life time subscription on the machine, so I'd like to keep it if at all possible.

I think the Weaknees site has some very commonsense tips about what to do if you think you have an HD failure.

(IIRC, it may be possible to take out the HD you added and drop it into another TiVo.)

Yeah, I think I'll try opening up the box to see if any cables are loose. But unfortunately, I don't know of any other people with TiVO who'd be willing to let me tinker with their box. And I doubt it's any power or modem issue since there hasn't been any kind of power surge or electrical storm, and all the other media devices hooked up to the same power outlet are working OK.

The hard drive diagnostic is not going to be possible since Weakness recommend not using their recommened diagnostic software with Windows XP.

If there isn't any cable issue, I might just have to bite the bullet and order another hard drive from Weakness. Bah. I guess it's still cheaper than buying the series 3 plus the extra $200 for transfer of lifetime subscription.

Question time again - if my new laptop says "you're ready for on the go computing with 802.11a/b/g wireless" all over it, why can't it find any networks? I was assuming that I didn't need the little card thingy - am I wrong in that? One message that I keep getting is "make sure the wireless switch on your computer is on." My what now?

The network is there - the Tivo finds it no problem - so I know that's not it.

Look for a switch (could be software, could be a hardware button) to toggle power to the WiFi. Having the WiFi off saves power, and it may be set off by default at power-up.

So, an actual, physical switch? I couldn't find anything softwarey even using that term.

Could be. Depends on the laptop. My brother's Toshiba has a hard button toggle for WiFi power, with an LED indicator, in addition to an icon in the taskbar that is a shortcut to the WiFi controlling application.

2 questions-- one of my imacs (indigo with CD drive) has completely stopped turning on. Is there any chance of it spontaneously healing?

My other imac (Ruby DV edition) seems to have "lost" some of it's memory. That is, is used to work fine but now I cannot have the internet and internet dialer open at the same time because I so not have enough system memory. Is it possible that putting more memory in will fix this? I had been using it to play DVD's only, but with the death of the blue computer, I want to go on-line. Perhaps it might be possible to take some of the memory from the blue and put it in the red?

if my new laptop says

What kind is it? With my Dell, I have to hit the function key + f8 or something for the wireless card to be enabled. But it doesn't sound like that's the problem if it sees and connects to your network. It could just be that there are no other wireless networks in your immediate area, which, while unlikely, is a possibility.

Okay, found the switch (thanks!) and it claims to be all connected, but still won't let me access the internets. Sigh. Have to play with it some more after I get home from work.