Western Digital RMA snafu

So last night my RMA replacement for my failed WD Expander arrived. I opened the box and found … an internal 500gb SATA drive, just the bare drive.

So I called up Western Digital and spoke with a support rep. I explained that I had opened an RMA for my external MyDVR Expander and received an internal drive instead. The rep checked my ticket and told me that I had opened an RMA for an internal drive. I responded by saying I typed in the serial number on the back on my unit. He put me on hold for a few minutes. Then he had me read him the serial number again, which I did. He insisted again that it was an internal drive.

“Look,” I said. “I’m holding my external DVR Expander right now. It’s not an internal drive.” He then tried to tell me I purchased an internal drive and put it in an external case. No, I explained back (getting a little upset at this point) , I purchased this as a complete package … a MyDVR Expander for my TiVo. I finally got him to transfer me to a supervisor.

After some more time on hold I finally re-explained the situation to a supervisor. He was much nicer and understanding and acknowledged that it could be a mix-up in the RMA system, matching the serial number to the wrong product. He said they would e-mail me a return label to ship back the internal drive. Then he asked me to scan the label of my external drive and e-mail it to them so they could verify ownership. He said they would then open a new RMA and send me the proper replacement. So I did all of that … looks like I’ll be waiting a few more days to get this replaced. 🙁

I think the serial number on the back of my expander is actually the serial number of the drive inside the case, which is probably the source of the mix-up. The internal drive they sent me was the same model I recall seeing show up on my TiVo’s System Information screen. If there was any discernible way of opening the external case, I probably could have swapped the drives, but that would definitely have voided my warranty. So I’ll just be patient and wait for the actual replacement.


My enhancement to Galleon’s weather app (officially, this time)

Last month I added a small enhancement to Galleon’s weather app that allowed for a user-selectable range for the radar image (instead of using the default 600-mile one). I published my source code changes and the new jar file here on my blog.

Now earlier this month, jtkohl released Galleon 2.5.3 which contained a fix for the original radar image bug in that started back in July (one I had also attempted to fix on my own). Well, since I didn’t put my code changes into the SourceForge project, my range selection enhancement was obviously not included in the new release and my modified jar file didn’t work properly anymore. After pointing this out to John, he was nice enough to add me to Galleon’s developer list on SourceForge which gave me access to make changes to the code repository.

I hadn’t used CVS in a long while, so I took some time this evening to re-familiarize myself with it and how SourceForge uses it for repository control. Once I was comfortable with that, I checked out a copy of the code, re-applied my changes, and checked them back in. I didn’t rebuild the entire package, but now the next time a new version is built, my changes should be included.

In the meantime, you can download my weather.jar to replace the one that comes with 2.5.3 or check out my code changes directly in CVS:

  • Weather.java rev 1.27
  • WeatherConfiguration.java rev 1.4
  • WeatherData.java rev 1.25
  • WeatherOptionsPanel.java rev 1.7

My WD Expander has died

Last night I found my TiVo HD just showing a black screen and it was unresponsive to the remote. No big deal, I rebooted it and it came back up fine. Then I tried to play an HD recording and it spontaneously rebooted. This time it got stuck in a reboot loop. So I let it sit unplugged for a few minutes, tried again and it booted fine. I tried playing the recording again, bam, reboot.

It got stuck in a reboot loop again, so I tried leaving it uplugged for a while like before, but no luck, still the reboot loop. Sometimes it would get to the “almost there” screen, other times it would just keep repeating the “powering up” screen.

Then I remembered I had the Western Digital MyDVR Expander connected. So I checked all the eSATA cable connections and they were tight. I tried booting without the Expander connected and the TiVo got all the way to the “external storage not detected” screen so that pointed to the Expander as the issue.

I wasn’t ready to divorce the drive just yet, so I unplugged the THD and the Expander and let them sit off for a while … but was still unable to get the box to boot with the external drive attached.

When I power up the Expander, it makes a slight vibrating buzz (like a pager) then I can hear the drive spin up. Then I can hear a clicking noise (which doesn’t sound good) and then the drive sounds like it spins down. I also can’t get into any of the TiVo’s kickstart modes to run a drive check. I suspect the box is hanging when trying to read the Expander and thus not getting far enough in the boot process to look for kickstart codes from the remote.

I’m not sure this is the same problem described in this thread on the TiVo Community Forum … it could be an actual hardware failure. I don’t have an eSATA connector on my PC, so I can’t run any diagnostics on the drive without it being connected to the TiVo … unless I rip open the enclosure. I checked my drive’s serial number on WD’s warranty site and it’s still covered, so maybe I’ll just try the RMA route.

Luckily I don’t think there’s any real backlog of shows I wanted to watch on the box, so if I end up returning the drive it’s no big loss (it’s just TV after all, right?). Hopefully I’ll get the replacement drive before the new fall season really starts up.

Interesting analysis of Gates/Seinfeld commercial

By now you’ve probably seen the new Microsoft commercial featuring Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld which premiered during Thursday Night Football last week.

When I first saw it, I wasn’t impressed. “The future. Delicious.” Seriously? This is Microsoft’s counter to Apple’s hilarious “I’m a Mac. I’m a PC” ads? Churros, shoes, and moist, edible PCs? What? (Ok, I did laugh at Bill’s mugshot on his Shoe Circus Membership card).

That being said, Ryan Block (formerly of Engadget and now part of gdgt) had an interesting analysis and breakdown of the different elements of the commercial on this week’s episode of TWiT (#159). Some of it actually made sense to me, though it still sounds like a bit of a stretch. The gang starts the analysis at the 1:10:13 mark. Judge for yourself … I’ll wait for the next one.

Disappointing sports weekend

Both the Bucs and the Browns lost yesterday on opening day of the NFL’s 2008-09 season.

The Rays have lost 5 out of 6 games in September, allowing the Red Sox to creep up to 1.5 games behind in the AL East … right before opening a three-game series with the Sox here in St. Pete tonight. If the Rays aren’t careful, they could see their magical turnaround season evaporate in the final three weeks. They’ve got six games left against Boston and three against the Yankees. One bad series and they could find themselves out of the playoffs!

The Indians are still 10.5 games behind the White Sox and even though they’ve been strong late in the season (Cliff Lee is doing amazing work), it’s too little too late for Cleveland’s playoff hopes in 2008.

Controlling HT components through walls

The way my home theater is set up, all of the components (receiver, TiVo, DVD recorder, Wii, etc.) are hidden in a cabinet. When we first moved in, I would leave the cabinet doors open so that the IR signals from the remote control could reach the components.

This was unsightly though, so eventually I picked up a pair of Terk Leapfrog IR extenders. Basically I left the IR receiver out in front of the TV which would receive the infrared signal from the remote then transmit it wirelessly to the transmitter in the cabinet. The transmitter would blast out the IR signal which would bounce around in the cabinet and get the signal to the right component.

That setup was fine, except that since the TV is up on a high shelf (about six feet off the ground), it was hard to get a line-of-sight aim from the remote when you were sitting on the couch. So you’d have to extend your arm up above your head to point the remote at the IR receiver. A minor annoyance, but still an annoyance. I also use my receiver to play music outside in the lanai area. Even though there’s a window through which I can see the media cabinet from outside on the lanai, aiming the remote to control the receiver volume was a hit-or-miss situation.

So I decided to investigate RF solutions. RF remotes use radio signals instead of infrared. Thus, they are not line-of-sight and also travel farther. I considered trading in my Harmony 676 universal remote for the newer, slicker 890 which uses RF, but wasn’t ready to drop $280 on a new remote. Enter the Next Generation Remote Control Extender. This slick little device incorporates an RF transmitter into a AAA (or AA) battery casing. I put one of the batteries with the transmitter in my TiVo Glo remote and then put the receiver (a flying-saucer shaped thing which also includes a charger for the second battery/transmitter and the IR blaster hardware) in my media cabinet. Wallah! I can now control the TiVo through the cabinet doors without the need for the extra IR receiver … even from rooms away! The other benefit was it freed up another power outlet in my cabinet since I didn’t need two bricks anymore (for the Terk receiver and transmitter units).

The battery/transmitter also works in my Harmony remote, so now I can control the music volume from the receiver out by the pool, without the need for line-of-sight.

It’s taken a little getting used to, not having to aim the remote at a specific place anymore, but I love the new convenience factor.

The terrabyte TiVo!

150 hours of HD-recording goodness … today TiVo unveiled its new TiVo HD XL.

From the outside it looks just like the TiVo HD, but this baby sports a 1TB (that’s 1 terrabyte, or 1,000 gigabytes) “green” hard drive, THX certification (like my now-discontinued Series3 box), and comes with the backlit Glo remote … all for $600 (plus the monthly service plan).

Yes, you could buy the regular TiVo HD and upgrade it with an internal 1TB drive for less than the XL’s $600 price tag (even Weaknees has had upgraded 1TB TiVos available for some time), but for the average consumer who doesn’t want to crack open their new piece of equipment and mess with hard drive upgrades, the XL should be their first choice.

I’m not really in the market for a new TiVo at this point: I’ve got an S2, an S3, and a THD all in active service plus a Toshiba TX-20 (DVD burner model) sitting in a closet not being used. Plus, the THD has the 500gb WD Expander attached so that box itself has 660gb (about 88 hours of HD recording). I’ll be waiting for the rumored Series4 before adding a new TiVo to the household.

Side note: when I first saw the name of the new model, it reminded me of my Atari 800XL. 😀

Strange sightings on my commute home

I saw two really odd things on my drive home from work this evening.

First, on the exit ramp from the highway, I was behind an old lady in her late 70s/early 80s driving a late model Lincoln Continental with a license plate frame that read: “Mailmen do it first class.” I wondered if she realized what that means.

Then on the last stretch of road before my neighborhood, I looked in my review mirror and discovered that the guy behind me in a Jeep Cherokee was wearing full mime makeup! Yup, white face, exaggerated smile with the dots in the corners, etc. It really freaked me out … it looked like he had just come from a bank heist or something. You don’t usually see mimes driving motorized vehicles.