Apparently this is a common problem for Elgato EyeTV hybrid devices, although EyeTV wants it to be called a ‘rare’ problem.

But! The fix is here! Apparently for most devices, you just have to ‘cook’ it. In other words, to (temporarely) get it working again, you need to get it warm again.

Several solutions have been proposed in this Elgato support forum, and I won’t keep you from a few:

• stick the usb ‘stick’ between your chair and your bottom for a few minutes
• put it in the oven for a few seconds or minutes on low temps (I would NOT recommend this)
• put it on an external harddrive that gets hot (like for example, oooeh I don’t know, an Apple TimeCapsule ?)

Anyway, after warming it a bit on my TimeCapsule, it worked like a charm ! Elgato recognises the device again, and since my iMac hardly ever shuts down, this should keep going until the next reboot or so.