can you downgrade from the genie 2 to the HR54

The Gemini is a client so you can't use it as a server.  You should be able to get one but DTV may make it hard.

no I asked if we could downgrade from the tower and we don't want the gemani

Call DirecTV and ask. But it's unlikely.  The HR54s are becoming limited as all newer installations use the HS17 Tower. 

Technically you can switch (upgrade) from Genie-2 (HS17) to a Genie (HR54 is the 3rd generation). It will come with a 24 month service agreement. If it has been at least 24 months since your last upgrade, then it should be a free upgrade. This is dependent their system allows the order and they have any in stock (DirecTV was pushed heavily to the Genie-2 so earlier boxes are harder to come by).

Since you brought it up in your starting post, Gemini (C71KW) is a Client, like the 4K Mini Genie (C61K). Difference is the Gemini is capable of wired and wireless, plus having a dual status of being a streaming box (think like Roku, Firestick, etc.). That is why I believe it wasn't called a Mini Genie itself.

The Genie line can use any Mini Genie Client you already have, though it would go on a TV itself. Remember it has 5 tuners and 1TB space compared to the 7 tuners and 2TB of the Genie-2 you currently have. Technically you can have regular HDDVRs (i.e. HR24) instead of Clients on the other TVs to get more tuners and recording space, plus independent reliability, but as mentioned above they are harder to come by. Also each HDDVR would be $199 one-time lease cost as even if you have a free upgrade available, it only covers the first box on the order.

I know unrelated but does replaceing 4 wired boxes to 4 wireless because they stoped working count as an upgrade 

Wired to wireless, or the other way around, is an upgrade. An upgrade is changing a box to another line. So a wired Mini Genie C41 to a wireless Mini Genie C41W would be an upgrade as an example.

However, having 4 boxes go bad together doesn't make sense. Wired to wireless wouldn't fix that. The Genie-2 is the brain for those 4 boxes, so if it has issues then that affects all of them. If nothing else is going on, then replacing the Genie-2 either by warranty replacement or upgrade should fix the issue.

Exactly what issues are you having?

So right now the tower is overheating and we called directv but before that 4 of the wired boxes went out and directv replaced the 4 wired boxes we have 8 tvs theses wired boxes were from 2012 so maybe that had something to do with it

You have a Genie-2 with 8 TVs? So 8 Clients?

Though it was able to pair with 8 Clients, only up to 7 can be in use together (because of the 7 tuners for watching and/or recording). That is one more TV than it supports at full max capacity. That may be part of the issue. But if all 4 Clients replaced under warranty got it working again, I am concerned the issue would just start all over as the root cause was not taken care of.

This is where the regular Genie line shines. You can mix recievers/HDDVRs with Clients to not have all eggs in one basket, or overtaxing the server. Since you have 8, I take it you are on the legacy account system as the new one limits to 8 devices (counting the Genie-2 as one of them).

Be prepared that even if you get the Genie you would need 4 dedicated receivers ($99) or HDDVRs ($199) as it can only use up to 3 Clients at one time. Only Clients have a wireless version, and since you're already wired that would be a downgrade in reliability. So switching to the regular Genie line would not be cheap, but would address a lot of the headache with your current setup.

(as a note recordings on the Genie-2 would not transfer)

Could be the emergency cooling fan is not working on the HS17 as it shouldn't be overheating running 7 clients.

We called directv and they said they would send us a new genie 2

That's what I would expect them to do.