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Hi folks,
I recently got my hands on an HDR-1000S which had a few problems I could live with, but I’m afraid it is now playing dead. I’ve bitten off more than I can chew here, so I was hoping I could draw on the expertise in the forum to figure out what might be going wrong.
OK, the box has (ostensibly) been suffering from intermittent issues – missing recordings, freezing, that kind of thing. These were (again, ostensibly) temporarily solved by a hard reboot and/or factory settings reset. When I got the box I started trying to replicate the issues, but I didn’t get very far. The unit turned on fine; the basic features were working; I started formatting the HDD, turned my back and when I came back, the screen was black (there was signal, it was just black – with no signal this TV returns a blue screen).
I left it alone for about an hour, just in case it was, in effect, formatting the HDD and just had no output. There was no change, so I unplugged it and waited a few moments. I tried starting it again, but no joy. No lights have come on since (and the HDD does not spin up either). However, the unit still draws current, the CPU(SoC?) is being fed power, because the heatsink is heating up, and current reaches the power button, so I have a little hope the box hasn’t turned to an oversized paperweight.
Still, the fault itself has eluded me so far. I’ve done most of the basic (and some not so basic) troubleshooting:
– unplugged the unit and left it for an hour; when that didn’t work, overnight.
– pressed the power button repeatedly with the unit unplugged to ensure there was no power left.
– unplugged the HDD and repeated the process.
– checked the PSU voltage (healthy 12.1V) and measured the power drain at the wall (consistent 12W; I don’t have the tools to do a proper test, but based on the two measurements I wouldn’t bet on a PSU issue).
– checked the power button works (which it does fine, and power is reaching it).
– did a visual inspection of the capacitors, none of which displays signs of being faulty – no swelling, no loose connections.
Other than systematically testing the components for shorts to ground, there’s nothing I have the tools to do / have done before I think might be helpful.
I have been going through the forums looking for similar problems, and while there doesn’t seem to be a (solved!) similar issue, I keep seeing reference to capacitors being the culprits of most of the erratic behaviour – even in cases where they do not look faulty.
Based on your experience, does the problem I’m describing sound like something caused by capacitors misbehaving, or something different / worse? Realistically, would it be an advisable step to try to get my hands on a (cheap) ESR tester, or am I grasping at straws here?
Disconnect the hard drive data and power connectors, now check if the box will boot as a non recording box. The symptoms sound the same as I had when the HDD failed. Post what happens.
grahamlthompson – 1 hour ago »
Disconnect the hard drive data and power connectors, now check if the box will boot as a non recording box. The symptoms sound the same as I had when the HDD failed. Post what happens.
OK, I tried doing that again (unplugged both cables on the mainboard this time, rather than the joint end at the HDD – you know, for variety
), but I’m afraid it is showing no new signs of life – no lights, no picture, still consistently drawing 12W from the wall.Thank you for the suggestion, though.
EDIT: Forgot to mention in the first post – I’ve been connecting the box using SCART, to make things easier and avoid potential issues to do with HDMI (handshake / CEC ?).
trivial noise – 2 minutes ago »
grahamlthompson – 1 hour ago »
Disconnect the hard drive data and power connectors, now check if the box will boot as a non recording box. The symptoms sound the same as I had when the HDD failed. Post what happens.
OK, I tried doing that again (unplugged both cables on the mainboard this time, rather than the joint end at the HDD – you know, for variety
), but I’m afraid it is showing no new signs of life – no lights, no picture, still consistently drawing 12W from the wall.Thank you for the suggestion, though.
I should have read your post more carefully. Not looking good, I was hoping the dodgy recording was down to the HDD on the way out.
In general Humax boxes don’t generally have capacitor issues except for the Foxsat-HD which used the rubbish capxon ones.
grahamlthompson – 16 hours ago »
In general Humax boxes don’t generally have capacitor issues except for the Foxsat-HD which used the rubbish capxon ones.
I recently repaired an HDR 1010S and found 5 faulty (ESR) capacitors on the mainboard. If I remember correctly, they were all surface mount, 3 x 100uF @ 35V, 2 x 10uF @ 50V.
My own one is a similar vintage (3 years) so I’ll be doing some preventative maintenance on it soon.
grahamlthompson – 3 days ago »
I should have read your post more carefully. Not looking good, I was hoping the dodgy recording was down to the HDD on the way out.
In general Humax boxes don’t generally have capacitor issues except for the Foxsat-HD which used the rubbish capxon ones.
Afraid not…
andyfras – 3 days ago »
I recently repaired an HDR 1010S and found 5 faulty (ESR) capacitors on the mainboard. If I remember correctly, they were all surface mount, 3 x 100uF @ 35V, 2 x 10uF @ 50V.
My own one is a similar vintage (3 years) so I’ll be doing some preventative maintenance on it soon.
That’s a little more encouraging, actually.
I don’t have an ESR meter, though. Do you reckon it might be worth picking up one of the cheapo units coming out of China? (something like this one, for example)
Even if you do buy the meter, do you know what to expect from it?
Just change the caps if they are suspect?
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