HD100 power supply repair

[drewg]

Since the "HD100 Just Died" thread is locked, I'm posting this here so that the users who are keeping track of the hd100 fatality rate can see it.

My HD100, purchased 2/29/2008, died last night. It was the classic death reported by others. The IR sensor seemed "weak" for about 48 hours prior to it dying. Last night, when I sat down to watch the Silverstone GP, the red light was blinking, and the blinking was accompanied by a slight hissing sound. After opening the case, it was clear that 3 capacitors on the power supply failed. I self repaired the unit (many thanks to my neighbor, who is much better with a soldering iron than I am) and it seems to be working again.

Drew

[MTuckman]

Add another HD-100 death to the list, purchased 12/07. Same symptom with the IR Receiver seeming to fail before the unit itself died.

Going to take a run to RadioShack tomorrow and see if they have the caps. If not then I guess it's $39 and a trip back to Sage for repairs. Thankfully I have a second HD-100 that I can steal from my daughter and move into the living room. Not sure I could survive telling the toddlers that they have to go without their 200+ movies for a couple of weeks!

[drewg]

Originally Posted by MTuckman

Going to take a run to RadioShack tomorrow and see if they have the caps. If not then I guess it's $39

We actually salvaged the replacement caps for my HD100 from an older PII motherboard, so the repair cost $0.00.

Drew

[gjvrieze]

I need to open the 2 I have and see if they have failing caps. I would rather replace them BEFORE they fail! I also have a family friend, with a system that I setup, who's HD100, I should also check... I am not happy that they locked the other thread, that kind of action drives me NUTS!

[Electronicbuff]

A buddy of mine gave me a link showing step-by-step instructions on how to repair the HD100. See this link: http://www.cocoontech.com/portal/art...hd100-extender

[skipwiley]

The 5 volt DC adapter solution is the route I took and I highly recommend it over desoldering/soldering caps.

I skipped integrating the switch and simply connected the 4 internal wires to the 2 wires from the adapter and voila! everything is working great, did this about a month ago and my HD100 is still going strong.

Here is the article I followed:

http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/show...54&postcount=7

I personally think Sage could have handled this well documented problem better by offering DIY repair kits for $20. I think most people using SageTV are capable of removing a few screws and connecting a few wires.

[tmiranda]

I am not a soldering genius and it only took me 10 minutes to desolder the old caps and solder in the new ones. Just need a little braid from Radio Shack.

The worst you can do is mess up the power board and if that happens you can always go the power adapter route.

[Ron]

The timing of this thread was perfect. Got home from a long vacation and found that my HD100 had these symptoms. Went down to Radio Shack, got the caps, and in ten minutes my HD100 was working again.

The instructions from Cocoontech were quite helpful.

[RayGannon]

Mine ,purchased mid summer 2008, showed no symptoms but I opened it for inspection after reading the problem description/solution thread. I was about to place an order for capacitors to repair an ASUS motherboard suffering the same issue. Sure enough, the two electrolytics on the HD-100's 5 volt rail were domed and venting. Since I was already ordering the capacitors for another repair, total cost of the HD-100 repair was less than $1.00 and the unit was down for about 20 minutes.

Thanks to those that started these threads, and Sage for leaving them up, I'm a happy camper.

[Mitch G]

My son came in the family room (HD100 purchased 12/07) the other day and was complaining about a high pitched sound. I couldn't hear it at all. And I didn't quite know what to make of it. Maybe he was just hearing things. But, then my daughter comes home from camp and starts complaining about the high pitched sound. Unplug a few devices and its the HD100. Lo and behold the high pitched squeal is a symptom of the problem and my inability to hear is a symptom of one too many rock concerts, I guess.

$6 at Radio shack, coocoontech's website and about 30 minutes (took me forever to get the old caps removed) of labor and the bad caps and the squeal are gone.


Mitch

EDIT: Had wrong date - it's a 12/07 purchased HD100.

[malamo]

Mine died this week after 13 months of light use (under 10 hours a week).

[malbec]

Add another one ... 12/10/2007.

Thanks to all for diagnosing the problem, identifying the parts/solutions, posting the tips, etc.!!!

[JoeDiRT]

Chalk another one up....Purchase date was 2/08. Seems from the posts that were averaging one a day if not more.

[Ken C]

Another one, magic blue smoke escapes !! But, Radio Shack actually had the 3 caps and the HD100 is now back in action. Took me longer to find the soldering iron than the actual repair. Love the smell of solder in the morning ...

[nettech_gt]

One of the two I bought on 2/27/08 died tonight right in the middle of watching Blade Runner It exhibited all symptoms, weak IR sensor, blinking power light with slight beeping noise.....off to Radio Shack!

[igloo32]

Add another one to the list, Got my HD200 last week, unplugged my perfectly working HD100, Went to plug it in upstairs a week later after putting in a bit of new cabling, turned the HD100 on and nothing but a flashing red light. Checked when I ordered my HD100, 24th June 08 received it on the 10th July 08 so I assume it’s just out of warranty Also it was purchased in the UK from Tranquil PC before they had a falling out with Sage so looks like I’ll be going down the DIY fixing route.

[HawgGuy]

Amazing. I've just been noticing a week IR response the last day or two and thought I'd check the forums.

[Motofreak75]

I just replaces all the caps in three stx-100 even though they were not popped. I didnt notice any remote issues but that was because I use 880s and MCE remotes

But they all suffered from bad audio sync issues when playing HD-pvr files. After 10 minutes and 9 new caps replaced later, all of them play the files perfectly. It was like a light switch !


Has anyone else noticed playback issues with failing caps ?


If anyone else needs them replaced and is local to me just buy the caps and I'll do it for free. Its just take a few minutes

Located in Eastern GTA of Toronto PM for details

[nettech_gt]

THANX! Electronicbuff for posting the link to that awesome guide. I replaced all three caps and everything is working again!

[drewg]

The original name of the thread was "Another HD100 bites the dust", not "HD100 power supply repair", and seems to have been ... sanitized by SageTV.

After this, the locking of the original thread, and the way they handled the repair program (dragged kicking and screaming by the forum to a repair program), I think I'm done with SageTV, and won't be recommending SageTV to my friends, or on my local AVS Forums HD reception thread.

Cheers,

Drew