HD100 power supply repair

[Brent]

Originally Posted by merneric

All flattery aside, though, when you say something like:



You sort of make the point for me, as I thought I made it clear that I in no way disrespect anyone's opinion, but that rather, I welcome ALL opinions be they good or bad.

If you mean no disrespect to others opinions you probably don't want to say this sort of thing:

Originally Posted by merneric

but when I see what seem to be somewhat blind, extremely biased, and (borderline paranoid) self-delusional statements made by the SageTV defenders, it concerns me a bit.

That is more than disrespectful and is the opposite of welcoming ALL opinions as you say.

Look. I respect your right to complain and not like what SageTV does. I also respect your right to disagree with me or Opus or whoever else here. What I don't appreciate is trying to call out someone for disagreeing with you. Your comments basically labeled anyone who disagrees with you as "blind, extremely biased, and (borderline paranoid) self-delusional."

Are you trying to convince SageTV to change their mind on something? Vent your frustrations? List out the wrongs that have happened? If so, fine. But don't complain when others disagree with you and then call them those things.

Still, I guess what irritates me about your irritation, and most of the other posters on this subject, is that for the most part people seem to be unwilling to look at this from both sides. For example, you have stated that you have had no issues with your HD-100 extender(s?), so therefore, you don't consider it to be a big deal.

You added the words "therefore you don't consider it to be a big deal" Do not put words into my mouth.

I don't consider it a big deal because:
I think it's a minor malfunction of the HD100 and something that is very easy to repair for very little money. Further if you're unwilling or unable to do that repair the company will fix it even though it's beyond the warranty.
Yes, that is my opinion which obviously not everyone agrees with. But I'm certainly entitled to speak it here and really so is Opus.

I should call it a truce at this point. As I attempted to say before: I disagree with you, but certainly respect your need to say your peace here. In the meantime I'm going to try to get my money back on that Logitech remote that has a broken button and doesn't charge anymore - I purchased it 2.5 years ago and I think it's beyond it's warranty. I wish they had a forum where I could complain about it

[merneric]

Oh my gosh, I can't believe I'm doing this, but here goes...

Originally Posted by Brent

If you mean no disrespect to others opinions you probably don't want to say this sort of thing:

That is more than disrespectful and is the opposite of welcoming ALL opinions as you say.

Look. I respect your right to complain and not like what SageTV does. I also respect your right to disagree with me or Opus or whoever else here. What I don't appreciate is trying to call out someone for disagreeing with you. Your comments basically labeled anyone who disagrees with you as "blind, extremely biased, and (borderline paranoid) self-delusional."

First of all, I am not the one that started complaining here, in fact, if you look carefully at my posts, you will see a fair balance of praise. I merely felt compelled to come to the defense of someone who WAS complaining, and attempted to be a voice of reasonable opposition. Perhaps my verbage is a bit strong, I'll grant you that, and if so, my apologies, but there seems to be a PASSIONATE need for some folks to defend SageTV at all costs, which is fine, as you say, and is their right to do so, but I decided to voice a dissenting view. My point, is that one can be as passionate as they want as an end user, but when someone like Andy, who, lets face it, is not the typical end user, displays this sort of passion, I think it's a little out of place. IOW, I would think that he should be a little more neutral, but that's just my opinion though, take it for whatever you want.

Originally Posted by Brent

Are you trying to convince SageTV to change their mind on something? Vent your frustrations? List out the wrongs that have happened? If so, fine. But don't complain when others disagree with you and then call them those things.

Hmm, again this is exactly the sort of thing I was talking about. Re-read my posts, and you should see that I am not trying to do any of these things.

Originally Posted by Brent

You added the words "therefore you don't consider it to be a big deal" Do not put words into my mouth.

That was not a direct quote. That was a paraphrase of statements that you made here, and statements that you made in the original HD-100 died thread. I think it was a reasonable assumption, especially since directly after your objection to such, you state:

Originally Posted by Brent

I don't consider it a big deal because:
I think it's a minor malfunction of the HD100 and something that is very easy to repair for very little money. Further if you're unwilling or unable to do that repair the company will fix it even though it's beyond the warranty.
Yes, that is my opinion which obviously not everyone agrees with. But I'm certainly entitled to speak it here and really so is Opus.

As for the repair policy, and this is just my opinion, I could really care less, since as you "inferred" before, we are lucky in that the repair is relatively simple, straightforward, and inexpensive. In fact, even if SageTV did offer a free repair program, I probably would just do it myself anyway, to save the hassle of shipping back and forth. However, I can definitely empathize with those who ARE upset about the policy, and I do not consider their complaints to be unreasonable or frivolous and certainly not conspiratorial. Again, I was just trying to present an alternative perspective on this, albeit, as I conceded before, perhaps too strongly.

Originally Posted by Brent

I should call it a truce at this point. As I attempted to say before: I disagree with you, but certainly respect your need to say your peace here. In the meantime I'm going to try to get my money back on that Logitech remote that has a broken button and doesn't charge anymore - I purchased it 2.5 years ago and I think it's beyond it's warranty. I wish they had a forum where I could complain about it

Finally, something we CAN agree on...I am all for the truce. Look, like I said before, I have too much respect for you, and believe what you may, for Andy, Narflex, and SageTV to "degenerate" this conversation any more than it already has. So good luck with the remote, and here is the link to the Logitech Forum where you can complain/opine to your heart's content...

http://forums.logitech.com/logitech/...eneral_remotes

[Brent]

Ah, thanks for that forum link - too funny! And I'll actually be using that one.

I still think you went very overboard in your comments about the so-called "defenders." I give - I don't agree, but I do give. Time to have a beer and argue about real stuff

[MikeW]

Well, three new caps and 10 minutes later and it's up and running again. It's amazing that all these "random failures" and "normal" failure rates turned out to be the exact same issue.

Thanks to everyone who posted the fix.

[merneric]

To Brent - Fair enough. Apologies to you and to all that were offended by my comments.

To MikeW - Glad you got it working and welcome to the "self-repair" club...

[Cable]

For the statisticians out there... I just got back into town and had the infamous blinking light on my HD100 (purchased 06/08). I had the same weak IR reception for about a week prior to the meltdown. To think, I was starting to suspect the repeateded dropping of the remote. Glad I bit my tongue as to fend off the "I told you it wasn't me" speech.

*sigh* I am off to fix it myself.

[sic0048]

TO ALL (i.e. no specific individual) - Please stop complaining that SageTV is charging for a repair while other companies that are repairing bad power supplies for free. We do not have enough information to be able to compare the actions of these companies and to do so is just making wild assumptions. Granted, I'm about to make a wild speculation here, but the point is simply to show that we don't have enough information to rush to judgement.

For example, the power supply on the HDHomeRun went bad for basically the same issue and they offered to replace the power supply for free. The speculation is that they bought the power supplies for the HDHR from another vendor and when those supplies went bad, the other vendor had to replace them. So perhaps the only cost is the price of shipping a small power supply (and perhaps they made the vendor cover shipping to - we just don't know).

The speculation is that SageTV is not able to pin this power supply problem on another vendor since it is an internal component on a uniquely designed product. Therefore if Sage needs to charge $40 for the OUT OF WARRENTY repair in order to stay profitable and stay in business, then that is certainly fair enough.

For pete's sake, let's try to lay this issue to rest! I for one don't want to see another thread needlessly locked because of an arguement that is not winnable for either side. Let's try to keep this thread open and on track to allow people to be able to find out what the problem is and how to fix it and let other's know about their individual failure.

Off soap box

[ybrew]

I've had my HD100s for quite a while now (no idea how long - just long time).
Never saw this thread before today.

Came home, turned my hd100 on and it looked like my IR was dying. The HD100 never turned back on.

I may attempt to repair it myself. If I fail and I still can, I may return to sage for a fix (don't mind paying for the repair). Worst case, I screw it up really bad and I'm forced (oh no!) to buy an HD200.

off to do some reading now.

----------

OK read most of this thread (skipped past most of the complaint threads) and got the two links to do my repair. The hardest part sounds like finding where I left my soldering iron. Oh well, looks like the HD200 will wait for another day.

My HD200s were probably purchased around Jan 2008. I've been VERY happy with them for the entire time I've had them.
Think I'll have to wait until tomorrow to do my repair as even if I find my soldering iron tonight, I doubt I'll find my resin core solder, so I'll probably be off to radio shack in the morning.

(I do have a few motherboards to go through tonight - I'll probably find some capacitors somewhere.

Thanks to all for this thread with great info and the very nice instructions for DIY repair.

I LOVE Sage!

[electron]

I see some people talking about using caps from old(er) motherboards, but keep in mind that most older motherboards have this EXACT same problem. I have so many dead boards at home, and have taken MANY out of service at work, all because of this bad cap issue. If I were you, I would just buy the caps from RadioShack or some other online source, and avoid the chance of having to go through this again in the future.

[mhatten]

I don't think this thread should end simply because of what ybrew said....
" I've had my HD100s for quite a while now (no idea how long - just long time). Never saw this thread before today. "

Not every sage user checks the forums on a daily basis like some of us do. The thread could easily get lost in the mix which would make it difficult to find for the casual user. I personally would like to see this thread (or at least how to fix it) made a sticky.

My HD100 will be 1 year old on August 1st. Will it break like the others who have posted here? Time will tell. I am glad that this is being discussed though. If 30+ people had any common issue with any component of Sage (hardware or software), i would like to know about it... regardless if its a power supply or a problem with the user interface.

[ybrew]

Originally Posted by mhatten

I don't think this thread should end simply because of what ybrew said....
" I've had my HD100s for quite a while now (no idea how long - just long time). Never saw this thread before today. "

Not every sage user checks the forums on a daily basis like some of us do. The thread could easily get lost in the mix which would make it difficult to find for the casual user. I personally would like to see this thread (or at least how to fix it) made a sticky.

My HD100 will be 1 year old on August 1st. Will it break like the others who have posted here? Time will tell. I am glad that this is being discussed though. If 30+ people had any common issue with any component of Sage (hardware or software), i would like to know about it... regardless if its a power supply or a problem with the user interface.

I do check the forums on a pretty daily basis (i'm always checking the latest betas and any cool new downloads). But yeah, I don't check all the different areas of the forum unless I'm searching for something.

I'm gonna buy caps at radio shack. I'm not in a hurry though. I probably won't get around to it till this weekend.
I've only got one HD TV and two HD-100s, and I've got two 4 or 5 hauppauge MVPs with at least 3 sitting collecting dust. So plugging one of those MVPs in and moving my good HD-100 to the HDTV is a simple fix to buy me a few days.

This weekend though - I'll be soldering again.

(did find my iron last night, luckily)

[Fluffdaddy]

Add another HD-100 death to the list, I was beginning to think I was one of the lucky ones.

Came back from a real fruitless fishing trap to find the red light was blinking on my bedroom unit. Oh what a great end to a great day

Time to do some diy reading then make my way to radio shack.


Edit to add...............Thx all for the diy info.

[sungod]

Is this limited to the HD100? Since mine went down recently, I figured I wanted another extender anyway. Is the HD200 essentially the same as the HD100, only better?

[thatdude90210]

Originally Posted by sungod

Is this limited to the HD100? Since mine went down recently, I figured I wanted another extender anyway. Is the HD200 essentially the same as the HD100, only better?

The HD200 uses an external dc adapter so this problem doesn't apply.

Seeing this thread, I was curious so I opened up my 2/2008 HD100 and found that the caps still look new, no discoloration or bulging. It's in the bedroom so it's only used about an hour a night.

[waynedunham]

I had to repair the PS on my 1st Hd 100 yesterday. Actually this is the 2nd repair, I had to do my other HD 100 in early June.

This one was the first one I bought in December of 2007 which oddly enough is the one I use the most BY FAR! The unit I purchased in late February of 2008 blew its caps in early June.
The only thing I can point to, other than the random gods, is that my original unit which lasted the longest has a bit better air circulation around it.

One cap had definitely blown, one was bulging and looked like it may have started to leak slightly and the 3rd one showed no signs of bulging. Since I had 3 of the replacement caps on hand I replaced all 3 of the suspect caps.

Another thing I learned is that I have to get a new soldering iron. The one I have is at least 20 years old and doesn't heat up worth a damn. I'd have to let it set a couple minutes after de-soldering each leg of a capacitor.
I also have a 2nd wireless soldering iron which works great on small projects like this, its just that I use it so rarely that I don't keep the charger plugged in and its never charged when I need it.

[sungod]

Originally Posted by thatdude90210

The HD200 uses an external dc adapter so this problem doesn't apply.

Seeing this thread, I was curious so I opened up my 2/2008 HD100 and found that the caps still look new, no discoloration or bulging. It's in the bedroom so it's only used about an hour a night.

Thanks. Ordering one now then. (the 200).

Even though mine had a problem I still really like the thing. Manufacturing errors are common in any production process so I don't consider this to be a really big deal.

[MegaChrisGT]

My HD100 finally quit on my this evening. I repaired the power supply in about 30 minutes using 1000uf 35V capacitors from parts-express.com.

There are three caps on the power supply board near the connector going to the mainboard. Only two of mine had evidence of failure but I replaced all three. If you've done soldering before this is a trivial repair.

Pics of the repair are here: http://tinyurl.com/lrbzss

You can buy the replacement caps here: http://tinyurl.com/nun7oq

[Fluffdaddy]

Thank u much for the links

[mhatten]

+1 to the dead HD100 total.

Perfect Timing.... I posted on 7/22 that I am glad this tread is still around for those who need to know how to fix the HD100 power supply problem (yes.. it is a problem). I said mine was still working but my unit was coming up on its one year anniversary.

Well, the unit is now 369 days old.... and dead. Flashing red light. Very disappointing.

Thankfully, I can fix it myself thanks to the posts on this thread.

[sungod]

Made my own fix today. It took me a little over an hour, mostly because I was very careful to not mess anything up, and had never done any circuit board soldering today. The SageTV support staff pointed me in 2 directions for self-repair:

http://www.cocoontech.com/portal/art...er/98-how-to-r

and

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

I used the top one (their .pdf link does not work but print works fine). I found the experience to be scary but very self-rewarding when I powered it back up and it worked fine.

Things break, it happens, not really worth complaining about. And $39 for a fix that includes shipping is also a really good deal in my opinion. The experience just made me realize how much I like my SageTV extender.

For those who are using this thread as it was intended, self-repair... I can offer the following advice. Go slow and follow the directions carefully. It was not as bad as it sounds but if you are not comfortable doing so just fork out a few bucks for the repair. I found having a wet sponge nearby a huge help and the cost of the tools and the parts was around $30 or so. I got everything from Radio shack and fixed the problem in about 2 hours total, including the trip to the store.