HD Homerun Power Supply

[Eckwell]

Not sure how many people have experienced this, but my HDHR power supply failed a few days ago. I didn't notice right away though as it seems it would work, and then not work, and then work...

I noticed a problem because the SageTV Service kept crashing, and crashing, and crashing... and the log file seemed to be stopping at a point mentioning a network issue. Finally when I restarted SageTV I got the message saying a video source was unavailable.

I went downstairs and checked the HDHR and low and behold the light on the power supply (red) was flashing and so was the network light on the front. After Googling the issue it appears to have happened to a lot of people and Silicon Dust has offered to replace faulty PSs. I sen them and email and they have already responded positively. I already had a 5v power supply though and fired up the HDHR... no crashes. I had to rescan for the HDHR, but the channel mappings all resurrected.

I was experiencing the SageTV UI going to black screen issue too and that has now not happened for a couple days - just wondering if it is related. I used to experience it 1-2 times a day since installing 6.3.10.

Well I just though I might mention this to the forum in case it helps anyone troubleshoot issues - check your HDHR!

[waynedunham]

Interesting. This is the first I'd heard of this, thanks for the post.
I'll have to keep an eye on mine, but so far it's been working flawlessly. Mine's in the basement too so if it does go out the first I'll know of it is when Sage either crashes or fails to record an HD show.

I'll have to take a look over on the Silicon Dust forums. Just for everyone's info here, do they say it's a certain batch/range of serial #'s (either on HDHR's, or the PS itself), or just a general problem?

[Eckwell]

Originally Posted by waynedunham

Interesting. This is the first I'd heard of this, thanks for the post.
I'll have to keep an eye on mine, but so far it's been working flawlessly. Mine's in the basement too so if it does go out the first I'll know of it is when Sage either crashes or fails to record an HD show.

I'll have to take a look over on the Silicon Dust forums. Just for everyone's info here, do they say it's a certain batch/range of serial #'s (either on HDHR's, or the PS itself), or just a general problem?

They didn't specifically call out batch numbers, but there seemed to be a feeling that a bad "batch" did go out. I got a UPS tracking number today for the power supply replacement. now that is good service. Also, still not seeing the crashes I was seeing.

[CarlR]

I apologize if this is a repost but a quick search didn't turn anything up, and I wasted quite a bit of time on this before finding the simple solution...

SiliconDust is offering free replacements of certain models of the power adapters that shipped with the HDHR units. See this page for a description of the symptoms and the model number(s) affected.

In my case, one of my HDHRs just stopped being able to tune ANY channels, and I spent hours trying to debug the problem before going to the SiliconDust web site to submit a ticket.

* merged *

[CollinR]

Any 5VDC 2amp power supply should work, you can get them at radio shack.

Also that looks like an MediaMVP power supply.

[gjvrieze]

Originally Posted by CarlR

I apologize if this is a repost but a quick search didn't turn anything up, and I wasted quite a bit of time on this before finding the simple solution...

SiliconDust is offering free replacements of certain models of the power adapters that shipped with the HDHR units. See this page for a description of the symptoms and the model number(s) affected.

In my case, one of my HDHRs just stopped being able to tune ANY channels, and I spent hours trying to debug the problem before going to the SiliconDust web site to submit a ticket.

My first HDHR PS failed last week, so I submitted it on their site, will reply in this thread when I get my replacement....

[Taddeusz]

I had mine replaced a few months ago. I also ordered one from Digikey which got to me first. I ended up using it and keeping the other as a backup. I like the way the one from Digikey is oriented. It works better with my UPS.

IMHO, Radioshack is worthless any more. I could not find a proper PS there at all that would work with the HDHR. Right voltage but they didn't have any that went as high as 2A. Quite disappointing.

For grins I popped the old one open and guess what I found? A leaky capacitor. Several years later and they're still using those flunky capacitors! Why can't they learn?!

[Clift]

I got a new one too. But my HDHR died on me. I have to RMA it. Now that I got Sage working with the HD-PVR I need to get the HDHR back up and running!

[mayamaniac]

It seems there's a high volume of power supplies failures on the HDHR. I just have both of my HDHR units failed on me due to bad power supplies. Fortunately, Silicondust offers a free replacement power supply.

Initially, the first HDHR unit failed, and I received a replacement unit. But my other unit was going fine, so I didn't replace it. But 2 weeks later, it failed also.

So if you have original power supply with the red light on it, get it replaced before it fails, and it will fail eventually. So replace it and you don't miss any recordings while you wait for a replacement.

* merged *

[padre]

I've got 3 HDHRs, bought over the span of four months - all three have had their power supplies replaced because of failure. Go to their site, plug in your serial number and they'll tell whether or not it get a free replacement power supply. All of mine qualified.

[mikehaney]

What kind of crashes were you all experiencing with Sage and the bad HDHR power supplies? For the last week or so, I've had random crashes where Sage either reboots Windows Home Server completely, or just goes dead to where none of my extenders can access it until I reboot the server and reset the extenders.

After messing around with it last night, it seemed to be related to whether or not I was watching HD channels on the HDHR. I removed the HDHR tuners from my lineup and so far so good. I'm wondering if this could be something as simple as a bad power supply, or more serious issues?

BTW, it has done this on 2 different Sage WHS machines (I upgraded to a bigger machine last week, but the crashes happened on the old machine as well). Even more of a reason for me to suspect it's an HDHR problem and not Sage itself.

[Clift]

Another thing is that after my failed power supply when they shipped me a new one my HDHR was dead. I don't know if anyone else has had HDHR failures due to bad power supply but I am having to get a new one RMA. Luckily the warranty was still valid on mine. *Whew*

[mikehaney]

Just an update - I checked my HDHR and it doesn't have the bad power supply (bought it 2-3 months ago). After removing the HDHR completely from my Sage server, the crashes returned a day later.

It looks like I isolated the problem to a bad stick of RAM. I popped in some old RAM that I knew was good and it has been running rock solid for 2 days now. So false alarm on the HDHR causing my reboots.