HD100 Just died

[paulbeers]

Originally Posted by reggie14

Assuming it is safe, is there an easy way to get the Hd100 to continuously play back a particular file (or, since it's just the PS board, is it just enough to leave the thing on, but not playing anything)?

can't you just watch live tv on it, and just let the live tv run? I mean that would be the easiest way to just have it play back constantly. I believe you can also create a video playlist which I assume has a repeat function, but don't hold me to this as I have never tried it.

[reggie14]

Originally Posted by MrD

I don't think Frey knowingly ordered parts that they knew would fail, they have more to lose than squeezing pennies off the production run.

Oh, I definitely don't think they knowingly ordered sub-standard parts. The only question is whether the HD100 manufacturer ended up using sub-standard parts (or whether this is just a common and expected problem for all consumer electronics). Not in my wildest dreams do I think Sage would knowingly be penny pinchers like that.

If you happen to look at the wiki page; one theory is that the failing cap will cause the transistor to overdrive itself (i.e. the high pitch noise). Then when the transistor fails it could create an open path of unregulated power downstream, causing more damage.

This has been (and continues to be) one of my concerns. The noise is bad enough that it is quite unpleasant to have the HD100 on in my living room, but even if I plug it in somewhere (waiting for it to die) where I can shield the noise is the main board on the HD100 going to fail, as opposed to just the PS board.

This implies more cost to Frey but the $60 to you is constant.

That's not necessarily true. Sage doesn't make any guarantee that they can or will fix things. I've basically been under the impression that Sage has a good idea of what is causing these problems and knows a relatively cheap and easy way to fix it (replacing the PS board). But, I assume if there's any damage beyond the PS board then the repair option goes away, and you're stuck with whatever discount Sage decides to offer on the HD200.

The noise sort of reminds me of my high school days when I was taking a computer science course based on BASIC. The teacher made the mistake of teaching us the command for driving the computer speaker at particular frequencies. After that it was pretty common for students to start up one of the many unused computers in the room and run a program that just played back the highest audible frequency that the computer speakers could produce. Then they'd turn off the monitor on the computer. It turns out it's relatively hard to pinpoint where really high frequencies come from. Whenever someone would do that the noise would quickly drive the class crazy until we found which computer was producing the noise and stopped the program.

Paul-
I kind of wanted to avoid the live TV thing just cause it would tie up a tuner (though, I have more SD tuners than I ever use at once, so it's probably not a huge issue). But the video playlist idea is a good idea. Even if there's no repeat functionality I could queue up some ripped and encoded television series I have sitting on my server which ought to keep it busy for a while.

Still, should I be concerned about leaving it running? It seems like a bad idea to keep an unattended piece of equipment running that has a known electrical defect. I'm a bit of a pyro, but not in my own apartment.

[MrD]

Originally Posted by reggie14

until we found which computer was producing the noise and stopped the program.

that's easy turn them all off

[jasongrimme]

You know, my wife had been complaining about a high pitch noise in the den for a couple of weeks before my HD100 died. I could never hear it, but we spent a few times up near the TV (we have the TV, A/V Receiver, XBOX, WII, and STB/DVR from the cable company) all together, so we could never narrow it down.

I'll ask her tonight if she's noticed the sound going away since I pulled the dead HD100.

[Clift]

Originally Posted by reggie14

Here's an update. I just heard back from George at SageTV and I've gone from being pretty upset to being downright pissed. Sage won't fix (i.e., replace the PS board) until the thing won't even start. Apparently a moderately loud high-pitched sound and bulging capacitors aren't enough of a sign that there's something wrong. They won't even take my $60 to fix something that almost certainly doesn't cost $60 to fix (including S/H).

Again, I really wish there were third-party options for the HD extenders. I definitely wouldn't buy another one from Sage if I had a choice.

So, apparently I have to finish off the HD100 to get Sage to do anything. What do I do? Do I leave the HD100 playing something for days at a time until it gives out? If I do that, do I need to be concerned about it catching on fire (particularly since I have noticed the thing seems to be getting much hotter than it ever did in the past)? Assuming it is safe, is there an easy way to get the Hd100 to continuously play back a particular file (or, since it's just the PS board, is it just enough to leave the thing on, but not playing anything)?

Reggie, I would send a PM to Narflex letting him know what George told you. I think at this point, Frey should accept your money if it's pretty evident that the unit WILL fail. I'd like to believe George may have been "winging" it and made a decision on his own that may not necessarily be something the company would endorse.

[reggie14]

Originally Posted by Clift

Reggie, I would send a PM to Narflex letting him know what George told you. I think at this point, Frey should accept your money if it's pretty evident that the unit WILL fail. I'd like to believe George may have been "winging" it and made a decision on his own that may not necessarily be something the company would endorse.

That's pretty much what I did immediately after getting the e-mail from George. However, his e-mail did state:

Originally Posted by George

I did speak with my supervisor and he said we really can't repair the unit
unless it has actually gone bad.

Still, I sort of do expect Narflex will reverse that decision. The GF has been using the HD100 when I'm gone, but the noise bugs me too much. I've just been having my server drive my TV. The playback quality isn't as great, and it has already crashed the computer a couple times, but no high-pitched noise.

[reggie14]

One more update. I've gotten things cleared up with Sage. There apparently was some confusion about how loud the whining noise was. I think they're definitely trying to make the best out of a bad situation.

[ehfortin]

Hi,

Just wanted to add my HD100 unit as dead as well. I got this unit from someone here on the forum so I don't know when it has been bought. However, as I saw comment from people with unit from December 07 to June 08, I assume that the power supply boards are all from the same batch even if there is about 6 months between the first units produced and the latest one being dead.

Anyway, will see if I'm returning it (I've opened a call with Sage) or not. 60$ is not bad but being US$ and being more expensive for shipping both ways, I may end trying to replace this by another power supply myself. Should be cheaper then the 100$+ I expect it could really cost sending it back.

Has anyone tried the replacement board that was proposed in this forum a few weeks ago?

Thank you.

ehfortin

[ehfortin]

Hi,

As I read that it was a power supply issue, I went to my local electronic store, bought an external 5V 3A 15W power supply, opened the HD100, disconnected the old power supply, installed an external connector to the HD100 that is connected to the main motherboard, closed the HD100 and voila! I now have a fully working HD100 and if the power supply die on me, I can replace it without opening the box.

It has been working for the last hour or so. I'll see if it's resist but for now, I just save 60$ US + international shipping. It cost me a total of 20$ CAD and took about 15 minutes to complete.

Hope this help. Have fun.

ehfortin

[Brent]

Originally Posted by ehfortin

It cost me a total of 20$ CAD and took about 15 minutes to complete.

Hope this help. Have fun.

ehfortin

You didn't happen to take any photos of the process did you

[ehfortin]

No, sorry. It was so simple that I didn't took time to take picture and to actually write what I was doing. Once you open the HD100, you realize how simple it is. Just have to connect a new power supply to the black and red wire that goes to the mainboard (the one near the front of the unit). You can use any of the black and red wires as they are linked together (verified this with a voltmeter as I was wondering why there was two red and two black wires). So just cut the old electric power cable, disconnect the 4 wires going from the power supply board to the mainboard, cut one red wire and one black wire, tie those to the new power supply (or add a connector like I did that will just facilitate unplugging and replugging the unit) and you are done.

I would doubt anybody has problem repeating the process if so, I can unmount my box and take a few pictures to help.

Have a nice day.


ehfortin

[photon]

I put in a support request then came here to check the forums and found this thread. One of my two HD100s has just developed the blinking red power light problem described in the first post of this thread. Bought them both at the same time in May last year. This one that failed has probably been powered on more hours than the other one so I expect the other will fail soon but outside of warranty.

I'm very disappointed. Dell lost my business over the defective capacitor problem in our work computers over several model generations. I could not trust their products to last so I didn't feel I could spend my personal money on their otherwise very satisfactory products. The Dell I bought in 2000 is still running 24 7 but I need to upgrade and could not wait longer for Dell to demonstrate they have solved the capacitor problem. I went to the trouble of building my own because I could purchase parts advertising use of all solid caps.

This failure of the HD100 caps is unusually fast. It's incredible that 10 years since it began this defective capacitor problem still plagues us.

[mayamaniac]

Originally Posted by photon

This failure of the HD100 caps is unusually fast. It's incredible that 10 years since it began this defective capacitor problem still plagues us.

How do you know it's a capacitor problem? And do you know which capacitor precisely? Maybe if you can pin point we can fix it ourselves with a trip to radioshack. I'm sure a number of SageTV users here are geeky enough to do some soldering.

Here's a pic of the board:

[CanadianEh]

Ugh. I found the same issue happened to me today. Red blinky light.. ah well, time to figure out if it's still under warranty.. lol

[photon]

Originally Posted by mayamaniac

How do you know it's a capacitor problem? And do you know which capacitor precisely? Maybe if you can pin point we can fix it ourselves with a trip to radioshack. I'm sure a number of SageTV users here are geeky enough to do some soldering.

I read this thread which pretty well spells it out. I think others have already cracked their units open and observed bulged or visibly leaking capacitors. I'm not opening mine while in warranty to confirm. While it is easy to detect the bad caps by looking at them (See the wikipedia article) it is less certain that replacing them will be a complete fix. It sounded like some who have posted have info that when the caps go bad they take other parts with them. IF mine was out of warranty I might try replacing the caps and seeing what happens but since mine is still in warranty I'll leave that for others to experiment with for now.

[smoothtlk]

I bought the HD100 for software development work and then bought the HD200 to ensure the software still worked. So, no Watch hours on the HD100 at all. I took a look at it recently and the slow LED blink of death....

I plugged in HDMI / Ethernet and rebooted it and no joy.

Sent in a support ticket to Sage. 12/10/07 purchase date.

Actually, I would rather an Upgrade program to a HD200.

It's pretty evident that there is a bad batch of power supplies here.

Since it's technically out of warranty, I would hope that there would be an additional option of purchasing a replacement power supply for a DIY installation to reduce the shipping and hassle.

[reggie14]

Originally Posted by mayamaniac

How do you know it's a capacitor problem? And do you know which capacitor precisely?

In my case the bulging capacitors were definitely on the power supply board. All the capacitors on that board were bulging to some extent. It was a little hard to tell, because I can't pinpoint really high-pitched noises very well, but I was almost certain the noise was coming from one of the three smaller capacitors that sit next to each other.

I think it's relatively clear the best DIY fix is to replace the whole power supply board. I didn't want to do that, so I sent mine in for the $60 repair.

Originally Posted by photon

I'm not opening mine while in warranty to confirm.

It's really easy to open the case up. There's no stickers or anything on it to indicate that you opened it, nor is there any chance that you could break anything just by opening it up. You just pop out 4 or 5 screws the the top just comes off. There's nothing to it. Not in my wildest dreams can I imagine Sage invalidating the warranty when someone does that.

[smoothtlk]

Ok, two of the 10v 1,000mf caps are bulged and burst at the top (C205, C206). The third (C207 closest to the primary board connector) is not bulged (yet).

I might just replace the caps just to see if that is all that is damaged. The only thing holding back on doing this is local real electronics stores are getting rare as electronics are becoming "disposable". Radio Shack has fewer and fewer components...

If that is just the problem...replacing three caps is a 10 minute deal of soldering sucking replacement and resolder.

[smoothtlk]

Ok, took the chance...

Went 20 miles round trip to Radio Shack and got three part 272-1032 ($1.59 each) which are 1000uf 35 volt radial capacitors.

10 minutes to desolder the old ones and solder in the new ones.

Only trick is to get the polarity right, which is labeled underneath the caps (or just solder the new ones in the way the old ones were.

Works fine

Your mileage may vary if something else blew up on yours.

And no doubt void a warranty that may still be intact unless Sage shows pity that it was a desperate move to keep TV sanity in a household that relies on the HD100.

[MrD]

Originally Posted by smoothtlk

Ok, two of the 10v 1,000mf caps are bulged and burst at the top (C205, C206). The third (C207 closest to the primary board connector) is not bulged (yet).

I might just replace the caps just to see if that is all that is damaged. The only thing holding back on doing this is local real electronics stores are getting rare as electronics are becoming "disposable". Radio Shack has fewer and fewer components...

If that is just the problem...replacing three caps is a 10 minute deal of soldering sucking replacement and resolder.

www.mouser.com if you cant find it there it doesn't exist