HD100 power supply repair

[thomaszoo]

Originally Posted by dadams

I just had my second one die in a month. Not too happy, but I guess it isn't too much to fix...oh well.

My second of 2 died last night while watching TV. Just went totally black. When I opened the cabinet, there was the unmistakable sign of capacitors gassing. When the first one went, I bought enough capacitors for both so I didn't even have to make a trip to the Shack. Sure beats boxing it up, shipping it back and waiting for a replacement. Probably saves me both time and money.

Wayne

[vividweb]

Curious now what the failure rate for the HD-100's are now. There are a lot of posts here.

[HKme]

Originally Posted by JDK Ents

The correct fix is to replace the failed caps with ones specifically designed for switching power supplies. They could be called low ESR caps, or surge tolerant caps. Radio Shack caps will work for awhile but may fail again, so keep a stock on hand. If you want your fix to be bulletproof, use the correct parts. I haven't researched purchasing them (since I had a few in stock at home) but they are likely to be available at Mouser Electronics.

Thanks for the tip JDK, but it came a little late for me . Had two die a few months ago and changed the caps with some replacements I grabbed from my local Hong Kong electronics shop (JPCON, 16V, 105deg). I guess the originals were better than the replacements as they only lasted until last week!

Have now replaced the caps in all of my extenders (6) with these:
http://hongkong01.rs-online.com/web/...uct&R=526-1761

Here's hoping this is the last time

p.s. For anyone considering using the same caps, they are an extremely tight fit, so I'd probably recommend using something smaller diameter-wise. The following page is probably a good place to start if you're looking for the right parts.

http://www.capacitorlab.com/where-to...tors/index.htm

[thomaszoo]

Has anyone had the Radio Shack caps die on them?

[castylx]

I guess this is a me too posting, my HD100 just died, in the process of getting the caps ordered....

[shadeblue.com]

I have replaced 2 HD100 units with the Radio Shack caps. Been running about 4-6 months on the new caps with no problems yet.

[bjkiller]

today sad day, died the last 3rd of 3 STX-HD100. all of them die in period of last 4 months!

dead rate 100%
i order them in initial batch, which has front panel replacement issue.

i want to say it's much simple to replace those caps, to compare to replace EVDO modem with 3G (mini PCI) modem on Sony VGN-Z notebook.

[sleonard]

My HD100 also died today. Ordered another HD200 to replace it and if I can fix it by replacing the caps I will use it as a backup.

S

[heffneil]

I bought three of the HD100's a while back (second round I believe) and I was amazed when the first one I opened had NO indication of the caps starting to mushroom at the top. The second box was acting flaky so I thought it was time so I opened it this morning it they still look brand new. We use that box practically everyday and it is in a way too hot cabinet so I am just very surprised. Anyway the third box was flaky and we rarely use it but I suspect they might need it because IR was becoming a problem which I think is a symptom of the problem with the bad caps.

Anyway I just thought I would brag I mean relay my findings and I just scratch my head. I even bought the capacitors and they are sitting on the awaiting the day when the grim reapers comes for my boxes!

Neil

[gibsonpa]

Well...add me to the club. One of my four just died today...opened and 2 of the 3 caps are bulging with a black discoloration on top. This one was not from the original batch, but rather one of the later batches with the face plate re-design.

I bought 6 caps from RS back in the spring when so many HD100's started dieing.

Plan to change out in the next day or so.

[peternm22]

My HD100 has been working fine, but I was curious (worried) if the capacitors were going to go bad. I opened it up today and everything looks fine, no bulging or anything. Hopefully it stays that way

My HD100 is from the first batch, I ordered it the day it was released.

[dadams]

I would be curious as to the failure rate of the units...it has to be pretty high. 2 out of 4 of mine have failed and I purchased them at different times. I have since repaired them, but as a long-time customer, I am a little disappointed in the quality.

[carlgar]

Even Sage has no way of knowing high high it is at this point. A lot of people just fix the problem themselves without even reporting it to sage. For more information about the issue see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague. My Samsung HDTV was even hit with the issue. The fix for it is the same as for the HD100, it even uses the same replacement capacitors from RS.

[mrrrl]

Any reason why everyone is replacing the caps with 35v when the orginals are 10v caps?

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by mrrrl

Any reason why everyone is replacing the caps with 35v when the orginals are 10v caps?

We're hoping they will last longer since they are not being pushed to their voltage limit.

[hemicuda]

Someone said earlier that it's just a 5V rail, but that current surges were heating them up and causing the failure. Not sure a higher V rating would offset that, but I doubt it'll hurt. I rarely ever turned mine off so currents should have been fairly steady.

[peternm22]

For those people who have had the capacitors on the HD100 break, how often did you turn the power off to the extender? By this I mean either flipping the switch on the back of the unit, turning off the power bar it is connected to, or unplugging it completely.

I leave my HD100 powered up all the time (I can probably count on two hands how many times I've unplugged it/turned it off). I put it in "Standby" mode when not using it, but the power is still there all the time.

It would be interesting to see if there is any correlation to failures.

[electron]

Originally Posted by peternm22

For those people who have had the capacitors on the HD100 break, how often did you turn the power off to the extender? By this I mean either flipping the switch on the back of the unit, turning off the power bar it is connected to, or unplugging it completely.

I leave my HD100 powered up all the time (I can probably count on two hands how many times I've unplugged it/turned it off). I put it in "Standby" mode when not using it, but the power is still there all the time.

It would be interesting to see if there is any correlation to failures.

I actually have turned mine on / off on a regular basis, because the unit locks up completely, but not sure if that counts. My HD100 still has the original caps, checked them a few weeks ago, and they look fine. I did order a few caps just in case. If it's caused by the famous bad cap issue, I don't think it matters much tho.

[mistergq]

of the two HD100s I have (I also have 2 hd 200s), add me to the list I have had 1 of the 2 fail. Two capacitors are bulging.

Notes:
My two HD100s from the February 2008 batch. One of them I had problems with right from the beginning. Specifically, it would either lockup, get the circle of death, or just shut off. The problem would come and go and I never really pursued RMA because it was too many tests that Sage wanted me to do here before RMA. Especially since i could not recreate the problem, it was just to time consuming.

The other one I had no problem with. When the HD 200 came out, I replaced the bad HD 100 and put it on a shelf. then I had a single core pentium suddenly become available, so I decided to play with that to see if I could get h264 to work with. The answer was yes. however, I eventually had to reformat the hard drive and I could never get the video card driver and arcsoft software to play nice on the second time. I decided to pick up another HD 200 for that tv. I put the working HD 100 in the same closet.

Skip ahead to Black Friday this year, and we picked up a TV for the bedroom. So out comes the two HD 100s. It sure would have been nice if I would have put a label on the bad HD 100... so the first one I plugged in, updated the firmware, and started right up. It just worked, so I thought I picked correctly.

Then this week, i started hearing a high pitch whiney noise. So I opened the HD 100 today to find two bulging capacitors. I pulled the other one down, opened that one up, and it was fine. Plugged it in, updated the firmware, and it booted right up.

I think I will pick up new capacitors tomorrow or later this week just in case the bad HD 100 has good capacitors!

[hockeyfan]

One of my 2 hd-100s went 2 weeks ago. It was in my kids room (talk about someone being unimpressed!) I went to local parts shop and bought 6 caps, 3 for hers 3 for mine, cause I knew that the other one was a ticking time bomb. Works well now.

Hey, if that's the worst it gets with sage I'm ok w/it.