HD100 power supply repair

[AzJazz]

THANK YOU!
THANK YOU!
THANK YOU!

I fixed my HD100 for less than $6.

This forum is awesome!

[cclayton]

Attention Canadians - as you well know Rad Shack was downgraded to The Source which sucks for parts... I found this place on ebay.ca:

http://stores.ebay.ca/dipmicro-elect...&submit=Search

I ordered 10 x 1000uF 16 v for $5.95 CAD, free shipping. they also carry 25v and 35v, and have lots of 4, 10 and higher...

happy soldering!

Cheers,
Corey

P.S. man I need to update my sig - been a while since that was a reality.

[paulbeers]

Even with Radio Shack carrying the parts necessary here in the US, I went ahead and ordered 10 from an ebay seller long before I ever had problems with any of my HD100's. So much cheaper (you just have to do it soon enough to wait the 2 weeks to get them!).

[jhendrix]

Just wanted to chime in and say what a great help this thread has been.
My HD100 is from the very first batch and it made it all the way until August 2010 before I got the dreaded blinking LED.
After finding this thread, I opened it up and saw 2 of the 10V 1000uF caps bulging and was reading less than 1 volt on the output.
I pulled 2 16V 1000uF caps off of an old computer power supply and put them in and my HD100 fired right up.
Total cost of repair: $0 and 5 minutes.

(Now if they would just start selling HD200s again, I could get one for the family room)

[ptoal]

This morning I woke up to the blinking red LED. My two young boys were not impressed.

I'm not always 100% satisfied with official Sage support, but I love the community support and forums. This morning, I popped over to my local Sayal and bought 3x 35Vx1000uF caps (35V is just a big too big, though I made them fit. In hindsight, I would have bought the 16V). 15 minutes to setup, solder, and cleanup, and the HD100 is happy again.

Good thing, too, since Sage seems to be out of stock on the HD-200s. When they are available again, I think I'm going to pick one up, and move the HD-100 to my older TV. Then, at least, I'll have an HD backup.

-PT

[eopian]

My HD100 purchased in the first batch of HD100's (12/07?) exhibited these issues. First it was the remote issues, then the whining, followed by the blinking power led with no functionality. It took me about an hour to fix, but part of that time was actually looking for the soldering iron. That and I've never desoldered anything before. Overall the fix was pretty simple. I'm going to do this to my other 2 hd100's before they fail.

[tonysathre]

Mine just died, for the second time. Unless I fix it myself, am I SOL?

[sic0048]

Originally Posted by tonysathre

Mine just died, for the second time. Unless I fix it myself, am I SOL?

Well, you can probably send it back to Sage and get another year or two out of it. Or you can solder new caps in yourself and be done with it.

It is super easy to solder the new caps in - even if you don't have any solder experience.

Here is my "no solder needed" technique.
1) Remove the old caps by heating the solder connection while pulling the cap off. You might need a set of pliers to help get them off. Remove one leg at a time.

2) Once the cap is removed, don't worry about desoldering the connections. Simply take a pin (safety or straight) and stick it in the hole while you are applying heat via the soldering iron.

3) Remove the heat and let the solder cool. It should take just a second or two. Then remove the pin. The solder will not stick to it.

4) Stick the legs of the new caps through the holes you created with the pin. Apply heat again to solder the connection. As long as the solder flows around the leg completely, it connection will be fine.

5) Cut the excess off the legs.

6) Repeat steps 1-5 for each new cap.

7) Sit back and enjoy a job well done.

It really is that simple.

[ThePaladinTech]

My HD-100 died two days ago ... I am *sure* it heard the 300 was out!

In any event I bought the caps locally ($10 total) and now that the caps are replaced it is back in business!

I am hoping to get the 300, but will be glad to have a unit with S-video to relegate to an older tv. Thanks for this thread! The non-solder wall wart method would have cost $20. Both prices are going to a local store and I know it would have been a third the price if I did it online, but think either way is a cheap fix.

[pjpjpjpj]

Wow, I must be living right. I was debating how to convince the wife that I wanted an HD300. Just this morning, I starting hearing the dreaded "about to go" hiss from my HD100.

I bought two in February 2008 (I think it was the "second batch") and this is the first of the two to start to go.

So I gave the wife "remember how I told you a long time ago that eventually the capacitors in this thing are going to die?", and she immediately said "so I guess you need to get one of those new ones that you've been talking about, eh?".

"Uh, yeah" (heh heh)

Ever make one of those statements where, as the words are coming out of your mouth, you know you shouldn't be saying it, but you can't help yourself? So I say "I can apparently fix it with some capacitors from Radio Shack, but it will take a while and I will have to borrow a soldering gun from work." (stupid me, why did I say that? Now she's gonna say "well, don't buy a new one, we'll just move the bedroom unit down here and wait until you fix this one")

Instead, awesome wife, she says "cool, when you fix that one, we can put it downstairs in the guest room and use the new one here".

WOO HOO! Just ordered an HD300, now off to buy caps....

[peternm22]

I've been having some remote reception issues the last couple days, didn't think anything of it. Today I started hearing a high pitched squeal coming from somthing, unplugging the HD100 stopped the noise. I opened the case and can see two caps are bulging. So I assume it is about to die

I bought the HD100 the first day it was released.

[ThePaladinTech]

Originally Posted by peternm22

I've been having some remote reception issues the last couple days, didn't think anything of it. Today I started hearing a high pitched squeal coming from something, unplugging the HD100 stopped the noise. I opened the case and can see two caps are bulging. So I assume it is about to die

I bought the HD100 the first day it was released.

I don't know if it is related or not but mine also had remote issues before it died... took a couple of presses to respond, I thought it was bad batteries at the time.

[Serra]

One of my two HD100s died this week. It was likely partially my fault as I put the Roku on top of it and it got a bit hot. That Roku is like a coffee warmer!

Anyway, started hissing and buzzing and then the light just flashed.

I popped the cover and two of the three caps were bulging. I purchased 3 and replaced the two that were bad. However, the caps from Radio Shack were a tiny bit bigger than the ones installed, so luck I only needed to replace 2, the third would have required something creative, as it was up against the other cap and some other plastic thing.

Thanks for the info in this thread, totally took me 30 minutes to find the equipment, then about 30 minutes to remove and replace the two caps.

Thank you!

[pjpjpjpj]

Just wanted to chime in with another successful cap replacement.

I'd never done any electronics/circuitry work before, but I borrowed a soldering iron from the IT department at work, and used sic0048's "no solder" method from post #328 above. Worked like a charm, the HD100 is back in business.

I also learned something about my wife... SHE has experience in circuitry and electronics soldering! Who knew?? I asked her if she'd help out when I replaced the caps (thinking I could use a spare hand to hold things or whatever), and it turns out, her AP Physics teacher in high school had the class do a little circuitry work. We ended up sharing the work and she gets to share the pride of having fixed something that we use frequently. BIG WAF boost there!!!

[corwiniii]

I finally grabbed my broken HD100 from the basement and fixed the capacitors. It was very easy thanks to this thread and the posted instructions on cacoontech. I bought the capacitors at Radio Shack (once I found a store that carried them), borrowed an old solder iron, and followed the no-solder instructions in post #328 and had no problems at all. It took longer to update the firmware to work with SageTV v7 RC20 than fix the caps.

Two were blown by the way. One was still good, but I of course fixed all three.

[briands]

My HD-100 bit the bullet late last week. No early warning (at least not that I heard - more on that later), just blinking red light when I tried to power it on. One symptom that I did not see mentioned previously. I am using it on an old SD tv via composite. Evert time the LED blinked, the screen on the TV would pulse bright. Any way, ordered some Panasonic replacements from Newark (and a new soldering station as well). Wasn't paying close attention to the specs and was surprised by the height of the replacements, they just barely clear the case cover when reassembling.

Back to the not hearing anything prior to failure. Last night in bed I heard this high pitch squeal. my wife heard it too... so I went chasing it around the room and found it coming from my Harmony 520 remote...any chance it is having a similar failure?

[pendragonsound]

First of our four HD100s purchased in March 2008 failed. The replacement caps at Newark were $0.16 each so I ordered a lifetime supply along with some other stuff to amortize the shipping costs.

[mrcandu]

HD100 purchased May 2008 died last week.
Replacement caps turned up and fitted today..... Extender now back to it's healthy self!!

UK Caps a bit pricey at 67p a pop, but here are the details if anyones interested:

rapidonline.com

Mat.

[trini0]

The past two days, I kept hearing this high pitched whining noise. Thought it was from the server rack in the next room.
Last night the extender just shut off while watching a recording.
I flipped the rocker switch only to be presented with the same high pitched noise and blinking red light.
I didn't open the case as yet, but I know it in my bones that its the caps.
It lasted almost three years..
Off to the Shack to track down new caps..

[paulbeers]

I had the last of my 3 go down on Thursday of last week. I had it back up and running in 15 minutes (since I bought all of the parts ahead of time before even the first one went down). The last one made it about 2.5 years.