HD100 power supply repair

[trini0]

Originally Posted by paulbeers

(since I bought all of the parts ahead of time before even the first one went down)

Wish I had some in stock. For some reason I didn't think mine would exhibit the power supply issue.
Wouldn't be able to get to the shack till Thursday, and a repair till Friday/Saturday.

[david1234]

My hd100 died during the ballgame tonight!

So, off to radio shack for some caps and solder and braid... oh, and I don't actually own a soldering iron, so one of those goes home too.

The desoldering braid just didn't work very well for me, and then I could barely get the solder flowing, so it's probably not as good of a joint as it should be. The wire isn't surrounded like what's in the pictures at cocoontech's howto, but the caps seem to be stuck to the board well enough.

When I went to put it all back together, and I can't get the white power connector to fit. the new cap is too fat for the clip to move anymore- and I have to perform a bit of surgery on the clip that holds the white power connector in place.

After an hour and a half, the HD100 is back from the dead and working. My repair might not be anywhere near perfect, but it works, and I didn't have to spend $150 that I don't have on a new box.

thanks to everyone for posting how to fix this.

[trini0]

Originally Posted by trini0

Wish I had some in stock. For some reason I didn't think mine would exhibit the power supply issue.
Wouldn't be able to get to the shack till Thursday, and a repair till Friday/Saturday.

Well the soldering skills aren't as good as it used to be.
But it was good enough to get the ole gal working.
It's back to life.
Thanks all for the extremely detailed information...

[Serra]

Dang! My second unit just died. I thought maybe I killed my first one, but now the second one died with out any off the additional pressure.

Oddly, same two caps blew on this one as the first one. (2 of the three in the row).

I was SURE the second one wouldn't go, so now its back to RS to get another set of caps! Bummer... I KNEW I wouldn't need two sets... a month ago!

[jamma]

For those keeping track, my HD-100 (ordered nearly three years ago, 12/10/2007) died a couple of weeks ago in the same way as others in this thread. Was about to toss it when I by chance decided to Google the problem and arrived here.

FWIW, I have almost completely given up on Sage because of the paucity of clear QAM programming that Comcast has in my local area. However, Sage software is a bit better at streaming media than the other three DLNA options I have (Blue Ray player, network receiver, & internet connected TV).

I mention this because the HD-100 power supply failure rates are probably really high if you consider how many original purchasers 1) still use Sage 2) actually think to search for the problem and 3) bother to report the issue.

[Serra]

Originally Posted by jamma

I mention this because the HD-100 power supply failure rates are probably really high if you consider how many original purchasers 1) still use Sage 2) actually think to search for the problem and 3) bother to report the issue.

I agree, I had thought about getting a HD-300, but had decided against it just two weeks before my first HD-100 blew. Knowing I didn't really want an upgrade, I started looking around for solutions and happened across the repair thread. By solutions, I mean toss all of Sage in the trash and going a different direction.

Had I wanted an upgrade, the failure would have been 'convenient', as I could shown my wife "Look it broke, I need a new one... an UPGRADE". I wouldn't have looked nor responded in the forum. Equally so, if I didn't have the ability to fix it (no experience, equipment or soldering skills) I wouldn't have bothered to even look at the repair tread.

Overall, my failure rate is now 100% of units purchased. I did buy them at the same time, early on, so that isn't really much, but I'm unhappy that I lost two units.

[Stuntman]

The last of my THREE HD100's just had the caps blow yesterday! Pretty bad to have every single one of these fail now! Even at the 'discounted' repair rate to have Sage fix them, it would have cost me a lot to repair all 3 of these! Luckily I have a local handyman that has fixed the previous 2 and I hope will fix this 3rd one..

[BobPhoenix]

I lost all of mine 9-12 months ago.

[rlvogel322]

1 of 2 just gave up the ghost. Two of the three caps are buldged. Time for some soldering.

[sic0048]

Originally Posted by rlvogel322

1 of 2 just gave up the ghost. Two of the three caps are buldged. Time for some soldering.

You might as well buy the caps for the 2nd unit while you are at it. It is only a matter of time before it dies too.

I think there is going to be a 100% failure rate on these HD100s. I'm already at that % and most others are catching up quickly.

[Chriscic]

Does anyone still have a working HD100?

Sage gave me $20 off on a new HD300, so I just replaced it. Kinda a bummer they all died; hopefully HD200's and HD300's will not suffer the same fate.

I can see where someone that had 3+ would be kinda ticked. Although $39 each for repair doesn't seem outrageous.

[Skiier__Dude]

I followed the instructions on the other repair procedure -- instead of installing new caps I used a power brick laying around in my junk box. Repair was free, had it done very quickly and didn't require any soldering. Been running close to a year since the repair was done without any issues.

[rlvogel322]

Originally Posted by sic0048

You might as well buy the caps for the 2nd unit while you are at it. It is only a matter of time before it dies too.

I think there is going to be a 100% failure rate on these HD100s. I'm already at that % and most others are catching up quickly.

Oh yeah, I picked up 6 and have already gotten the one working.

I've had to do the same thing on a Netgear Gig switch a while back.

[Menehune]

On an semi-related note, there is a known problem where electrolytic capacitors go bad.

I have several power supply "bricks" at work go bad each year. I open them, find a filter cap bad and replace it, bring ing the regulated supply back to life.

[Taddeusz]

Originally Posted by Menehune

On an semi-related note, there is a known problem where electrolytic capacitors go bad.

I have several power supply "bricks" at work go bad each year. I open them, find a filter cap bad and replace it, bring ing the regulated supply back to life.

Properly manufactured and utilized capacitors shouldn't have an electrolyte problem. The main problem started when an incorrect electrolyte formula started to be used and I can only guess that there are still Chinese manufacturers still using the formula.

[rdefino]

bummer, my HD100 just died and Radio Shack doesn't carry the 10v 1000uf CAPS. they have 35v. What can be used in place of the 10v ones? so far I can not find them local.

thanks

[rlvogel322]

Originally Posted by rdefino

bummer, my HD100 just died and Radio Shack doesn't carry the 10v 1000uf CAPS. they have 35v. What can be used in place of the 10v ones? so far I can not find them local.

thanks

You can use the 35v caps. They are a little bigger but the lead length gives you enough room to get them in there without touching/shorting anything else.

[kevf]

My two HD100s (purchased 02/2008) died last year and I replaced all 3 caps on both.

Last month, both of them died again within a few weeks of each other. I suspect its the power supply again. Has anyone experienced repeated cap failures?

I hate to throw them out, but I think I'd rather upgrade to the HD300 if I have to replace the caps every year.

[sic0048]

Originally Posted by kevf

My two HD100s (purchased 02/2008) died last year and I replaced all 3 caps on both.

Last month, both of them died again within a few weeks of each other. I suspect its the power supply again. Has anyone experienced repeated cap failures?

I hate to throw them out, but I think I'd rather upgrade to the HD300 if I have to replace the caps every year.

Sage replaced the bad caps with the same supply, so they are destined to fail again. If you repaired it yourself, there is still a good chance that the caps you bought were also "defective" This bad cap problem seems to effect a lot of suppliers and companies.

It isn't really that surprising that a replacement cap might be bad too. However, I'd recommend buying from another supplier if you need to buy caps again.

I think it is also really bad that Sage replaced many caps using the same bad supply. I'm not sure if they have every changed stock or not. But there have been enough people that have experienced double failures to know that initially they used the same bad caps that the original units had.

[mvkerr]

Add another one to the list. Purchased 03/2008. Lasted 3 years with it running almost 12hrs a day. I have removed the caps and am waiting for my purchase from "thecapking" - $1.50 for all three caps including shipping. RS was out.