MediaReady 5000

[mattg]

After about 3 weeks VWB answered my support ticket concerning the noise. Their useless reply (from an obviously outsourced support tech) was "The next production of the MR 5000 will reduce the noise". (I bet they plan to ship me a replacement free of charge)

My MediaReady 5000 is pretty much silent now but the warranty (3 months, big deal) is definately voided.
I also don't recommend anybody else do what I did unless you willing to risk total loss of your MR5000 or reduce it's lifespan.
While I was testing this out I removed power and data cables from the hard drive so the system wouldn't boot.

... The easy part
I placed a Zalman FANMATE1 on the CPU fan. You need to make the speed adjustment while the case is open. If you set it too low the fan won't start up when you boot. I set mine down just enough to reduce the noise.

... The hard / risky (crazy part)
I built this circuit at http://www.overclockers.com/tips910
I removed the bracket securing the power supply to the case. The power supply fan is screwed to the cover so you don't need to unscrew it. I removed the PS cover and cut the wires about half way between the PCB and the fan. I fed the four wires though the small hole provided in the fans plastic housing being careful not to confuse them. I soldered them to the circuit, closed everything up and reduced the fan speed by about 50%. The airflow out of the case seems fine and I have been running the system for about a week now with no problems.

Once again my DISCLAIMER I don't recommend anyone else try this!

Matt

[waynedunham]

I just got the word in an Email today that the upgrade and restore CD's for the MediaReady 5000 have started to ship from VWB. The Email said that it has been mailed, but when I talked to Tara at VWB yesterday she was in the process of duping the CD's and preparing the mailers which they'd just gotten and was projecting shipment on Friday or Monday next week. Maybe *I* (aka the squeeky wheel ) got mine shipped so I'd stop calling and sending angry Emails every few weeks?

I'm hoping that the upgrade with fix the bugs in the system (can't add/change IR codes and have them saved, etc) as well as add some features. It's been a VERY long wait so I hope it's been worth it!

[waynedunham]

Originally Posted by mattg

After about 3 weeks VWB answered my support ticket concerning the noise. Their useless reply (from an obviously outsourced support tech) was "The next production of the MR 5000 will reduce the noise". (I bet they plan to ship me a replacement free of charge)

The fan noise in my MR 5000 had gotten worse and worse over time. So the other day I pulled it off the AV rack and opened it up. The increase in noise was coming from the small CPU(GPU?) fan. The PS fan was it's usually noisy self, but nowhere near as bad as the smaller fan.

As a stop-gap I pulled a fan off an old slot cooler that was the same size as the small fan and swapped them. While inside the box I decided to also replace the PS fan with a Zalman slim fan I'd bought for specifically this purpose quite a while ago. As with your installation this required cutting the power leads from the original fan. I just blocked them off and used a power splitter to run the new fan off the HD power. The new fan came with multiple connectors giving either 12v or 5v to the fan.
Even with 12v (full speed) the fan was MUCH quieter than the original fan so I let it have 12v just to be sure it cooled properly.

So now I have a much quieter MR 5000. Now that I know that worked I'm going to find a nice quiet small fan for the CPU(GPU?). The one I put in was old, but still MUCH quieter than the original even before it got noisy. This small fan even though much quieter than original is still the noisiest part of the machine.