ReplayTV Blues
This week, my wonderful ReplayTV dvr has been giving me all sorts of grief.
Mainly, I've been experiencing lockup issues.
The thing is out of warranty, and out-of-warranty service is more expensive than a new/refurb unit (new units aren't being manufactured, as the parent company tries to figure out what to do with the product). So I finally hit some of the technical forums out there.... and didn't figure out much. I took the thing apart, and checked all the connectors as recommended. Nothing obviously wrong with the power or hard drive connectors. I checked all the screws holding components in place, particularly the ones for the power supply. No problem. I checked the fan, which seemed to be operating properly. I went into the secret menu on the machine, and forced a factory reset reboot -- twice, as recommended on the boards.
And I've now reassembled the thing. No lockup issues at the moment, but I've been through power recycles and gotten the lockup to stop for a while before, so the problem may return.
I suspect the problem is probably a bad power supply that's overheating, forcing a shutdown of the unit. I'll see how it behaves.
I may move on to Time Warner's DVR, but I really prefer the hackability of the ReplayTV. I could order a refurb model or even a new power supply for this unit, but at some point, a consumer-friendly electronics device that has the virtue of being hackable STOPS being so consumer-friendly if it must be hacked and repaired by me simply to function. If I didn't like the dang thing so much, I wouldn't have wasted so much time trying to coax this unit into functioning again though... Geeky quandary, huh?
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/16/05 22:00 | Other | Technorati
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Comments
How old is the unit?
At the day job we find that power supplies are the first thing to go on otherwise reliable computers. Often we can replace the power supply and get a few more years out of an "older" system.
Posted by Rob Booth @ 10:05 on 12/17/05
It's about two years old. I'm nearly certain it's the power supply. I can replace it for about 70 bucks, BUT I can get an 80-hour refurb model for about that price (because ReplayTV is so hackable, swapping a bigger drive in or even the drive from the current machine is pretty easy). Or, I can upgrade to Time Warner digital cable and just go with their DVR for about the same price as the subscription fee to ReplayTV's programming guide.
The unit has behaved just fine overnight. If it does freeze up again, though, I'm leaning toward the TWC DRV.
Posted by Kevin @ 10:30 on 12/17/05
We have two Replays. John has done lots of amazing things with them. At midnight one of them downloads everything it's recorded that day onto a computer in the living room. We never run out of recording space as a result. Hope none of them ever breaks.
Posted by Cathy @ 15:56 on 12/17/05
Well, I got the PLEASE WAIT screen of death lockup again today, so I've moved on now to a TWC DVR. It's a much more "dumbed down" box, although it works okay.
I don't know about the future of ReplayTV. I can't see how the company can keep providing the programming guides for a product it seems unwilling to sell any more. That sucks, because it's such a cool product! blar.
Posted by Kevin @ 16:00 on 12/17/05
If a person were handy with a soldering iron, replacing all the electrolytic caps in the PS with new ones with low ESR ratings will probably buy you a couple more years. As PS's age, the caps (which have a liquid electrolyte in them) heat up and dry out. When that happens, the ESR (equivalent Series Resistance) rises, the caps heat up more because they dissipate more heat, and ripple voltage leaks onto the power buss and causes digital equipment to spew erroneous data at inopportune times.
Posted by Rorschach @ 10:54 on 12/19/05
Your hard drive might be dying
http://www.grandallusion.co...
Posted by seth @ 12:04 on 01/10/06
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