My HDR1000s intermittently turns itself off …...or so it seems.

[fm49218]

I called Humax twice, got a very arrogant fella on the phone, who quite frankly was a waste of time and didn’t care. Said he would call back but didn’t. I am in contact with the CEO as I believe they have a responsibility to help. Nevertheless…...

A closer look showed that the unit isn’t off but instead there is no HDMI output. If the audio is running through the amp (phono out not HDMI loop through) you can still hear the sound.so it is not off!

In the morning from cold it works and then not too long afterwards the same issue occurs – blank screen, no sound on TV and displays no signal. What have I tried?

• Different HDMI cable
• Different TV
• Factory reset.
• Different HDMI input on TV, and
• Deleted relationship with Freesat app in case the app was communicating with the unit and causing issues.

After all of this I started to think that maybe its overheating. So, I whipped off the top?

At first, I disconnected the HDD, just to eliminate the drive. No joy.

I noticed that the processor heatsink was very hot. The heatsink is incredibly flimsy. Probably just about doing its job, to keep production costs low. I also noticed the exhaust fan wasn’t spinning. Not sure if its working of if the driver isn’t powering. Something to look at later.

I dint have a can of freezer handy, so I took an icepack out of the freezer and help this on the heatsink (careful not to thermal shock). The unit can back on.

I run it for a while with the top off the unit, and now then put the lid back on to monitor performance.

In general, the box doesn’t really have much ventilation, and even if the fan works, it probably again will do the bare minimum. Instead, I think a separate stick on heatsink with thermal tape will be better if it looks like it’s a heat issue.

What I’ve done meanwhile is stacked steel washers on top of the heatsink. I know thermal transfer isn’t great this way but hopefully will prove a point.

I cannot see how the existing heatsink is fixed (soldered through PCB or just stuck on). Careful no to pull as you could pull the CPU off the PCB and write off the board.

if it continues to work well, I will get a 30mm x 40mm x 20mm heatsink and stick to the existing CPU heatsink.

 

[Black Hole]

I believe they have a responsibility to help.

How old is the unit?

 

[fm49218]

How old is the unit?

whats the relevance?

 

[Black Hole]

whats the relevance?

If it's outside the warranty period since retail sale (IIRC 2 years, with an extra year if the purchaser registers the product), which is well in excess of what would be considered reasonable for the purposes of consumer protection legislation, then your assertion that

I believe they have a responsibility to help

...is false.

I have no quibble with the remainder of your report, but it irks me when people expect more than is reasonable.

 

[Ezra Pound]

fm49218 : I think it's a wise move not to try and remove the existing heatsink as it is very likely you will do damage, I would add an additional heatsink (with as large as possible surface area), using thermal paste or similar to help with heat transfer

 

[Black Hole]

I'm not convinced it is likely, but it is certainly possible.

 

[MikeSh]

fm49218 : I think it's a wise move not to try and remove the existing heatsink as it is very likely you will do damage, I would add as large as possible additional heatsink using thermal paste or similar to help with heat transfer

Yes. I'd cut some aluminium sheet into two strips as wide and long as will sensibly fit and use croc-clips (and the paste) to clamp them to the existing heatsink 'wings'.

 

[fm49218]

If it's outside the warranty period since retail sale (IIRC 2 years, with an extra year if the purchaser registers the product), which is well in excess of what would be considered reasonable for the purposes of consumer protection legislation, then your assertion that

...is false.

I have no quibble with the remainder of your report, but it irks me when people expect more than is reasonable.

thanks. there's actually a law which states that if its proven that a fault is the origin of a design fault (or there's a common part failure ) then the manufacturer may need to act and assist. I know because i was part of the purchase chain for a major European electrical retailer so your "is false" isn't correct

 

[Black Hole]

Yes, I do know the law. If the fault has not been evident for the duration of the reasonable life of the product, then it is not actionable. I take it the problem you are experiencing now has not prevented the use of the item before, or if it has you are rather late taking it up. If the product was working but isn't working now (outside the warranty period), it is a process of deterioration which is causing it - not an inherent fault at the time of sale.

the manufacturer may need to act and assist

The word "may" is operative (and I interpret that as possibility not permission).

 

[fm49218]

Yes, I do know the law. If the fault has not been evident for the duration of the reasonable life of the product, then it is not actionable. I take it the problem you are experiencing now has not prevented the use of the item before, or if it has you are rather late taking it up. If the product was working but isn't working now (outside the warranty period), it is a process of deterioration which is causing it - not an inherent fault at the time of sale.


The word "may" is operative (and I interpret that as possibility not permission).

I agree. I’m not looking for warranty support but just technical support. I don’t need a repair, just the service manual to allow me to fix myself. What I don’t expect is Humax CS to huff and puff, and sigh on the phone because their off-the-shelf response isn’t accepted. They say they will call back and they won’t, so my point is as the box has their name on it at least they could out of courtesy do what they said they would.

 

[Black Hole]

I’m not looking for warranty support but just technical support.

Fair enough, but that's not how it sounded. Humax have no liability anyway: your contract is with the retailer, anything Humax offer over and above that is good will.

There is no such thing as technical support from Humax, their customer support only comprises low-paid call centre staff reading from what a computer script tells them. You'll never get to talk to an engineer, which is what you would need. And no, until there is a legally enshrined "right to repair", they're not going to make service manuals available (they cost money to write, I don't suppose any exist). A commodity set-top box is not regarded as a repairable item.

Put yourself in Humax position: they're making and selling consumer electronics into a cut-throat market at a price point. They can't fund putting technical people at the disposal of callers, or provide support for longer than their warranty offer.

Where we have had some success is in the early days of HDR-FOX when it didn't do what it was publicised to do - firmware updates were released to cure the faults identified.

 

[fm49218]

Fair enough, but that's not how it sounded. Humax have no liability anyway: your contract is with the retailer, anything Humax offer over and above that is good will.

There is no such thing as technical support from Humax, their customer support only comprises low-paid call centre staff reading from what a computer script tells them. You'll never get to talk to an engineer, which is what you would need. And no, until there is a legally enshrined "right to repair", they're not going to make service manuals available (they cost money to write, I don't suppose any exist). A commodity set-top box is not regarded as a repairable item.

Put yourself in Humax position: they're making and selling consumer electronics into a cut-throat market at a price point. They can't fund putting technical people at the disposal of callers, or provide support for longer than their warranty offer.

Where we have had some success is in the early days of HDR-FOX when it didn't do what it was publicised to do - firmware updates were released to cure the faults identified.

Not now, but over the years I have repaired PACE units, Amstrad receivers, video recorders and all other kinds of products. I agree there are times when a manufacturer doesn’t want to release manuals and SKY were the same in the early days but eventually, they did. I have a garage full of schematics for all kinds of electrical products. Nevertheless, it is down to the manufacturer.

 

[prpr]

Nevertheless, it is down to the manufacturer.

Yes, and Humax is not a good one. They only ever produced one decent PVR of each type - and they ph*cked that up (from their point of view at least) by not preventing clever people from being able to customise it. All their other stuff has been crap, of varying degrees.

 

[fm49218]

Yes, and Humax is not a good one. They only ever produced one decent PVR of each type - and they ph*cked that up (from their point of view at least) by not preventing clever people from being able to customise it. All their other stuff has been crap, of varying degrees.

Frustrating there aren't more choices for freesat. I've used Edision, but the GUI is poor

 

[fm49218]

I had a couple of issues that were bugging me and made the unit useless.

1) the HDMI would go blank after a few hours of use

2) around 9:30 every night the unit would automatically switch HDMI port even in standby


I reached out to Jeff Kim (President at Humax Europe). Although he got somebody to respond, the level of help they gave was zero. Very poor service!

1) The unit would always work the next day (after it cooled down. So, I whipped off the top and the CPU was getting too hot. Cooling the CPU down with a can of freezer and warming up with a hairdryer would replicate and clear the issue. The CPU is overheating.

I decided to fit a stick-on heatsink and add a 50mm cooling fan. I have taken supply for the fan from the switched 5v supply to the HDD. This will not cause any issue, and the current required by the fan is very little. The switched part means that the fan is not always on. The CPU is now very cool all of the time. Issue fixed!

2) online a few people pointed to the freesat app checking for recording. Of course, unpairing the unit fixes the issue but also remove some god functionality. Ideally, freesat would check for changes at 3am rather than 10pm when a lot of people are sitting and watching TV. Right now, I will leave the unit unpaired.

Hope this helps others, who may have put their unit in to retirement for issue 1.

 

[Black Hole]

I reached out to Jeff Kim (President at Humax Europe). Although he got somebody to respond, the level of help they gave was zero. Very poor service!

Told you. They're not engineers.

I decided to fit a stick-on heatsink and add a 50mm cooling fan. I have taken supply for the fan from the switched 5v supply to the HDD. This will not cause any issue, and the current required by the fan is very little. The switched part means that the fan is not always on. The CPU is now very cool all of the time. Issue fixed!

Good. But there remains a question why it has only started to overheat with age.

 

[fm49218]

Told you. They're not engineers.


Good. But there remains a question why it has only started to overheat with age.

probably overheated at some point because I think the unit has poor air circulation. That overheating has probably damaged the CPU. The heatsink on the CPU is cheap. But it works, and I’ve pushed it as much as I can i.e., recording every program for 5 hours and the CPU was only tepid. Just glad it works again

It could be dry joints on the CPU which appear when warm. This means that overtime it may start again but I no longer have any surface mount tech so a heatsink and cooler fan will have to do

 

[chazzer]

Thankyou so much that sorted my issue.
Using an old fan and heatsink from a PC.