If you've fixed it the clock will start at 13:00 when the Hummy boots to Standby from mains switch-on, aerial connected or not. If you then switch on with aerial connected and receiving a broadcast signal then the time will be corrected to 'now'. If you switch on with no aerial connected the time will continue to count from 13:00. Of course if you've not fixed it the display will continue to show --:--.

Thanks again Big-Les. That's helpful.


And thanks Egros for the encouragement. I shall persist!

Thanks Big-les,

I have just carried this out on my 2005 machine and fingers crossed it seems to have done the trick. I had previously replaced the RTC chip and crystal a couple of years ago when I had a complete failure but it had started to get this --:-- fault as this thread describes.

Cheers,
Chris

I think any soldering work on those components may bring the clock back to life leading you to think that the chip and/or crystal were duff. Do you think that might be the case or did you confirm that a component had failed?

You could be right, I didn't test the components when removed but the symptoms were a bit different if I recall. The previous fault was there as soon as the machine was put into standby whereas the more recent problem would occur up to several days after going into standby. Anyway, lets hope its sorted now!

Cheers,
Chris

I think it may have been the same fault but just at a different stage. The two failed boards I looked at would show --:-- immediately when put into standby although Coulrophobe's board would sometimes show the clock.

My hummy has immediately shown --:-- for a while now but today something different happened! THE CLOCK DISPLAYED when switched to standby (nothing recording, just the timer icon showing, and no sound from the HDD) and this lasted for roughly 30 minutes!!! I don''t know if this has anything to do with yesterday's .23 software update and it was doing some kind of housekeeping in the background that powered the clock? Or how likely is that my first attempts of cleaning the clock PCB were a partial success? I'm hoping it's this of course!

Nothing to do with v23 and no housekeeping going on, looks like you're getting there.

gdh82,

When you have another go at cleaning the board pay particular attention to the area between the chip, crystal and super capacitor as shown slightly left of centre in this picture kindly posted by Vic20. Make sure you clean both sides of the board particularly in this area.

Cheers Big-less for that extra guidance. Am off work today so giving it a go now. "Red-5 going in"....

BINGO! My Hummy's clock is back! Feel like Luke Skywalker after just 'fixing' the Death Star!

Second time round, I felt more sure-footed and more focused, plus I used one of the kid's art brushes as well as the cotton buds.

This was a real team effort though so thanks for all the helpful posts. A special thanks to Big-Les (aka Obi-Wan!) for showing me the way, not just with your superb initial post to this thread but the further direction too.

Very, very much appreciated.

Well done. I knew you'd get there in the end, a little bit of experience helps a lot.

Big-les,
Your enquiry re the use of vodka made me smile. Back in the 70s, when I was a hi-fi nut, I used an expensive turntable with a very expensive (half a week's wages) magnetic pick-up. The pick-up was fitted with an eliptical diamond stylus. The very best of stuff and I loved it. One day I decided I needed to clean the stylus and searched out a suitable fluid. WOW! This stuff was v-e-r-r-y expensive. Having a bottle of vodka in the house (can't think why, now) I decided to try using that. I dipped my little paint brush in the neat vodka - I'd decided to sacrifice a half-capful - and gently brushed the diamond stylus.
Result?
Brilliant! A check with my special stylus microscope revealed a stylus any mother would be proud of.
I told all my friends, rode with the inevitable jokes and enjoyed my super new sound reproduction.
Then came the day I lowered the needle into the groove and the arm just skated right across to the centre of the disc.
Yup, you guessed it. The diamond stylus had gone. It was only cemented in place and it seemed the cement had not (unlike me) been vodka resistant.
That was an expensive mistake and taught me the wisdom of only applying vodka to self-cleaning systems such as the human gullet.
On a more serious not, various people (Maplins?) sell cans of switch cleaner. Take my advice and use something like that. Often the cheapest method is not the best.

I've just done mine
Followed the instructions exactly (well without any earthing! but was careful).
I used boots surgical spirit £3.49 and the cheapest paint brushes from smiths £3.79.

Th clock is now there in standby, I'm made up.
Thanks very much Big-les for your diligence and hard work.
Its very much appreciated.

I've just followed the method on a 2005 issue 9200 and the clock is back, and timed recordings are up and working once again.

Many thanks to Big-Les for his investigation and solution, your work is much appreciated.

Cannot get it to work. Grrrr!

When I removed the board, there were no visible deposits but I gave the cleaning a go. The solder side seems to rip the cotton bud to shreds but I'm assuming so long as I remove the residue this isn't a problem.

I've cleaned the board three times now, top and bottom, using Boots surgical spirit, but to no avail.

Do you have to wait for residual spirit to evaporate before retrying?

Each time I reconnect the ribbon cable (not bothering with the disk yet) and apply power, the unit starts up, then decides to go into standby. Dashes on the left for a short while then back to dashes with colon on the right.

Any other suggestions before I order a new clock board?

I spoke too soon. After three, apparently unsuccessful, attempts to clean the board enough for it to work, I gave up.

I had to reassemble the machine, and leave it on all evening, to satisfy a pressing need to record last night's eclectic collection of Spooks, Eastenders and University Challenge.

Got home late and went straight to bed, so I didn't get around to putting it back into standby until this morning and, lo and behold, the clock now works.

I can only assume that the residual surgical spirit on the board's surface was preventing it from working. I didn't exactly soak the board but it had looked slightly damp in places at the time of my last "lid-off" test.

My contribution to this thread, therefore, is the recommendation that you allow the board to dry thoroughly before re-testing after cleaning.

If you have followed my instructions and still can't get it working then I can only suggest that you have some other problem.

Thanks Les, but I did get it working eventually. The trick, in my case, was to leave the board to dry out thoroughly before re-testing. Maybe I was a bit too heavy handed with the surgical spirit.

Keith

I think I quoted a post of yours above but thought I was quoting another, I'm probably going bonkers.

Glad you got it going in the end.

Just for the record - followed the instructions and cured the problem, all for less than a fiver. Many thanks.

PCB looked perfectly OK to me, hopefully the contamination/leakage problem won't affect any other components on the same board.

The problem was not caused by a leakage on the two boards I looked at and I doubt it is on any board. Glad you're up and running again.

PERFECT!
I used Isopropyl alcohol.I put about 4 drops around the area described, used a clean toothbrush and gave it a good scrub. I dried the worst off with cotton buds.I did the same on the other side.
Originally there was some corrosion on the the upper connections and I also noticed some on the battery (I cleaned the outside of this also). Everything now working great. You can use the pdf file here
http://www.hummy.org.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=6887
that describes how to dismantle the box.

Terry

I suggest a small paint brush to enable getting under and around the super capacitor and crystal but if you managed to clean the area sufficiently with a tooth brush without causing any damage then fine. The link you give to Hummy.org is the same as I give in my instructional post.

It has been brought to my attention that since the demise of Hummy.org the link in my instructional post (post #1) to the document 'Replacing the Humax PVR-9200T Clock Module' will no longer work. JefUK has e-mailed me a new link to his document which can now be viewed here.

I will also ask the moderators to edit my instructional post to include the new link.