Hi all.
9 days ago I bought a DHD 4000 from Clearance Bargains in Walsall for £74.99. I set it up no problem and started playing with it to find out what it did. All was well for 2 days,then when I went to the epg,selected a prog and pressed OK it locked out and I had to reboot (power down). This happened again 3 days later so I decided it must be faulty. I returned it on Sunday (19/11) and exchanged it for another---BIG MISTAKE. The new one was set up and within 1hr of just watching freeview it froze (with sound).This happened a further 3 times that night with various lights showing each time,but no sound.
Monday just as bad so put old freeview box back on (Thomson DTI 1000,no problems-ever).Today I gave it another go and I hit the jackpot!!!!! 5 lockups,2 with pretty paterns on the screen,2 blue screen,and the best of all 1 GREEN screen with every light illuminated........
Is it worth me trying another one or do I give up on this potentially brilliant machine?

Cheers jt57.

Stick with it if you can JT57, because it is a great machine. My guess is that you have had boxes with low serial numbers because in my experience they have had a higher than average frequency of "duffers".
Some of my family got their DHD4000 from Argos earlier this year and each time if the serial number was down in the <5000 range they had the same style of symptoms that you have described.
My box is 2 years old and have a 10000+ serial number and has been virtually trouble-free since purchase.

Go to the technical menu to find the serial number and if it's low then I'd suggest swapping it again (and again) until you get a high number. If I'm right there's some relationship between the serial number and one of the codes on the outside of the packaging - this may help down at the store.

Good luck.
Kingers.

Hi Kingers.
I've boxed it all up ready for return but I know the serial number is in the 4000 range.Don't know the first ones number.
These are all ex Argos stock and have the latest software (firmware?) installed.Could be these are returns that have been tested? & updated,I don't know,but they do have a 12mth warranty.I might try one more (if any left) but my confidence in them has somewhat deplenished.Pity really as I've read some really good reports about them.
Has anybody else had a similar experience with a happy ending,or has anybody actually had one repaired under warranty that cured the faults?
Regards.
jt57.

The symptoms you describe relate to a build up of heat - my DHD4000 runs perfect with a little heatsink on the processor chip, raised a few cms off the stand (2 CD cases does the trick) and the lid off. Doesn't look too glamorous but I've had no problems since that little mod.

I did a thread (Christmas Tree lights)

Others have found that removing the top cover and re-seating the various connectors around the hard disk drive has helped too.

Pop

I put a little wooden cube under each corner to provide it with little stubby legs - about 4cms clearance in my case.

Mine was a second attempt and I really would have been missing out if I hadn't made the effort to get a working one - it really is, as already said, a cracking piece of kit once you get one bedded in.....

What signal stength do you have? The Thomson is very prone to crashing if it gets a corrupt data stream.

Signal strength was shown as an average 7 and quality 8.
I live within 15 miles of the Sutton Coldfield transmitter and have had a Thomson DTI 1000 stb for over 3 yrs which has NEVER given any problems due to poor signal strength.
I think that the reply from Clayts about heat build up is probably more likely the problem but the question we all need to ask is why did Thomson allow a product with such obvious design faults onto the market in the first place?
I know that potentially this machine is brilliant in theory but I don't see why anybody should have to remove casework,add heatsinks,put on stilts or use any other form of cooling just to get it to work properly.

The other thing that no-one has mentioned yet is that they are significantly less stable before they have downloaded the EPG for the first time. Dunno if yours had had a chance to do this - it sounds like you plugged #2 in and just used it a lot.

[quote=jt57]
I think that the reply from Clayts about heat build up is probably more likely the problem but the question we all need to ask is why did Thomson allow a product with such obvious design faults onto the market in the first place?
QUOTE]

Don't be too sure about this - mine sits on top of a CD player, in full glare of the sun with a 7200rpm upgraded disk and heat *never* causes a problem.

I don't think it is a design flaw - I suspect those for whom heat has been a problem have had ones with manufacturing flaws / dry soldered joints / loose connections. I personally wouldn't treat heat as the first potential problem.

I hear what you've said about reception, but as others have pointed out the box is known to be unstable until the proper EPG has downloaded, and as the mux that this is transmitted on is, shall we say, less popular with viewers, poor reception here might go unnoticed.

I've just bought an argos DHD4000 to complement my other one. As I only (at the moment) have one downlead, I'm planning to test out this box for a few weeks in lieu of my existing one. If I have any problems with it, then I may concede (given the same operating conditions) that boxes in that range may have manufacturing flaws.

Of course, YMMV!

Matt

Thanks to everyone who has responded to my post.

I've remade the coax plugs off again and soldered the centre core to eliminate the possibility of dropped signals.

I have only had the DHD switched on for 2hrs tonight and it has already locked out twice!!!!

Both the units were left on and downloaded the EPG at least 4 times each.

I've checked the engineers screen and the system temp and HD temp both read 37*c,which I don't think is excessive.

I am now,tonight,going to take it back as a rogue unit and swop it for a third one as I love what this thing is capable of.

Please keep your fingers crossed that I get a good'n.

I will post again with an update,good or bad.

Thanks again for all your support.
jt57.
Last edited by jt57 : 23-11-2006 at 18:51