Hi, after years of good service my trusty DHD4000 is playing up to the point I am thinking of replacing it - but as a last resort I thought I would create a post.

In essence:
for a while now if the box has been unplugged it can be extremely difficult to start i.e. sticks at orange but eventually (I think when the box physically warms up) it does startup and all is well. Since it is very rarely unplugged this has not been an issue.

But recently when you turn it on via the remote it comes on you get picture and sound, but then the box will not respond to the remote or the front panel - you then have to unplug and then it will work ok. Then overnight (or is just leaving on standby) will trigger the same thing again.
This is now resulting in not getting the EPG update and failing to record (recordings while not in standby are working ok).

In trying to sort this out I have:
- cleared all recordings
- rescanned channels
- turned on logging (no errors reported)
- opened up the box (no obviously sweating/split capacitors)
- reverted back to old software and then back again to 2.3.9

Anybody any ideas
Steve

Mine experienced the first - difficulty in starting up. When powered up from the mains, you could hear the disc spinning up then spinning down. Each time it spun up it would do so for a little longer each time, and after a minute or so it gained full speed. By that time though the Thomson did not read the disc anymore and it was then unresponsive. Another quick power off/on at the mains and all came good.

I changed the capacitors in the power supply section, cost me about £8 and all came good. None were bulging or appeared damaged or aged but since I changed them it's been back to a 100% solid bit of kit again.

If you feel like I did - there is no real replacement out there - replace the caps and see what happens. Your other failure symptoms could be related, all sorts of odd things could happen, but your first symptom suggests PSU.

They do crop up on ebay every now and again - in fact one went recently for 99p (though it was allegedly "untested"), but they could all be experiencing failing caps.

Have a search through here as there are several threads covering this and peoples experiences of changing them.

http://www.satcure.com/gds200.htm might give you a starting point.

Have you tried deleting the EPG data? That's there in the engineers menu too. Certainly reinvigorated my box once upon a time.

Otherwise, ebay is best bet. I recently bought one for about £35 for my parents and its worked 100% solidly. Of course, ymmv on ebay items but it is such a great box I would be really reluctant to have to use anything else if my one died. I'm tempted to buy one on ebay anyway just to keep in reserve should my machine start to fail.

Matt

Your symptoms are classic of a failing power supply. The capacitor swap mentioned above would probably help.

All thanks for that, I will get the soldering iron out. I had been toying with getting a 6300 off ebay but it sounds like I currently have the better box and so worth a go.
Saying that I do remember it took Thompson to release a few sets of updates for the dhd400 before a lot of the vocal criticism died off - so it is possible the next update may fix the instability of the 6300

Ordered the kit and seen the advice about positioning so will see how I get on from here.

One other question in the Engineers menu you can format the hard disk - is this like in a PC where you lose absolutely everything including the bootup software or does it take it back to the original factory state i.e. is it a safe thing to do obviously knowing that you will lose recordings epg etc

The firmware is held in flash memory, not on the disk, so you won't lose anything other than your EPG and recordings.

@shrewspvr

good luck with that soldering iron. do lets us know how you get on.

NJP - thanks for the info

pzboyz - I think I am going to need a bit of luck

It's not too bad, some of the capacitors are stuck together with gloop which is easily removed with a knife. I fitted them quite early on in the repair game so discovered two of the capacitors supplied are higher rated and larger so snag the lid of the box. Unfortunately only realised during assembly so had already cut the legs off and had nothing to play with. I had to bend the mountings for the PSU and insulated the tops of them from the case lid. It does touch, but nothing is under any pressure. With the higher ratings it probably won't be so soon to fail now but next time I'll pay better attention ...

I was soooo pleased when it kicked back into life afterwards!!

Hi All
Agree with all here on excellent functionality of DHD4000, But my 4/5 year old box will now only show current & next progs on EPG listing.
So far have turned off at mains, rescaned channels to no avail.
Thanks in advance for any help offered

First, you haven't started turning the box off overnight, have you?

Assuming the answer to that is "no", the next thing to check is that you are still receiving Mux D, which is where the EPG gets downloaded from overnight. See if "Film 4" and "ITV2+1" (for example) are still available.

If they aren't, you have a reception problem. If they are... well, let's cross that bridge when and if we get to it!

Thanks njp. A few nights ago 'Film 4' (No 32 here in West Mids) dissapeared rendering one of the tuners blank. So rescanned. Result: a slightly different list of channels appeared & blank tuner cured. Assummed 'Film 4' had moved to payTV.

Following rescan this pm I now see 'Film 4' has returned.

Yes we do switch off at mains overnight when not actually recording, to save power. We've done this for some time and only noted loss of EPG (complete) occasionally. Assumed this was because we had switched of on last day of 14 day set.

If 'Film 4' is intermittent, perhaps my 20 year plus aerial needs replacing - When last on roof outer cover of cabling was peeling.
Thanks again, do hope this helps you help me.....

If you download the EPG every night (as the designers intended!), you always have a full 14 day's worth of schedules ahead from the current date, along with any schedule changes to the days already downloaded. It also makes you less vulnerable to the occasional failed EPG download, because you probably won't even notice that your EPG only extends for another 13 days or even less.

A compromise would be to leave the PVR on (say) once or twice a week. Or you could put it on a timer so that it switches on between 02:55 and 03:40 (ish!) every night. It's up to you really.


Maybe...

If you do have it replaced, make sure you get decent quality cable fitted (CT100 or better).

Grateful thanks njp & to others in this thread for v. useful info gained.
EPG loaded successfully overnight and log revealed no problems. Timer idea ideal - will order today. I'll put up a new aerial in the spring with CT100 or better cable.

Most reaasuring to know that via satcure & Digifix, there's every hope of keeping the excellent DHD4000 alive for some time yet.

Hi Relkit33e arrived today but the diagram at the bottom is not very good and I can't read the numbers for the capacitors - I have emailed SATCURE but if anybody else has a better electronic copy that they could send me. Let me know via a private message and I will give you my email
TIA Steve

You should get an email from SATCURE with a link to a webpage with the details in full. Check your emails and then pester Satcure if you don't have that.

Pop

Pop

Yep got it - thanks

Steve

Errrr slight hiccup.

I have soldered in all the capacitors and folded over the C203 and C211 (which looks a mess) but the C101 which according to the instructions fits - doesn't. I soldered as tight to the board as I could but no chance of getting the lid on and I cut the legs (doh).
I have tried plugging in the box and it now appears to work fine but it needs a lid - any suggestions or am I the only one who has managed to foul it up like this!

Depends how much you need. I managed to bend the metal supports for the PSU mounts to get a few mm and then insulated the top of the caps from the lid. A bit tight but it works. I don't recall any of the other caps being as big as the two large ones (which I soldered before checking!).

Good news that it's cured the fault though

I fitted C101 with no problems. It should fit flush to the PCB. (I.e. no gap underneath). You might need to "persuade" the cap's leads a bit. (Its designed to "snap in" i.e. hold itself in place befroe you solder it).

Cap is 30mm tall (well, the one I got in my Satcure kit is) and there's about 34mm between the top of the PSU board and the case lid.

Slimgym - what did you use to insulate the caps from the lid?

Looking at the space avail under the normal position of the board I am tempted to angle the PSU board down (folding the side tabs out of the way) - this will give me load of clearance and all I will need to do is open up the power lead opening to allow for the new position. Obviously I will need to ensure none of the component leads touch the bottom of the box but my one concern is whether the four screws that hold the board in place also provide earth which with what I am proposing will not be so good. Any thoughts?

Steve

I just used an offcut of plastic I think from an old 3.5" floppy disc and covered the part of the lid near there with insulating tape. I think there were lugs that hold the PSU in place which can be bent to gain a few mm. Thought mine was secured with plastic press-clips. I suppose the other thing you could do it ask nicely for another capacitor from satcure, they're pennies after all!

Well for those who get in a similar predicament I ended up doing the following which gives plenty clearance for the capacitor that I had not fitted flush and the C203/C211
- mounting on the two bulges towards the middle (but not fully screwed down)
- bending over the side mounting tabs out of the way
- insulating where the board might touch towards the side (good quality insulation tape)
- enlarging the power lead hole and adding a new hole for the screw above the power lead
All appears to be working ok, but will let you know if anything untoward happens.

Thanks to everybody for their help

regards Steve