On 22/09/2011 17:29, John Rumm wrote:
On 22/09/2011 08:16, Ramsman wrote:
On 21/09/2011 17:33, John Rumm wrote:
On 21/09/2011 13:42, Ramsman wrote:

The hard drive appears to be suffering from drop-outs. The picture
freezes frequently with blocks of pixels showing differently. No
problems playing CDs or DVDs.

What's the HDD on this model and can it be swapped?

Open it up and have a look. You can obviously swap it like for like,
don't know if you can upgrade to a larger size though.


As I said below, it's a bit of a job disconnecting and removing it, so I
wanted to know about the drive in advance, if possible. Not bothered
about a larger size, as there's not a huge amount recorded on it at any
time.

You frequently find that a range of drives will be used in these things
depending on whatever the best deal the manufacturer could get at the
time. Generally, unless you can find somewhere with a definitive spec of
what drives were used, the only option is to look and see, then select
something that requires the same or less current to run. Some of the
modern "green" low power drives work well in these applications.

I haven't dismantled it yet because it's awkward to disconnect and
remove from the cabinet.

Once you do, check the voltages at the drive power connector and
anywhere else you can check the supply against a known reference. Its
not uncommon for much of this type of kit to suffer power supply voltage
drift (frequently due to cheap capacitors in the power supply) - and
that can cause a number of problems.


One problem is that I can't find a technical manual anywhere. User
manuals are available on line, but I've already got the original paper
one.

Yup that can be difficult. Some are obvious - the hard drive will have a
5V and 12V supply (easy to test at the drive if its a standard molex
connector - a tad harder if its the modern SATA style power connector),
so if these are out of spec then its a fair indication that PSU may need
to be "re-capped".

You may find there is some information silk screened onto the PCB giving
an idea of what to expect. e.g. with the Topfield PVR you find:

http://members.optusnet.com.au/toppy...s/voltages.jpg

(however even this is not definitive since as in that example, the line
marked 22V, is actually supposed to be 24V!)



Thanks for the input John.

--
Peter