HR10-250 weirdness

[Matt L]

I've had my hacked HR10-250 for 3 years with out a problem. Still on 3.xx software. I've been getting random DD 5.1 dropouts for the last month or so. This is from the box, if I jump back I can hear the audio that had previously dropped out.

Anyway last night things progressed to a point where I though I had serious problems. I had 4 episodes of "Journeyman" saved and decided on a marathon last night. Went to playback and the audio dropouts would steadily increase then the "Insert Card" warning would come on the screen for 20 seconds(I timed it...). After that the sound would return to normal and all would be fine for about 5 minutes, then the scenario would repeat. Thinking my unit was dying I struggled through all four shows. Did some research and found the problems I'm having could be the result of a bad power supply. I went looking for a parts machine or a cheap replacement on eBay. Anyone here have similar problems?

Today all seems well. Still getting the occasional dropout, but much less frequent, and everything played back fine. I even checked the shows that were acting up last night and they playback without a problem. So... Was it a random occurrence, or a sign of things to come?

Is there a failure prone component on the power supply that can easily be replaced - bad cap's? Or should I just look for a cheap HR10-250 to cannibalize?

[captain_video]

From what I've seen the caps can be a high failure rate item. Just check them to see if any of them have expanded or show signs of bulging. If replacing them doesn't fix it then I'd look for a parts unit on ebay. I've heard that people with leased HR10-250's that have had them replaced with the HR20-700 have been told they can keep the old HDTivos. I've also heard that DirecTV won't reactivate a used HDTivo if it was one of the formerly leased units, so selling them on ebay means the buyer has to beware of what he's buying. OTOH, it gives people like you an opportunity top pick up one of these units for parts at bargain basement prices. I bought one a few months ago for a paltry $17 plus shipping. Not bad when you consider that Weaknees sells replacement power supplies for something like $150.

[BruceS]

Before you try anything else, just remove and re-insert the access card in your HR10-250 a few times.

On every DirecTV receiver I have ever had either the contacts on the access card or the access card reader have occasionally had this problem.

Each time all I had to do was pull out and re-insert the access card.

[Matt L]

BruceS, got to say that was one of the first things I did, my thought too. No luck with that. Today, none of the insert card errors just the frequent annoying audio dropouts. I thought it was just DD but i switched to standard audio and still had the same problem, but I'm still using the optical connections. I'll have to pull out the unit and ad some good old RCA cables and see if the audio still drops out.