[miami]

My HR23-700 died recently. No lights or output, though when I hit the red reset, I can hear a (VERY faint) repeating chung-chung sound, with my ear pressed to the unit. It's not the 'graunch' sound I'm used to hearing from a bad hard drive, and the unit was hooked up to an uninterruptible power supply when it died.

DTV has sent me a replacement (I got another 23), but I haven't activated it yet. DTV CSR told me they did not need me to send back my old unit, and new one arrived w/o any return stuff.

There is one recording on the old unit I'd very much like to access - My mother was interviewed on TV after publishing her memoir. My siblings are not happy campers. (I explained this to CSR, this may be why they are not requiring me to return the old unit. I understand there's no getting the data off the old hard drive, but at least I could record the interview off the screen.)

So, I'd like to try a power supply swap in the old 23, if that's a plausible solution.

Can anyone tell me -

Does the faint sound on reset give any hint as to whether it's the power supply or not?
If PS is a possibility, are the power supplies from any other HR models interchangeable in my HR23 - 21, 22, 24?
Should I delay activating the new unit until I find out whether I can transplant a PS into the new one, or can I still use the new card in the old unit after it's activated in the new one?

Thanks a million for any help -- This forum has saved me many times, but a search found no help with this.
Clay

 

[jagrim]

Two things that you might try are pulling the power plug for about 30 minutes then plug back in. May help or may not.

If you want to check the hard drive, plug in an esata and see if it powers up. When my daughter's HR20 wouldn't boot up, I plugged in an eSata external drive to prove to me that the hard drive was the problem. Her HR20 wouldn't boot up without the esata drive. It also made no noise when failing. This will only tell you the hard drive is bad and won't help with your recording.

 

[jimmie57]

My replacement had a red plastic enclosure on the box that said:

Return Documents Enclosed

Did your box have one ?
If not, I would hang onto my dead one and check my bill each month for a few months to see if you got charged for it.

 

[miami]

Update on my HR23 - I finally popped the lid, and with power, the fan is running - Don't know if it was before or not, it's dead quiet, but still no lights.
Does the fan running mean power supply is OK? It draws from the motherboard.

Everything appears 100% - No burn marks, nothing looks loose or swollen.
(Do I remember reading here someone saying they had never seen a power supply go bad without burn marks - ?)

Don't know if I have an esata drive here or not ... but, does the drive not reformat on being swapped?

Thanks again, any further insights welcome ... here in my last few days, before my siblings find out I don't have that interview for them ...
C
--

My replacement had a red plastic enclosure on the box that said: Return Documents Enclosed
Did your box have one ?
Nope, I checked ...

If not, I would hang onto my dead one and check my bill each month for a few months to see if you got charged for it.
Will do -from hope if nothing else!

 

[TomCat]

...Can anyone tell me -

Does the faint sound on reset give any hint as to whether it's the power supply or not?
...

Clay, I hate to be a snake at your garden party, but that faint sound is probably the HDD searching for the boot sector.

 

[P Smith]

the DVRs booting from flash ROM, so no need boot sector

now, when the old HR23 is your, you could check the drive pretty easy: open its cover, remove the drive, connect it to your desktop's free SATA port, try get SMART data by Victoria (it's free SW from Internet - see many posts here how to use it )

 

[Brubear]

the HR23-700 is recoverable. I would hang on it - a recovery kit should generate once the ird is disconnected

 

[Jacob Braun]

the HR23-700 is recoverable. I would hang on it - a recovery kit should generate once the ird is disconnected

Depending on why it failed (no power?) there's an excellent chance it is non-recoverable.

 

[Rich]

the HR23-700 is recoverable. I would hang on it - a recovery kit should generate once the ird is disconnected

In 6 months or so... :rolling:

Rich