Home Repair

HOME REPAIR

COOLING ELECTRONIC COMPONENTS	REPLACING iPOD HARD DRIVE & BATTERY	ENLARGING THE SIZE OF A DVR HARD DRIVE

COOLING ELECTRONIC COMPONENTS

Today's DVRs, DVD players, stereo equipment, etc. generate a lot of heat when running or in standby. Put these in a enclosed cabinet and the problem becomes worse and can lead to premature component failure. Venting the cabinet is not always a possibility, but there are other ways to increase the air flow and dissipate the heat. One of the easiest and cost effective ways is to add and external fan kit. Cooler Guys has come up with a low cost way to do just that using proven long life computer fans that are nearly noise free. The fans are installed in various cases tailored to your needs and powered by a 110 volt to USB converter, that you can plug in anywhere.

My DirectTV HD DVR generates so much heat, I was afraid it could become a fire hazard, even when I left the front of the media center open. After setting one of the 120x120x25mm fan kits over the area of the upper DVR case vent where the heat was the greatest, the drop in temperature was rapid and dramatic. The noise from the fan was imperceptible unless you are next to it. The fan has no vibration of interference problems with the electronic equipment. These little fans are truly a low cost and effective answer to electronic component heat problems.

REPLACING iPod HARD DRIVE & BATTERY

WorkTunes® i.3 Hearing Protector Radio Headphones

During my hours in the shop it's nice to listen to music and pod casts. WorkTunes hearing protectors make that possible, even while the machines are running. (I wish they had a Bluetooth version to get rid of the chord). Eventually my iPod began to lock up and I finally got the "unhappy face" icon . After checking out the Apple website, I determined a call to Tech Support, would be necessary to see what a repair would cost on my older model iPod. Apple turned out to be incredibly unhelpful and told me I had to take it to an Apple Service Center. There was a repair center in town (naturally inconveniently located) which informed me they would only answer my questions AFTER I MADE AN APPOINTMENT! Of course this appointment had to made back on the Apple website (WHERE I STARTED) via the "Genius Bar".

The trip to the Apple Store was like an SNL skit to meet "Dieter" (Sprokets bit) the German Tech Associate. After standing at the "Genius Bar" I was told go across the store to be signed in by "Dieter's" associate, who then "escorted" me back to the "Genius Bar" to meet "Dieter". He spent nearly ten seconds looking at my iPod and told me the hard drive was bad and could not be repaired as it was too old. "BUY A NEW VUND"! There are some real "Geniuses" that work at this place.

Naturally I didn't take this well, on so many levels, the most basic being how hard can it be to replace a hard drive. After a brief internet search and a couple of telephone calls, I found a local place that could fix my iPod for about $35.00 plus parts. My only concern was what software was required to be reloaded and by what method. I learned that iTunes did all that and since I had already achieved the most difficult part of the job (opening the iPod) this was now a DIY project. Frankly I spent less time figure out how to an completing the DIY repair, than I did trying to get help from Apple.

Here is a good demo of opening an iPod from ipodjuice.com .

I also found a great tutorial at Josh Highland's Blog with step by step illustrations. Should the link go away try this one: iPod Repair . Next I ordered a new hard drive from ipodparts.com. The hardware replacement took all of five minutes and the software update about the same. I did have some difficulty reloading my files on the new hard drive with "Unable to write disk" error messages. Since I get this occasionally on our other iPods I figured it was just a Windows/Apple software problem. After another restore to the iPod, an a reboot of the iPod and computer I finally my files reloaded. My total cost for the hard drive was $98.00 and ipodparts even threw in a set of tools for the future. I'm sure that replacing a battery will eventually be necessary and this too will be a DIY project as the procedure is nearly identical. The best part is you get to cut "Dieter" out of the pattern, so he gets no cash to feed "his monkey". NOTE: Don't buy a cheap battery as you get what you pay for. A quality battery goes for around $35.00

Helpful Link on software issues:

http://reviews.cnet.com/4531-10921_7-6488326.html

ENLARGING THE SIZE OF A DVR HARD DRIVE

The DVR is a great invention, but like many other electronic devices, we soon exceed its capacity and must upgrade. The hard drive of any DVR seems to always fill up fast with your favorite programs. HDTV recordings are even worse, "hogging" four times as much file space as regular programming. Unless you want to become "enslaved" by your DVR to by constantly trying to free space on its hard drive or developing a case of "Tivo Disease" (wasting all your free time trying to watch the multitude of programs you have recorded) a bigger hard drive is a must.

Increasing hard drive space can be done by either opening up your DVR and exchanging the hard drive for a larger one, or using a plug 'n play external model. Either way, your new capacity will be that of the new hard drive as the DVR can only read and write to one hard drive installed at boot up.

Replacing the internal hard drive is not too hard, but does have some drawbacks, such as voiding a warranty or your limited skill set, etc. There are also several companies that will do this for you (Weaknees), as will probably your local computer repair service.

Another option is to use one of the commercially available external drives now available that plug into your DVR.

I feel this is the better option in the event that the external hard drive fails, you still have the internal one. These external hard drives are often tailored for specific DVR models, so some research is required before purchase. No matter which model DVR you have the eSATA or SATA (NOT USB) port on the back of you recorder is the key to your upgrade. Here is a link how to complete the installation on a Tivo model DVR: How-to: Use your TiVo Series3 eSATA port to add an external drive or Ryan Block's, post.

My DVR is a DIRECTV Plus® HD DVR (model HR 20) that has a 300 GB hard drive capable of recording up to 50 hours of HD or 200 hours of SD programming. An upgrade will supply the following capacity improvements:

500GB hard drive increases this to 65 hours of HD capacity or 430 hours SD capacity

750GB Drive for 100 Hours HD or 700 Hours SD Total

1 Terabyte Drive 145 hours of HD capacity or 1000 hours SD capacity

After a little research I decided I might be able to build my own extender DVR extender for much less than I could buy a commercial version. If it didn't work I would just use it with my computer as a backup drive. (This is a good reason to select a case that allows for USB connection).

I chose an Antec MX-1 Hard Drive enclosure (which included the eSata cable) and a Western Digital 1 TB eSata hard drive for less than half the money of a commercial version. The case included its own cooling fan, which is a plus. Delivery from Amazon was quick, but the MX-1 arrived without the installation instructions included, as specified on the box. Fortunately the instructions were available online via Antec's website. Installing the hard drive in the case was really simple and required only a few minutes with a Philips screw driver. (Note Only the blue/white fan lead need to be unplugged from the circuit board for installation)

Antec MX-1 Hard Drive enclosure and Western Digital 1 TB eSata Hard Drive

Open Hard Drive enclosure

Hard drive installed on bracket.

Antec MX-1 Hard Drive enclosure connections

HD DVR SATA connection.

After installing the hard drive, plug the power transformer into the case, as well as the eSATA cable. Next plug the eSata cable into the DVR. Unplug the DVR, turn on the external hard drive and then turn the DVR back on. This method seems to work better than the reset button. The DVR will go through its reset boot and find the external drive when the receiver starts up. The external drive may start blinking (should be formatting). It should not take more than a few minutes for the process to start, but acquiring the signal and down loading the channels will take a while. When you attach the external drive, the DVR formats and prepares it for recording. Upon completion, you will end up as if you have a brand new DVR, so it will be necessary to re-create your series links, options, favorites lists, etc.

When you connect an external drive, the internal one is left completely intact but inaccessible until you disconnect the external drive. You cannot use both hard drives at the same time, nor can data be transferred between them..

Should you desire to go back to the internal hard drive, just turn off the DVR and unplug it. Turn off the external hard drive, then restart the DVR. After boot up you will be back to your original configuration. Except for the time it takes to re-boot the DVR you are able to disconnect it and reconnect it without losing data. The hard drive will not reformat as it has already been formatted by your DVR. You should find the internal drive unchanged when you remove the external one. However, every time you swap drives you'll have to wait for the program guide to repopulate (24-48 hrs) before series recordings would be fully up to speed. The eSATA connector really is not designed for a lot of repeated insertions and removals, so it might start to give trouble if you swapped them around a lot. The Antec MX-1 Hard Drive enclosure has an on/off switch which will accomplish the same thing.

Note: If you take that external drive and attach it to your computer via an external eSata drive, the data will be unrecognizable as it is encrypted. Your Windows PC WILL corrupt the drive formatting, and the drive will not behave properly when you reconnect to your DVR.

I'm sure other combinations of external cases and hard drives will work just as well. I chose these based on recommendations of Amazon reviewers that used these components for the same application as I wanted. Why re-invent the wheel?

UPDATE: The enlarged hard drive, I had previously installed, had quickly filled it up recording football games in HD. Knowing the Olympics were coming (skiing for me, figure skating for Mrs. SeaWolf) I decided to upgrade the hard drive of our new replacement DVR. ( a long story) It has been about a year since my first upgrade, so the price of hard drives has dropped dramatically, while their capacity has increased greatly. Since both of our DirectTV HD DVRs were the same model, I figured this would be a cinch to move the old HD to the den and install the new large capacity HD in the living room. I ordered the same Antec MX-1 Hard Drive enclosure, as before, but decided to go with the 2 TB hard (listed above). Installation of the hard drive into the enclosure went as before and this Antec MX-1 Hard Drive enclosure came with the instructions. I hooked the new HD up to the living room DVR and re-booted the system. Unfortunately the DVR failed to find the knew HD, but after some trouble shooting found the external HD was not powering up in the case, even though the LED was on. I reseated the HD, rebooted the DVR and everything went as hoped giving me a 2 TB HD on the DVR. Feeling really pleased with myself, I now hooked up the old measley 1 TB HD to the den HD DVR. I "assumed" that since both DVRs were the same model, the den DVR would just pick up the extended capacity HD as is (like a thumb drive, etc) and not reformat it. WRONG! The DVR did pick up the HD as expected, but it must have reformatted it as everything on that HD was lost, snif! The stuff on the internal HD was fine on both DVRs was still accessible. The bottom line here is if you decide to move HDs between DVRs, YOU WILL ERASE THEM. The only way to avoid this would have been to move the DVR+external HD together as a package to the new locations. All in all the procedure is fine for enlarging your HD DVR capacity, just realize that the external HDs are not interchangeable between DVRs as well as not capable of being hooked up to a PC.

Home