I've had my (reconditioned) H20-600 receiver for 2 yrs 1 month and suddenly 2 weeks ago while watching a program, the screen suddenly went blank and then a message "searching for satellite" (code 771) appeared. After a few minutes of waiting I decided to reset the receiver and the program did eventually come back. I did notice that the receiver felt unusually warm/hot to the touch. I vacuumed any dust that may have accumulated, especially the vents at the top, bottom, and sides of the case. Everything seemed fine for about 1 week (although unit still seemed warm/hot) and then the problem reappeared. Now it's happening more and more frequently (several times a day). I can temporarily solve the problem by simply blowing cool air into the side vent using a small fan, but I'm concerned that there is an underlying problem with this unit (being cynical, I've got to wonder if DirecTv has a 2yr self-destruct built into the unit forcing you to buy another receiver ... and oh yeah, a new 2 year service agreement!).
I'm just curious ... in another post, Dan reported a way to display the internal temperature of the unit, but I don't see "More System Info" selection (Dan's Step 5). After selecting "Info & Test" I only see two tabs on the right side of the screen: "System Info" tab and "System Test" tab. Under "System Info" tab, there is a scrollable list of info, but nothing related to Internal Temperature. Does anyone know how to display the temperature, or is it possible that my receiver (manufactured in Dec. 2005) may not have this feature?
Steve
Comments:
Jul 31, 2009
- There is no permanent fan inside the unit that could possibly fail, only transformers and a large heat sink that appear to be generating most of the heat. Nothing inside the unit (e.g. dust) is blocking air flow.
SteveAug 02, 2009
- Thanks. That was a good suggestion about checking for burnt electronics. I did see an area on the power supply board that had noticeable heat-related discoloration around one device (a 3-pin 24v 1A voltage regulator). This device does NOT have a heat sink on it (unlike some of the others), so one would expect it to dissipate very little power. However, it's getting extremely hot (229 degrees F measured with infrared thermometer; the hottest thing on the board). According to the data sheet for this device, it has internal thermal management so it might be shutting itself down when it exceeds some temperature (I'll need to check). Either the device is bad or something downstream from it is pulling a lot of current. I will give an update after looking into this a little further.Aug 02, 2009
- Thanks. That was a good suggestion about checking for burnt electronics. I did see an area on the power supply board that had noticeable heat-related discoloration around one device (a 3-pin 24v 1A voltage regulator). This device does NOT have a heat sink on it (unlike some of the others), so one would expect it to dissipate very little power. However, it's getting extremely hot (229 degrees F measured with infrared thermometer; the hottest thing on the board). According to the data sheet for this device, it has internal thermal management so it might be shutting itself down when it exceeds some temperature (I'll need to check). Either the device is bad or something downstream from it is pulling a lot of current. I will give an update after looking into this a little further.
