Humax PVR - repaired

[Clive Page]

We've had a Humax home video recorder (FVP-5000T) for several years but last week it failed to power up - everything dead (but the wall-wart was still putting out 12V). I found a company called digirepairs.co.uk who claim to fix these for a fixed fee of £80. That's not cheap but given the difficulty of finding a replacement device with similar functionality for under £300 I decided to take a chance. And the unit was just returned yesterday in full working order and with all our past recordings still on disc. It was the power regulator chip apparently that had failed.

I have no connection to the company but based on my experience I can recommend them to anyone with a home video recorder or similar that needs a repair.

[Jeff Layman]

Post by Clive Page
We've had a Humax home video recorder (FVP-5000T) for several years but last week it failed to power up - everything dead (but the wall-wart was still putting out 12V). I found a company called digirepairs.co.uk who claim to fix these for a fixed fee of £80. That's not cheap but given the difficulty of finding a replacement device with similar functionality for under £300 I decided to take a chance. And the unit was just returned yesterday in full working order and with all our past recordings still on disc. It was the power regulator chip apparently that had failed.
I have no connection to the company but based on my experience I can recommend them to anyone with a home video recorder or similar that needs a repair.

Many moons ago I had to replace the STRG6353 switch-mode IC in my
Panasonic DMR EH-55 DVD recorder/player. It was due to Panasonic using a
too-small heat sink, and it eventually failing through overheating.
Fortunately, it was a known fault with the EH-55 and EH-85 models, and
fairly straightforward to replace.

[Peter Johnson]

Post by Jeff Layman

Post by Clive Page
We've had a Humax home video recorder (FVP-5000T) for several years but last week it failed to power up - everything dead (but the wall-wart was still putting out 12V). I found a company called digirepairs.co.uk who claim to fix these for a fixed fee of £80. That's not cheap but given the difficulty of finding a replacement device with similar functionality for under £300 I decided to take a chance. And the unit was just returned yesterday in full working order and with all our past recordings still on disc. It was the power regulator chip apparently that had failed.
I have no connection to the company but based on my experience I can recommend them to anyone with a home video recorder or similar that needs a repair.

Many moons ago I had to replace the STRG6353 switch-mode IC in my
Panasonic DMR EH-55 DVD recorder/player. It was due to Panasonic using a
too-small heat sink, and it eventually failing through overheating.
Fortunately, it was a known fault with the EH-55 and EH-85 models, and
fairly straightforward to replace.

I was one of a number of people who replaced the capacitors in
Topfield PVRs with advice from the Toppy.co.uk website/forum.

[AnthonyL]

On Fri, 26 Jan 2024 15:48:38 +0000, Peter Johnson

Post by Peter Johnson

Post by Jeff Layman

Post by Clive Page
We've had a Humax home video recorder (FVP-5000T) for several years but last week it failed to power up - everything dead (but the wall-wart was still putting out 12V). I found a company called digirepairs.co.uk who claim to fix these for a fixed fee of £80. That's not cheap but given the difficulty of finding a replacement device with similar functionality for under £300 I decided to take a chance. And the unit was just returned yesterday in full working order and with all our past recordings still on disc. It was the power regulator chip apparently that had failed.
I have no connection to the company but based on my experience I can recommend them to anyone with a home video recorder or similar that needs a repair.

Many moons ago I had to replace the STRG6353 switch-mode IC in my
Panasonic DMR EH-55 DVD recorder/player. It was due to Panasonic using a
too-small heat sink, and it eventually failing through overheating.
Fortunately, it was a known fault with the EH-55 and EH-85 models, and
fairly straightforward to replace.

I was one of a number of people who replaced the capacitors in
Topfield PVRs with advice from the Toppy.co.uk website/forum.

Ditto, and dreading the day when everything goes HD.

[alan_m]

Post by AnthonyL

Post by Peter Johnson
I was one of a number of people who replaced the capacitors in
Topfield PVRs with advice from the Toppy.co.uk website/forum.

Ditto, and dreading the day when everything goes HD.

I had Toppy for very many years and ditched in favour of a Enigma 2
receiver/PVR in 2014. Those Topfield designs must now be almost 20 years
old and after Topfield abandoned their UK customer base (15 years ago)
the boxes were only rescued from landfill by customers rewriting some of
the software.

[AnthonyL]

Post by alan_m

Post by AnthonyL

Post by Peter Johnson
I was one of a number of people who replaced the capacitors in
Topfield PVRs with advice from the Toppy.co.uk website/forum.

Ditto, and dreading the day when everything goes HD.

I had Toppy for very many years and ditched in favour of a Enigma 2
receiver/PVR in 2014. Those Topfield designs must now be almost 20 years
old and after Topfield abandoned their UK customer base (15 years ago)
the boxes were only rescued from landfill by customers rewriting some of
the software.

The one thing that swung my decision to go Topfield was the very fact
that customers could rewrite the software, and apart from the very
core, it was all rewritten. If you've never used the MyStuff suite
and the Taps that have been developed you've missed out on some of the
best thought out system that I've ever come across.

The Topfield supplied interface was as lacking as the weak capacitors
they managed to find to put on the main board.

I'll look at the Enigma in more detail as that appears to be Open
Source and just hope some of the Toppy enthusiasts have had an input.

[alan_m]

Post by AnthonyL
I'll look at the Enigma in more detail as that appears to be Open
Source and just hope some of the Toppy enthusiasts have had an input.

Occasionally you will recognise some names from the Toppy forums on the
OpenVix Forums in relation to writing/debugging of the software.

Much of the Openvix software is now mature but there is ongoing support
for dozens of manufactures making Enigma 2 boxes. New models are
always being introduced with 4k support being common place, even on sub
£100 boxes.

[Chris Holmes]

<Snip>

I repaired a Sony DVD player the other week…

Well, came up with a workaround…

It was offered for free on fb, but when I got it on the bench (kitchen
worktop), it wouldn’t open the drawer…

I took the lid off and found I could persuade it to open by flicking part
of the mechanism. I tried putting some small amounts of silicon grease on
bits I thought might benefit, but it seemed that it would work unless it
had been left for more than a minute or so, then the drive kind of went to
sleep and wouldn’t open.

So I decided to risk leaving a disc in the drive (risky, because I wouldn’t
be able to flick the stubborn mechanism)….

Result! As long as I leave a disc in, the tray always opens when
instructed.

Its only composite (and maybe component), via SCART, but is fine with our
4K Samsung TV.

[Java Jive]

Post by Chris Holmes
<Snip>
I repaired a Sony DVD player the other week…
Well, came up with a workaround…
It was offered for free on fb, but when I got it on the bench (kitchen
worktop), it wouldn’t open the drawer…

Some models, particularly PC drives but I think some HiFi ones as well,
have a pin hole on the front of the drawer, insertion of a piece of wire
such as an unbent paper-clip into which will release the drawer.

[Ian Jackson]

Post by Java Jive

Post by Chris Holmes
<Snip>
I repaired a Sony DVD player the other week…
Well, came up with a workaround…
It was offered for free on fb, but when I got it on the bench (kitchen
worktop), it wouldn’t open the drawer…

Some models, particularly PC drives but I think some HiFi ones as well,
have a pin hole on the front of the drawer, insertion of a piece of
wire such as an unbent paper-clip into which will release the drawer.

I once forgot that I had left a disk in the drive, and it was there for
really long time. When I tried to eject it I found that it had become
'glued' to the driving disc, and I had do a lot of dismantling in order
to remove it.

[Max Demian]

Post by Ian Jackson
I once forgot that I had left a disk in the drive, and it was there for
really long time. When I tried to eject it I found that it had become
'glued' to the driving disc, and I had do a lot of dismantling in order
to remove it.

Leaving a floppy disk in the drive of a PC used to result in a scary
"Non-system disk or disk error" when the machine was switched on again,
making users think they had a corrupt hard drive. (They used to try to
boot off the floppy first.)

[Chris Holmes]

Post by Max Demian

Post by Ian Jackson
I once forgot that I had left a disk in the drive, and it was there for
really long time. When I tried to eject it I found that it had become
'glued' to the driving disc, and I had do a lot of dismantling in order
to remove it.

Leaving a floppy disk in the drive of a PC used to result in a scary
"Non-system disk or disk error" when the machine was switched on again,
making users think they had a corrupt hard drive. (They used to try to
boot off the floppy first.)

Not just the users, later on when floppy drive use wasn’t so common, I hot
caught by this once or twice when diagnosing users’s problems remotely.

On another memorable day, my young female boss (state secondary school)
asked me to look at a couple of PCs and also asked if I wouldn’t mind
looking at her own printer (“I do use it for school stuff”)….

She came back at the end of the day….

“I have found…. Floppy drives don’t work with football cards inside. CD
drives don’t work with coins in them. And……

Printers don’t work with photos of handsome men in them”.

She was so embarrassed :).

[Max Demian]

Post by Chris Holmes

Post by Max Demian

Post by Ian Jackson
I once forgot that I had left a disk in the drive, and it was there for
really long time. When I tried to eject it I found that it had become
'glued' to the driving disc, and I had do a lot of dismantling in order
to remove it.

Leaving a floppy disk in the drive of a PC used to result in a scary
"Non-system disk or disk error" when the machine was switched on again,
making users think they had a corrupt hard drive. (They used to try to
boot off the floppy first.)

Not just the users, later on when floppy drive use wasn’t so common, I hot
caught by this once or twice when diagnosing users’s problems remotely.
On another memorable day, my young female boss (state secondary school)
asked me to look at a couple of PCs and also asked if I wouldn’t mind
looking at her own printer (“I do use it for school stuff”)….
She came back at the end of the day….
“I have found…. Floppy drives don’t work with football cards inside. CD
drives don’t work with coins in them. And……
Printers don’t work with photos of handsome men in them”.
She was so embarrassed :).

I worked for a software company in the early days of the IBM PC, and a
customer complained that the programs supplied to them on 5.25" floppies
didn't work. It turned out they took literally the instruction, "Floppy
disks must be formatted before use," and formatted the disks we supplied.

[Peter Johnson]

Post by AnthonyL

Post by Peter Johnson
I was one of a number of people who replaced the capacitors in
Topfield PVRs with advice from the Toppy.co.uk website/forum.

Ditto, and dreading the day when everything goes HD.

I abandoned Topfield in favour of the Humax Aura, and its three
tuners, three years ago. I also was aware that I had paid for an HD TV
that I wasn't getting the benefit of, although I'm not sure I can tell
the difference.

[Brian Gregory]

Post by Jeff Layman
Many moons ago I had to replace the STRG6353 switch-mode IC in my
Panasonic DMR EH-55 DVD recorder/player. It was due to Panasonic using a
too-small heat sink, and it eventually failing through overheating.
Fortunately, it was a known fault with the EH-55 and EH-85 models, and
fairly straightforward to replace.

Were you able to provide improved cooling for it?

[Jeff Layman]

Post by Brian Gregory

Post by Jeff Layman
Many moons ago I had to replace the STRG6353 switch-mode IC in my
Panasonic DMR EH-55 DVD recorder/player. It was due to Panasonic using a
too-small heat sink, and it eventually failing through overheating.
Fortunately, it was a known fault with the EH-55 and EH-85 models, and
fairly straightforward to replace.

Were you able to provide improved cooling for it?

Yes. There was plenty of room so I fitted a heatsink three times the
size of the original when I replaced the regulator. Seems daft of
Panasonic to fit such an inadequate heatsink to begin with. See
<https://www.fixya.com/support/t394369-dmr_55e_dvd_recorder_timer_fault>
(I don't understand why he didn't suggest using a bigger heatsink as
just changing the chip will fix the problem for a time before it fails
again).

[alan_m]

Post by Jeff Layman

Post by Brian Gregory

Post by Jeff Layman
Many moons ago I had to replace the STRG6353 switch-mode IC in my
Panasonic DMR EH-55 DVD recorder/player. It was due to Panasonic using a
too-small heat sink, and it eventually failing through overheating.
Fortunately, it was a known fault with the EH-55 and EH-85 models, and
fairly straightforward to replace.

Were you able to provide improved cooling for it?

Yes. There was plenty of room so I fitted a heatsink three times the
size of the original when I replaced the regulator. Seems daft of
Panasonic to fit such an inadequate heatsink to begin with. See
<https://www.fixya.com/support/t394369-dmr_55e_dvd_recorder_timer_fault>
(I don't understand why he didn't suggest using a bigger heatsink as
just changing the chip will fix the problem for a time before it fails
again).

Adding taller feet to the underside of the box allows more free airflow
for box cooling purposes. Many people stack their under TV boxes so
that the lower items heat up the items above.

A Humax HD satellite box I once owned used the metal base of the box as
a heat sink and after being on an hour the base was already 40C above
ambient.

Sky Q boxes seem prone to overheating and using a couple of scrap pieces
of wood under the feet to give a inch more of space under the box can
solve this problem :)

[SH]

Post by Clive Page
We've had a Humax home video recorder (FVP-5000T) for several years but
last week it failed to power up - everything dead (but the wall-wart was
still putting out 12V).   I found a company called digirepairs.co.uk who
claim to fix these for a fixed fee of £80.  That's not cheap but given
the difficulty of finding a replacement device with similar
functionality for under £300 I decided to take a chance.   And the unit
was just returned yesterday in full working order and with all our past
recordings still on disc.  It was the power regulator chip apparently
that had failed.
I have no connection to the company but based on my experience I can
recommend them to anyone with a home video recorder or similar that
needs a repair.

Does anyone remember Martin Pickering of Satcure?

He used ot sell PSU reliability kits... I've lost count of the number of
times I bought a PSU RelKit for all my Pace and Humax boxes and repaired
them all myself.

The RelKits were usually around a tenner and mostly comprised of
capacitors and voltage regulators.

Sadly he has now retired to Greece...... :-( and he still has his wicked
sense of dry sarcasm too....