[mythtv-users] Suicable PCI replacement for a failing PVR150

Gary Buhrmaster gary.buhrmaster at gmail.com
Fri Apr 6 17:49:53 UTC 2012


On Fri, Apr 6, 2012 at 11:59, Andrew Stadt <acstadt at stadt.ca> wrote:
> First my apologies if this subject has been done to death, a did a few
> google searches with no definitive results.

Another option (although I do not entirely recommend it, see below
for reasons) would be to purchase a used PVR-150/250/350 on an
auction site.

Over the years I have had a number of PVR-x50s die in my system
(one brand new died after ~4 years, another few I was only able to
get on the used market thanks to the FCC mandate and lasted
a variable length of time, but usually less than ~2 years).  I am
convinced all died due to heat.  The last one I managed to keep
working after I discovered that it failed after some hours of
working fine, and that I could restore it to full operation when I
used the electronics technicians best friend of a component
cooling spray directly on some of the caps on the board.  Adding
a fifth fan to the case helped keep that tuner cool enough to
work until I retired it (I admit that the interior was hot; that is
what you get when you stuff 7 (of the old power hungry) disks
inside a medium tower).  I suspect that over time the caps change
value sufficiently due to the heat such that tuner is unable to
achieve proper lock on the signals.  At some point, the values
are just too far out of range, and nothing you do will help.

So, every used PVR-x50 has some (ab)use on it, and it is
not clear how much longer you might get with a used
device.  That said, if you are only trying to survive for a
short time until you upgrade/repair/replace the entire
BE, and you have a little patience in the bidding process,
you can usually pick up a used PVR-x50 for ~$20 on
an auction site.

Gary


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