Digital Set Top Boxes occasionally suffer failures due to badly-engineered power supplies.
This problem has become more prevalent with "cheap" units and later units from China.
Generally capacitors in the Power Supply "spit the dummy" and the unit is considered un-repairable.
I make reasonable income by servicing these units at around $60 but the replacements could be made by reasonably competent people.
This problem also applies to other "cheap" units using Switch-mode Power Supplies.
Before complaining about the failure of your unit, you may wish to check this scenario.
I will do my best to answer Posts on this subject.
Cheers,
Rick

..... and some not so cheap units.

Very true. I seem to recall this happening to a few of the old VCRs. Seems like the power supplies just get taken for granted and end up with cheap parts when costs are cut.

My technician mate reckons that some of the caps being made in China are absolute crap and "blow" (and consequently bulge) with great regularity. If the Chinese are serious about being regarded for quality as well as price in their products they better get their component suppliers to be a bit more careful. Looks like they've had quality control in food ingredient quality as well...but that is a whole other story!!!
(I think they shot the head of their food inspection service a couple of weeks back for his part in getting payments from a big company to allow adulterated food to be sold...)

I use to own one of the strong PVR that had this known issue with the Power Supply, luckerly it was fixed by the distributor out of warranty for free though.

JDH.

Can't believe this is still an issue 20 years after i first started seeing it.

Progress ftw !!

The problem has been around for ages, not just in Chinese products either, this site although primarily focused on PC gear has more detail http://www.badcaps.net they have a forum also with more feedback http://www.badcaps.net/forum/

This was the problem I had with the dreaded c1.00 problem on my Teac DVB820.

Although in my case I don't think the problem was poor quality electro's but rather poorly rated ones. The failed caps were 85deg variants fitted next to a heatsink (ie a known hot area) and only rated at 16v on the 10v supply rail (good practise generally recommends derating electro's to twice the supply rail voltage).

I replaced the caps with 25v 105deg variants and all is fine ATM. Interestingly these caps fitted perfectly into the PCB despite being much bigger than the caps that they replaced. Almost as it the board was designed for them in the first place then a cheaper alternative was fitted during production

So I think that in addition to poor quality components we have do deal with poor component selection, or at least component selection by accountant rather than by engineer.

Josh

Thank you for expanding this comment.......the situation with computer mother-boards was prevalent a few years ago and I found that it was impossible to replace the components as, besides the difficulty of de-soldering them, the replacements would not physically fit!

Back to STB's, which is what this thread is about, I would be interested in hearing what other models people have had this problem with.

Rick.

Just to let you know, this Teac box has also problem with regulator IC in power supply that will give you the same error code c100 and also USB chip is the very common to cause the same fault.

Strong, Nextwave ime.

If the caps didn't fit flush down on the board, I just left the leads longer insulated with heatshrink and glued them to something so they didn't move around.

Not just the chinese t ll, I've got a couple of year old Dell desktop PC that has just died and has a whole bunch of leaking caps all over the motherboard...

Dell had a major problem with swollen/leaking electro caps on motherboards assembled a few years ago (along with a few other manufacturers including HP).

It's possible likely other equipment manufacturers suffered the same problems.

hi guys,

great site you have here, i've only just found it!!

I tried a search, and i also tried to post a new topic, but for some reason it wouldn't allow me..

Anyways, i was wondering if i could get some advice/opinions on the following issue i have with my 42" fujitsu plasma.

I bought it new in may 2004, and it was faultless until about June 2006, when it had what was described in the owners manual as a "power supply fault"

My extended warranty came to the party, and all was sorted (although i was without my tv for around 5 weeks). Anyways, just the other day, i got exactly the same issue again! The plasma turns itself off, and the red light just blinks at me. I thought i had the 5 years extended warranty, but i called up today and it appears as though my warranty ran out in June 2007.

So, i'm guessing i'm going to be forking out for the repair, but surely there's more to it?? Twice in the space of a little over 12 months? Not to mention it cost warranty $632 to fix the last issue, so if it's the same i'm sure i'll be forking out that at least. I've already been to a few stores to see about buying a new unit (panasonic 50" FULL HD, or hitachi 50" FULL HD), and using the exisisting in the bedroom, or as a spare.

I don't want to pay near on $700 only to have the plasma screw up again in 12 months time. Shouldn't the repair shop have done a better job in the first place? or if they knew that a certain component was a weak link, surely it should be upgraded??

For reference the model number is PDS4234, and advice or opinions would be greatly appreciated.. perhaps some one here knows if this is a common fault? and knows of a certain fix? perhaps it should have been fixed properly the first time, and i may have a leg to stand on??

Thank you for your time people!

Jimmy

You have not made enough posts to be able to start a new thread. Up your posts to 5... Please see link in my sig.

thanks for that

Hi Rick

Ive had trouble with the infamous DSE G7659, it lasted longer than most other peoples, just died tonight !

Unfortunately this means outside warranty.

Im a retired tech and had a look inside, the PSU is a golden regent SMPS30W-4 stamped on it REV.E
2 x 470uF are bulging and the ceramic cap 'C5A' is in halves...

I can fix the bulging caps but the 'C5A' ceramic has lost it's markings !*$#%^!
Can you help ! would you know the correct value ..? be most appreciated !
I think its 1KV 1000pf (5 or 6mm in diameter) or there abouts but I cant be sure ..

I guess also if any other DSE G7659 users are out there who could tell me...

Thanks in advance

Cheers

RJ

Hi RJ,

C5A is 331K, so i believe 330pf +/- 10%

regards
Dibley

My Supernet PVR died last night, with the lovely scent of a blown capacitor. Haven't opened it up for a look yet, but it sounds like a prime candidate for this power supply issue...

about $3 worth of parts to fix it from memory

Have a Centrex dual SD PVR. Froze up. I opened her up, noticed the buldging electros and was prepared to dump it. Read posts like these and decided to have a go at repairing it. (Mind you, only after purchasing another dual HD PVR badged as Diginet). Yep, replaced the three buldging electros with new 105 degree caps from WES, and it goes again like a bought one. Boy that area of the board must get hot - you vcan actually see discolouring of the green of the PCB. The old caps were almost illegible because the heat had faded the printing.

My advice to anyone with a Chinese PVR or set top box - before discarding, have a go a repairing. (My gosh - an almost unheard of concept in today's throw away society.)

I have a STRONG SRT 5006 with blown power supply. What is UP100?

Examination revealed UP100 7 pin ic chip (PWC?) had a 4mm round crater in it. it has a '4' in it.
I cant see the part number - can someone please supply it - you may need a magnifying glass.

Nearby a 10uf 400volt electro looked good, but was open circuit
RP102 looked like it cooked too, browning of pcb around this little smt resistor.

My Strong SD STB "popped" for the second time yesterday. Last time on advice from this Forum I sent it to Strong where they fixed it free of charge. I cannot be bothered anymore so will be getting a cheapy to replace it.

Apparently the formula for the electrolyte in electrolytic capacitors was stuffed up a few years back as a result of industrial espionage! I guess this is what happens when the 'copy culture' of plagiaristic commerce replaces genuine scientific development. After all, how hard do you think it'd be to r&d a functional electrolyte honestly? Not tremendously, i should think. It doesn't have to be military-grade, it's just gotta function adequately at reasonable tolerance.

It reads like James Bond, but if it's true, it means that zillions of devices all over the world are ticking time bombs! Forget planned obsolescence, this works out even better for manufacturers:

Capacitor Problem Blows Up