NOW RESOLVED ...... HUMAX HDR1100S - no power

K9sandFelines

Hi I wonder if anybody can help with this issue?

I have had the freesat box sat unused and to my knowledge unplugged for about six months. I have just the past few days decided I wanted to start using it, so plugged it back in and went to attach the power cable to the back of the receiver; but I am getting no power at all. The cable shows a green light, but I don't even have a standby light on the receiver. No lights and no display when pressing the buttons. (Haven't tried the remote if it makes any difference).The last time I used it, it was all singing all dancing; so I can't understand why it has suddenly stopped working. I only wanted to use it to watch and record stuff on All4, but I am a bit dissapointed to say the least.

I have tried plugging it in a different plug socket, but it still shows the same problem. There doesn't seem to be any how to videos or Google searches throwing up the same problem, incase it is easily fixable. I have phoned Humax who quoted me £170 (refurbs of the same model cost £150 with only 500gb of storage, mine has a 1TB). Is there anyway it can be fixed, by myself or an independant TV repair Person? I am loathe to pay £150 and haven't got the funds to buy another box, let alone a Tb one.

It was purchased in May 2015 from Tesco direct so I assume would be out of warranty by all parties, Tesco, Hugehs and Humax.

Thanks in advance.

rmg1

Not sure about Humax boxes, but it may have an internal fuse that's blown (assuming you mean the cable has a box in the middle which shows the green light).

K9sandFelines

Yes the mainpower cord has the green light, but the Humax receiver shows nothing. Would it be safe to unscrew it and investigate do you think?

rmg1

I take no responsibility for you having a look, but the fuse should be just inside near where the power cable comes in.
If you're not confident with electrical items, I'd get it professionally looked at.
Having said that, if it's been sat gathering dust for 6 months, there should be no residual charge in any of the capacitors.

K9sandFelines

rmg1 wrote: »

I take no responsibility for you having a look, but the fuse should be just inside near where the power cable comes in.
If you're not confident with electrical items, I'd get it professionally looked at.
Having said that, if it's been sat gathering dust for 6 months, there should be no residual charge in any of the capacitors.

Some progress, but not much. I tried again with the power switch and remote. I am not sure which activated it but it came on, although now froze with just a message saying 'starting'. I have switched it off at the plug.

I am not too bad with opening things up, used to do it all the time with the pc. It's out of warranty anyway, so doubt i'll make it worse. However,I can only see a few connecting screws and recommendations online to try a new hard drive to see if it will get it to boot up. Wishing I would have kept watching it now, so naffed off.

Strider590

With items that spend years plugged in and then a long period unplugged, the likely suspect is going to be capacitors, and most likely 1000uf capacitors, as caps are about the only electronic components that really "age".

Put it this way, I know guys who buy a few hundred of them, go down the local recycling centre, pull TVs out of skips, change the capacitors and then sell them on eBay.

If you get nowhere with it, take it apart, look for:



If you see any bulging or leaking, then that is 100% the problem.

forgotmyname

And bridge rectifiers. Hundai monitors like to blow the bridge rectifiers.

After a while they can start to break down, especially with voltage spikes when they dont switch on and off cleanly.

Or maybe it didnt like the little heatwave we had?

psychic_teabag

K9sandFelines wrote: »

Yes the mainpower cord has the green light, but the Humax receiver shows nothing. Would it be safe to unscrew it and investigate do you think?

When you say the main power cord has a green light... does that mean the "power cord" is actually the AC-DC convertor, and it's passing DC into the humax ? In that case, I'm not so sure the main unit would have a fuse. That would be more applicable in the case that the power supply was built into the main unit.

One picture I can see does suggest that the power input is a DC plug rather than a normal AC lead.

K9sandFelines

Kept it unplugged/switched off overnight. Plugged it in, it still didn't co-operate. So held my finger longer on the power and low and behold a flicker of the logo and it started to update. So as it had froze on one channel prior to abandoning it (I forgot that's why I had switched it off), I tried the remote with no joy. Already swopped batteries etc prior to turning off. So after a bit of internet searching, it was suggested to try pressing 'o' and 'OK' and put batteries back in; and well I don't know how, but it worked. The remote and the receiver are now in synch and I can watch All4 on the main TV again :j

K9sandFelines

forgotmyname wrote: »

And bridge rectifiers. Hundai monitors like to blow the bridge rectifiers.

After a while they can start to break down, especially with voltage spikes when they dont switch on and off cleanly.

Or maybe it didnt like the little heatwave we had?

It was switched off long before the heatwave.

A little update but it is now.working, I am very lucky.

I kept it unplugged/switched off overnight. Plugged it in, it still didn't co-operate. So held my finger longer on the power and low and behold a flicker of the logo and it started to update. So as it had froze on one channel prior to abandoning it (I forgot that's why I had switched it off), I tried the remote with no joy. Already swopped batteries etc prior to turning off. So after a bit of internet searching, it was suggested to try pressing 'o' and 'OK' and put batteries back in; and well I don't know how, but it worked. The remote and the receiver are now in synch and I can watch All4 on the main TV again :j

K9sandFelines

psychic_teabag wrote: »

When you say the main power cord has a green light... does that mean the "power cord" is actually the AC-DC convertor, and it's passing DC into the humax ? In that case, I'm not so sure the main unit would have a fuse. That would be more applicable in the case that the power supply was built into the main unit.

One picture I can see does suggest that the power input is a DC plug rather than a normal AC lead.

Not sure I could have answered that as don't know technical names for things, I guess it would have said somewhere on the back of the lead or when the lead goes in the receiver.

I have managed to get it working, I am very lucky.

I kept it unplugged/switched off overnight. Plugged it in, it still didn't co-operate. So held my finger longer on the power and low and behold a flicker of the logo and it started to update. So as it had froze on one channel prior to abandoning it (I forgot that's why I had switched it off), I tried the remote with no joy. Already swopped batteries etc prior to turning off. So after a bit of internet searching, it was suggested to try pressing 'o' and 'OK' and put batteries back in; and well I don't know how, but it worked. The remote.and the receiver are now in synch and I can watch All4 on the main TV again :j