To replace the drive you will have to get the exact same model or one from a very short list of suitable drives. Just 1 digit different and it will NOT work.
With a box that old, I would be tempted to call Bell and see if they can't ship you out an RMA replacement, around $150 I believe, then you would ship back your dead one.
Hey m3repair thanks for the offer ,will it be just a simple switch
or will i have more grief lol
are you sure the harddrive is good?
have a great Christmas
I am 99% sure that the hard drive is somehow married/paired to the receiver. I don't think that you will be able to take the hard drive rom one receiver and put it into another.
I have a 5900 that has a dead drive in it right now. I've opened up the receiver, and removed the power and data cable from the drive. The receiver still works to display the tv shows, but PVR functionality doesn't work.
My friend has a 5100 that keeps saying no signal and flipping to the testing screen.
I went to look at it for her and found that if I go into dish installation the signal is always at 100% however it keeps flipping at random intervals to wrong sat and back to locked Nimiq 91.
I inspected all her cables etc. and all looked fine so I took the unit to my home and hooked it up. Same problem even after doing check switch. Different transponders give same error as well.
Are you connected to a switch? Do you know what the previous setup was in check switch screen before you ran check switch? Is there any other receiver in the home that you could swap to test with? (test at another location to see if that cable location is bad or is the receiver bad)
At the worst case you could have a flaky tuner but is unlikely since we haven't ruled out the other parts of the system
These models had a history of a conexiant chip needing re-seating in the solder, it gave a somewhat similar problem to the one you describe. Have a look on Google.
The Dish model is the 501 (5100) I believe, also it continued for a short while with the 508 (5800), the 509 (5900) has not to my knowledge had this issue.
Am I correct that this model can't have an external hard drive attached? Trying to decide on whether to purchase this model for $75 or a 6131 for $25. The 6131 can have an external hard drive added to make a PVR, from what I have read.
Thanks! They thought they had a 9241 receiver but when I asked for the receiver # I noticed it was a 6131. Not sure if it's still available but I guess it's worth a try.
Like they said, USB 3.0 should work. Although I find it hard to believe that you're having that much trouble finding a USB 2.0 external HDD. I was in Staples a few days ago and they had a bunch of them.
Got a question: have a very old 5100 PVR, that only lets us save about 8 hours of content.
Can I open the receiver and put a larger HDD in place of the current one? There is no port for additional external storage.
Or, can I put my smart card into a newer machine without contacting Bell, and have it work?
Just don't want to contact bell regarding our subscription, don't want to rock that boat.
I replaced the hard drive in a 5900 a few years back. After jumping through a bunch of hoops, wiping out specific sectors of the hard drive, and losing a few hours of my life, and adding a bunch of grey hairs to my head - I decided that it is something that I would never attempt again. After the 2nd hard drive failed, I bought a model 6131 receiver, hooked up an external 1TB USB drive and never looked back.
@Davage - If your replacement drive was not from a working PVR I agree, from what I read, it can be a pain but pulling one from a functioning 5900, might be a smoother ride.
New question; I've got an ancient 5100, can I buy a newer model and use my card in it, without contacting Bell?
I've got a great grandfathered deal that I don't want to ruin, billing-wise. How can I upgrade without waking the Bell beast?
You should be able to add a new receiver to your account via the My Bell site.
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