Canadian TV, Computing and Home Theatre Forums banner

Bell TV 5100 Discussion Thread

35K views 67 replies 18 participants last post by  Smokin Joe 
#1 ·
Hi our 5100 harddrive has error code 0408
it showed on the tv sreen -
now can not use PVR :confused:
anyone know what the probem is?

can i put another drive in it ?
if so what kind ect???
 
#2 ·
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.
 
#6 ·
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.
 
#7 ·
5100 keeps say no signal.

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.
 
#8 ·
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
 
#9 ·
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.
 
#11 ·
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.
 
#19 ·
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.

Thanks,
G
 
#22 ·
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.
 
#23 ·
@torontoreg - No, none that I ever remember.

@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.
 
#25 ·
@pinza and 57, thanks for getting back to me!

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?
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top