Fix for 530 - proper ventilation.

[DShoop]

I like many others have had lockups, reboots and shutdowns of 530. Currently on my second. I have it well ventilated and still there is alot of heat with unit. Like a few other people i bought a cheap laptop cooler and plugged it into the usb port on back. After being on for hours unit now hardly even feels warm, alot cooler than before. No lockups or recording problems since. Am keeping fingers crossed, but think that heat was the main culprit to units dying and acting up. I know that computers act exactly the same when heat is a problem.

[QualityIsJobOne]

Our well behaved DSR530 is on it's own shelf.....lot's of air all around.

....Also the "live buffer" is turned off....

[cablewithaview]

Just like a cable head end, the A/C craps out so will the channels. It doesn't matter how cold it is outside, the inside heats up quickly.
I'm surprised though Shaw and Moto didn't design those to have a fan to begin with.
I just wonder if the fan in the USB port might cause a hum if the fan starts going bad. Did something like that years ago with the first style commercial c band receivers. Did ok but if a fan was going bad it would throw a hum in the pic.

[yakiwchuk]

I've got my third 530 on a cookie cooling rack and the problems seem to have subsided.

So far.

[BCScott]

The 530s do have a fan in them. They were on continuously when the 530 was first released. One of the first updates adjusted the startup temp, so it doesn't come on unless the unit overheats. It was very loud and annoying. Although I'd recommend as much ventilation as possible, I don't think heat is the 530's only problem.

[Daksport]

I read somewhere a while back that a guy who was having trouble with his 530 swapped out the hard drive and it greatly helped with the performance of the unit as well.

I'll see if I can find the thread and add a link here for it.

[TheHans]

Sorry, but our 530 problems that caused us to ultimately get five brand new 530s as replacements had nothing to do with ventilation. We had a small fan blowing on it all the time. And we checked the temperature a few times per day via the "hidden" menu. Plus this was checked by the techs whenever problems occurred. Turning off the "Live on Disc" function did help though. :-) Although we don't think it's right that we can only use two out of three between recording, "Live on Disc" recording and watching a recording.

The Hans

[44fixedit]

And we checked the temperature a few times per day via the "hidden" menu.

What numbers need to be entered to check temp?

[GaryE]

Options-6-4-9-7-7-1. Then press the left arrow key once to get to Diagnostic R screen. The temp is under the word "Internal". It's in celsius.

[fatkev78]

This is a dumb question, but what temperature should it be at?
Thanks!

[smp01]

a usb powered laptop cooler works well. It slim and you can get power from the 530 usb slot.

[WalterP]

I have to agree with the laptop cooler solution. After swapping out more 530's than I can remember, everything has been stable (not a single lockup!) since I installed laptop coolers under my units three months ago. The 530s still run warm, but certainly not as hot as they used to.

[Moose57]

No doubt cooling helps electronics a lot and the 530 is no exception.
I had a 120mm case fan over the unit powered by the internal supply and it kept it nice and cool, but that didn't stop it from dying, probably the batch that had the bad chips inside.
Maybe most of those are gone now.

[Yoshi]

Bad chip:

Were they a socket to the board, now superceded by a higher series?
Can you remember the serial number series in which those bad chips were used?

[Moose57]

I don't know the SN Series, sorry.
I think it was the first several productions runs as best I can recall.

The flash memory chips that housed the program code were never socketed.

Not sure if they changed chip brands or just a revised version of the same chip.
But whenever they change something it seems to throw the timing off.
I would think that proper coding would be able to accommodate that.

Probably the main reason new code is taking so long as to see if it works with all the versions out there.
And for that reason, I highly doubt it will ever actually materialize unless they swap everybody to a single version of the unit.
Be it a 530 or a totally new unit.