Any way to repair a DCT6208? (E609 error)

[WildThing]

Hi

First post here. I saw that I wasn't the only one with a dead DCT6208.

Sorry if I make some english mistakes, I speak french.

It started by many reboot before I leaved for a week. I also tried to record and I got the same show 5-10 times in my recordings with a lenght of "?" and they didn't worked. When I came back from my trip after a week, the receiver showed the following messages :
E609
FR1
FR3
HUNT
DL

After the download, it just restart the same messages. I also saw once "E610" after "E609".

Today, It's just "DL" with anything moving on the display. I hear the fan but I don't hear the hard disk anymore.

Cogeco cannot communicate with the receiver. I tried to reset it with "power" and "select" but it did nothing.

Unfortunatly, I bought it used from a Cogeco Ontario customer. I'm a Cogeco Quebec customer. The warranty is not transferable. Cogeco Quebec will not do anything for me since I didn't buy it from them.

So I wrote to Motorola to ask where I can have it repaired and I got the following answer :
________
Response (Terry) - 04/13/2005 11:08 AM
Thank you for choosing Motorola. I apologize for any wait you have endured for
this reply. Call/e-mail volumes fluctuate from day to day, and we thank you for
being patient.

On lease/purchase boxes bought through providers, they handle the warranty and
replacement. The warranty for the box, which is a year, should be under the
company it was originally purchased or leased through. We do not do repairs,
only replacements, but since the box was purchased/leased through a provider
they would be the ones to replace it.


If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact us either by
replying here, or by calling us toll free, 24/7 at 1-877-466-8646.
Again I would like to thank you for choosing Motorola, and have a great day.
Terry Hunter
______

So, what can I do? Is there any place in Quebec that can repair those crappy receivers? Is there a service manuel somewhere?

Thanks a lot for your help guys

WildThing
Cogeco Quebec (Trois-Rivières)
DCT6208

[RigPig]

...no idea where you can repair it, i deal with Shaw out west here, but for what it's worth, i had exactly the same failure as you, right down to the 'DL' and 'EB06-09' error
codes etc and the non-functional hdd...had mine exchanged by provider. Good luck.

[magic_1994]

Wildthing,

dunno how relevent this is
but according to the 5100 Installation Guide

display of "Eb 09"
means...
"Check failed Reset within two minutes of a complete
software object download
Action Required: No action required
because DCT5100
repeats software object
download process

and

display of "Eb 10"
means...
SUDB recreation After plugging the DCT5100 into an
electrical outlet to begin the boot cycle

Action Required: None

so depending on how similar the messages are for the new platforms, your two errors may well not be at all fatal.

[rms56]

I my case they 6208 could not complete that tasks that the codes indicated. It kept turning itself off and on in what I guess were internal resets. This sequence got shorter and shorter........then.........nada.

[WildThing]

I'm a lucky guy.

After unsuccessul discussions with Motorola and Cogeco, I talked about that problem to a friend that works at Cogeco.

The week before my DCT6208 broke, they got 3-4 returns for 8888 codes. They gave new one to the customers but they opened them just to see what's the problem before sending them to Motorola.

It appears that the problems was just 2 condensers that dies.

My problem was EB609 but he suspected that it would be the same. He removed both cheap condensers and replaced them with better ones and my receiver now works like a new one. I haven't lost any of my recordings. And total cost for this operation : 0 $ ! I'll buy an ATI remote wonder for my friend for his HTPC.

I'm very happy because I wouldn't have paid 700 $ for a new DCT6208 and the DCT6412 is not available in Quebec for now. And at 800 $, I prefer to keep my 200 $ DCT6208 (yes, I paid 200 $!!) for a couple of years, waiting for a 299 $ triple-tuner, 400 gig hard drive receiver

So if there are other like me with DCT6208 that they're note under warranty, check the condensers first.

Thanks for your help guys

WildThing
DCT6208
Infocus X1 (115 inches)
HTPC (Zoomplayer, Dscaler, FFDshow)

[james99]

Good news indeed.

[katmeef]

so.. call me ignorant but what exactly is the condenser that was replaced? where can i get one and do you have a part number?

Thanks,
Matt

[WildThing]

Originally Posted by katmeef

so.. call me ignorant but what exactly is the condenser that was replaced? where can i get one and do you have a part number?

Thanks,
Matt

I will not call you ignorant, I don't know either. I didn't see it open. I just know that there is two, one of them was to replace but my friend replaced both of them just in case with better one.

I will ask him tonight if he have a part number or a pic of an open DCT6208.

Do you have a 6208 to repair too?

WildThing

[Peterdes]

I was getting these problems also. I am in the USA, MA and using Comcast.

I took a wild guess after reading this posting related to bad condensers in this unit, and took some canned air and sprayed the dvr top and bottom and through every slot in the unit.

The box stopped rebooting, menus started populating, quide started filling up, and on demand was available.

FYI

[sbermunk]

Originally Posted by Peterdes

I was getting these problems also. I am in the USA, MA and using Comcast.

I took a wild guess after reading this posting related to bad condensers in this unit, and took some canned air and sprayed the dvr top and bottom and through every slot in the unit.

The box stopped rebooting, menus started populating, quide started filling up, and on demand was available.

FYI

When you say "condensers" in this thread, I assume we are talking about capacitors??
I can't see at all how spraying the box would make it work again if there are failed caps...

Anyway, I too would like to know which caps need replacing... I haven't opened mine up to take a look, but it died a few days after I heard a loud '*POP*' noise in the room which I couldn't identify, which could possibly be a cap exploding I guess. I didn't notice any smell at the time though. Maybe it would be obvious which one blew up if I open it... I couldn't see anything looking through the air vent slits with a flashlight though.

[WildThing]

Originally Posted by sbermunk

When you say "condensers" in this thread, I assume we are talking about capacitors??
I can't see at all how spraying the box would make it work again if there are failed caps...

Anyway, I too would like to know which caps need replacing... I haven't opened mine up to take a look, but it died a few days after I heard a loud '*POP*' noise in the room which I couldn't identify, which could possibly be a cap exploding I guess. I didn't notice any smell at the time though. Maybe it would be obvious which one blew up if I open it... I couldn't see anything looking through the air vent slits with a flashlight though.

Yes that's right, I meant "capacitors". And that was really the problem. I got new problem this morning, 8888 code, let's see what will happen next.

WildThing

[gesundheit]

Oh oh. I don't think many of us have recovered from the 8888's.

[WildThing]

Originally Posted by gesundheit

Oh oh. I don't think many of us have recovered from the 8888's.

There is now at least one! The problem was similar to the last time. A capacitor again. One month ago, capacitors C42 and C43 (# when viewed from top) were replaced with 6.3 volts 1 000 microfarad (instead of 6.3v 630 microfarad).

They were 2 other capacitors on the same circuit, #132 and #135 that weren't replace and it's one of those two that dies this time.

My friend from Cogeco replace them with 1 000 microfarad too and it's working again.

The only drawback is that this time, my recording didn't survive like the last time . Here's two pics (one full size and one closeup) of those 4 capacitors. Hope that we'll help somenone else here. You can see on the pic that the C135 is poped out




WildThing

[DCTGoddess]

WOW! Those are cool pix! Sure beats going cross-eyed looking through the vents...not to mention ending up w/ a silly pattern all over your face. In the U.S., we can't own our DCTs. We have to rent them, so, there's no opening of the casing or dissection allowed. However, renting means free swap-outs if there's any problem.
And, it looks like you're on telco-return, still. I was wondering if Moto had one-way RF/telco return versions of the 6208 & 6412s.

[rickamlin]

I picked up a dead 6208 off ebay. The price was right, so I get to experiment cheaply. Upon close inspection, it does have the expanded capacitor lids. I noticed from the pictures, that I am missing the sodimm memory module. I don't think this unit was opened before, so I have to assume that the unit will work with or without the extra memory installed. I removed the hard drive and installed it into my computer, to see if perhaps the problem might be there. No partition info was available. I used fdisk, efdisk, and drive image, but all showed the whole drive unallocated. I am not familiar with linux, but I did have a boot CD that I tried, and it too return a message that the drive had no recognizable partition.

My question is, has anyone attempted to ghost their drive as a backup against catostrophic failure? Has anyone been able to recognize the partition as anything remotely looking like dos, or linux?

I have to believe that most of the software is in the firmware, and the drive is used only for program storage. But does the drive require some sort of formating, or is this done on power up, should a new drive be installed.