SA8300HD - External SATA Drive Works, Please Read Post 1 and Post 1 Links

[Bplayer]

Have you checked your signal strength? The freezing is typically from a signal streng out of range (too high or too low), causing the processor in the PVR to overwork and not record a clean stream. A couple of months ago the signal strength coming in to my unit changed quite significantly with FDR showing up in orange in the diag screen. I adjusted the number and type of splitters in use and got it under control. Just this week I noticed some problems again, and sure enough the signal strength was back in orange, but I have fixed it again.

[macemuscle]

Regarding my previous post:

The freezing problem on my Apricorn 1TB DVR Xpander has been getting worse and the drive has stopped working altogether. My PVR gives a "external device not functioning properly..." after I reboot (I have tried basic troubleshooting - checking connections, rebooting etc).

In order to determine whether the source of the problem is the HDD itself or the enclosure/cable/powersupply, I swapped Apricorn enclosure with my Antec enclosure that I'm using on my second PVR (it has a 400Gb Seagate HDD). The problem has persisted leading me to believe that the 1TB HDD has somehow gotten corrupted or defective (the Seagate drive works fine in the Apricorn enclosure).

I will call Apricorn to get the whole unit replaced.

Has anyone encountered this problem with Apricorn or the 1TB WD drive?? Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated...

[57]

There was discussion earlier in this thread about the limitation of the firmware (for Rogers). Is it possible that drives over 750GB many not work properly? I see that some people do have them working...

http://www.baseportal.com/baseportal/xnappo/main

[Liverpud]

I got my Apricorn Xpander 500GB last Dec and so far, touch wood, no problems. Not sure if the size of HDD has anything to do with it or just the fact some Apricorn products are defected.

[macemuscle]

As a follow-up from my post above, I have called tech support. As I expected, they asked me to send the unit in for a replacement under the warranty. I have mailed it in yesterday (probably takes about 10 business days). We'll see how long it takes for them to send a replacement.

Based on the trouble shooting I have done (per my previous post), it would seem that the 1TB Western Digital drive is/got defective. I'm not sure if this was a unique occurance or if the 1TB WD drives are problematic...

[rfielder]

I see lots of success stories for the Vantec cases - but those cases appear to use passive cooling. When possible, I like to have active cooling - a fan, in other words.

Just looking at specs, the Thermaltake MAX4 case seems like a candidate. However, there are no references to these here.

You can find details on the Thermaltake web site:
http://www.thermaltakeusa.com/Produc...C=1285&ID=1659

Anyone use one of these? Anyone know if they are OK?

Thanks!

[Jake]

Read post #916. The member reported trouble with the MAX4 and WD drive.

[Tanta]

Actually, the 'original' MAX4 referred to in post 916 was passively cooled; rfielder's model (and link) has a fan. The WD 500 Gb drive is not the usual model number found here in numerous posts.

[rfielder]

Turns out to be a moot point - I found that I have a Vantec NexStar3 with eSATA sitting in my storage rack.

Ordered a Seagate 500G SATA drive yesterday, should be here for this weekend. It is the one with 32Mb cache, so I hope it works OK. If not, there will be a place for it in the server currently under construction.

[Jake]

Seagates are problematic so your server rack will be happy. I am not sure if 32MB buffer will help.

[rfielder]

Originally Posted by Jake

Seagates are problematic so your server rack will be happy. I am not sure if 32MB buffer will help.

I ordered it because the only reference to a Max4 case was on ********.com, and that person used it with a Seagate with no problems at all.

Personally, I would rather spend more time getting a firewire transfer from PVR to PC working well, so I can archive some shows that won't be watched for a few weeks. However, slapping a drive in an existing case is fast and easy, and it if works, it is a bonus!

Besides, Tigerdirect.ca has a great price on a laptop power supply, and adding things to the order adds almost nothing to the shipping. The laptop power supply price is only until noon - please check the Digital Deals forum for details. I am going to post them there now.

[scottwin]

Looks like I have a problem, is this a bad HDD?

Okay, so I've been using the popular Nextar & WD 500GB enclosure for over a year with no problems (see my post #945 in this thread http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/show...&postcount=945).

Both the PVR & external enclosure drive are both hooked up to an APC battery backup which was brand new about 5 months ago and still in good working condition (I check it monthly). All of a sudden the external HDD seems to have crashed with no real warning. I can no longer play anything that appears to be recorded on the external drive, even though I can play stuff that was recorded on the internal drive. I noticed the problem on the weekend when I tried to watch something PVR'd and I went immediately to the green screen that you get when you are on the PVR channel with nothing loaded yet. I tried to view stuff I know that I used to watch that was still stored and I got same result. I tried to view newer stuff (1-2 weeks old) and some of it I could view, some I couldn't. So this would indicate that the problem was pretty recent since if the HDD was corrupt, the PVR wouldn't record to it, would it? I think something happened when I tried to load a program that was stored on the external drive. I was running around 90% full for about the last 6 months, sometimes even running out of space and missing some shows, but this hasn't happened in the last 4-6 weeks though (all the good shows are done for the summer now).

Here's what I tried to do to revive it, all to no avail.

I turned off the PVR, unplugged it, unplugged the SATA cable, switched off the external enclosure, unplugged the external enclosure, let everything cool down for at least 30 minutes, plugged external drive back in, switched it on, waited about 5 minutes for it to power up, plugged the drive's SATA cable to PVR making sure a good solid connection was made, plugged PVR power back in, waited for PVR to reboot, turn it on and I now get a message similar to "there is something wrong with the external HDD and it won't work with the PVR". I redid the same procedure a couple of times with no luck. I tried connecting the external enclosure to my PC using the USB, the PC sees it but I didn't want to initialize it for fear I'd lose something that only the PVR can handle. Since I didn't initialize it I couldn't really see it in terms of how much data was on it or if it was corrupted. I've never even tried to do this before so I can't say if this is a problem or not. I do know when I bought an external drive for additional portable storage for my PC, I had to do the same thing in Win XP in order to use it when you first plug it in.

So I'm not sure what else I can do at the moment to fix. At this point I wouldn't care if I lost the recorded programs, but I don't even get a choice to reformat the drive since the PVR doesn't like the connection. I was going to dismantle the enclosure and have a look inside, perhaps the internal connection has come loose (doubtful).

Anyone have any suggestions?

Perhaps the Antec enclosure with active cooling is a better long term solution if it keeps the HDD cooler?

[rfielder]

Just put a Seagate 200Gb SATA drive into a Vantec Nexstar3 case, attached it to the 8300HD PVR, and tested one show. Worked well.

The PVR found it, and asked to format it. After a few hours there was no additional space showing, so I rebooted the PVR, and the space appeared.

Recorded about 20 minutes of a hidef show from one of the 500 channels, and watched it. All seemed to be working perfectly.

However - the Nexstar3 case feels too hot to my liking, so it has been removed. There is no space to leave this sitting out in my setup - the drive case will end up inside the stereo stand, which can only raise the heat further. I am going to look into a case with active cooling instead, such as the Thermaltake Max4 or the Antec MX-1.

There is also the Kingwin Jet JT-35EU-BK, but the user reports on Tigerdirect.ca are not positive - it has an 80mm fan, but very poor air flow, and a real hassle getting the cables to fit. Too bad, it is much less expensive, guess you get what you pay for....

[jlet]

Another solution is to use an external PC fan which can cool both the external drive and the SA8300HD. See my post #1084 above (http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/show...postcount=1084).

[scottwin]

Originally Posted by jlet

Another solution is to use an external PC fan which can cool both the external drive and the SA8300HD. See my post #1084 above (http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/show...postcount=1084).

Interesting, it would be cool (no pun intented) if you could post some pics of your setup (type of fan, how its mounted, type of enclosure etc.). I thought of doing something like this so I'd be interested in something similar and maybe put my PS3 in there as well.