6412, what temps are you seeing - Canadian TV, Computing and Home Theatre Forums

hedge · 2007-01-15, 07:25 PM

I'm curious what kind of temperatures others are seeing from there box.

I had a max temp of 120 last night, which seemed kind of high. My rack is open at the back with about a foot of free space over the top of the PVR but the front is closed with glass doors. With that much air I'm kinda surprized it's getting that hot. Although, the hard drive is at the front.

Haven't had any weird behaviour yet so I'm not too concerned.

couchpotatoe · 2007-01-15, 11:00 PM

One of my biggest concernes with the 6412 phIII when I got it 7 months ago was the heat. I held my hand on the top and couldn't believe the incredible amount of heat coming off it, and this would be on cold rainy days too, not hot summer heat. No other piece of equipment I own ever gets that hot, I was concerned. I had four 6412s within a month of the first one due to continuous problems day in and out, all were the same inherant problems people write about daily here, and each 6412 was very hot. I had no idea if the heat was hurting it. I wrote here about it back then since I was concerned the heat would slowly take its toll as it is on 24/7.
I now have a 6416 due to other inherant problems with the 6412s and Shaw swapped it up for me as I had only sort of just bought the 6412 anyway when the 6416 was out already around that same time. The 6416 was surprizingly cooler straight away. It definately is cooler, it feels reasonably warm, and not really hot when you hold your hand over the top of the 6416. I've had the 6416 trouble free for many months now. (the only problem I ever have is loosing audio on recordings when another recordings finished, a well documented problem on this forum....I guess I can live with it).

hedge · 2007-01-15, 11:25 PM

Interesting, I thought the 6412 and 6416 were the same other than the hard drive. I just added a larger hard drive to my 6412, so I thought in essence I now had a 6416.

I'm starting to mistrust the temperature gauge, I can put my hand on mine no problem and it doesn't even feel warm to the touch, how can that be 40C.

I seem to be luckier than others, I first had a 6208. Despite all the reports on this forum, mine worked great... untill a new firmware update, I think the firmware was not compatible with it because I had nothing but problems after that. Shortly thereafter I upgraded to the 6412 and it's been fine. The only issue I do have is that I occasionally get the 100%full error, but I usually have something on there I can sacraifice.

joudbren · 2007-01-16, 12:51 PM

Hedge, you might be surprised how quickly things can heat up in an enclosed space. My equipment is in a custom cubby hole beside my fireplace and while it looks great it is far from an optimal cooling solution. I have a large Marantz receiver, an HTPC in a Silverstone LC03v (heavily customized for extra cooling and for silence) and a DCT6416 cable box. I found if I put my hand in the back area of the cabinet the air was really hot.

My solution which should work well for you was to install a quiet 120mm cooling fan (from a computer shop) that runs on DC voltages. I picked up a cheap 120v brick power supply, the kind that has the adjustable DC voltage output switch and hard-wired it to the leads on the fan. The fan is installed in the cabinet near the top (heat rises eh!) and is set to exhaust the heat out of the cabinet and with the adjustable voltage on the power brick, you can adjust the fan speed to balance the cooling performance vs. any potential fan noise.

It doesn't take very much fan speed to notice a SUBSTANTIAL drop in the heat in my cabinet and you literally cannot hear the fan running. Just some food for thought and YMMV of course but it's working great for me and no more heat problems. A friend of mine has done the same thing with a cabinet that sounds much like your setup and he says the difference is night and day as well for his and no more heat issues. Cheers!

P.S. If you try this, make sure you have the polarity correct on the wires or else the fan might not run and don't use too low of a voltage as some fans need "X" amount of voltage to start. They may continue to run on lower voltages but the start-up voltage needs to be correct for whatever brand of fan you get. Also check with some of the dollar stores for the power adaptor as they sell them for squat compared to some of the big name stores which can hoop you up to 25 bucks just for the power brick.

James 8-)

hedge · 2007-01-16, 11:15 PM

I was hoping to get more empirical evidence, as provided in the diagnostics menu. It's reached by pressing select right after the power button. I usually do it with the front buttons, not sure if it can be done via remote or not.

If you then scroll to d13 and select it, then select again to go to page 2 it will tell you what the current temp is + the max temp.

Please post your results.

couchpotatoe · 2007-01-17, 01:50 PM

My 6416 says Active temp is 100 and the Max temp is 117. Its been on 24/7, I hadn't been recording or anything today or doing anything with it, I turned the TV on to check the temp.
Does the Max temp actually mean the highest temp its run at, or is that the temp at which it will shut off to save itself?

hedge · 2007-01-17, 02:09 PM

I believe it's the highest temp it's reached, otherwise the max would be the same for everybody I would think.

oilblue · 2007-01-17, 02:13 PM

The 6412 PIII we bought from Futureshop was pretty flawless. If I remember correctly it didn't get above 105 very much, even in the summer. Then an electrical problem in the apartment fried it...

The refurb Shaw provided seems to run hotter to the touch. 109 isn't unusual from the menu. In this apartment, summer room temperature is about 5 degrees Celsius warmer. I'm already leery of this refurb for other anomalies, never mind what summer will do to it.

Another problem with the refurb is that I can't see if it's ever getting too hot. The "Max Temp" on this unit...450!

OK. It obviously never reached that value or it would have melted a couple things. Problem is, I'll never know if it reaches 125 or something higher.

Perhaps of note, it isn't enclosed at all. Sits on a shelf with nothing behind, above, or beside it.

watchtoomuch · 2007-01-20, 04:29 PM

Mine is at 100 degrees - totally out in the open.
Plan to move it back to the stand one of these days & will
see how much of a difference that makes.

2007-01-15, 07:25 PM	#1
hedge Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Airdrie Posts: 370	6412, what temps are you seeing I'm curious what kind of temperatures others are seeing from there box. I had a max temp of 120 last night, which seemed kind of high. My rack is open at the back with about a foot of free space over the top of the PVR but the front is closed with glass doors. With that much air I'm kinda surprized it's getting that hot. Although, the hard drive is at the front. Haven't had any weird behaviour yet so I'm not too concerned.

2007-01-15, 11:00 PM	#2
couchpotatoe Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Chilliwack, BC. Posts: 289	One of my biggest concernes with the 6412 phIII when I got it 7 months ago was the heat. I held my hand on the top and couldn't believe the incredible amount of heat coming off it, and this would be on cold rainy days too, not hot summer heat. No other piece of equipment I own ever gets that hot, I was concerned. I had four 6412s within a month of the first one due to continuous problems day in and out, all were the same inherant problems people write about daily here, and each 6412 was very hot. I had no idea if the heat was hurting it. I wrote here about it back then since I was concerned the heat would slowly take its toll as it is on 24/7. I now have a 6416 due to other inherant problems with the 6412s and Shaw swapped it up for me as I had only sort of just bought the 6412 anyway when the 6416 was out already around that same time. The 6416 was surprizingly cooler straight away. It definately is cooler, it feels reasonably warm, and not really hot when you hold your hand over the top of the 6416. I've had the 6416 trouble free for many months now. (the only problem I ever have is loosing audio on recordings when another recordings finished, a well documented problem on this forum....I guess I can live with it). __________________ DCT 2500 & DCT 6416.

2007-01-17, 01:50 PM	#6
couchpotatoe Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Chilliwack, BC. Posts: 289	My 6416 says Active temp is 100 and the Max temp is 117. Its been on 24/7, I hadn't been recording or anything today or doing anything with it, I turned the TV on to check the temp. Does the Max temp actually mean the highest temp its run at, or is that the temp at which it will shut off to save itself? __________________ DCT 2500 & DCT 6416.

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2007-01-15, 11:25 PM	#3
hedge Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Airdrie Posts: 370	Interesting, I thought the 6412 and 6416 were the same other than the hard drive. I just added a larger hard drive to my 6412, so I thought in essence I now had a 6416. I'm starting to mistrust the temperature gauge, I can put my hand on mine no problem and it doesn't even feel warm to the touch, how can that be 40C. I seem to be luckier than others, I first had a 6208. Despite all the reports on this forum, mine worked great... untill a new firmware update, I think the firmware was not compatible with it because I had nothing but problems after that. Shortly thereafter I upgraded to the 6412 and it's been fine. The only issue I do have is that I occasionally get the 100%full error, but I usually have something on there I can sacraifice.

2007-01-16, 12:51 PM	#4
joudbren Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Edmonton, Alberta Posts: 143	Hedge, you might be surprised how quickly things can heat up in an enclosed space. My equipment is in a custom cubby hole beside my fireplace and while it looks great it is far from an optimal cooling solution. I have a large Marantz receiver, an HTPC in a Silverstone LC03v (heavily customized for extra cooling and for silence) and a DCT6416 cable box. I found if I put my hand in the back area of the cabinet the air was really hot. My solution which should work well for you was to install a quiet 120mm cooling fan (from a computer shop) that runs on DC voltages. I picked up a cheap 120v brick power supply, the kind that has the adjustable DC voltage output switch and hard-wired it to the leads on the fan. The fan is installed in the cabinet near the top (heat rises eh!) and is set to exhaust the heat out of the cabinet and with the adjustable voltage on the power brick, you can adjust the fan speed to balance the cooling performance vs. any potential fan noise. It doesn't take very much fan speed to notice a SUBSTANTIAL drop in the heat in my cabinet and you literally cannot hear the fan running. Just some food for thought and YMMV of course but it's working great for me and no more heat problems. A friend of mine has done the same thing with a cabinet that sounds much like your setup and he says the difference is night and day as well for his and no more heat issues. Cheers! P.S. If you try this, make sure you have the polarity correct on the wires or else the fan might not run and don't use too low of a voltage as some fans need "X" amount of voltage to start. They may continue to run on lower voltages but the start-up voltage needs to be correct for whatever brand of fan you get. Also check with some of the dollar stores for the power adaptor as they sell them for squat compared to some of the big name stores which can hoop you up to 25 bucks just for the power brick. James 8-)

2007-01-16, 11:15 PM	#5
hedge Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Airdrie Posts: 370	I was hoping to get more empirical evidence, as provided in the diagnostics menu. It's reached by pressing select right after the power button. I usually do it with the front buttons, not sure if it can be done via remote or not. If you then scroll to d13 and select it, then select again to go to page 2 it will tell you what the current temp is + the max temp. Please post your results.

2007-01-17, 02:09 PM	#7
hedge Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Airdrie Posts: 370	I believe it's the highest temp it's reached, otherwise the max would be the same for everybody I would think.

2007-01-17, 02:13 PM	#8
oilblue Veteran Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Edmonton Posts: 1,752	The 6412 PIII we bought from Futureshop was pretty flawless. If I remember correctly it didn't get above 105 very much, even in the summer. Then an electrical problem in the apartment fried it... The refurb Shaw provided seems to run hotter to the touch. 109 isn't unusual from the menu. In this apartment, summer room temperature is about 5 degrees Celsius warmer. I'm already leery of this refurb for other anomalies, never mind what summer will do to it. Another problem with the refurb is that I can't see if it's ever getting too hot. The "Max Temp" on this unit...450! OK. It obviously never reached that value or it would have melted a couple things. Problem is, I'll never know if it reaches 125 or something higher. Perhaps of note, it isn't enclosed at all. Sits on a shelf with nothing behind, above, or beside it.

2007-01-20, 04:29 PM	#9
watchtoomuch Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: winnipeg Posts: 31	Mine is at 100 degrees - totally out in the open. Plan to move it back to the stand one of these days & will see how much of a difference that makes.