another busted sat t-60

[oldman]

A few years ago, with the help of this forum, weaknees and henderson. I upgraded from the factory HD's to a 160mb drive. It's worked flawlessly now for about 2 years or so but when I got home yesterday, my beautiful bride was telling me to fix the tv. It had no picture and the screen was snowy. I tried to turn it off and it wont even turn off. I rebooted, I think, by flipping the surge protector on and off once to see what that would do, but it still comes on with the power light on and wont turn off. I still had the original drives that were working good when I took them out so today I replaced them and still the same ol story. I'm no electronics expert but I'm thinking the unit itself smoked somewhere, but I cant see anything wrong in there. Do yall think the unit itself is fried or is there anything else to try. Is this thing worth taking to a electronic repair shop or will anyone even mess with it.

THX

[litzdog911]

Are you sure that the TV is viewing the correct (T60) video input? It's very unusual to get a video display of "snow" from a defective T60 .... usually you get the "Welcome, Powering Up" display.

If you're sure that your T60 is properly connected to the TV, and that you're viewing the T60's video signal, then it's possible that your T60 is toast, especially if the symptoms are the same after installing its original hard drive. I doubt that any electronics shop will want to mess with it. It could be damaged power supply, and you might find parts from sources like Weaknees, but your best bet is probably to sell it "as is" on eBay and buy a new DirecTV DVR.

[oldman]

Thats what I was thinking. I would kinda like to get another T60 because it was alot of work for an old auto mechanic to get that hard drive all fixed up with all the goodies it has on there. Will that HD work in another different model unit?

[litzdog911]

Yes, provided your old T60's hard drive is still good you could put it into a replacement Sony SAT-T60. But, it must be another T60 DVR for the image files to be compatible, and you'll still need to perform a "clear and delete everything" before you can record on the "new" T60.

[Ace Deprave]

Check the ribbon cable connecting the motherboard to the power supply. I had to re-seat mine several times due to this issue, and ended up having to replace the cable. Weaknees sells 'em for less than $10, I think.

[oldman]

Yes, provided your old T60's hard drive is still good you could put it into a replacement Sony SAT-T60. But, it must be another T60 DVR for the image files to be compatible, and you'll still need to perform a "clear and delete everything" before you can record on the "new" T60.


Oh no...There's a couple of things on there I would like to keep. O well. If I got another one it would be the exact same one so I guess theres no problem there. I will probably need to tell DTV about the change also. My card probably wont work in the new one huh.

Check the ribbon cable connecting the motherboard to the power supply. I had to re-seat mine several times due to this issue, and ended up having to replace the cable. Weaknees sells 'em for less than $10, I think.

I'm seeing a ribbon cable for the hard drives and one that goes into the front section of the box...where the buttons are. The other cable is the power cables for the drives. Is one of these the one your talking about?

[Ace Deprave]

I'm seeing a ribbon cable for the hard drives and one that goes into the front section of the box...where the buttons are. The other cable is the power cables for the drives. Is one of these the one your talking about?

I'm not sure which cable you're referring to. Here's the one I'm talking about, and a description of it. It's a very small (short) ribbon cable.

http://www.weaknees.com/images/parlex.gif
NEW Parlex Cable!
A replacement for the Parlex cable that runs from the motherboard to the power supply. This cable can become oxidized and cause problems - these are brand new, exactly like the original. For SAT T-60, DSR6000 series, and GXCEBOT series.
$11.00

[newsposter]

Thats what I was thinking. I would kinda like to get another T60 because it was alot of work for an old auto mechanic to get that hard drive all fixed up with all the goodies it has on there. Will that HD work in another different model unit?

I may be reading you wrong so if i am..sorry.

But are you saying you want to save your old TV programs and settings and put them in another box? If so, then you have to somehow fix the old unit or offload the programs. You cant switch hard drives to another unit and save all the stuff on it since they are married with serial numbers.

If you just mean use the old hard drive in a new machine and start fresh, ignore this post and proceed to GO and collect $200. :o

[oldman]

I have another sat-60 I put in the 160gb hard drive and booted it up. I now have a picture but it's saying "cannot boot Kernel" I'm positive I dont know what that is. I did a search here on this forum for it and I am still real confused. I have a dual hard drive setup for it and another single hard drive for it. Is this a HD problem or what?

THX, Scott

[newsposter]

ouch, not sure. I'd post in the upgrade forum...those guys know about this stuff. One time i think i did run into a kernel thing but forget what fixed it. The easy things to try are lose cables etc but i doubt that's your problem.

good luck