Are All D's Access Card Readers the Same?

[Avenger]

I have recently had the internal access card reader crap out on my HR10. No amount of erasiring the access card contacts, cleaning the internal card reader, or anything else of the sort will bring it back to life. I checked the switch at the back of the reader, and it appears to be working.

The access card itself is known good. Does anyone know if the card readers in all of DirecTV's receivers are the same unit - so that a guy could buy a really old IRD from eBay for $20 and transplant the reader into the HR10?

Thanks!

[incog-neato]

Definately not. I've ripped apart an old series 1 and an old series 2 to replace the reader in an HR10. Not even close. Maybe there are more then 2 different ones out there. I have recently had the internal access card reader crap out on my HR10. No amount of erasiring the access card contacts, cleaning the internal card reader, or anything else of the sort will bring it back to life. I checked the switch at the back of the reader, and it appears to be working.

The access card itself is known good. Does anyone know if the card readers in all of DirecTV's receivers are the same unit - so that a guy could buy a really old IRD from eBay for $20 and transplant the reader into the HR10?

Thanks!

[cramer]

If you are refering to the physical card slot, then mostly yes. Unless you are pulling parts from decade old receivers, the card should fit and the contacts line up. However, the actual logic interface is different in almost every model. The most common reason for card failures in the HR10 is the power supply. The interface chip that drives the card reader is extremely sensitive. (And the chip is on the under side of the board, so replacing it takes a lot of work.) The easiest way to check the PS is to power the drive(s) from an external power supply, thus removing part of the load from the internal PS.

[kkluba]

Avenger - are you 100% postive the reader is bad? They don't go bad very often. Recently I had invalid access card errors which rendered my hr10 basically useless. Calling D* was futile. I did get a new access card sent and it made no difference. After searching around I decicded that replacing the power supply might fix the problem and it did. I have two hard drives and the extra fan on the twinbreeze bracket that wore out my old supply.