Strange High pitched sound, with garbled video

[WannabeSQ]

I am trying to set up downconert HD (see my other thread) and my unit is acting up. I can hear a very high pitched sound coming from the unit, it is periodic, and seems to be affected by movement of the unit. Upon opening up the unit to do a HD upgrade, I can hear it coming distinctly from the power supply, which leads me to believe that is where my problem lies. This issue will not resolve itself until I reboot, without the noise. When it is quiet, all is normal.

Anyone else had this problem? I don't want to buy a power supply if I don't have to, but I would like to get this working. (too bad I sold my "backup" 5080s on ebay, I couldn't resist the profit)

[WannabeSQ]

Anyone? And if I do need a new power supply, where is a link to mikeyboy's site?

[chain777]

Here's (http://www.replaytvparts.com/) the link the Mikeyboys site. I've heard of failing components making noises, but I've never ran across a Replay doing this...who knows?

[WannabeSQ]

Thanks for the link. I really hope it is "just" the power supply, mostly because 5000s are hard to come by.

The Irony is, the replacement power supply is $79, whilst I paid $78.99 for the unit... Oh well.

[chain777]

Don't forget 55xx's are the same hardware. You might be able to find one cheap to use for parts. Just beware of rebates that require activation. If I could find a cheap (under $50) 55xx, I'd buy it and sell the spare 5040 I'm holding onto for 'parts'.

[icecow]

It is the nature of power supplies to vibrate. Power supply makers put in capacitors to filter the vibrations and also use goopish stuff to dampen vibration between rigid parts. The vibrating parts are connected to the heat-sink which will start to vibrate too. The power case or other parts may start vibrating in synthetic harmony. Rigid parts that loosen and/or whose goop wears off increase the likeliness of vibrations more.

So it's conceivable to replace the capacitors or dampening the parts again. However, capacitors are the little thingies that can store a charge for a week (unplugged) and still kill you with a stored high power charge. Gard knows how much time and effort it would take just to replace the filter capacitor if avail. Dampening may be feasible, but opening a power supply and f'ing around with it isn't my idea of a good time.

Typical reasons a power supply will buzz:
>It's new but they cut costs and it's safe
>It's new but they cut costs and it's not safe
>It's old with loosened parts, but safe
>It's old and about to blow up in your face.. I mean is unsafe.

moral of the story is it's not something you typically want to put any time in figuring out.


I know the replay is a little different because replacements aren't readily available.


I saved the silver lining for last.

Sometimes powersupplies are safe but vibrate at certain power draws. Sometimes they will vibrate when a cpu is idle but stop when the cpu is drawing power, or stop after a IDE card is added or removed from the computer. In this case there's just one point where the parts are resonating in harmony at a certain frequency.

You could try making the ReplayTV a dual Harddrive to draw more power and see if the vibrations stop. If it stops you are probably safe, however if the vibrations increase then it probably means your powersupply is getting weak and is being over worked!! If that's the case throw out the power supply.

[WannabeSQ]

Good idea about the 55xx, maybe I can swap pwr supplies, then after the old one is unplugged for a few weeks i'll try to fix it and have a 55xx to compliment the other 5 5000s in the house..... you never know when you might need to record 5 shows at once (plus another roomie has a Directv Tivo... lots of DVRs at my house)

Ill try the dual drive test. Thanks for the input.

[plyons10]

I like the way you think Cow...

See, my car vibrates terribly once I hit 55 mph... one potential solution: drive the darn thing at 80 and see if it doesn't get better! :)