Used 5504 - $40 - worth it? How to test it properly?

[snickersbar]

I sold my only RTV last week and I am going into withdrawls but tonight at CompUSA they had a Managers special floor model for $40 with a scratched case, no remote, no wires - so I bought it under the presumption that I have 21 days to play with it and return it if it doesnt work or if I decide to cut myself off from TV as originally intended.

I turned it on and it has stuck on RTV:Please Wait - which isnt a problem because I planned on ****-canning the drive anyway and using one of my 250GB IDE drives that I no longer need since I got a SATA NAS last week.

So I can easily format and install a new drive. What other testing can I do?

I plan on getting an HD solution in 6 to 12 months depending on when Elgato comes out with the next gen eye500 PVR for mac so this would really only to last me 6 to 12 months of monthly service.

[yankeebean]

No idea. Maybe the guy with 551 posts could help.

[icecow]

Silly Wabbit, you should know what to do.

You can get a cheap universal replaytv-compatable remote lots of places.

What part are you confused about, do we have to spell out the whole 'obvious-list'?

cough up the $$ for a months service and get moving. You have 19 days to return it and you want to figure it out in 3-7.

don't be a deer in the headlights

[snickersbar]

[QUOTE=icecow]Silly Wabbit, you should know what to do.

You can get a cheap universal replaytv-compatable remote lots of places.

What part are you confused about, do we have to spell out the whole 'obvious-list'?

cough up the $$ for a months service and get moving. You have 19 days to return it and you want to figure it out in 3-7.

don't be a deer in the headlights[/QUOTE]

LOL - I have a spare RTV remote and my harmony 880 and RTVpatch and RTV disk image and WIRNS.

I was referring to hardware testing.... like how can I tell if the powersupply or tuner or ethernet are good. Its simple to tell if it "works" but theres a difference between "works" and "will fail in 1 month because the power supply is weak.

I know theres a few people that fiddle with these internals so I was looking for some tips that you would use if you found an RTV at a fleamarket or something to make sure it was good or about to break.

[Ace987]

If you can find some way to figure out if a power supply, ethernet port, tuner or any other part (besides the drive) will fail in a short period of time, I'd love to hear it. Speaking from the point of view of a person who worked in the manufacturing and testing of electronics, there really isn't a way.

The method we used to help find failures was based off something called a bathtub curve. Imagine a plot that looked like a bathtub. Failures rates are high in the first few months and after several years. We basically accellerated the age of the electronics by cooking them at high temperatures so those early failures would show up before the product left the door. I can't say all manufactures do this type of process, but the ones I worked for did this one way or another.

Your best bet is to get the thing up and running, fill the recorder as best you can and see if it fails during those 21 days. More than likely, if it lasts that long, it should get you through a year or so.

[davester2]

For $40 why do you even care? Isn't your time spent worrying about it worth more than that? Put in a new drive, plug it in and be happy. You can always sell it on craigslist later...or if it won't work, then you're only out $40 (and you can even return it if you hurry up with that drive.

[Scrabbler]

Sell it to me for $42. Instant profit!

[YBDBDOO]

A couple of things I would recommend;

1) Open the case and vacuum it out. If it was a floor model, it may have been on at some point and dust bunnies and/or other debris can cause trouble with electronics in general.

2) Unplug and replug the power supply connectors. If there is any corrosion, this could help. This is more of a fix for units that have been in operation for a while, but can't hurt anything.

3) Leave the unit on and give it something to do to exercise it. If it is going to fail, it will likely do so while it is actually recording or playing back.

4) Do some dvarchive downloads. If its networking is dicey, it will likely fail.

5) Stream a few programs to it from dvarchive. Streaming exercises allot of the electronics.

6) I would be surprised if you still had the grace period when you get it working. I would bet it was returned by someone earlier, and the clock may have expired.

7) Don't cook the unit. I don't think the prior poster was advocating that, but just in case... This is a great practice for a manufacturing company to flush out infant mortalities, but the process needs to be designed with some detailed knowledge of the specific component that are being tested.

Hope that helps.

[hdonzis]

I bought an open box unit as my very first Replay and the grace period had already expired. But, I called (then) Sonic Blue and told them I just purchased it, and they reset the grace period. Maybe they would still be willing to do that for you. They really have nothing to lose and I'm sure you could FAX them the receipt to prove it...

Henry

[icecow]

OT: er, what's the easiest way to fax something without a fax machine these days (via scanner)?

[hdonzis]

[QUOTE=icecow]OT: er, what's the easiest way to fax something without a fax machine these days (via scanner)?[/QUOTE]

My favorite way is to use a digital camera. It is so easy to look through the view finder and make sure it looks good and then load it into the computer. Then you can use regular software to FAX it. Or, you can print out the picture and manually FAX it (which requires a FAX machine)...

What I love most is that it lets you FAX things that would be hard to put in a FAX/copier/scanner in the first place! :cool:

Henry

[snickersbar]

[QUOTE=hdonzis]My favorite way is to use a digital camera. [/QUOTE]

Then attach it to an email file and email it directly to the CSR's email :)


UPDATE:

I finally got some free time and opened the unit up, cleaned off some dust bunnies and fixed the front main power on button. The ON button was mashed into the case and was stuck. Upon removal I noticed theres supposed to be two small plastic rods about 1/2" long that keep the ON button pushed out. So I cut a proper length piece of bicycle innertube, rolled it up, and stuffed it inside the button and reinstalled the faceplate and it works fine. The rubber has some elasticity so it works as intended.

The top of the case has a small scratch in the finish but I will not likely bother refinishing it.

I installed a Maxtor Maxline 2 - 250GB harddrive that I RTVpatched on my beater PC (I only run Macs for serious use but use the beater PC for misc stuff like this).

It powered up and I was going to go through the hassle of Wirns again but I decided against it. I dont need IVS and while commercial advance is nice, it doesnt always work and since I dont run a PC 24/7, its sort of a PITA to run Wirns on my Macbook with Parallels virtual XP which gets a different IP address each time from DHCP and then I have to reconfigure it each time, and sometimes I forget to update the channels and I lose a recording, etc. Just not worth it for me at this point. Rather straight plug it into ethernet and let it work crippled.

I DO have the 10 day trial grace period and it turns out that since I bought lifetime on the unit that I sold here last week, I qualify for family plan price on monthly.

I will likely run this unit for another 2 weeks to make sure it works, if not return it to compusa. If it does work I will use it for about one year and then resell it if anyone still wants a non-lifetime 5504 upgraded to 250.

Sort of sucks that the lifetime rates are still $300 but in order for me to qualify spending $300, I would have to run this thing for 4 years ( at the $7 family rate) when it will likely have hardware failure before that time but it doesnt matter sinccne HD will be required.

[hdonzis]

[QUOTE=snickersbar]I DO have the 10 day trial grace period and it turns out that since I bought lifetime on the unit that I sold here last week, I qualify for family plan price on monthly.[/QUOTE]

As long as the person you sold it to keeps it connected in the same way as you do, and they don't add it to their account. As I recall, if you are using dialup, then all the units have to dial to the same phone number or from the same phone number (can't remember which). I don't think that are as checking with the Internet because your router can change IP address between units net connecting. But, the unit needs to stay saying "valid" on your account for you to keep getting the family discount...

Henry