Hello all, a while back I posted that I took the cover off my Eurovox Max V and it seemed to have stopped most of the choppy signal. However now that the temps have risen in the past few weeks. It has come back with a vengeance. So yesterday I decided to try some different fixes I have seen on here. So sadly it is myth busting time. Swapping scart leads to a higher type = False Installing a Attenuator = False Installing a signal booster = False So With that in mind, seeing as I have not seeing any other suggestions. I decided to wire in a 120mm low RPM (sub 1000RPM) .20amp system fan for a PC and position it over the main chip of the system. Almost right away, the signal strength went from 8% to 70% +. With no Choppy signal or sound on any of the channels. The fan is installed and run from the Eurovox Max V's power. It is connected into the gnd (-) and a12v (+) cables that come from the power board to the main board. The fain is always on, but a switch onto its (-) would sort it out so that it can be turned on when you wish. The cables are clearly marked on the main board. They are the white strip that comes from the power board to the main board. I will take an image of it and post it. This has completely resolved the issue. It is a heat build up on the main chip. Which then appears to cause a problem processing the signal. As a side note, it also seems to have resolved an issue of the system locking up while changing channels and then rebooting it-self and clearing all the EPG data. (I can confirm this with more testing) Can this be stickied?
Some boxes are hardware related most others are firmware related. The 8% fix firmware is resolving boxes with firmware related problems. Your solution was also used for some Starview boxes last year. BTW what heatsink was on the chip.
Mine was a box I got back after it died last year from Iwantabox.co.uk. There was/is no heatsink on the chip at all.
Here are some images of the temp setup. I plan to mod the case to allow me to mount the fan onto if it. This is a image of the connectors to use This is a image of the temp setup for the fan wires. I will solder them once I have the case moded Confirming heat build up. I turned the fan off and took these two pics with in a minute of each other (look at the times on the EPG) the signal continued to drop till 65% then went to 8% Once solidly at 8% I took a video of me turning the fan back on and 2min 50 seconds later the signal was back above 70%. The video is uploading onto googlevideo at the momement
Cheers yep same as the SV mod last year. Question though did you try to add a new heatsink to the CPU first and see what the outcome may have been.
nope didn't get to try a heatsink as I had none that would suit spair. Also didn't want to go spend anymore money on fixing it. (the above list of tryed fixes cost to much) Yep it is odd that there was none, I wasn't sure if there should have been as in all the pics from the real or fake doc's show them without.
Sorry my fault they don't as I am getting confused with SVs and EVs When we were discussing the mod, (I have edited my above post). What I meant was did you try to add a heatsink to it and see the out come?
Nah, I never tried one. I haven't gotten to test temps, but I am guessing anything that can knock 10-15c off the running temp of the chip will be more than good enough to get it to the 70-90% range. Which is more than good enough for watching.
Click here to see the video. This is with the signal at 8% and the fan turned off. Then I connect it back up and leave it on checking the signal every few seconds for over 2min. You can see the signal strength rise the cooler the cpu will get.
Seen the vid, 70% is right on the threshold for reception. The chip looks fine. I know you said you tried the firmware and it didnt work was it the specific 28/04/08 version? I have seen boxes that dont respond to that firmware even though it is for the 8% problem and was told by the Kuro guys that it would help most people but not all. I have recently fixed a problem box like this by using a combination of this firmware and a 9Db attenuator, ( I previously used the 15/0/08 firmware and attenuator). But as it lost the AU I have shifted to the 28/04/08. It now maintains an optimal signal level of 85% on all TPs. Funny thing is, it is only these two firmware revisions that allow this sort of workaround. Dont get me wrong I can see that cooling the CPU definitely works but have you tried above.
Nope, I have to say I didn't try the new 28_4_2008 firmware, I didn't know it was out till today. I will give it a try and see. What is the change in the firmware that is meant to fix the problem? Interested to know if it is a driver issue for the tuner. The attenuator I tried was a 0Db -20Db variable one. When I started to higher the Db it lost the signal altogether. So that ruled out to much of a signal me thinks.
Give it a bash the firmware that is and if no difference noted add in your variable attenuator. And yes it seems to be a tuner driver issue in some boxes.
Just tried the update to firmware 28_04_2008. Done all the steps such as the factory reset. But it would not update the codes Also had not signal boost in it? Anyway, I put it on RTE2 (as it doesn't need codes) and turned off the fan. Sure enough, the signal dropped down to 8%. So I connected up the Attenuator and started to ajust it. Signal started to brake up around the halfway mark. Till it had no signal. Left on sky sports and still no code update. So I reverted back to the 18_04_2008 and sure enough with in a few seconds the codes updated. Turned on the fan and signal began to rise to an average of 75%. However some channels like Sky modern and the 2 premieres are at a 70%. They can still be a bit hit and miss. But are mostly good (not choppy or a small glitch every once in a few min), compared to being so choppy that they where unwatchable
