I have a DMR-E85 since July 2004 and have had no problems, never a U99 message. I gave up on the TV guide within the first year and have mostly dubbed movies and shows off my cable company DVR. A week ago after a power failure, I noticed a "PLEASE WAIT" several times while the unit was off. After it disappeared the unit worked fine. As I use it only 3-4 times a month I decided to unplug the unit so save wear on the hard drive and parts. When I plugged it back in several days later, nothing— no clock or any sign of life. I checked the outlet and cord. I have plenty of movies and recordings I would hate to lose. Anyone have a similar problem and a remedy? I'm not sure where in NY I could get this fixed. Everything electronic today seems mostly disposable. Thanks.
Conrad51, As many on this thread have done themselves - or had someone else do for them - in all probability you will need to replace at least a pair of capacitors that have popped on your power supply board - perhaps more. The power supply board is under the hard drive. There are plenty of posts with pictures of what to look for in the last 30 or 40 pages of this thread. Good luck. P.S. I believe most of us don't regard these machines as expendable. We love them too much - even now that HD and digital are all the rage.
Sounds like a power supply failure to me - could be something as simple as a blown fuse or the well known capacitor failure problems that are documented in earlier posts. Either of these problems could be quickly diagnosed and repaired by a decent electronics repair shop.
I realize that folks want their old Panny to keep on keepin' on. I gave up on mine sometime back, but I still love the concept of recording to the HDD and dubbing to the DVD burner. HTPC has nearly destroyed the market for these devices. I had given up on finding anything to replace my Panny with and was shopping for a Panny with ATSC\QAM tuner when I came across a new product on the market (July, 2010) most likely manufactured by Philips. It's a Magnavox with a huge 320 GB HDD and, if reviewers are to be believed, will do most of what the Panny 85 did. It won't write to DVD-RAM, it has no TV Guide. but the rest is intact, and it has the digital tuner. Walmart sells it and Amazon sells it, also. Not bad price: $227.00. Link: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003DPKOKK/ref=oss_product
I would really miss the TV guide, but otherwise this sounds like a good substitute. I now have a u99 error. Am reading here to try and find any reset codes from years ago, heheh. I just did power it up via a computer next to it, but it still shows u99. If I recall correctly, that method did solve my troubles last time. When I returned it to the normal config. it reset everything perfectly, but I doubt it will work now! We shall see. Anyhow, still using the original caps, but will change the four weakest suspects this time, even though they look fine.
I would really miss the TV guide, but otherwise this sounds like a good substitute. I now have a u99 error. Am reading here to try and find any reset codes from years ago, heheh. I just did power it up via a computer next to it, but it still shows u99. If I recall correctly, that method did solve my troubles last time. When I returned it to the normal config. it reset everything perfectly, but I doubt it will work now! We shall see. Anyhow, still using the original caps, but will change the four weakest suspects this time, even though they look fine.
Hi. I AM WORKING TO TRY AND RESET AFTER A U99. At this point I am powering out of an old computer but would like to try a few reset button combinations before backing out of that arrangement. Does anyone remember the button combo for a reset? Thanks. Kassel
I have exactly this problem, I want to change one HDD for another, but because the substitute HDD has stuff on it that I want to keep I do not want to do a FORMAT. I have WinFix but XP does not recognise the new drive so I cannot change the drive ID information, does anyone have any ideas how to get round this please. I have attatched the new drive to my PC by USB and by internal installation with the same problem, XP cannot see the drive, although the System Information shows it as being attached. K
"The Capacitor Plague". Does that sound familiar to anyone? I wonder if this is the actual cause of all of the capacitor problems the DMR-85H's have been plagued with? I believe the most popular presumption up until now is that the capacitors on the power supply board were simply underrated for all operating conditions of the DVR. That might not be the case. I saw a link to this wikipedia page from a recent news article which described how Dell knew years ago that many of the motherboards it sold contained defective capacitors. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague That Dell article is: http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2010/11/20/dell-knew-about-faulty-computers-records-show.aspx
Has anyone else had trouble with their remotes going bad? I've replaced mine twice at least, and now the newest one is starting to show signs of trouble. (Almost always the fast-forward and reverse buttons start to become unresponsive. They must be the ones I use the most.) I took an old one apart and discovered that the buttons are basically just carbon-coated disks that press against open connections on a circuit board. After a while, the carbon wears off. I did some googling and found that you can buy fixit kits of carbon paint or silver-based paint. Someone also reported good results just dabbing powered graphite lubricant onto the disks. Anyone here tried it yet?
Good point. In addition to electrolytics traditionally being the weak link in passive components and the faulty manufacturing that you point to, in recent years there has been a significant increase in counterfeit parts that has the quality assurance folks hopping. It is becoming more and more difficult to determine if you have legitimate manufacturer's parts due to sophisticated labelling. Xrays and experienced examiners have a shot at it. Even buying from legitimate distributers or the manufacturer isn't sufficient due to 'parts laundering' (a term I just made up)--where a purchaser returns a manufacturer's parts but has actually substituted counterfeit parts, thereby getting the manufacturer to put the fake parts back into their own stock. Scary. By the way, I was probably the first to opine that the capacitors were underrated. I said I would have doubled the WVDC rating per good engineering practice. I don't know that the marginal rating would have caused most of the problems people were seeing--but it increases the likelihood of problems.
In my case it's the pause button that's wearing out. I haven't taken it apart to inspect it, but your suggestions are interesting.
If you do take it apart, don't try to remove the metal face. I did that, and bent it all up, only to discover that it's just a glued-on faceplate. What you want to do is pry apart the case at a seam in the black edge. It's not easy exactly, but it's a snap-fit.
My faithful DVR is at it again. Today it starting rebooting itself, with "Selfcheck" or "Please wait" displays, twice while recording! I have replaced C1270, C1271, C1260 and C1261 within the last few years (thanks to this forum). There was one other capacitor that looked bad, but I couldn't find a quick replacement at the time. Now I figure I should go after it. It's about twice as tall as the other radial capacitors mentioned above, and slightly smaller in diameter. Does anyone happen to have the specs on this cap so I can get one before I open the unit up again? Thanks!!
Remote controls are pretty easy to fix, getting them apart is the hardest part. Usually the problem is just the small round black carbon contacts on the flip side of the buttons wear down from use, I just crazy glue a small piece of aluminum foil over those black dots (the carbon contacts) on the flip side of the buttons that aren't working. All you need is some Aluminum Foil, Crazy Glue, and a hole puncher to cut out the aluminum foil.
Sometime if the hard drive is going you will need to replace the HDD with s new one I had that with my DMR-HS2, as soon as I replaced the HDD it worked again. that's why it's important to backup any important video onto DVD-R (or better yet DVD-RAM) when the DMR's are still working good.
I just bought one of these. http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produ..._K_DMR_EH59GA_K_Multi_Zone_250GB_HDD_DVD.html It has some advantages and disadvantages from the DMR-85H, advantages 1. 250GB capacity. 2. More inputs and outputs 3.better sound (like 384 Kbps MP3 sound). 4.Black and Slimmer than DMR-85H 5. 1080p upconversion. disadvantages. 1. No TV Guide (no problem for me b.c my cable box has a TV Guide). 2. PAL Tuner (since I hook it to my cable box anyway it's no problem for me). 3. 24 hour clock (Not the usual 12 hour AM/PM) some people may have a problem with this. 4. New names for familar controls, For instance "Shorten" (Edit) is now called "Partial Delete", etc. Neutral Change. 1. If you're still using a SDTV you need to adjust some of the settings, which is an advantage if you are using an HDTV (HDTV wide screen is now the default setting), if using SDTV you have to set it to 4x3 and Pan&Scan or Letterbox. Pretty much everything else is the same. I bought the Used one ($100 less) it had no scratches on it or any other problems (looked new), I think the only advantage to buying a New one is you can buy an Extended Warranty for a new one (for extra money) They both say they come with a 90 day B&H warranty standard.
Could you be more specific about the capacitor, such as location (on the power supply board--that contains C1270, etc.? toward the front of the unit? on the main PCB on the far left?) or reference designator--such as C1413? There are dozens of capacitors on the boards. I don't have my unit open, but I do have schematic diagrams with complete parts specifications. All I need is a reference designator. But if you don't know that, narrowing down its location increases my chances of determining which one you are looking for.
I don't have the reference designator. It's the tall one on the power supply board, close to the front of the unit.
