This is for Karen. I just talked to Panasonic and they said they have no flat rate repair. Can you send me the name and phone number of the person you talked to by email. I do want my DMR-e85H back in service as nothing else seems to have the features it has.
Worked like a charm. I had the same please wait problem, I found the two burnt capacitors and replaced them 1000 farad caps and restarted the system and everything works and it retained my football games I had recorded. I also installed the new firmware and 'voila' it works like new, divides title and everything. Thanks alot for the advice..you saved me the 300 to buy a new machine! Thanks again.
My DMR-E85 has been getting flaky and finally gave up (please wait message) I have built a few computers over the years so I decided to crack it open and take a look and what I found did not surprise me. There are a couple of swollen capacitors on the main board. This makes sense since the unit was manufactured about the same time as the world was importing cheap components that were later found to be defective (IBM was the primary user of these components) I lost 2 computers and 8 cash registers at work, and 1 motherboard at home due to the same problem. In my case the only way to solve the problem is to replace the board which I was told by a local service center will cost me $250 plus diagnostics charge.
What do you folks consider the main board - the board under the harddrive or the one on the left of the DVD Drive (when looking at it from the top)? I opened mine up and examined the board under the hardrive - the one with the black AC power connector on it - and did not find any bubbled up caps. Can someone be more specific and give me an idea (or a pic) of where to look?
You don't have to replace the board, just replace the 2 caps that are bad, that's what i did and problem solved. The machine is opearting like its susposed to. Right after I replaced the caps, I downloaded the upgrade to the firmware, works great. The caps dont look obviously bad, but upon close inspection the 2 in the middle of the board (board under the hard drive) had bulged a little on the top, replace them and it should work fine.
I have recently fixed a DMR-E85H problem and wanted to post the process. I live in the United States and also bought my DMR-E85H there. The power supply unit (PSU) uses an MR1521 as the switching IC. I found a source that sells individual Panasonic parts via the Internet (UED--Union Electronic Distribution at http://www.ued.net). They also sell whole Panasonic circuit boards (if they are still stocked). I also found an online source for downloading a service manual for the DMR-E85H (http://www.servicemanuals.net) for about $24 US. The shop manual is very good, with full schematic sets, PCB layouts, parts lists, and voltage check points. The Panasonic part numbers listed there are directly orderable from the UED website. Inspecting the PSU board revealed no sign of heat damage, but I noticed that the two filter capacitors (C1270, C1271) on the +12vdc rectifier circuit were bulging. Electrolytic capacitors are notorius for being among the shorter-lived components in a power circuit. However, while probing the PSU, my probe slipped and I drew a spark—which blew the fuse and, as it turned out, shorted the diode (D1151) for the tickler circuit feeding the MR1521 (IC1150). This circuit is required for kick-starting the MR1521 oscillator which drives the transformer that feeds all of the power supply rectifiers. After ordering parts and replacing the fuse, the rectifier, and MR1521, the circuit returned to the condition it was in before I started my ill-fated probing. Then I replaced the two bulging capacitors and EVERYTHING started working again. All of the HDD recorded programs (about 280 of them) were still there and even the program setup was intact. The DMR is back in its rightful place and has been functioning normally for over a week. It appears that the only problem was that the +12vdc circuit that feeds the disk drives was not filtered well (due to the bad capacitors) and the voltage jumped all over the place between about 8 and 9 volts (as measured on a DVM--I never had a chance to scope it). The good news was that this did not allow the disk to operate and damage its contents. Even temporarily replacing it with another hard disk drive while troubleshooting did not trigger a reformat requirement. As it happened, I had downloaded the latest (?) firmware (per Roger Amidon’s article ‘The Great DMR-E85H Snafu’ on http://www.dxcc.com/dmr-e85h.htm) and had it on a CD sitting in the open DVD tray. When the unit first turned on after replacing the capacitors, the CD sucked in and proceeded to update the firmware. It would appear that the only thing wrong with the unit was the bad capacitors. A $4 repair saved a $460 unit—although what with multiple shipping charges, spare parts, and the shop manual I spent about $70 on the repair effort. An observation: the bad capacitors were rated at 16v—being used in a 12v circuit. That strikes me as a bit of a thin margin. I would have used 25v capacitors. That may be why they died as early as they did (I have been using the DMR-E85H for 2 ½ years). I really like this unit and am very happy to have it back in operation. A survey of available DMR units did not turn up a plethora of similar new units. I think the Tivos--which are largely throw-away units according to users that I know--and upcoming HDTV mandates put us in a transitional period where an investment is not being made in this particular niche. Fortunately, I will not have to verify any of that for awhile yet—now that I am functional again.
That brings up the issue of what happens in a few years (in the USA anyway) when we're switch to all digital feeds. Yes we can get a converter box that will convert digital back into NTSC, but will the TGOS feed still be transmitted and will it get through these converter boxes so our DVR's will still get guide data? Or do we all go to manual recordings after the switch over? Anyone know??
dksmall: I've been wondering the same things, and am expecting the direction of this thread to move in that direction as 2009 approaches. (see signature below for my specs). When the switch happens, I'll probably just rent a HD recorder from my cable provider until consumer units stabilize in price and quality. Yankee10 and others: Thanks for the info on the caps. I've had only the U99 problem (not for 2 years or more now) and otherwise the unit has worked fine since purchase, (extrememe luck, I suppose) but if it ever fails, I'll know where to start looking.
Coyote, I'm thinking the same thing. Will have to rent a cable DVR, but hoping to hang on the the EH-85S for DVD burning and home movie editing, etc.
Just thought you would all like to know, I`ve just had an `85 in with please wait and it turned out to be the digital board had gone down. It wouldn`t let the dvd or the hdd initialise and kept in the "please wait" for about 3 minutes before giving up and switching off. After fitting a new digital board the dvd drive was faulty as well, the thing refused to record any ram disks but played pre-recorded stuff o/k. Now I have to give the owner the news that the bill will be somewhat higher than I first thought--good job I warned him first that this could happen. Such is life. By the way does anyone know of a good hair transplant doctor as I am constantly pulling more hair out fixing these dam things!!! Repairman
OK, further updates on my E95. They replaced the digitial board and can't get the hard drive to work. Seems these independents are a bunch of yahoos who do not know how to fix this unit(even though Panasonic sent me there). I contacted Panasonic and talked to Kord(1-800-211-7262 ext 5288) and was told Panasonic offers a flat fee of $130 to fix it. I was suprised as I read that in earlier post. I am getting unit back less the $50 fee and Panasonic is sending me a mailer send send it back shipping free via UPS. 12 weeks to get a unit fixed via independent shop is just wrong.
hello everybody, can anyone tell me if i can use the firmware update for my machine, this is the firmware update i want to use. i have bought my Dmr-H85e in the netherlands so i'm concernt that the firmware flash wil go wrong on my machine. I have contact panasonic tech support but they answert that er are no firmware updates for my type of machine (my machine got firmware version DL920 ) thank you in advance. Greetings, patrick.
Thank you for youre quick reaction to my question mister Repairman. You helpt my a lot, i don't going to flash my machine. Greetings, Patrick
I assume you've checked the power supply. My unit exhibited similar symptoms ('please wait' for like 3 minutes then powering off, then back on again--another 'please wait.') Just before this, the HDD wouldn't run. The DVD drive acted strangely. Replacing the HDD didn't reformat. Per my post of last week, in my case it was the +12v supply that required replacing the filter capacitors. Now all is well.
I assume you've checked the power supply. My unit exhibited similar symptoms ('please wait' for like 3 minutes then powering off, then back on again--another 'please wait.') Just before this, the HDD wouldn't run. The DVD drive acted strangely. Replacing the HDD didn't reformat. Per my post of last week, in my case it was the +12v supply that required replacing the filter capacitors. Now all is well.[/quote] The power supply is the first thing I check on these units ,after the usual rebiuld the equipment still showed the same symptoms and I noted the comments re the electrolytic caps in the power supply, but in the UK the caps fitted in the power supply are all 25v and above rated and also the temperature marking is 105C--I presume that as most of the US is on 110v mains supply the caps are 16volt and temp rated at 63C. In the UK we run 240v mains and to stand the higher stress the power supply is under 25volt caps at 103C are fitted to cope .I have never seen a recorder power supply made by Panasonic that shows any sign of electrolytic capacitor stress. Most of the problems with the power supply used in these recorders are due to control chips going unstable and zener diodes affected by heat from the chip Repairman
The power supply is the first thing I check on these units ,after the usual rebiuld the equipment still showed the same symptoms and I noted the comments re the electrolytic caps in the power supply, but in the UK the caps fitted in the power supply are all 25v and above rated and also the temperature marking is 105C--I presume that as most of the US is on 110v mains supply the caps are 16volt and temp rated at 63C. In the UK we run 240v mains and to stand the higher stress the power supply is under 25volt caps at 103C are fitted to cope .I have never seen a recorder power supply made by Panasonic that shows any sign of electrolytic capacitor stress. Most of the problems with the power supply used in these recorders are due to control chips going unstable and zener diodes affected by heat from the chip Repairman[/quote] There has been much discussion of the STR-G6353 switching IC as the culprit on a UK website (http://www.avforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=316972&page=8 ). The US PSU uses the MR1521 instead. The electrolytics in question are rated at 105 deg C on the US unit. Heat appears to be a significant problem in the UK PSU. My impression is that is not so much the case on the US unit--at least directly. Back in the days when we used to cannibalize old televisions for parts, we did not save the electrolytic capacitors as they tend to dry out with age. That said, 2 1/2 years should not be long enough to worry about that--unless excessive heat aged it faster. If, as you say, the switching IC goes unstable, it could contribute to an underrated capacitor's woes.
Yankee10, and all of you, thanks for this ongoing discussion. I had the PLEASE WAIT message appear on my DMR-e85h about 3 weeks ago. I tried everything I could think of, including a lot of the button combinations discussed above, but couldn't make anything happen, except the LOCK and UNLOCK messages. Couldn't even power down. I left town for a couple of weeks and plugged the machine back in, with no change in the problem. I was just starting to search for a replacement on-line, and decided to Google and see if anybody had an answer. You guys did! I popped open the case, pulled off the PSU Board and looked at C1270 and C1271. These capacitors looked ok, but in looking at the bottom side of the mounting plate for the hard drive, which is located just above the PSU Board, I saw two little areas with what looked like dried, brown fizzy stuff -- directly above where the two caps are located. I replaced them as you described so well, and the unit fired right up and is working fine. I had been reluctant to attempt to work on a circuit board, but figured it was toast otherwise. Picked up a lower voltage soldering tool than I had used in the 'old days' for $8.95, and two 1000 mf capacitors for $1.96 each, and saved myself the grief of trying to find a good replacement unit, the cost involved, and the recordings I was loath to lose. I had to join this group, if for no other reason to tell you all thanks very much!! I really dislike being forced to be part of a throw-away society. I liked this DMR and now I can keep using it! One thing, though. I read Roger's very informative article, which you referred to, and I downloaded the firmware fix file. It was zipped, and unzipped to a file of almost identical size, which shows as Pana-dvd.frm. My OS -- Vista -- didn't recognize it, and Nero had to be prodded to add it to the single item recording list, but it did record to the CD. When I inserted it into the DMR, it whirred away for awhile, and then came back with a message: UNSUPPORTED. I'm just wondering if anyone has any input as to what I ought to do to get the proper file properly read by the machine? Thanks again!
