Think I killed my tivo. Power/hardware related

[beestea]

So im dusting in my AV cabinet and I lift up my Hughes DVR-40 DirecTivo to dust under it and I kinda bump it into the side of the cabinet as I am swiping my california duster under it and the minute it bumps it powers down.

Now im realizing that duster probably works so well cause it has some sort of static electricity going to attract the dust and thinking I am pretty dumb.

The unit does't make a noise now when i plugged it back in. No fan movement, no lights, no video output, nothing.

Is there a fuse or something I might have blown? I see some writing about a fuse on the board near the power supply but can't see how to access the fuse. Is there anything I can check with a multimeter? Any suggestions at all?

Thanks!

[beestea]

I just checked voltage at the power connector for the Hard drive and the motherboard fan header and got just some mV readings which am sure are nothing :(

I tried to refasten the power supply to motherboard ribbon cable and still no luck. My power supply is dead I guess unless I blew a replaceable fuse.

Any advice?

[captain_video]

There's a large aluminum heatsink that the regulator chips are mounted on that's part of the power supply board. If you accidentally touch the cover to the heat sink you'll blow the power supply fuse. Perhaps you flexed the cover enough to contact the heatsink and blew the fuse in the process. The fuse is located right next to the AC plug at the rear of the DTivo on the surface of the power supply board. It's covered in black heat shrink tubing but the end leads are accessible and easy to check with a multimeter. Just do a continuity check of the fuse to see if it's any good. The value of the fuse is 3.15amps @ 250V. Replacements are available from Digi-Key but the ones I had been referenced to did not have pigtail solder leads. You'll have to install a fuse holder or find a 3-amp fuse with pigtail leads to replace the blown fuse. Rat Shack used to have them but recently stopped carrying them.

[beestea]

Captain.... you da man, I didn't think to try that simple test. Looks like my fuse is dead, hopefully that is all that happend.

I have't soldered in forever... any suggestions on a type/size/brand iron to pickup?

Thanks!!!

[beestea]

Do you guys recommend slow-blow or fast acting fuses? Looks like the fast acting will blow if the tivo pulls the rated 3.15amps @ 250 Volts, versus slow-blow will allow a temporary surge of 3.15 @ 250 (such as on boot up?) but will blow if that draw is exceeded for an extended period of time.

I found 3.15 slow blow fuses at ratshack, they didn't have fast acting tho.

[knightshade]

There's a large aluminum heatsink that the regulator chips are mounted on that's part of the power supply board. If you accidentally touch the cover to the heat sink you'll blow the power supply fuse. Perhaps you flexed the cover enough to contact the heatsink and blew the fuse in the process. The fuse is located right next to the AC plug at the rear of the DTivo on the surface of the power supply board. It's covered in black heat shrink tubing but the end leads are accessible and easy to check with a multimeter. Just do a continuity check of the fuse to see if it's any good. The value of the fuse is 3.15amps @ 250V. Replacements are available from Digi-Key but the ones I had been referenced to did not have pigtail solder leads. You'll have to install a fuse holder or find a 3-amp fuse with pigtail leads to replace the blown fuse. Rat Shack used to have them but recently stopped carrying them.


While an old post - a helpful one. This is exactly what I did - "accidentally touch the cover to the heat sink" - (boy did I feel STUPID). My next step was to pull out my multimeter tonight and test the fuse, this gives me hope that is all that I fried.

On another forum, I also stumbled across the post below,
I thought that the part numbers might be helpful to others.


I went to Radio Shack and bought a inline fuse holder for 5x20mm fuses and found that they did stock a 5x20 mm 3.15a slo blow fuse.
FUSE HOLDER Radio Shack part number 270-1238
Fuse Slo Blow 250v 5x20mm 3.15 amp part number 270-1065 (Pkg of 4)
The total cost was $ 5.20 including taxes.