Electrostatic shock problem

[hand]

Hello,

I have noticed that the frequency of freezing and reboot problems is increasing. I have been having bad freezing and rebooting problems in the last couple of weeks, and I think I may have found the source of the problem. I just don't know how to fix it.

I was having the constant reboot problem with the Phillips DirecTivo, so I pulled cover off and booted it up and it worked fine. That made me assume it was the temperature. But then I just placed the cover on top of the unit and BAM, freeze. I seem to have a static shock or grounding problem with the unit and the cover.

The disks I am using are 2 Maxtor 80 GB drives. I put the original Quantum 40 GB drive in and I was unable to make it freeze by shocking it. I low level formatted both Maxtor drives and reimaged each as single drives, and each one of them froze when I touched the chassis and got shocked.

Does anyone have any suggestions? I cannot explain why the Quantum with the original software is resistant to electrostatic shock but a Maxtor with 25xtreme is not.

Any suggestion is welcome.

Hand

[BubbleLamp]

Static electricity can be harmful to almost any electronic device. If you are getting big jolts whenever you touch your equipment, I strongly suggest you make a little ground pad you can touch first. Sooner or later you'll fry more than the Tivo.

[bay]

I had a 80 gig maxtor go bad on me in my hughes gxe, it kept resetting on me every hour. if i were you i would run powermax diagnostic program on the drives to see if the drives are bad. I returned my defective drive to maxtor and they replaced it with a new one, no more freezing.

[BubbaJ]

if you're getting a zap every time you touch your dtivo, or if the tuners feel very hot, there is a good chance that the polarity in your electrical wiring is reversed. I would recommend getting an AC tester, it's a small device which plugs into a grounded out let that tells you if it's wired right. If it is, then make sure the shield of the cable coming from the dish is properly grounded as well, by running it through a grounding block. You may also want to run a ground wire to the chassis of your tivo.

[T_RJ]

Useing a UPS would solve this as well.

[hand]

Thanks for all your tips.

The static electricity is throughout my apartment. I may need to either get a humidifier or wait until spring when the humidity goes up. I also moved the Tivo away from my TV, and got some anti-static wipes to reduce the static. My TV is a static nightmare.

-BubbaJ
Good advice about the AC tester. I think I will do that. Where do I run the ground wire?

-bay
I ran powermax on both drives and they both passed the advanced test. I think I shocked one into oblivion, however, so I re-imaged the other one. No more freezes. Makes me think that disk I killed was bad anyway.

[Pointfreak!]

You definatley need a humidifier!

The static wipes, etc are just a quick coverup of the underlying problem. In an apartment you shouldnt need a very large one. If you dont want to spend the bucks, just boil lots of water or let the shower run with the door open! :p