Problems with my Toppy 5K

[csutak40]

I am not sure if this is the right thread - not an IceTV question, it is just that I am desperate.

I know that my Toppy is a bit long in the tooth, but I love it none the less.

I was watching the Toppy (chase-play) and got warned that two recordings were about to start.  Seemingly all this was too much for the poor thing and it froze.  This has happened a few times before, a simple reboot fixes the problem usually.

Tried that, it started to check the files (or words to that effect), then it settled on the menu.  I noticed that the clock had changed, which was surprising, as I hadn't re-set it at the wall yet.  As I couldn't get out of the menu, decided to re-set it, by pulling the plug out at the wall.  Made no difference, except it didn't check the files this time.  Also noticed that "Organising Favourites" and "Recordings" are greyed out. 

I am in Melbourne - can you recommend anyone that could look at it for me?  A friend changed the capacitors for me a couple of years ago, but he is no longer available and I don't know anyone else that could help me.  I am worried though that it may be more than the capacitors this time.

P.S. I attempted to ad an attachment, it says it is unable to load it.  Can't figure out why, it is a 29kb jpg file.  Further, even after I cancelled the attachment, it still refused to load.  Had to close the page and start again

[blip]

Try a rescan for channels. Sometimes the old toppies loose all their TV services and are stuck in the menu until a scan to find the channels is done.

[csutak40]

Thanks very much!  I have actually just thought I'd try and it (sort of) worked.  Big sigh of relief, the hard drive is still there.  It lost most of the TAPs, as well as all the timer settings.  About to reinstall the TAPs, something I'm not looking forward to as I don't remember the settings.

Would love to know what went wrong, and if I should still worry.  BTW, a friend asked me if I have a backup and I don't - in fact, I don't even know how to make one.

OK. Seems I now have an IceTV related question.    I opened the IceBox to upload the missing TAPs.  There are all still there!  So, seems the connection between the IceBox and the Toppy has broken, but not sure how to fix it.  I don't want to experiment, in case there is a way of salvaging the TAPS and putting them back as they were.

Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated.

OK, back again!  Had a thought, rebooted the Toppy and got everything back - now the only worry is, will this happen again?  A friend thinks the HDD may be on its way out

[tonymy01]

Have you had your Toppy power supply refurbed at any point?  If not, I would suggest misbehaving is the voltages starting to go out of spec and causing the HDD to be mis-read and/or not read at all, and USB issues etc.

[csutak40]

Have you had your Toppy power supply refurbed at any point?  If not, I would suggest misbehaving is the voltages starting to go out of spec and causing the HDD to be mis-read and/or not read at all, and USB issues etc.

Well, it has since died completely.  A friend had a look and it is the power supply.  He says the only way to fix it is to attempt to find someone that has one that they no longer use and would be willing to sell it for parts.  So, are you saying that it is possible to refurbish it?

[toppytools]

Hi Judy,

Anyone with basic electronics experience could fix it for you. They just need a philips screwdriver, a small soldering iron, a multimeter, a few capacitors from Jaycar, Dick Smith or Tandy etc. and a print out of the following webpage:

http://members.optusnet.com.au/toppytools/pwrcircuit.html

[csutak40]

Hi Judy,

Anyone with basic electronics experience could fix it for you. They just need a philips screwdriver, a small soldering iron, a multimeter, a few capacitors from Jaycar, Dick Smith or Tandy etc. and a print out of the following webpage:

http://members.optusnet.com.au/toppytools/pwrcircuit.html

It is not the capacitors - apparently they are fine.  They were replaced about 3 years ago.  I really have no idea what I'm talking about, but a friend did check it with a multimeter and checked the capacitors.  Said the power supply was fubar.  He is the one that said that it needs to be replaced, which could only be done if I got hold of someone else's no longer needed Toppy

[raymondjpg]

It is not the capacitors - apparently they are fine.  They were replaced about 3 years ago.  I really have no idea what I'm talking about, but a friend did check it with a multimeter and checked the capacitors.  Said the power supply was fubar.  He is the one that said that it needs to be replaced, which could only be done if I got hold of someone else's no longer needed Toppy

There is this "guy" Mark Warkus located in Perth who does a very reasonably priced PSU rebuild/repair for Topfields as well as Beyonwiz PVRs. He has just rebuilt a PSU for my Topfield TF7100HDPVRt.

If you go on to the  Beyonwiz Forum and do a search for Warkus it should give you an idea of how to contact him. You may need to register on the forum to send him a personal message.

[prl]

... You may need to register on the forum to send him a personal message.

FTFY

However, unlike the Topfield forum, you don't have to register just to read it.

Warkus is a Legend!! (aka Mark) will give you an idea of warkus's reputation on the Beyonwiz forum.

Warkus is also registered on the DTV Forum, so if that's more convenient you could PM him there. He doesn't reveal his email address in his profile on either forum.