[mythtv-users] Black Screen w/PVR-250 caused by overheat

[James L. Paul]

Brad Fuller wrote:
> Brian Fischer wrote:
> 
>> I am experiencing a black screen on my pvr-250 after a few weeks of 
>> uptime
>> with my myth box.  I believe the cause is overheating because I cannot 
>> get
>> my live tv to work until I shutdown and leave the computer off for 
>> about 30
>> minutes.  A reboot will not fix this issue.  I plan on adding a new 
>> fan to
>> the system, but wanted to know if anyone has a solution or suggestions to
>> fix this.
>>  
>>
> If you think you have a heat problem, open the PC and run it until you 
> have your suspected heat issue. Then spray the suspected component with 
> freeze spray and view if you have any changes in the video output. 
> Sometimes you can find intermittent thermal problems with freeze spray 
> -- not always.
> 
> On the other hand, how many people have heat problems with PVRx50s? It 
> might be something else.

I don't know how many people, but I'll raise my hand here. In the past 2 
years I've had 4 PVR-250 cards die due to heat. The 4th one just gave 
out a couple weeks ago. First the tuner gets noisy for a month or so, 
then I start getting dropout that results in corrupted recordings and 
cause commercial detection to crash. Then I buy a replacement.

I'm currently down to 2 cards again and am planning this time to replace 
with two PVR-500 cards.

My system is a RedHat9-based Athlon 2600+ in a Gigabyte GA7VT600 MB with 
512MB RAM, watercooled in a 4U rack chassis. The PVR cards get HOT and 
are the main source of heat inside the chassis. They seem to last up to 
a year. Of the 6 total cards I've had, none of them are still in service 
after over 2 years.

YMMV :)

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