[mythtv-users] HD-PVR power supply (wall wart) gone bad

[Dan Wilga]

On 11/8/18 9:31 AM, Don Brett wrote:
> For those that run into this....  My HD-PVR stopped working, but the 
> front blue power light was on.  Power cycled the HD-PVR box and the 
> blue light comes on right away, but nothing else.
>
> Changed the USB cable, rebooted, checked device in backend settings 
> and has "failed to open" error, tried it on a win-7 computer, nothing 
> helped; I thought the capture box was shot.  I just happened to have a 
> spare capture box, so tried it, got the same result...but I was using 
> the same wall wart from the original HD-PVR.
>
> On a whim, I swapped out the wall wart and it worked.  I noticed that 
> the power up sequence was different; plug in power > blue power light 
> comes on > no change for two seconds > yellow light comes on > top 
> cover light blinks > three seconds later, yellow light turns off > 
> capture box is ready.
>
> I bought a replacement wall wart from Hauppauge here:
>
> http://www.hauppauge.com/pages/webstore2/webstore_hdpvr_power-supply.html
>
> NOTE: The HD-PVR wall wart is SPECIAL, if you plug in the wrong wall 
> wart, it damages the capture box; Ebay is polluted with blown-up 
> HD-PVR's from gamers that didn't pay attention to the warning on the 
> capture box (USE ONLY THE POWER SUPPLY PROVIDED!).
In my experience the only thing special about the OEM wall wart is the 
relatively high current rating (1A, IIRC). I, and others, have 
successfully replaced these wall warts with a cable that connects 
directly to the PC's 5v power supply. I essentially took the Molex 
connector from a dead case fan, moved the "+" pin from the 12v position 
to 5v, chopped off the bad wall wart's cable, and wired it to the pins 
on the Molex connector. Remember: Polarity is crucial!