This may be a brain teaser of a Little question VU+DUO as I can't find the answer.

[BRAVEHEART]

First of all, couple of years ago, done the stuck on red light fix and changed the cap or caps, cant remember if it was one or two or what.

Anyway, since then, all has been fine in that respect, until just a few weeks ago a started to get the very weak signal issue and not pulling in
hardly any channels at all, signal was lucky to be getting about 66-67%, yes that bad and as usual a common problem as you guys know.

So the fix for the weak signal was done the other day which was changing out the dodgy caps and replacing with a few good quality C848 1000uF/10V
ones, after that the signal when BOOM, right up to roughly about 97-98%.

Ok, that's all great as far as that goes, however, I have noticed sometimes that when leaving the box unpowered overnight (electric cable unplugged), the
next day it can sometimes be stuck on the red light again after applying the power cable (normally the box is just on standby when not in use, but this is just
for now to check whats going on you see), so then after a little heat is applied using a hairdryer to the usual places she boots up and is fine, but thats obviously
not a solution, loL.

What I was wondering is, could the PSU be knackered if its operating fine when left on (not on standby), left switched on 24/7, surely that indicates the PSU
is fine, yes, no ?

Or, are there any Cap's etc around the motherboard or PSU that could cause this issue and is this quite a common issue too.

If people can give me as much info as possible its much appreciated please, any photos, videos clips, links, anything at all that may or may help.

I am sure there is plenty life in the old girl yet and it was remarkable seeing those signals rocket to the high 90's when changing out those C848 1000uF/10V
caps too, plus it pulled in about double the amount of channels I have ever seen before and thats since I have had this box since brand new too.

[judge]

Do you put the box to deep standby before you pull the plug?

[BRAVEHEART]

Do you put the box to deep standby before you pull the plug?

No Mate... never ever have in fact.

[judge]

No Mate... never ever have in fact.

So you just pull the plug on a live box?

[BRAVEHEART]

So you just pull the plug on a live box?

no, if your meaning is that what I do all the time, then certainly not, NO, I said in the first post what I am doing, when the box is working and in normal use its always in normal standby mode when not being used.

Its only since the problems that I described already earlier in first post started to occur that I have put the box onto standby, then used the on/off switch at the back to power it off and then pull the power cable, thats all. (just for the sake of trying to find out what's going on as I said).


I am just trying to figure out whats going on since the past weeks and other repairs as I described in post number one my friend, thats all

EDIT: I can add to that, 99.9% of time that I feel the box needs restarted for whatever reason then I will use anything at all like DCC etc to restart the box rather than flick the on and off switch on the box as I know for a fact that can cause massive power spikes etc as I am sure you do too.

[birdman]

no, if your meaning is that what I do all the time, then certainly not, NO, I said in the first post what I am doing

Well, in the first post you actually said:

Ok, that's all great as far as that goes, however, I have noticed sometimes that when leaving the box unpowered overnight (electric cable unplugged),

followed by, in post #3:

Do you put the box to deep standby before you pull the plug?

No Mate... never ever have in fact.

Which I certainly read as you pulling the plug to power it off.

PS: Lime green is very difficult to read....

[BRAVEHEART]

Well, in the first post you actually said:

followed by, in post #3:

Which I certainly read as you pulling the plug to power it off.

PS: Lime green is very difficult to read....

Read my original 1st post of the thread again please.

yes and if you read the rest correctly you would have seen too that this is only just for now for testing purposes and not the normal way the box would be turned off Obviously, as I said, its 99.9% of the time always put onto standby during normal everyday use, but right now as I explained there have been problems and I am trying to narrow down possible issues/problems with various electronics, I already explained all this clearly .

It isn't my problem I can't edit the green coloured sentence in the post you refer to as there is no edit option or I would edit it, maybe you should ask admin to make the edit option stay on posts longer so that things like this can be edited by the OP for a few days or something, I can see the green colour fine by the way and that's on a white background too, easier still, you could have simply copied and pasted the green text into a text document on your device and you will be able to see the words in any colour you wish, simple as that.

Hope that helps, thanks for all your help.

In fact, here is the post your talking about AGAIN and this time for your satisfaction there in no green coloured text, hope it helps. cheers. see below >>>

no, if your meaning is that what I do all the time, then certainly not, NO, I said in the first post what I am doing, when the box is working and in normal use its always in normal standby mode when not being used.

Its only since the problems that I described already earlier in first post started to occur that I have put the box onto standby, then used the on/off switch at the back to power it off and then pull the power cable, thats all. (just for the sake of trying to find out what's going on as I said).


I am just trying to figure out whats going on since the past weeks and other repairs as I described in post number one my friend, thats all

EDIT: I can add to that, 99.9% of time that I feel the box needs restarted for whatever reason then I will use anything at all like DCC etc to restart the box rather than flick the on and off switch on the box as I know for a fact that can cause massive power spikes etc as I am sure you do too.

[ronand]

You must put the box into deep standby before powering it off. The box is still running in standby except for video output. That's the quick way to kill a box.

[BRAVEHEART]

You must put the box into deep standby before powering it off. The box is still running in standby except for video output. That's the quick way to kill a box.

thanks mate, I will try and keep that in mind, cheers , appreciated, to be honest I didn't know that's what the deep standby option was for, learn something new everyday as they say eh, lol.

In the meantime, do you or anyone know of any suggestions etc about what I explained in the first original post of the thread ?

[TK4|2|1]

Caps in psu

[BRAVEHEART]

UPDATE

First of all, couple of years ago, done the stuck on red light fix and changed the cap or caps, cant remember if it was one or two or what.

Anyway, since then, all has been fine in that respect, until just a few weeks ago a started to get the very weak signal issue and not pulling in
hardly any channels at all, signal was lucky to be getting about 66-67%, yes that bad and as usual a common problem as you guys know.

So the fix for the weak signal was done the other day which was changing out the dodgy caps and replacing with a few good quality C848 1000uF/10V
ones, after that the signal when BOOM, right up to roughly about 97-98%.

Ok, that's all great as far as that goes, however, I have noticed sometimes that when leaving the box unpowered overnight (electric cable unplugged), the
next day it can sometimes be stuck on the red light again after applying the power cable (normally the box is just on standby when not in use, but this is just
for now to check whats going on you see), so then after a little heat is applied using a hairdryer to the usual places she boots up and is fine, but thats obviously
not a solution, loL.

What I was wondering is, could the PSU be knackered if its operating fine when left on (not on standby), left switched on 24/7, surely that indicates the PSU
is fine, yes, no ?

Or, are there any Cap's etc around the motherboard or PSU that could cause this issue and is this quite a common issue too.

If people can give me as much info as possible its much appreciated please, any photos, videos clips, links, anything at all that may or may help.

I am sure there is plenty life in the old girl yet and it was remarkable seeing those signals rocket to the high 90's when changing out those C848 1000uF/10V
caps too, plus it pulled in about double the amount of channels I have ever seen before and thats since I have had this box since brand new too.

UPDATE :

So just to answer my own question in first post also quoted here too.

I took out and test the c807 cap that had previously been fitted year or two ago, and it was fine.
I replaced it with another anyway just in case, but still no joy.

Then found one near it to be faulty so I replaced that along with another next to that too.

Box now boots up no matter whether its power cable out, flicking on/off rocker at back or
simply just using standby as Is 99.9% always the way its used anyway, so yeah, success at last
all thanks to myself and reading plenty of forums and things such as this one and the dozens of
others too.

If you want to know what the other cap's are that were replaced then just ask as I will need to
look as I didn't take notes at the time.

So there you have it, sorted all on my own, happy days

[huggybear]

hello braveheart,
don't want to nick your post here but you have just explained about the cap swapping on the vu+duo which, i presume was to ractify the red light issue. i have just had the dreaded red light issue and not knowing what i now know, i kept using the box until the U802 regulator fried up . the cap seemed domed but not blown. anyway, i replaced all three caps:C807, C814 and C850. i also replaced the burnt out regulator (U802) with one i bought off ebay as a red light repair kit. i understand the original regulator of these boxes is numbered AZ1021. but the replacement regulator is numbered Z1021HAI with the number ZA1023 underneath it. i was wondering if you can tell me if this replacement is ok because now when i switch on the box, all i get is the red light. the fan does not come on neither does the hard drive make any noise . i would really appreciate it if you can shed some light on the matter please.

thanking you in advance,

huggybear