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Amstrad HD upgrade 1TB WD10EVDS Green Major Problems

PostPosted: Fri May 07, 2010 12:48 pm
by Magman12
Hi,

Major problems!! :cry:

Can't record 2 HD programs without box locking and needing a re-set. (can sometimes record 1 hd and 1 std def or 2 std def at same time but not always)
Can't overlap 2 HD programs (eg 1 stars at 9PM and 1 at 10PM) without box locking and needing a re-set.
When I am watching something I have recorded and the box starts to record something else it freezes for a few seconds and 50% of the time fails to record or locks.
Every day without fail at some point when I turn the box on I get a blue screen and no programs showing, I then need to re-set.
I sometimes get up in the morning and a program is still recording from the previous night, the only way to stop it is to re-set, the recording then shows as failed.
EPG is very very slow all of the time.

Any ideas?

Thanks

Re: Amstrad HD upgrade 1TB WD10EVDS Green Major Problems

PostPosted: Sun May 16, 2010 8:59 pm
by stark
I recently upgraded my box with the same drive and have been experiencing identical problems. Would be very interested if anyone has come across a solution as I don't particularly want to go back to the old drive!

Re: Amstrad HD upgrade 1TB WD10EVDS Green Major Problems

PostPosted: Mon May 24, 2010 7:31 pm
by njeo
Hi - there was no solution to my woes. The Amstrad DRX780s aren't robust enough even on their standard hard drives. They certainly can't cope with big drives like yours. Mine was a WD15EVDS drive and my Amstrad exhibited most of the same problems your box has now, but yours unfortunately seems to be worse. The box didn't lock up when 2 recordings commenced, or as soon as a background recording commenced whilst viewing another video. Another issue for me was the machine didn't change channels; I could enter the numbers into the little blue box on the left hand side but it would remain on screen with the channel playing out behind, and no keys worked nor any of the buttons on the box.

I reinstalled the standard drive and did a full system reset, but lots of the same problems continued to occur and I had to pull the power out every hour or two. I even stood it on its side far away from the TV to try to get it to run cooler, but sill it wasn't happy. I called Sky and asked for a replacement under the 1 year warranty, and asked for a different make. I got a reconditioned Pace and it is incredibly responsive compared to the DRX780. The Pace HD box is so responsive (but not quite as fast as an SD Pace PVR3) and I'm really reluctant about putting the WD15EVDS inside.
The Pace EPG takes a second to change from All Channels to HD in the TV Guide planner, and about 1 second to go to Sky+ Planner and 2 seconds to go into Anytime. Scrolling up and down the pages in the Planner is almost instantaneous. Each of those operations would take several seconds if not 8 to 10 seconds on the Amstrad and whilst it was thinking about it, button presses would not register.

On it's very first day the Pace shut off its video signal and almost did a soft reset before coming back on, but since then I haven't had to pull the plug. The only downside is space is a huge issue; the finale to Lost this morning now occupies 12% of the drive :-( I might put a 640Gb drive in, rather than a 1.5Tb drive, but I'm so reluctant to do so.

Re: Amstrad HD upgrade 1TB WD10EVDS Green Major Problems

PostPosted: Sat May 29, 2010 10:57 am
by MrT0ad
I tried to upgrade my Amstrad DRX780 box with three different HDDs, the WD10EVDS, WD10EADS and WD20EVDS and had the exact same symptoms described in the first post.

Symptoms persisted once the original drive was restored, and after reset/system restore.

In the end had it replaced under warranty (very naughty but hey, what can one do? :twisted: ) for a refurb pace box, which incidentally showed the very same "first time start" behaviour as njeo's (drop video, had to "pull the plug" to restore operation) and is working fine ever since.

I've located that box @ my gf's as freesat box, and purchased one of the new 1TB sky+ boxes for my flat. Not really in the mood for more experiments atm :P the drives are now happy in my DAS, and all is good under the sun.

Was tempted to buy a VU+ Duo HD box instead, but the idea of having to convince Sky to pair it with my card looked like too much hassle.

By the way, the HDD upgrades were performed with great deal of care on an ESD safe station, observing every possible precaution.