spiderbox tuner failing any ideas

[chronoman]

I have a 9000 hd spider coming up for 2 yrs old.
The channels work but on hd they are all strobing slomo and on sd channels you get a pixelated screen which to me is pointing at failing tuner.
Is there any way to boost /extend the life of this unit .
Any help advice appreciated.
cheers chronoman

 

[jimihendrix]

I have a 9000 hd spider coming up for 2 yrs old.
The channels work but on hd they are all strobing slomo and on sd channels you get a pixelated screen which to me is pointing at failing tuner.
Is there any way to boost /extend the life of this unit .
Any help advice appreciated.
cheers chronoman

Select a HD FTA channel (pref on 28.2e) and press info twice quickly that way you can read the S and Q levels. It could be a slight dish alignment problem and not the tuner.

 

[chronoman]

This iisnt my box but a friends,I first thought was a sat issue and he got engineer out and all ok. another box is good in his house and fault replicated in my house

 

[chronoman]

heres ratings,my box work perfect of this but this box is strobing

 

[jimihendrix]

If you are happy to do so check the power supply voltages with a multimeter BUT be warned quite high voltages in that area can give you a nasty jolt. Look for signs of capacitor leakage such as bulging cans, and white deposit on the PCB any showing these signs must be replaced and for a few pence more get replacements rated at 105C as they last longer.

 

[chronoman]

If you are happy to do so check the power supply voltages with a multimeter BUT be warned quite high voltages in that area can give you a nasty jolt. Look for signs of capacitor leakage such as bulging cans, and white deposit on the PCB any showing these signs must be replaced and for a few pence more get replacements rated at 105C as they last longer.

i have a combo unit i could use that psu on the board .
will take board pic with decent res and post
cheers for help

 

[chronoman]

oh well too much to hope for same psu. will get a unit to test in day or 2.
heres some pics ,i cant see any obvious

 

[jimihendrix]

Good pictures but cant really see anything obvious, if your thinking of trying a supply from another receiver be careful as there were some changes in production. Make sure the supplies are identical.
WARNING under certain failure conditions the main capacitor (the biggest on the board which should be rated at ~400v) can store a high voltage for a long period of time, so be careful when removing the power supply from the receiver (I've been caught like that).

 

[chronoman]

well not power supply.
stuck now.
Would a tv engineer be able to diag one of these?

 

[jimihendrix]

It is still possible that the power supply is the culprit, sometimes only a close visual inspection will show if one (or more) capacitors need changing. A test with a voltmeter would show if any one of the voltages are low or a test using an oscilloscope would show if there was excessive "ripple" on any lines.
Sorry to say from the pictures it's not possible to say but I would still try the power supply as it's the most likely culprit.
Yes a TV engineer should be able to measure the power supply voltages or you can buy nowadays very cheap digital multimeters (about £3~4 on Ebay) which would be quite adequate for this job.
Note the correct voltages are printed on the PCB next to the flexible cable which links the PSU to the main board, but again if you do this yourself do be careful as a slip with a probe could be an expensive repair.
Have you contacted the importer to ask if they can repair it for you? might be a good idea.
My Spiderbox 9000 combo is now about 20 months old and working perfectly so you have my sympathy that yours is playing up.
One point do you have plenty of ventilation around the Spiderbox? it's not unusual to see plies of CD's or DVD's or even a nice vase of flowers blocking the ventilation slots on top of the receiver.

 

[chronoman]

Cheers for reply.
I used another psu and same problem so dont think power supply.i contacted supplier but they didnt seem much knterested saying tuner wasnt easy fix but didnt offer to look
Or repair service
Sent from my X10i using Tapatalk 2

 

[jimihendrix]

I would agree it would be difficult to repair a tuner but replacing one should not be that difficult providing a good soldering iron is used. In your position I would have another word with them and ask if they have a damaged or broken board and maybe they could send the tuner section. This should be easy to remove from the damaged board and fit into your Spiderbox.
A fine soldering iron tip will be needed preferably a soldering station with temperature control and care with the fine tracks as they will lift otherwise.

 

[chronoman]

i've got a solder station with desoldering sucker built in and adjustable temp so will mail .
I know all too well about lifting tracks doing so on my xbox .
thanks for advice i will send mail to supplier asking question
cheers chronoman

 

[jimihendrix]

Be careful with the solder sucker as I find it's all to easy to lift fine tracks using them, my approach is to use a de-solder whick to remove most of the solder, allow the joint to cool then reheat the joint and wiggle the component which normally comes out easy that way. Or even if the component will allow to cut it off on one side of the board then heat the joint from the other side when the solder has melted quickly grip the component leg with small needle nosed pliers and pull it out you can then remove any remaining solder.
A way to remove solder from a through hole plated board (the most delicate part) is to sharpen a pencil, heat the joint and put the pencil point into the hole the removes the solder.

 

[chronoman]

Thanks for input jimi.
have sent them a mail and hopefully they will reply back positively .
cheers chronoman

 

[gsmtech]

If it is the tuner they take a lot of soldering to remove and replace providing yuo can even source a spare tuner..Plug and play tuners are much better in this respect easy to replace if they fail. manufacturers probably prefer fixed tuners to keep production costs down as they an get soldered to the board by robot..rather than having to be assebled by hand if theyre plug and play.

 

[Rossyrossy]

Thanks for input jimi.
have sent them a mail and hopefully they will reply back positively .
cheers chronoman

Hi chrono

Looks likei have exactly the same symptoms on my hd9000 And was wondering if you got a solution to the problem? Unfortunately my soldering abilities have not been used for 20 years but did the problem turn out to be the power supply or the tuner?

Cheers

 

[chronoman]

justv scrapped as never found cause.wasnt power though

 

[jimihendrix]

What a shame, I dont like to see any item scrapped but sometimes thats all that can be done. Sorry you didn't get it working as the information would have been valuable to others with the same problem. Just a couple of weeks ago I fixed a Spiderbox 7000 for a friend, it was showing the LNBF error and the recovery tool does nothing to cure this fault as it requires a part replacement (transistor TIP42C just in front of the tuner). When this part fails it's normally quite visible as the transistor tab often shows a blue patch through excessive heating or even in a bad case the collector (middle leg) missing altogether.
If any member has the fault LNBF displayed then switch off the Spiderbox remove the LNB lead and switch the receiver on again, if LNBF still shows in the display then first change the TIP42C.
If anyone needs a TIP42C PM me I have a few.