Inside the Hopper.

[coinmaster32]

In a quest to see why my hopper runs so hot, I took the cover off. There was no "warranty void if removed" sticker on the back.

IMO, the thermal design of the hopper gets an F+. There is only one fan, and it BARELY moves air. Stick your hand in front of it, you can barely feel it.

The heatsink has no fan, which is something that earns a fail. A 750 mhz cpu should have a fan.

The power supply has two large transistors mounted on a heatsink, and they get HOT. Also, there is a transformer.

All in all, the hopper needs a more powerful side fan, heat sink fan, and a fan for the power supply.

Inside the Hopper:

CPU Heatsink.

The large tuner section and power supply.

The hard drive.

Closeup of the power supply.

 

[gadgtfreek]

IMO, Dish hasn't dont a good job cooling dvr's, at least in my 622 and 722 experience.

 

[keckge]

I wonder could you stick a Y adapter on the power supply add a fan that ran all the time moved the fan they have over then close the box back up so you still have a pretty hopper sitting there that doesn't look altered. Didn't I read somewhere that dish doesn't cool their box's real well because all people do is complain and bi*** because they are too loud and they can't sleep because of the fan and blah, blah blah.

 

[TheKrell]

I that a plastic seal I see on the internal disk?

 

[rglore]

The fan is variable speed and will speed up when needed. I don't want a box full of fans running all the time in my bedroom.

 

[keckge]

They always have that seal on the hard drive I have never opened a hopper but I have opened every 722 and 922 I have ever had and it always had a seal on the hard drive.

 

[GaryPen]

No vents over the PS either.
On both my previous 722k and current Hopper, the area above the PS gets the hottest.

BTW, I removed the cover on mine early on. It lives in a glass door cabinet with an exhaust fan on the back. Having the cover off allows the hot air to rise from the chassis, away from the components, and the fan sucks the hot air out of the cabinet.

When the cover was on, it got extremely hot to the touch. Even though the fan was pulling air from the cabinet, heat was still building up inside the Hopper.

FWIW, my Joey gets incredibly hot when seated horizontally. But, vertically, it is barely warm. And, that is in an open space.

 

[gadgtfreek]

I used to run my 722k with the cover off.

 

[keckge]

I used to run my 722k with the cover off.

You were not afraid of damaging it?

 

[dare2be]

My thermaltake II USB fan has been doing a good job keeping heat under control on my 722...I barely hear it.

 

[coinmaster32]

My thermaltake II USB fan has been doing a good job keeping heat under control on my 722...I barely hear it.

Where did you mount it?

 

[dare2be]

Against the left side vent drawing air out. Not sure how the Hopper differs.

 

[keckge]

The only reason I'm interested in this is I'm getting pixelation on my living room hopper, and dish says its most likely due to its hard drive getting ready to fail. The only thing I can think of is its due to heat its not like my laptop which I drop on a regular basis so.... I'm guessing heat is causing this hard drive malfunction.

 

[dare2be]

Does the Hopper have a HDD heat counter check in the menus like the ViP series do?

 

[Hall]

You were not afraid of damaging it?

Damaging it with what ? I'm going to presume it was not "exposed" to anything, i.e. sitting on an open shelf or rack.

 

[coinmaster32]

Yes. Go into network setup, tests, view counters, use the page down button to scroll.

 

[dare2be]

For comparison purposes, what does your Hopper report for temperatures?

Nevermind, I just saw your other thread.

 

[keckge]

If I took the cover off the damn thing for more then a few minutes my other half would would be dusting or something and spray pledge into the damn thing and try to dust it and start screaming my TV is broken! I have learned over the years to be very careful about things like that in my house. Our first flat screen my other half started going at with a bottle of windex as I'm screaming NO!

 

[gadgtfreek]

You were not afraid of damaging it?

It was in an enclosed stand, nothing really to damage.

 

[3HaloODST]

All of Dish's modern DVRs run too hot because as was previously stated people groan about the noise. So the one fan they do have almost never revs up.

There are also the bean counters at Dish that have apparently decided that replacing overheated receivers is cheaper than adding more fans. For example, the Joeys have a spot on their PCB for supplying power to a fan. However the connector is missing (and if course the fan too.) That is most likely the result of the bean counters.

I have built many computers that are cool and quiet. However most are larger than Dish receivers therefore have more room for better airflow. It is not impossible to build smaller
machines that run cooler as I have done it (a Shuttle case is one example.)

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