Question about heat and the 811

[scottss810]

I was wondering if anyone's experimented with installing a cooling fan on the top of the 811? It's always been my impression that heat can cause electronics to behave very erratic and the 811 can sure do that at times.
Although the top doesn't get excessively hot, it still gets pretty darn warm, toward the right rear,(must be where the power supply is) and the center. Could it be possible that part of the ongoing problems with the unit is related to heat in the electronics. Maybe two small cooling fans on top of the vents on the unit might help. If I could find a couple of 120v fans I'd give it a try, but most the fans I've found online are for computers but have a particular plug used in computer for replacement. The software patches never seem
to solve some of the nagging problems on the 811. Maybe some of you folks who have much better understanding of electronics can say whether this
is an idea worth looking into or not.

 

[Harry]

I mentioned this a few months ago. Heat does affect the 811. I had a DVD player sitting on top of my 811 and it would get too hot and go black. Once it cooled down, a power reboot would bring it back.

As long as you don't stack anyting on top of it, it should be ok.

BTW, I might add, the new black screen problem is not related to heat but to the P280 S/W load.

 

[chastulsa]

I can assure you HEAT is a issue. I went to wally world and but some rubber feet you put on chair legs to prtect the floor and i prop the 811 up and it has seemed to help alot. It needs good ventilation.

Chas

 

[ShadowEKU]

yeah ive noticed after a while with my entertainment cabinet closed it starts to get flaky after several hours. I plan to install some cooling fans in my entertainment stand this weekend

 

[AcuraCL]

Every Dish receiver I've ever had runs hot.

Flaky software behavior is due to flaky programming.

Heat isn't going to cause bugs. It might cause premature component failure ... but how in the world do you keep a receiver more than 5 years anyway? I'm no upgrade junkie, but even 4 years on a Dish receiver is a pretty dang long time. Every receiver I've had has gone at least that long ....

 

[GaryPen]

Heat can indeed cause flaky behavior, in addition to premature component failure. It isn't one or the other.

 

[AcuraCL]

Don't you think that flaky behavior would shortly precede the failure? ...

Or do you think the flaky behavior could just go on and on and on and never reach the point of failure?

Do you believe the 811 issues are due to faulty programming or heat?

Just curious ....

 

[GaryPen]

Don't you think that flaky behavior would shortly precede the failure? ...

Certainly, it could. But, not definitely.

Or do you think the flaky behavior could just go on and on and on and never reach the point of failure?

Certainly, it could. Some solid state components can go on indefinitely exhibiting strange heat-related behavior, without ever reaching total failure.

Do you believe the 811 issues are due to faulty programming or heat

In the case of the 811, it is most likely poor design of both HW and SW. I think there are some things that will never be corrected via SW.

OTOH, heat issues can affect ALL electronic devices. If one's 811 is getting too hot due to location, ventilation, environment, etc, it might very well exhibit unusual behavior. After all, a DVD player, or audio receiver, or cable box certainly would.