Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Repair Your Own SageTV HD100 Extender

There are several SageTV HD100 (the predecessor to the SageTV HD200 Theater) extender owners having issues with their extenders.   The SageTV HD100 extenders in question seem to be experiencing a whistling/hissing sound.  Then, when the extender completely dies, the LED power light blinks constantly every several seconds.  If your HD100 is having this issue, you have two options.  Fix it yourself with the instructions detailed below with a few dollars and some soldering know-how or pay SageTV $60 to repair the box for you.

 

With some basic soldering skills and a replacement capacitor from RadioShack you can fix your HD100 extender yourself.  Here's a video showing you the basics of how to do it:

 

 

Read the entire how-to at CocoonTech

 

 

Read the entire how-to at CocoonTech

 

If you're not inclined to solder or your HD100 issue is different, contact SageTV.  They are handling HD100 repairs for $60 regardless of the issue.

UPDATE:

The CTO of SageTV posted this update on the situation.  Basically they have reduced the cost of repair for this situation, and also added that there has been just over a 1% failure rate – not bad really, but good to know there is a reasonable route to repair if you happen to experience this problem and you don’t want to deal with the soldering iron route.

We have worked on continuously improving product quality and in the HD100 case we have had a little over 1% failure rate in the first year. We have tried to provide convenient warranty service for folks in the first year and after the first year we have tried to provide affordable out of warranty service. For any HD100 power supply problems that don't show signs of abuse or intentional damage we have now been able to reduce the out of warranty service price to $39 including return shipping in the US (International additional cost) and we currently include a 1 year warranty extension with the $39 power supply out of warranty service. Customers who have paid the $60 power supply service fee previously can get in touch with SageTV for a store credit. While the HD100 product quality is near industry norms, we have tried to improve the quality of our HD200 and have seen fewer issues with that product and it uses a different power supply from the HD100. We truly appreciate everyone's support, patience and understanding. We will continue to try to provide the best quality product and support services we can at the best price we can.