Shaw pvr expander

[fundmark19]

Originally Posted by GoinAllTheWay

Why not just take it to them and have them give you a new one?

Because they will only send a tech out to come diagnose it since it turns on for a day every other week. But to get a tech out it is 2 + weeks it is a royal pain

[jtfrogger]

I had a problem with my "custom built" expander about a month ago. I called Shaw and with a couple of resets, including unplugging everything (even the cable between the Motorola box & the external drive), it worked fine.

After the fix, the Shaw screen interface was slightly different. So, Shaw obviously sent an update out that didn't get installed cleanly on my box.

If I ever call Shaw with an issue, I speak about my expander without telling them it is not a Shaw branded expander. If they ask me if it is a Shaw branded expander, I tell them it is not. They've never had an issue with it and always worked with me to solve the problem.

[Old Yeller]

Originally Posted by OilKiller

I have the Shaw Gateway now that comes with a larger internal drive, so not sure what we will do now.

Just an FYI, but I have the Gateway system and hooked up a memory express custom expander on the E-Sata port, the Gateway found it and formatted it without an issue.

[Jimmy Stang]

So I have plugged my home made PVR expander into my PC, formatted it, and then ran chkdsk. Some bad sectors were found (only 13 or something small like that), which Windows repaired. Plugged the drive in to the cable box again and it formatted and is up and running.

I am guessing that the drive will eventually fail again once I fill it to the point where it is using those bad sectors, but perhaps once Windows marks a sector as bad, it persists even when formatting on different systems. Obviously, there's nothing that I can do to prevent new bad sectors from forming. I am surprised that just a handful of bad sectors would cause the troubles I was seeing with my PVR (not booting at all), so maybe there is something more going on. As for the sounds that I was hearing - who knows? Perhaps it was the normal crunching as the drive started up, which sounded quite different from the regular crunching as it recorded a show.

In the mean time, I'll record shows like a mad man to test it and hope that it won't happen again, while not becoming too attached to the things that I record. If it keeps me away from the Shaw lineups during their busy season and keep $100 in my pocket for a little while longer, that's OK with me.

[Rathji]

^ Couldnt you just clone the drive to a new one if you were that concerned about it? Never really thought about it but it should be possible.

[fundmark19]

So shaw came last night and said your home made expander is the reason your shaw box won't turn on anymore. I told him it wasn't since it doesn't turn on when the expander is not plugged in and he gave me a new box and left. Now time to cancel shaw and have wife sign up for gateway

[DuffMan]

Originally Posted by Jimmy Stang

Please excuse the bump (a year and a half later!), but is anyone else who did the "home made expander" from Memory Express having trouble with the hard drives failing now?

My ME expander has worked fine up until recently. My Motorola 6416 box died. They replaced with a refurbed Pace tdc7760d. After hooking the expander into that, it (receiver)started power cycling itself every once in awhile which got more frequent. Sometimes a recorded show would be in 2 or 3 parts as the box would power cycle. So I unplugged the ME HDD and it is OK for a week or 2. Guess I will get the Shaw one now, as it is only $100. The one thing I noticed about the ME expander was it was really hot whenever I handled it.

[MoneyGuy]

How do these expanders hook up? Are they fairly easy to connect, format and get going?

[DuffMan]

Originally Posted by MoneyGuy

How do these expanders hook up? Are they fairly easy to connect, format and get going?

super easy.

[Jimmy Stang]

^ For the cost, however, I would consider buying an official Shaw one. They're about $100, so not much more than a drive and an enclosure, and if things get flaky with it, you should be able to swap it with Shaw.

A couple of years ago when I made my own using a HD and enclosure from Memory Express, I was saving a bunch of money by not buying the Shaw one, and my folks' one died a few months ago and they ended up having to replace it. And mine occasionally hiccups too.

But to answer your question more directly, as DuffMan says, super easy. Just connect the drive using eSata, power cycle the cable box, and you should be good to go. One of mine didn't recognize it right away and I had to call Shaw and have them reset the cable box remotely, and that didn't take long for them to do either.

[MoneyGuy]

Originally Posted by DuffMan

super easy.

Thanks but it's probably unnecessary for me. When my PVR gets close to full, I delete stuff. Now I'm around 20%. We have a second PVR on a non-HD TV that the wife uses so I can always record stuff on hers, which is almost always near empty.

It was a thought but on reflection I don't really need it.