Repair of fried players - maybe possible

[riverpietro]

To Devonian Nigel and all of you:
Got LTXQ as a sample from a friend, replaced it but my H1xx remains dead.
(I´ve done lots of succesful SMD solderwork before, so that should not be to suspect)
Also tried once again shorting pins 7 & 8 of LTNP and nothing happens.
I believe my player was turned on with the 11VDC correct polarity charger plugged in >> caused really fatal damage to CPU/CORE etc...???
My wild quess is that if your player has only been charged (not switched on) with improper charger, it should be able to repair quite easily.

Anyway, I´m keeping this dead player as spares for my H140 and furure projects.

Also, still interested to buy working main board or defective ihp1xx/H1xx player, preferably from Europe.

Good luck to you all with your repairs!

Petri, Helsinki, Finland

[aphextwin]

even though none of my symptoms, so good to see some hope in repairing my 140. seems by the time I'm writing this, you're already a celebrity here, horst.

thanks

[hiiyah777]

Okay, so I'm brand spanking new on here, so let me introduce myself. I got my H120 for FREE, that's right, how lucky did I get? I won it in an online contest in April of 2004, and I've been very fortunate to have this thing. I stumbled on this website a week ago, and it got me all excited about having this wonderful machine. I've figured out that I can upgrade my hard drive and my battery, and now I want to keep this thing forever. So in my excitement to learn more about this thing, I went out and bout a T5, and disassembled it a couple of days ago and cleaned everything, played around with the battery connection since my new battery is on its way (I had to know how it worked). I brought it to work with me the next night, and it worked great all night just like normal (although the battery life has dwindled down to a mere 7-8 hours). I got home the next morning, put it on the right charger that it came with, went to sleep, and woke up, and wanted to load a cd on their before work that night. Only now, for some reason, it is completely unresponsive. I've tried resetting it, dismantling it and checking for burns, loose or severed wires, nothing. Any advice? I would greatly appreciate it. I'm still waiting for my new battery to come in. I'm hoping that I just messed up the wires on the battery and a new battery would solve this.
Jason

[jonsynnott]

Hi

I also have fried my player and dont have the know how to fix it, so i am looking for a H120 with a dead hard drive so i can replace mine in it.
Anyone know where the best place to get one would be?

cheers
J

[BadMunky]

Firstly, a big THANKS to everyone on this and the Rockbox forum, it was your enthusiasm for the iHP140 that made me decide to buy one about 4 years ago and I haven’t been disappointed. I have cherished my iRiver, never even letting it out of its case and it has proved an excellent player. I fashioned a crude docking station for it out of old pc/washing machine parts with the help of Haku’s excellent tutorial. I never even had the guts to try Rockbox on it though for fear of bricking the unit.

Cue the sad music… Last week I plugged my Belkin Tunecast 12v car adapter straight into the unit by mistake!!! I could’ve cried, but being a 35year old bloke, I just used the F-word a lot and thumped the steering wheel.
Inspired once again by the amazing contributors to this forum, I got hold of a T5 screwdriver and took a look inside, I even got samples from Texas Instruments and Linear Technologies of the BQ24022 Li-Ion charger. and LTNP chips (top marks to both companies for sending out these items so speedily and for free!). However, the chips are tiny and the BQ24022 has no pins/legs, there’s no way I can possibly solder these in and besides, certain caps may be blown as well?

As I see it I have the following options:

· Get someone to try to fix it for me
· Get hold of a 2nd hand iHP140 or iHP120 and swap the circuit boards (my case is pristine and I presume battery and HD are OK)
· Get a 20gb H10 and swap in my 40gb HD.


My questions to you are therefore:

· Does anyone know for sure what has been damaged by putting 12v straight into the iHP140?
· Is there anyone out there who could have a go at fixing it for me?
· Is the circuitry in the iHP120 exactly the same as the iHP140 and is it therefore possible to just place iHP120 guts in my iHP140?
· Would my 40gb HD fit in the 20gb H10 and is the H10 just as good as the iHP140 or is it in any way inferior (I like the H10’s ability to record straight from FM radio)

Thanks in advance, I’m sure you’ll all descend like piranha onto these problems and come up with solutions by teatime.

BadMunky.

[shadesbass]

Originally Posted by BadMunky

· Does anyone know for sure what has been damaged by putting 12v straight into the iHP140?

As you will know from reading this thread, there are several components that may have been damaged, and it is a case of plugging the unit into the correct charger and seeing what voltage appears on the output of each component to determine whether it is still functioning correctly. If you are not confident doing this then I would advise looking for a replacement player or someone who is able to fix it for you.

Originally Posted by BadMunky

· Is there anyone out there who could have a go at fixing it for me?

The iriver store (link above) used to offer a repair service but I don't believe they do anymore. You could try contacting iRiver themselves (although they are notoriously difficult to get hold of), but I don't know of any third party repair services.

Originally Posted by BadMunky

· Is the circuitry in the iHP120 exactly the same as the iHP140 and is it therefore possible to just place iHP120 guts in my iHP140?

Yes, the only difference between the 120 and 140 is the hard drive and the case.

Originally Posted by BadMunky

· Would my 40gb HD fit in the 20gb H10 and is the H10 just as good as the iHP140 or is it in any way inferior (I like the H10’s ability to record straight from FM radio)

I don't think it will fit, and the H10 is regarded by many as being inferior to the H140. IIRC it still has FM recording capabilities, but it lacks the more advanced features (optical in/out etc.). This may be fine for you though. I'd suggest reading more about the H10 before parting with your money, as you may be disappointed that it doesn't have some of the features available in the H140.

[BadMunky]

Thanks for your advice shadebass, looking further at the H10, the HD's are ZIF connection (is that right?) so are not compatable anyway. I suspect a 'pro' repair would cost more than I could get a second hand working H120 or H140 for on ebay, but if there is anyone out there who is confident at having a go...?

At least I've got as far as taking the case apart and would have no problems upgrading the HD or battery in future, may even try changing the colour of the screen LED's using coloured gels, there are some impressive mods on this forum....

[BadMunky]

Hi,

Another query for the experts.

Are the iHP-115 innards the same as the iHP-120 & iHP-140?
Could I use them to do a swapsies into my fried iHP-140?

Thanks,

Munky

[melontracks]

Ugh! Okay, just got an ihp120 off ebay for $12. non-working. opened her up and found a burned up chip right off, but it wasn't the LTXQ that so often fries. this looked like a much more simple component, a little rectangular black dude with three poles. though it was toasted on mine, looking at the scans of the circuit boards reveals that it is labeled "ZS1" and is near the spot on the board labeled "R103."

For one brief and magical moment, I was able to get the player to fire up! Unfortunately at the time, the hard drive was removed, and after the initial splash screen and "check hdd" mesage, it died again, for good. the "ZS1" (chip? capacitor? resistor?) completely fell apart when I brushed the circuit board leaving just three poles flapping in the breeze. It looks like even the foil on the circuit board is ruined there. Any hope of salvation?

at least I'll have a 20 gig hdd...if it's not broken!

Here's pictures of the damage:



You can see that the damage is right above where the battery connector is.



And a close-up of the part right before it fell apart.

[BadMunky]

Check out the Buy/Sell/Trade forum, I have posted the following item:
FREE: BQ24022 Li-Ion charger and LTNP chips.
For anyone who can put them to good use. I warn you though, you'll need microscopic vision and incredible soldering skills.

cheers,

[Dave0701]

Would this also be an example of a "fried" H120?:

Just recently my computer doesn't recognize my H120 when I connect it to my pc or any other laptop. It looks like my usb port isn't working anymore.
H120 screen does say "Connected" when I put the usb cable to the pc. I tried different cables, different pc's/laptops.

Anybody advice?

[daveky]

I've read the full thread. I did not plug in the wrong charger. However, my H320 has stopped working. It got hot while charging. I don't think it even showed the charging screen. I should have thought something of that, eh?

When I hit 'play' to start it I have seen the message (I forget the wording) that suggests my battery has 'ballooned'. So I dissected the player but found the battery looks A-OK. (I was getting at least 8 hours of playback from it so not too much of a surprise.)

So, Started to look at the PCB, and guess what? It shows signs of burning. It's exactly where I felt the heat build up and it definitely wasn't coming from the HDD or battery. So, is it screwed?

I don't think my burn marks are exactly like the ones described by other people. There are only signs on one side of the PCB. If someone could pass a trained eye over it and offer some advice, guidance and support it would be appreciated.

It's not the best picture. I ringed the burn potential burning.

[kuuan]

Is there a consensus on which part/s of the H1xx will be faulty after having been connected to a Nokia handphone charger?
Where to get this part/s in Europe?

thank you,
kuuan

[jumbuck]

Originally Posted by kuuan

Is there a consensus on which part/s of the H1xx will be faulty after having been connected to a Nokia handphone charger?
Where to get this part/s in Europe?

thank you,
kuuan

Normally I'd post a link to the repair of fried players thread but seems as though your already here then I'll have to say read it as most of your questions are answered on page one includeing links to suppliers of parts. IIRC iriver europe still offer a repair service if you have trouble sourcing parts.

[w i l l]

HorstIriver as I'm not allowed to PM you (only 1 post) could I ask.. would you carry out repairs on my iHP140 if i sent it to you? (plugged in wrong charger, damn). Or anyone else for that matter? Obviously I pay for it!

Please contact me at:

will@willusher.com

Many thanks!

[Carter41]

Wow. There's some great info in this thread. I've been trying to revive my h120 for a few weeks now with no luck, but there's some great info regarding the motherboard here. Thanks a ton for those who contributed!

[xenon341]

Hi all
After 2 years of service (bought used) my iHP-120 is gone....

Symptoms :
When i try to start it, with rockbox or the original firmware, the player show first logo (for the iriver form) / 3 first lines of rockbox boot, and then the screen backlight is flashing, on off on off on off etc...

This problem happen on battery, on sector, connected, or not, to a PC

Here is a video, more explicit :

http://adsl-power.info/init_iriver120.mpg

I took some shots of the motherboard, maybe you'll see something, but i think it's more than un burned component.

http://adsl-power.info/IMG_1225.JPG
http://adsl-power.info/IMG_1226.JPG
http://adsl-power.info/IMG_1227.JPG
http://adsl-power.info/IMG_1228.JPG
http://adsl-power.info/IMG_1229.JPG
http://adsl-power.info/IMG_1230.JPG

I you have an idea, ki take it lol
Thanks, and sorry for my english, i'm french
@+

[andymikeyp]

Hi folks

A new mystery for you guys to ponder...

My iHP-120 won't switch on.

My player will only switch on with the RESET button. It attempts to boot using the original firmware, but gets no further than the iRiver logo...
If I hold PLAY whilst pressing RESET, it tries to load RockBox, gets as far as Result: 0 but no further...

Both battery and HDD lights are lit solidly as expected (not blinking, etc)

So I plugged it into my PC, switched it on with PLAY + RESET and manage to get it into "Bootloader USB mode"

It takes bloody ages (~1 min) for the drive to appear on my PC but eventually it does, as drive F:
If you try to explore the drive contents, it takes a while before Windows says "The drive is not formatted. Would you like to format it now?"

So I tried running chkdsk on it:

chkdsk f: /v
The type of the file system is FAT32

Errors found. CHKDSK cannot continue in read-only mode.

chkdsk f: /v /f
The type of the file system is FAT32

(after a minute or so pause, a Windows XP's "crashing program" dialog box appears:
Check Disk Utility has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience.
Please tell Microsoft about this problem
etc etc)

What do you reckon? Try formatting the drive? In which case, how do I get original firmware back on there?

Much thanks and appreciation in advance!

Andy

[jumbuck]

The iriver firmware is not store on the hard drive so you can format the drive with out losing it , you will have to put the rockbox box folder back onto the drive once formatting is complete.

[onlyonce]

I've got the same story as just about everyone. I bought a player that was broken it had a bloated battery, clicking hard disk and dead main-board. A real deal. The case looks good so it's not a total loss.

I have a spare battery and and spare disk. The charger will charge the battery and the unit generated a lot of heat from the LTXQ marked U28. And it's voltage output was all wrong.

I am also getting inconsistent readings from the 2 capacitors marked C83 and C86. I've compared readings to other caps on the same board and from another working 120. I'm convinced these caps are bad.

I found some replacement LTXQs and have installed one but without replacement capacitors I'm not going to bother testing.

I haven't found any good information about replacements throughout this thread. Most of the information seemed like speculation or assumptions.

Does anyone have more exact information for these parts or reasonable substitutes and possible sources? I'm located in Canada.

Thank you.