Problems with ATI TV tuner

[archcommus]

Back in March I bought a Powercolor Theater 550 Pro TV tuner. The card installed okay and works, and operates okay in a real basic playback app like MPC, but in any program that actually uses the onboard chip for hardware encoding, like SageTV, BeyondTV, or really any PVR app, the card locks up after a few minutes to a half hour of use. If you touch the chip at this time it is SCORCHING hot, and my system temperature is fine, under 40 C. So obviously I would attribute this problem to the lack of a heatsink on the card.

However, because the card ships without a heatsink and is *supposed* to work okay without one (even though it doesn't), ATI refuses to replace the card under warranty due to this problem and instead tries to blame it on other things in my system, such as PCI settings, driver issues, etc. I'm tired of them trying to shift the blame to other things when the fact is the card is just getting too damn hot.

So at this point I feel I only have two options, throw this card away and waste the $90 I spent on it, or try to install my own heatsink, which I would have no idea how to do. Any help?

Thanks.

 

[Praxis1452]

just get a heatsink.

 

[archcommus]

Originally posted by: Praxis1452
just get a heatsink.

Type? How do I install it if there are no holes or anything on the card?

 

[rbV5]

ATI refuses to replace the card under warranty due to this problem and instead tries to blame it on other things in my system, such as PCI settings, driver issues, etc. I'm tired of them trying to shift the blame to other things when the fact is the card is just getting too damn hot.

Why would ATI support Powercolor hardware for warranty again?

 

[Saku]

http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16835118220

+

http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16835192007

YMMV

 

[archcommus]

Originally posted by: rbV5

ATI refuses to replace the card under warranty due to this problem and instead tries to blame it on other things in my system, such as PCI settings, driver issues, etc. I'm tired of them trying to shift the blame to other things when the fact is the card is just getting too damn hot.

Why would ATI support Powercolor hardware for warranty again?

Sorry, my mistake. What I meant was, I contacted ATI support about the issue, and they wouldn't admit it could possibly be due to the lack of a heatsink on the card. I suppose I *could* try to get Powercolor to actually replace the whole board, but who's to say the new one would be any better.

Originally posted by: Saku
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16835118220

+

http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16835192007

YMMV

Thanks. I don't have a free PCI slot under my tuner card to install a fan, but maybe the VGA heatsink alone would help. How does something like that get applied?

 

[Aikouka]

Those heatsinks typically have thermal tape on the bottom of them. You simply peal off a protective plastic and apply it to the designated chip. Although, those memory modules are typically small and you'll be applying multiple modules at that rate.

I recently bought these for a motherboard with an onboard VGA solution that had a southbridge with no heatsink. So far it's worked wonders and was very easy to apply!

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835119061

Unfortunately, you'll end up with a ton extra .

 

[archcommus]

Originally posted by: Aikouka
Those heatsinks typically have thermal tape on the bottom of them. You simply peal off a protective plastic and apply it to the designated chip. Although, those memory modules are typically small and you'll be applying multiple modules at that rate.

I recently bought these for a motherboard with an onboard VGA solution that had a southbridge with no heatsink. So far it's worked wonders and was very easy to apply!

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835119061

Unfortunately, you'll end up with a ton extra .

Thanks! I was just curious how they stuck on there. I think I will get a pack like this then, because besides this problem I like this card since it has good features and is PCI-E.

 

[Saku]

I'm not sure how this will effect heat transfer but with the Evercool heatsinks there will be a overhang when applied to the Ati chipset. The chipset is where the heat is primarily coming from, a heatsink+fan solution would be ideal. I also had overheating issues with a ATi Tuner and that thing was a nightmare. I had to get rid of it.

 

[archcommus]

Originally posted by: Saku
I'm not sure how this will effect heat transfer but with the Evercool heatsinks there will be a overhang when applied to the Ati chipset. The chipset is where the heat is primarily coming from, a heatsink+fan solution would be ideal. I also had overheating issues with a ATi Tuner and that thing was a nightmare. I had to get rid of it.

Hmm, I hope I don't buy heatsinks and still have issues. I couldn't attach a fan to these VGA heatsinks, and I don't have space for a PCI fan card. Maybe I should try to send this straight back to Powercolor now.

 

[Saku]

archcommus, your best bet is to just switch to another tuner. This one will only cause you further headaches. It literally took me less than 5 minutes to get a Hauppagge/Dvico tuner running smoothly.

That is probably not the answer you want to hear but I am speaking from experience.

 

[Peter]

archcommus, just because a chip has no heatsink on doesn't mean it doesn't need any airflow - which is the actual problem in an ordinary PC, particularly the bottom slots.
I'd rather add a case intake fan that brings some fresh air to where those cards are. That normally does the job.

 

[archcommus]

Originally posted by: Peter
archcommus, just because a chip has no heatsink on doesn't mean it doesn't need any airflow - which is the actual problem in an ordinary PC, particularly the bottom slots.
I'd rather add a case intake fan that brings some fresh air to where those cards are. That normally does the job.

You'll be surprised to hear this, but the card is actually in my top-most PCI-E slot, which is actually my top-most slot overall (Epox 9NPA+ Ultra). There are no cards in TWO slots below it, until you get down to my video card. So it's about mid-height in my case, had lots of space below it, AND I have TWO intake fans in my case (Kingwin KT-424-S). So really this card has no excuse for overheating. Maybe it actually is defective.

As Saku has pointed out, a regular PCI Hauppauge/Leadtek/whatever TV tuner would be way easier to set up and use, but unfortunately my external HDD doesn't like the my board's USB ports, so I have a NEC 4-port card installed. That, combined with my Audigy2, only leaves one PCI slot open directly under my video card that is literally flush against my video card's fan/heatsink. So a PCI tuner is really out of the question unless I get a new motherboard or a new external HDD so I wouldn't need the USB card anymore.

URGH. So I can either replace this card, have no card, or get a PCI card and figure out a way to eliminate my USB card dependency. Honestly, I'd PREFER getting this card working, either this one specifically or a new one from Powercolor. Just because, I don't want to buy a new card and throw this one away (it was $90), but I also don't want to sell this card since it doesn't really work right, and I like the fact that it's PCI-E.

So maybe it's time to register this with Powercolor, get tech support, and if they can't solve it try an RMA.

 

[Steve]

Didn't that chip have a recall issued?

 

[archcommus]

Originally posted by: sm8000
Didn't that chip have a recall issued?

I believe that was the 650, but if you have any links about the 550 I would gladly look at them.

 

[Peter]

Philips also have shipping PCIE TV chips (7131E and its dual-channel brother 7162), and we here in Europe also have shipping cards that use it. They're LifeView designs, shipping under alias brands as well.

The Philips chips have pretty low power consumption, which makes them relatively safe from overheating.

http://www.lifeview.com.tw/html/product...ernal_tv/flytv_express_x1_mst_sta2.htm

However, they don't appear to have any USA-specific digital-TV products that decode ATSC - just the DVB standards everyone else all over the world uses.

 

[archcommus]

Originally posted by: Peter
Philips also have shipping PCIE TV chips (7131E and its dual-channel brother 7162), and we here in Europe also have shipping cards that use it. They're LifeView designs, shipping under alias brands as well.

The Philips chips have pretty low power consumption, which makes them relatively safe from overheating.

http://www.lifeview.com.tw/html/product...ernal_tv/flytv_express_x1_mst_sta2.htm

However, they don't appear to have any USA-specific digital-TV products that decode ATSC - just the DVB standards everyone else all over the world uses.

That seems like a nice card. Philips makes good tuners, too. Too bad it doesn't seem to be sold in the U.S. (the one you linked to at least).

 

[archcommus]

And where is the Catalyst Media Center? It has been on ATI's site for at least five months now with NO mention of online availability (so far only seems to come bundled with 650 PRO). If this software became freely available, so I didn't have to rely on SageTV/BeyondTV/etc., and if I got a new card that (despite being hot) at least didn't lock up (and I know this is possible because a lot of people use this card with no problems), I think I could be decently satisfied. The picture quality is good enough and the remote, although crappy and lacking universal functionality, at least gets the basics done.

 

[deadken]

WTF?!?! Sorry....

 

[Jeff7]

I know I'm bringing up an old thread, but I'm also having many problems with a Theater 550 Pro card - this one.

The video window locks up after a few minutes, and keeps doing that evert 5-6 minutes for the first half hour, then it progresses to every 10-30 seconds. I need to change the channel to unfreeze it. The counter on the BeyondTV window continues, so it's not completely frozen.
Recording results in increasingly severe corruption as the file continues recording.
The chip also gets quite painfully hot after several minutes of use.

I did just try recording 1hr47min of video, with a 120mm fan blowing a bit of air onto the chip, though it wasn't getting very much. The fan is just sitting next to the case, and there are lots of cables in the way. But it did reduce the amount of corruption in the file. Previously, anything much over 1hr would get such severe corruption that the picture was barely viewable, and WMP would crash. This file only skips several times toward the end, and there is far less corruption.
I also extracted the audio and checked it out with Goldwave. It's fine. There are no sudden glitchy spikes.

Was there any resolution to the problem in this thread?
If I attach a heatsink, especially with my preferred method, it'd void the warranty, and with that goes any chance of an RMA. I like using Arctic Silver in the center of the chip, with dabs of epoxy around the perimeter. It seems to be quite effective.

 

[Jeff7]

Update:
Finally got my fun little Thermohawk 200. Very nice; it's my first IR thermometer.


I just checked the temp of the chip after over an hour of recording. 144.5F (62.5C).
That's from over an inch away. The Thermohawk is too long to allow me to fit it in between the TV tuner and the SX4000 card that's in the farthest PCI slot, so it was pretty angled when I got the measurement. The back of the card at the chip is 134F.

Stay tuned here, I'll slap a heatsink on this thing and see what that does for its temps, and most importantly, for my freezups and video corruption.


Update#1: Well, that sure is some great thermal tape. It is the bubble-gum-like stuff that was found on AthlonXP retail heatsinks. The heatsink fell off. :roll:

First off, I have no idea how to use it. It is this stuff. Application wasn't easy.
I peeled off the clear backing, and stuck it to the heatsink, then peeled off the paper. Then I'm greeted with a blue slip of plastic. Removing that was nearly impossible, as it peeled up the TIM along with it. I kind of had to scrape it off and reapply it to the heatsink.

Apparently, it's not very sticky at high temperatures. It's all stringy now, like warm taffy. So much for that. I'm just glad I put some cardboard on my SX4000 as a precaution, otherwise I might have shorted out something on that.


Update#2: Heatsink is on, and I've got something supporting it, which unfortunately reduces the already minimal airflow. The heatsink temp is 134F. It's doing its job just fine, but I don't know if it's enough.