RDR-HX717 service mode, service manual, firmare.

[jayu]

Hi there.

This is my first post on this forum, so don't be cruel, please

The matter is:

I bought non-working RDR-HX717 for few bucks, just to have some spare parts for my RDR-HX710. Unfortunately after getting the cover off I realized that it's quite different machine (philips inside?) and I couldn't use it as spare parts.

Anyway, after I have repaired my RDR-HX710 another way, I just checked what's going on with HX717.
The symptoms are:  "STARTING" for several seconds. Then TV receives some kind of signal and display blank (black) screen. It do something like reset and everything repeates infinitely. It doesn't react on any key on main unit nor remote.

After reading some infos on this forum I tried to enter service mode and the observations are:

- when plugin power cord holding  PLAY on main unit I  see on display some (I suppose) diagnostic messages (no picture on TV). Until yesterday it finished with "FAIL 210002". Then I played a little bit with HDD jumper settings and finally got  "PASS" after entering the diagnostic. I realized that someone had already played with HDD replacing it or at least changing jumper positions.

- when plugin power cord holding EJECT and REC on main unit it displays some messages  related (I suspect) to firmware upgrade, something like 'DOWNLOAD", "FORCED DL", then ejects and asks for disc (I have no disc with firmware) and finally "ERROR DOWNL".

Anyway I think the problem is with HDD recognition. If somebody has changed the disk, recorder probably sees incompatibilities between disk ids (stored somewhere in non-volatile memory and new one from disk).


So questions to you are:
- is there any option to enter service menu and update disk id there? What is the procedure?
- I would appreciate if anybody is able to send service manual of this model to me.
- The same with firmware - as the last chance I would try to update the firmware (maybe it is crashed for some reason). If somebody has it...


/jayu

[jehill]

Welcome to Agoraquest!  Unfortunately, not many of us have access to European model service information.

[jayu]

Thank you anyway for reply.

I follow philips way. It seems that inside HX717 is exacly DVDR725H, maybe it is important for somebody.And service manual for HDRW720 is also available and really applicable(look google).

Now I am about to connect to this machine to perform some diagnostic commands (it uses RS232 for service communication).Then I will be sure if this is disk problem only.

Anyway has anybody heard about something like 'Support CD' for RDR series?Unfortunately disk format is nothing that may be recognized byany operating system (including linux) and I will have to format itsomehow. I know that exists something like 'Master DVD' for Philips that may be used for formatting,but I cannot find it anywhere on the web. Maybe somebody has something like that? Maybe something special for Sony version?

/jayu

[jehill]

I suspect that there is a format command some where in the service menu.  That command will format the disk as required.

[jayu]

Hi,

Unfortunately it's not exacly like that.
There is a command that may be used to transfer some data from DVD to HDD.
Unfortunately, as I have learned from google is:
- one have to have "Master DVD" that contains the "format" data to be transferred to HDD (I'm not quite sure, but it may be even part of firmware/application code)
- one have to know what parameters to give to that command (where from to get it from DVD and where to place it on HDD).

I know some people replaced the disk duplicating it from another machine (dd under linux). Unfortunately I have no access to any HX717 and can't do it.

Anyway I have to connect to HX717 with my PC (unlike other Sony products having Service Menu displayed on TV I have to do some adaptors to connect to it using RS232 - as Philips does).
I don't know if I am able to repair it, but playing with it is quite enjoying

Regards

/jayu

[jehill]

That's surprising, since I know that I have read threads on US models that do have a format command.

[jayu]

We will see. It would be even better for me to have such format command. Unfortunately - as I said - it seems that this model is Philips inside (I don't mean that only Philips drive or something, but most of boards are exacly the same as in Philips HDRW720 or DVDR725H).

/jayu

[paulclaude]

Hi ,
I 'm french and i have a rdr-hx-717  i bought on ebay which have the same trouble than yours.
I tested firmware from philips hrw720 but ...Error
At last, i found this page in dutch language (but i don't understand dutch) :
http://www.attic-company.nl/dvdr725h.htm

I haven't found any translation in english/french of this web page.

According to the author, It would be an alimentation trouble...


I wait for your ideas.
The sooner the better..

[Mr_Mod]

try http://babelfish.altavista.com/tr

[jayu]

Hi,

Thank you very much for replies.
I'm going to check if this is a problem of power-supply simply by supplying the disk and DVD drive from external power-supply (I have one from my old computer). I will let you know about the results. Anyway - did you try to do it yourself?

In the meantime (yesterday) I did simple interface cable to this machine based on MAX232. Unfortunately it doesn't work as expected yet. What I can see is when I star-up the machine with the cable it doesn't display "STARTING" anymore, but sends something on this interface. As for today it is only crap (however I configured it as for HDRW720 and also tried a lot of different speeds), but I am going to check if Rx/Tx lines are not inverted and do some more investigations.

Of course if I find something I will let you know here

Regards
/jayu