Philips DVDR power supply failure

AC7010LF

The PI Electronics AC7010LF power supply of my DVDR3590H failed all of a sudden. First I thought of static electricity due to thunderstrikes but this was not the case since nothing was burned. So I had to come up with a solution.

AC7010LF

After my previous encounter with a Philips power supply, this was the next in line to fail. After opening up the recorder, the power supply is seen in the top left corner. The 12NC (internal Philips partsnumber) of this PSU is: 313924713532. Since Philips does not manufactur harddisk recorders anymore it is very unlikely that they have a spare parts department that is supplying to end consumers.  Some people tried to contact PI Electronics but due to contractual agreements they do not offer any help. Bigger top image here.

Warning: make sure you unplug the power cord and leave it for an hour. I got an electric shock touching one of the parts even when the cord was unplugged.

The power supply consists of a live part and a lower voltage part (image is clickable).

Rumor is that the elco’s go wrong after a while. The other option is that the SG5842 JACZ integrated circuit is broken. There is nothing to see from my elco’s. As you can see in the photo the elco’s are not busted open, no signs of any leaks and no apparent visual failures. Other option is that one of the SMD’s is broken:

R29
R30
R79
F1
D11

There are some elco repair kits available to buy for around 13 euro’s which contain:

Amount uF Voltage
2 3300 10
1 220 10
3 470 10
1 470 16
1 1000 16
2 22 50
1 100 50

My solution

I don’t know if these kits work. It could also be the case that you replace all elco’s at once (as per the advice) and the power supply still does not work, as one other components is broken.
Since I don’t have any tools available to measure other then a Voltcraft multimeter this for now is a no go. So insead  I thought it was better to buy a donor recorder. These don’t cost a lot anymore today, and you have a spare dvdburner and harddisk.

A few years ago I got myself a DVDR3570H which is the version with a smaller harddrive (160GB versus 250GB). To conclude, after swapping the power supply my main device works again. This power supply is also found in the HDR3800 (with Mediatek chipset).

Fixing the power supply yourself

Extended schematics in pdf

You can test the voltages coming out with this schematic (taken from an HDR3800).

References:

Repdata

15 thoughts on “Philips DVDR power supply failure

  1. John McCarthy

    Thanks FAHAD for your help, I have ordered a donor from e-bay and will be here at the end of this Month,
    But it is the PSU is the fault, because I have two of them unit’s ( DVDR3590h) and each were working, so to
    make sure it was the PSU was the fault, changed one to the other and it worked. so for the sake of it I tried on line to replace the faulty PSU but found no response. then I decided as you said try for a donor.
    So thanks very much for your help, kind regards John McCarthy.

    Reply
  2. GSM

    You can use the empty space of C6 to add a 1M and a 100K resistor in series between 300 Volt (1M) and Gnd (100K). Connect a short wire between pin 3 of the controller chip and the interconnection of the two 1M and 100K resistors. The power supply will be started in most cases by the voltage applied to pin 3 of the controller chip.

    Reply
    1. W00fer Post author

      Hello Gerrit,
      Thanks for your reply. Why would this solution work?
      Can you explain the inner workings?
      I am also able to speak Dutch.

      Reply
  3. Lars Hammarberg

    I have tried the 1M/100k solution. The voltage at pin 3 reaches c:a 20 V .The power supply does not start.
    I tried with the power cables A and B disconnected, same result.
    Can I use a power supply for a computer instead?
    Or can I use a Raspberry Pi media player and connect the IDE disc via an adapter?
    Regards/UABHAM

    Reply
    1. W00fer Post author

      Hello Lars, thanks for your reply. Going the raspberry Pi route might be a solution.
      However since the partition table is a closely guarded secret by Philips there is almost zero information.
      ISOBUSTER (the famous recovery software) has some support for Philips DVD Recorders but not for this one unfortunately yet.
      I tried to convince the author but he said that the market is too niche, which I disagree with.
      I’m not sure you can try the power supply. In the service manual which is widely available is stated home many volts each component needs.
      It would be cool if you would figure out the partition table. What has been tried so far is identifying the MPEG recordings via their header.
      This is a very time consuming effort and works partially, you sometimes get fragments of a recording.
      I even contacted an older Philips engineer but he left te company before the recorder was constructed.

      Reply
  4. Lars Hammarberg

    Hello, and thanks for Your prompt reply.
    The J1 seems to be a standard PC power connector.
    The J2.1 VGNSTBY has a -50V capacitor and a 27V zener setting the voltage.
    The text on the AC7010LF says 20 mA..
    The 5NSTBY should be -5V, 200mA.
    The J2.4 IPFAIL has +5V via R51 4k7, and is shorted to GNG by Q7.
    When Q3 is conducting, the voltage should be at +5V.
    This should be the normal situation.
    I have not found any service manual at philips.com, only user manual.
    I Am contemplating an external +12Vsypply, and converters to +5V, +3.3V, -5V, and -30V.
    An expensive solution.
    I have not found any vendor for the SG5842.
    Regards/UABHAM

    Reply
  5. Charles

    So you didn’t diagnose nor repair it, you just replaced it? If so, what is the use of this guide? Essentially, you have just linked the schematics.

    Reply
  6. tcfkat

    Hello,

    yesterday I got in our Repair Café a Philips DVDR3570H/31 that did not start after being separated from mains for a short while. This is typical for weak electrolytic caps. But in my case all the secondary caps (mentioned above) looks good. The secondary voltages where much to low, when unplugging both mainboards they where OK. With an oscilloscope I saw under load a low frequency ripple on the secondary side, so the SMPS controller IC seems to have trouble to start.

    Finally the small filter caps for the SMPS controller IC on the PRIMARY side where dead. Replacing them and the PSU starts immediately. The caps are: C28 (10µF/25V/105°C) and C30 (33µF/35V/105°C). Both are near the heat sink of the MOSFET and get quite warm during operation. Replacing by slightly higher values should not be a problem, but they should be 105°C types.

    ATTENTION: the main filter caps C1 and C15 have no bleeder (discharge resistor) and can therefore keep their charge for a very long time when the PSU does not start! Bad design! Discharge them using a 100 Ohm resistor before servicing, but do not short-circuit them directly.

    Hope this helps

    Reply
      1. W00fer Post author

        Thanks for this website. As an ESR meter is quite expensive (around 100 euro) and not a lot of multimeters are able to measure them, it might be a long shot to repair. The link you demonstrate uses an expensive Fluke automatic multimeter. Maybe it is possible to use other methods to diagnose these capacitors as well. Glad you solved it at a repaircafe.

        Reply
  7. El Josso

    Hello there, just replaced C28 and C30 in the live area. Guess what, the machine is running again. Thanks for the help.

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *