Is this set-top box safe to take apart?

[Spork829]

My parents have an old DirecTV set top box that has completely died. They want me to extract some of the shows that are recorded from it, so I want to take the HDD out and see what I find. However there is a warning on the back that says "Caution, risk of electric shock. Do not open". Should I actually refrain from cracking it open because of this, maybe the PSU internals are exposed or something? Should I let it sit and drain fully of power for a couple hours just in case? Or is it more of a BS warning to deter people from opening it?

[RGProductions]

1 minute ago, Spork829 said:

 

 

Somewhere in between BS and actual threat. Just know what your doing.

[Spork829]

Just now, RGProductions said:

Somewhere in between BS and actual threat. Just know what your doing.

Perhaps I'll let it sit for a while so there's no risk?

[RGProductions]

Just now, Spork829 said:

Perhaps I'll let it sit for a while so there's no risk?

Just know what your touching and discharge it, you should be okay. Remember they use crazy file formats, so you might just end up with a hard drive but no data.

[Spork829]

2 minutes ago, RGProductions said:

Just know what your touching and discharge it, you should be okay. Remember they use crazy file formats, so you might just end up with a hard drive but no data.

What do you mean by discharge it? And yeah I know there might be no hope, I'm thinking someone may have a converter though.

[imreloadin]

1 minute ago, Spork829 said:

What do you mean by discharge it? And yeah I know there might be no hope, I'm thinking someone may have a converter though.

Just don't go touching any capacitors and you'll be fine.

[iamdarkyoshi]

Its got an integrated PSU, so when you open it up, it will have the exact same risks as opening an ATX PSU. Don't open it while plugged in, and don't lick the bottom of the PSU right after unplugging it, and you should be fine.

[Spork829]

5 minutes ago, imreloadin said:

Just don't go touching any capacitors and you'll be fine.

 

1 minute ago, iamdarkyoshi said:

Its got an integrated PSU, so when you open it up, it will have the exact same risks as opening an ATX PSU. Don't open it while plugged in, and don't lick the bottom of the PSU right after unplugging it, and you should be fine.

Ok. What would happen if I touched anything accidentally? I'd be careful, but if I could die this is not worth it.

[iamdarkyoshi]

Just now, Spork829 said:

 

Ok. What would happen if I touched anything accidentally? I'd be careful, but if I could die this is not worth it.

You can touch anything inside as much as you want, just stay away from the power supply. It will be a separate board from everything else, most of the danger is on the underside of it, and everything else is low voltage (like the insides of a desktop)

 

The main capacitor on the PSU SHOULD have a discharge resistor on it. 99.99% do. It will make the unit perfectly safe to touch and eat after like 15 seconds of being unplugged. 

 

If it doesn't have a discharge resistor or the resistor is bad, the capacitor will store a charge that is highly unlikely to kill, at most it will be like touching a bug zapper racket. It will give you a nasty zap, but not a prolonged one. 

 

But this is all unlikely to happen and will be virtually impossible if you don't touch the underside of the PSU.

[LogicalDrm]

3 minutes ago, Spork829 said:

Ok. What would happen if I touched anything accidentally? I'd be careful, but if I could die this is not worth it.

Most likely you won't die. Its not like it will be 10k volt shock. If there's enough juice, you can get numb hand or loose consciousness for some time.

[RGProductions]

We all can't forget that there's usually some shielding over the PSU

 

[Spork829]

3 minutes ago, iamdarkyoshi said:

You can touch anything inside as much as you want, just stay away from the power supply. It will be a separate board from everything else, most of the danger is on the underside of it, and everything else is low voltage (like the insides of a desktop)

 

The main capacitor on the PSU SHOULD have a discharge resistor on it. 99.99% do. It will make the unit perfectly safe to touch and eat after like 15 seconds of being unplugged. 

 

If it doesn't have a discharge resistor or the resistor is bad, the capacitor will store a charge that is highly unlikely to kill, at most it will be like touching a bug zapper racket. It will give you a nasty zap, but not a prolonged one. 

 

But this is all unlikely to happen and will be virtually impossible if you don't touch the underside of the PSU.

 

1 minute ago, LoGiCalDrm said:

Most likely you won't die. Its not like it will be 10k volt shock. If there's enough juice, you can get numb hand or loose consciousness for some time.

Alright, well I know where the power goes in so I know where the PSU is. The HDD is what I need that it shouldn't be too close to that, and I'll be careful regardless.

[LogicalDrm]

2 minutes ago, Spork829 said:

 

Alright, well I know where the power goes in so I know where the PSU is. The HDD is what I need that it shouldn't be too close to that, and I'll be careful regardless.

You can try same trick which I used for ATX PSU and while whole thing is plugged off, push power button few times and let it be for 20mins. And ofc you can wear rubber gloves if you like. From your OP I assume its going to recycling center after you've removed HDD?

[Spork829]

1 minute ago, LoGiCalDrm said:

You can try same trick which I used for ATX PSU and while whole thing is plugged off, push power button few times and let it be for 20mins. And ofc you can wear rubber gloves if you like. From your OP I assume its going to recycling center after you've removed HDD?

Probably, yeah

[Spork829]

3 minutes ago, LoGiCalDrm said:

You can try same trick which I used for ATX PSU and while whole thing is plugged off, push power button few times and let it be for 20mins. And ofc you can wear rubber gloves if you like. From your OP I assume its going to recycling center after you've removed HDD?

And at this point I think I may give up anyways. Almost all of these torx screws seem to have nonexistent threading and I can't get them to budge.

[LogicalDrm]

2 minutes ago, Spork829 said:

And at this point I think I may give up anyways. Almost all of these torx screws seem to have nonexistent threading and I can't get them to budge.

Drill and metal cutters

[straight_stewie]

47 minutes ago, Spork829 said:

My parents have an old DirecTV set top box that has completely died. They want me to extract some of the shows that are recorded from it, so I want to take the HDD out and see what I find. However there is a warning on the back that says "Caution, risk of electric shock. Do not open". Should I actually refrain from cracking it open because of this, maybe the PSU internals are exposed or something? Should I let it sit and drain fully of power for a couple hours just in case? Or is it more of a BS warning to deter people from opening it?

There should be a code somewhere on the box. Either on the back, bottom, or inside the access card door. The code starts with something like HR, or SD, or HD, or SR...  Can you tell me what that code is? (For the record, I work in a Direct TV tech support call center)

[manikyath]

mostly for future reference:

 

theoreticly, if the device is made properly (as in, not bottom of the barrel chinese knockoff garbage) after minutes rather than hours all the guts are safe to touch, if you want to be sure leave it unplugged overnight and it should all be okay.

 

that sticker is on there because when the device is on, and in the first minute or so after it's unplugged, the high voltage part of the power supply has to the tune of 170-300 volts on it (depending on your region) with enough oomph to blow a hole in your hand.

[manikyath]

1 minute ago, straight_stewie said:

There should be a code somewhere on the box. Either on the back, bottom, or inside the access card door. Can you tell me what that code is? (For the record, I work in a Direct TV tech support call center)

just for the sake of completeness, what would you do with said code?

[straight_stewie]

Just now, manikyath said:

just for the sake of completeness, what would you do with said code?

Know how new the box is. The newer DVR boxes (post TiVo) use actual HDDs and either FAT32 or NTFS, so you might literally be able to just plug the hard drive into a computer and get the files off of it.

However, it's not quite that simple in actuality, the files are encrypted. Now if they are getting a new box like an HR-44 or HR-54 (Genie), then you can just get an eSATA cable and plug the old hard drive in as an extension. Otherwise, you will have to figure out how to break the file encryption, which is something that I can't help with.

[Spork829]

2 minutes ago, straight_stewie said:

Know how new the box is. The newer DVR boxes (post TiVo) use actual HDDs and either FAT32 or NTFS, so you might literally be able to just plug the hard drive into a computer and get the files off of it.

However, it's not quite that simple in actuality, the files are encrypted. Now if they are getting a new box like an HR-44 or HR-54 (Genie), then you can just get an eSATA cable and plug the old hard drive in as an extension. Otherwise, you will have to figure out how to break the file encryption, which is something that I can't help with.

It's on the bottom, says HR24-200.

[manikyath]

Just now, straight_stewie said:

Know how new the box is. The newer DVR boxes (post TiVo) use actual HDDs and either FAT32 or NTFS, so you might literally be able to just plug the hard drive into a computer and get the files off of it.

However, it's not quite that simple in actuality, the files are encrypted. Now if they are getting a new box like an HR-44 or HR-54 (Genie), then you can just get an eSATA cable and plug the old hard drive in as an extension. Otherwise, you will have to figure out how to break the file encryption, which is something that I can't help with.

reminds me of a convo i had with my TV company a while back, asking them if my old, kinda iffy, settop box could be reactivated as a secondary.

 

they ask me the serial number, i answer "A00..." they interrupt: "no, the model number, it's a yellow sticker on the back."

i reiterate: "yes, my model number starts with A00, i told you it's a first gen device"

 

gotta love early adoption, i'm currently keeping it just for the A00 seial number

[straight_stewie]

4 minutes ago, Spork829 said:

It's on the bottom, says HR24-200.

That's new enough. It will have a SATA 2 HDD in it. I think the files are probably encrypted, but it wouldn't hurt anything to try it. You can get SATA to USB cables if you don't want to open your computer up and install the new drive.

Please let me know what you find out about the file structure and/or send me a copy of the disk image.

[Spork829]

10 minutes ago, straight_stewie said:

That's new enough. It will have a SATA 2 HDD in it. I think the files are probably encrypted, but it wouldn't hurt anything to try it. You can get SATA to USB cables if you don't want to open your computer up and install the new drive.

Please let me know what you find out about the file structure and/or send me a copy of the disk image.

I just opened it up and got the HDD out, it is indeed an old Seagate Pipeline 500 gig. Going to try it out right now, will update.

[Spork829]

35 minutes ago, straight_stewie said:

That's new enough. It will have a SATA 2 HDD in it. I think the files are probably encrypted, but it wouldn't hurt anything to try it. You can get SATA to USB cables if you don't want to open your computer up and install the new drive.

Please let me know what you find out about the file structure and/or send me a copy of the disk image.

Damn, I plugged the drive in and it started making quite a nasty buzzing noise on a regular interval every few seconds, and was not detected. So unfortunately it looks like the drive was the component that died within the box. Bit of a shame.