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Thread: Dreambox DM600 HDD problems

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    Default Dreambox DM600 HDD problems

    Hey guys,

    I bought a DM600 PVR box second hand on ebay (original, not clone), and the 40 gig hdd that it came with failed after a few months (started doing weird noises, and had corrupt sectors), it was a hitachi hdd.

    So i decided to replace it with a new samsung 160gb hard drive, but found that the box just wont boot at all with it plugged in. If i unplug it it boots fine. When booting up it has the green/red led's staying on and won't budge.

    I made sure the hard drive ribbon was in the right way when plugging it in. I also went back to the place i bought it from and replaced it with another samsung of the same model, also would fail to boot. Plugging in the hitachi works fine and boots, obviously this isn't ideal.

    I'm running the PLI-jade firmware, latest for the DM-600. Any suggestions?

    Is it possible the hardware is fubar? I've been thinking possibly installing the factory default firmware and trying that, but not sure how that would help.

    Are there certain hard drives that work better than others?



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    I'd be formatting the drive first with a PC> Dont think the Dreams do the PC stuff.
    Cheers, Saintaholic

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    Most DM boxes that use any form of HDD will read it out of the box without formatting them in a PC first. There is a Pli Wikipedia page on this on this link -

    If your DM box does not find the drive it is simply either (1) setup wrong on the IDE ribbon or (2) dead
    It is a hobby so mileage varies
    Loving IPTV with XBMC and android M8
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    Quote Originally Posted by zyrorl View Post
    Hey guys,

    I bought a DM600 PVR box second hand on ebay (original, not clone), and the 40 gig hdd that it came with failed after a few months (started doing weird noises, and had corrupt sectors), it was a hitachi hdd.

    So i decided to replace it with a new samsung 160gb hard drive, but found that the box just wont boot at all with it plugged in. If i unplug it it boots fine. When booting up it has the green/red led's staying on and won't budge.

    I made sure the hard drive ribbon was in the right way when plugging it in. I also went back to the place i bought it from and replaced it with another samsung of the same model, also would fail to boot. Plugging in the hitachi works fine and boots, obviously this isn't ideal.

    I'm running the PLI-jade firmware, latest for the DM-600. Any suggestions?

    Is it possible the hardware is fubar? I've been thinking possibly installing the factory default firmware and trying that, but not sure how that would help.

    Are there certain hard drives that work better than others?
    Another first poster that has not responded in 3 days. Maybe just a coincidence but I am not wasting my time responding to any first posters that do not follow up.

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    Quote Originally Posted by jamesv View Post
    Another first poster that has not responded in 3 days. Maybe just a coincidence but I am not wasting my time responding to any first posters that do not follow up.
    My appologies.

    I have unfortunately been swamped with work and only got to read this now.

    I am unable to partition and format my hard drive at the moment on a laptop (as my laptop uses SATA), i'm borrowing my friend's one soon and doing a live cd ubuntu install and hoping this will work.

    I have at the moment however found an interim solution, i have setup an NFS share onto my linux box with a large enough hard drive to save the movies onto. Shame the box does not support wireless, i bought a pair of powerline networking devices to connect to my router (as my router also stupidly enough does not do WPS bridging).

    This surprisingly works well, however, i've still got a brand new 160 gig hdd sitting around doing nothing. I'll definetly get back to you guys as soon as i have tested partition and ext2 or 3 formatting on the hard drive and chucking it in.

    I should note that i usually am an active forum poster on technical forums (just look on whirlpool i have over 16,000 posts), in addition to contributing on various other forums.

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    Quote Originally Posted by jonc View Post
    Most DM boxes that use any form of HDD will read it out of the box without formatting them in a PC first. There is a Pli Wikipedia page on this on this link -

    If your DM box does not find the drive it is simply either (1) setup wrong on the IDE ribbon or (2) dead
    I had previously tried this without success.

    The box won't even boot up if i plug-in the hard drive. It stays with two solid green and red lights and will not go anywhere unless i remove the hard drive. As i said i am currently on a second brand new hard drive to test this (i sent the other one back and they replaced it just incase it was a faulty hdd). So obviously formatting/partitioning within dreambox is impossible.

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    Quote Originally Posted by zyrorl View Post
    So obviously formatting/partitioning within dreambox is impossible.
    Well for the last several dozen 120gb WD drives we sold pre-installed in the DM600 runniing PLi Jade, they work every time without the need for a PC format. Off the self from the local western digital distributor and into the DM600 and bingo it works every time.

    So I guess you answered your own question.

    I do assume you have the jumpers on your brand of HDD are set as per the user manual, and this does not need to be mentioned.
    It is a hobby so mileage varies
    Loving IPTV with XBMC and android M8
    Join in the XBMCHUB community and visit me at http://tvaddons.ag/

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    I know its not much did you try another ide cable, i had a brand new dm7025 from germany and went to put a hard drive in it and it would and would not boot up with two different drives,then found it was the brand new ide cable was faulty,anything is worth a try!!

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    Quote Originally Posted by jonc View Post
    Well for the last several dozen 120gb WD drives we sold pre-installed in the DM600 runniing PLi Jade, they work every time without the need for a PC format. Off the self from the local western digital distributor and into the DM600 and bingo it works every time.

    So I guess you answered your own question.

    I do assume you have the jumpers on your brand of HDD are set as per the user manual, and this does not need to be mentioned.
    Well i did check the jumper configuration, the hard drive is set to master (ie. no jumpers at all) as according to the diagram on the hdd face.

    Is it possible that these samsung hard drives just aren't compatible?
    Has anyone else experienced this (incompatible hdd's that is)..?

    I guess the other possible issue is either the IDE cable is somehow damaged (they're crammed in fairly badly into the box, could be that when extended to put in another hdd it might have broken it somehow, as unlikely as that seems), or the DM600 is faulty.

    I should note that i did try flashing it back to dreambox's original firmware, as well as pli-jade and it made no difference at all.

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    Quote Originally Posted by digitaldvd View Post
    I know its not much did you try another ide cable, i had a brand new dm7025 from germany and went to put a hard drive in it and it would and would not boot up with two different drives,then found it was the brand new ide cable was faulty,anything is worth a try!!
    I'll order one in and find out i guess... it used to work though:S

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    Funnily enough... i worked out what the problem was... strange asit wasnt totally obvious..

    The power supply was fubar. Everything coincides now.. the tuning issues i was experiencing... and the hard drive suddenly playing up.

    Wheni ordered y dreambox dm600 the guy forgot to send me a power supply so as this was an xmas gift i ordered one from a seperate person until he sent me one... it cost me $15 from adelaide at the time.

    I read a few threads on here about dicky power supplies conc'ing out... and lo-and-behold.. replaced it with the extra one i had purchased and it worked immediately!

    Thanks for everyone's tips on how to fix it! I really appreciate it!

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