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  1. Member
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    I have just noticed the last day or so my pioneer 450H keeps freezing up. When it does this I cant do anything with it so I have to unplug it. It has frooze while I was recording from HDD to a DVD. It has frooze while just playing a video off the HDD. Do I need to replace the HD drive on this? I read somewhere people just replace the SATA cable and that fixes it. Is there any specific sata cable for it? Does this hookup like in a regular PC just plugs up from the board to the HD drive. Never took the cover off to even see what it looks like inside. Im guessing it is harder than just pulling out the HD and poping in another. I read where people try to go higher on HD Im fine with my 160gb just dont like this freeze its started doing. I had it about 2 years love it. This is the first problems I have had.


    Thanks alot guys
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  2. Its probably the SATA cable, it worked itself loose from vibration or it oxidized. Unplug the recorder, take off the cover, and disconnect the plugs from the hard drive and motherboard ends of the SATA cable (and any other cable plugged into the hard drive). Repeat this plug/unplug of the hard drive cables three or four times, to scrape off any tarnish. The final time, make sure they are plugged in quite securely, then replace the top cover and restore power to the unit. Turn it on and see if it works normally again.

    Note you may need to unscrew the hard drive mounting bracket so you can move the HDD enough to clear your fingers and allow pulling the cables out. Be very sure the recorder is disconnected from AC power before doing this, as its very easy to short out the power supply with the drive bracket or your screwdriver. If adjusting the SATA cables does not fix your problem, you may need to bring the unit in for professional service, there is little else you can do at home. In almost every report of this problem, though, reseating the SATA cable fixes it. (Theres no need to replace the cable itself, all SATA cables are susceptible to these issues and in any case the Pioneer cable has a proprietary motherboard connection.)

    Its unlikely your hard drive failed or corrupted, the recorder would display an alert on your TV telling you to initialize it and/or the front panel would display "HDD ERR" as soon as you turned the power on. If it isn't doing that, its probably the SATA cables. It is safe to unplug and replug the original HDD, because the recorder is already "married" to it, but if the drive had actually gone bad you would need the special Pioneer service remote and service disc to "marry" the recorder to any new replacement drive. There are ways to fake these tools but it isn't easy and hopefully not necessary in your case. Try reseating the SATA cables and report back here with the results. If that doesn't work, we can try and troubleshoot further. Good luck.
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  3. Member
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    Hey thanks alot I will give that a try tomm afternoon and report back....Thanks alot again
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  4. Member
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    I actually havent took the case off yet. I noticed tonight I can just Have my DVD recorder on playing the tv through it. All of sudden the tv picture freezes but the sound keeps on going as normal but the video is froze. Then I try to cut off the dvd recorder and it wont. I have to unplug the dvd recorder. Then just change my video input so that the tv can play since its a different input. My question is what was mentioned in the post above could that be the problem with the picture freeze only while playing with dvd recorder on.
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  5. Originally Posted by marionr26
    My question is what was mentioned in the post above could that be the problem with the picture freeze only while playing with dvd recorder on.
    Yes, the stupid SATA cable can short the entire recorder into freezing up. This doesn't just happen with the Pioneer 450, it happens all the time with anything that uses a SATA cable including many computers. These cables tend to be just awful, SATA was a great idea but its brought down by poorly designed cables.
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  6. Member
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    Hey thanks orsetto for taking the time to help me out..So I should just unplug then plug it back in just do that several times then plug it up tight and put case back on.....I dont need to buy a new cable do I????

    thanks again
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  7. Right, you probably don't need a new cable, and even if you got one it would probably work itself loose or oxidize just like the current one did. Once you re-seat the cable yourself, it should stay good for a long time: the reason a lot of these units act up is the cable got shaken loose during the ocean voyage from Asia. After you give it a good re-plug, it should be safe sitting on your shelf for awhile.
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  8. Member
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    Thanks alot man I will get right to this. Plus I recently moved about 25 miles up the road about a month ago so riding in the uhaul prob didnt help much either......Thanks alot sir


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  9. Member SandyB's Avatar
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    how about..."Buy a new one!" $24
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  10. Originally Posted by SandyB
    how about..."Buy a new one!" $24
    Easier said than done. The motherboard connector is proprietary, even when it was in business Pioneer Video did not sell parts to USA consumers, and the SATA-based Pioneers were never sold in the USA anyway (the final USA Pio was the EIDE-based 640 of 2006). Parts for low-volume items like DVD recorders are difficult to score from the mfrs, especially if the model was not authorized for sale in your country. Luckily in this case its academic: SATA is SATA, the cables are universally lame and replacements are no better than originals. I've replaced the cables in the PCs of many clients, only to have them fail again later on due to them kicking the the CPU under the desk or fan vibrations working them loose (a SATA cable only needs to be a fraction of a millimeter loose on one or two pins to blow the entire connection).
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  11. Member
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    what about the use of CRC electrical contact spray or one of the other contact sprays in conjunction with making ones own strain relief to keep it from backing out again later?

    I did that on the dock at work for the connectors on the back of the puter, that from handling and vibration, came loose at the most inopportune moments.

    You just need to eyeball a good anchor spot to attach a ty-wrap, or other type anchor to cement in place if necessary, to fashion a strain relief type connector/ty-wrap to the sata cable to either relieve strain or keep mild pressure on the connector .

    Only it's location itself will dictate HOW to fashion that.

    =========

    Since I am planning on getting a 460h, I'll have to pop the cover and look under the hood prior to initial setup etc to see if I can head off a problem b4 it blindsides me.
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  12. Member
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    ok I unplugged and plugged back up about 5 times then plugged up tightly see how that works for me now. There were two plugs that plugged in HD I worked with both the same way
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