Hard Drive upgrade for Pioneer DVR-520H

edgolla · Member Joined: 31 Oct 2005 Location: Round Rock, TX

Hi everyone, I have been watching this topic for about 9 months now and have decided to try an upgrade to my DVR 420. For the service remote I decided to teach the codes to one of my TV remotes that has learning capability. I used the Winlirc program and a homemade transmitter to teach the remote. It worked fine after I gave up on my laptop (Dell 3500) and moved to my desktop. The laptop worked sometimes, but not most of the time. The remote is much more convient to use and seems to very reliably send the codes. I still do not have the ID disk and hope someone will contact me about getting one. I do have one problem so far. When I send the Esc then Stereo I don't get any readable numbers. I just get all of the dots illuminated where each digit should be, similar to the 8's you get when all seven segments of a seven segment display are illuminated. If I enter a number, this number will take the place of the first of these series of dots and so on until I have entered all the digits it will hold. I have more than one unit and this seems to happen to all of them. I haven't gone past entering the digits and then clearing them. Any suggestions or comments? Thanks Ed

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Ed Golla

pendu2004 · Member Joined: 23 Mar 2004

Seeker47 · Member Joined: 20 Jul 2005 Location: A State of Mind, USA

[quote="pendu2004"]

Mark_Venture · Member Joined: 23 Mar 2003 Location: Delaware, USA

mduffy · Member Joined: 02 Apr 2002

palihora · Member Joined: 14 Nov 2005 Location: Slovakia

Hello, is possible to upgrade HDD in Pioneer DVR-433HK with pioneer_service.nrg , have anybody try it? Or it must be a new service DVD?

HaCKer_52 · Member Joined: 02 Oct 2005 Location: Canada

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NeilD · Member Joined: 23 Aug 2005 Location: United Kingdom

Just going back a couple of post the HD doesn't seem to be formatted at all the recording seem to just get put end to end like on a DVDR, Certainly once you fit a new HD the initalise bit takes a second or two, prolly only time enough to write some sort of FAT

pendu2004 · Member Joined: 23 Mar 2004

If you have a previously OS formatted drive and you want to add that to the dvr the process is as follows:

1) copy everything from the drive
2) restart computer in DOS
3) use fdisk to delete all partitions (logical and extended) (do not format)
4) once everything is deleted, disk is ready for dvr

HaCKer_52 · Member Joined: 02 Oct 2005 Location: Canada

Download the service manual here:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=A1ONWIC6

The instructions are on pages 77-80. There is info about the HDDs that come with the recorder on page 148.
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HaCKer_52

edgolla · Member Joined: 31 Oct 2005 Location: Round Rock, TX

Posted: Nov 19, 2005 14:16

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Download the service manual here:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=A1ONWIC6

Thanks HaCKer_52: I just downloaded it and it is nice to have all that information. I also found out what the problem was that I refered to in my earlier post. I was looking for the ID number to be displayed on the 420, but in fact the number is initially only displayed on the TV. Ed
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Ed Golla

STJEPO · Member Joined: 07 Nov 2005 Location: Spain

I got the DVD Recorder Data Disc GGV1179. I have made a Disk with Nero.

I haven´t been able to explore the disc in my PC. Is it correct?
If I put this disk in my DVR 520H-S, will it make any change in the actual configuration? I have not, jet, the remote control. Manual say nothing about it. Are there instructions for the use of the disk?

Regards

HaCKer_52 · Member Joined: 02 Oct 2005 Location: Canada

STJEPO be shure to read all the posts before you ask a question.

STJEPO · Member Joined: 07 Nov 2005 Location: Spain

HaCKer_52 · Member Joined: 02 Oct 2005 Location: Canada

STJEPO · Member Joined: 07 Nov 2005 Location: Spain

Well... as this DVD is described as "DVD Recorder Data Disc GGV1179 (*) diagnosis (ID data setting)" I wanted to know which type of diagnosis could be made with it.

Just curiosity. "Curiosity kills the cat but satisfaction brings it back"

Regards

P.D.
Is there a new firware for the 520-H?

HaCKer_52 · Member Joined: 02 Oct 2005 Location: Canada

kcgr · Member Joined: 27 Apr 2005 Location: TX

I'm stuck on 75% on BT while d/ling the service disk.

Someone please hop in and help seed

...so close ...

rhegedus · Member Joined: 25 Sep 2002 Location: on the jazz

There was one for auction on e-bay last week

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Regards,

Rob

n|trous · Member Joined: 26 Sep 2005 Location: Canada

edgolla · Member Joined: 31 Oct 2005 Location: Round Rock, TX

I have just completed the upgrade of my nonworking 80GB DVR 420H-S to a working 200GB unit. I know 200 is a little small, but it was the only one I had available for this purpose. I used a learning remote control that I had taught the service codes using the WinLIRC information supplied by Bill Gates. Special thanks to pendu2004 for his help with the ID data disk and to HaCKer_52 for making the Service manual available. If anyone has any questions just Post or PM me. Ed
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Ed Golla

Ergz · Member Joined: 23 Nov 2005 Location: Canada

Just upgraded my DVR-520 with a WD 320 GB. Took only a few minutes. Works great.

Ed

n|trous · Member Joined: 26 Sep 2005 Location: Canada

Anyone try this with a 531/533 DVR?
I want to know if it is hopeless or not.
Since trying to upgrade my 80 gig, I've managed to permanently lose the EPG. All other functions work fine and I no longer get the HDD ERROR problem since replacing my original 80gig drive but I'd like to upgrade and resume EPG function.

I have the service disc which seems to be working alright but wonder if there is a way to check to see if it is in fact working. Any CRC values to check? I downloaded it twice from torrent. Tried both but never get a 'initialize HD' screen option after restarting the machine.

thanks,
n|trous

N'S · Member Joined: 02 Oct 2004 Location: Sweden

That Pioneer service dvd is still being seeded on TPB (3331089).

I suppose it would be a good investment to acquire such a multi-remote needed to upgrade my 520. Would be nice to put those 3 remotes aside, the 520, the TV and the surround system, and just use one.

310s · Member Joined: 04 Jan 2006 Location: United States

Hi,
You can change the dvd drive in your unit. As long as you have the service remote and dvd. I put a sony drive in my 310s just to test it. After entering the codes it worked fine. Then I replaced the dvr-106xa with a dvr-106a. Works like a champ. Now I can record on dvd+r and +rw's as well. The machine is just looking for a working dvd drive. Just my 2 cents.
Phil

techguy46 · Member Joined: 05 Jan 2006 Location: United States

The laser in my 520H recently burned out after writing about 1100 disks. The replacement is now good, but I have some informative comments. You must retain your original DVD drive, but you can replace the transport mechanism. I got a DVR-107 new from ESBuy.com (I ordered a beige DVR-107 and got a black DVR-A07, but the transport module works). I found no other vendors with new drives in stock, but used ones occasionally show up on eBay. I do not know if the transport from any other Pioneer drive will work. Removal of the DVD drive from the 520 is straightforward, but make sure to pop the front trim piece off the tray before trying to get the drive out of the box. The transport (spin motor, positioning motor and lens assembly) is easily swapped by removing four screws and three ribbon cables, and this requires no fancy alignment. DO NOT power on your 520 while the DVD drive is removed, or try another drive in its place (see below).

I would note that the special 107XA drive in the 520 has a two-pin connector for digital audio information that is absent from most standard computer drives. This may be a difference between the 310 and 520 models. I would also note that unlike 310s, I tried a Pioneer DVR-108 drive as a replacement and the 520 would not even give an error message, it just hung up. When I put the old drive back in, the CPRM info was gone.

If this happens (doh!) you need of course the service remote and the ID Data disk. I tried the Vito remote program on my Dell Axim 50 PDA. While it works for the predefined remote files, it locked up with the ccf files for the service remote. I found an alternative emulator, available from pdawin.com. The demo version gives 15 uses and the key is inexpensive, works fine for the service ccf files. I really did try to order the data disk from Pioneer (it's in their online catalog), but they called me the next day and said that they would not sell it to me, it's only for authorized Pioneer dealers.... Since they refused to take my money, on Jan 3 the download took about 12 hours and was straightforward.

MANY thanks to all of those who have contributed to this thread, it made the repair clear and easy.

eheheh · Member Joined: 08 Dec 2005 Location: France

I have successfully changed the harddrive of my DVR520H, to a 320Gb from Western Digital

I begin with winlirc=>don't work at all, in spite of the remplacement of the IR led to a standard red led to see if there was some flickering in it: and this works... so I think that the .cf is bad...
I use then a Palm Zire (from a friend) and it works instantaneously! (with omniremote)

Thanks !!

PS: I'm french and I'm not very good at english

palihora · Member Joined: 14 Nov 2005 Location: Slovakia

I have found in DEUTSCH sucesfully replace HD in DVR-433, but i dont understand if it was made by current/which is mentioned in this toppic/ pioneer_service.nrg or it must be new service DVD.

here is the link http://www.dvdboard.de/forum/showthread.php?t=83718&page=8

flylice · Member Joined: 26 Jan 2006 Location: Hong Kong

I will be taking delivery of a DVR-630HS with 160GB HD. Would love to be able to upgrade the HD. My question is would the old service DVD work on this model? Any tips and hints would be appreciated.