How is Hopper/Joey on over heating?

Someone reported that their Joey displayed a temperature message of 170 degrees! How is that possible at only 8 watts power used?? wow

Ever touched a 4-watt incandescent night light bulb while it's running? :p

Not exactly the same, but still, pretty hot for 4 watts. The Joey is probably measuring the CPU temp. The CPU is a silicon chip with millions of transistors packed into a space that is only a few mm squared. Since silicon is not perfect, it can have resistance and leaks which creates waste heat. Transistors are basically switches, so they create heat as they are switching off and on at MHz rates. Although one transistor alone would create no noticeable amount of heat, the fact that there are millions in such a small space makes the heat add up.
 
The improvement in lowering the temp is significant by mounting the Joey vertically.

I went to a DNSC training class on the Hopper / Joey when they first came out. It was a waste of time, but one thing that the trainer said is that they are NOT to be mounted vertically, behind a wall mounted flat panel. I spoke up and said the was ridiculous and asked where they were supposed to go if you have a flat panel in the middle of a wall. He said, and I kid you not, to put it in the attic and fish cables to it or on the other side of the wall on a shelf. I was dumbstruck by his comments, I wish I had gone into how stupid those ideas were.
 
brad1138 said:
I went to a DNSC training class on the Hopper / Joey when they first came out. It was a waste of time, but one thing that the trainer said is that they are NOT to be mounted vertically, behind a wall mounted flat panel. I spoke up and said the was ridiculous and asked where they were supposed to go if you have a flat panel in the middle of a wall. He said, and I kid you not, to put it in the attic and fish cables to it or on the other side of the wall on a shelf. I was dumbstruck by his comments, I wish I had gone into how stupid those ideas were.

What!?!?!? How exactly is power.supposed.to.be routed to the Joey since we are not allowed to wall fish power.cables. what a dumb ass. Besides, guess where the Joey's go at all the blockbuster store installs we are getting at our office, that's right, mounted right behind the TV.
 
Bump. I saw a pic of the inside of the Joey, apparently there is a location marked "J3" that could potentially supply the power for an internal built-in fan, but apparently I guess the bean counters at EchoStar decided it would cost too much. Thus, I think that the Joeys are inherently prone to overheating. It measures 140F(60C) at the sensor which is 1/4" away from the CPU itself. That means that the CPU itself is HOT!!! 1/4" is a HUGE distance for 60C to be able to reach.

That being said, my Joeys (for the most part) are stable, but sometimes I wonder if "bugs" that Joeys have on occasion could actually be due to overheating!

Also the right side of my Hoppers is also always warm (that's where the power supply is.) I would've thought in the design that having a fan that blows in cool air would make more sense than the current design that blows out warm air... Not to mention that the fan is on the opposite side of the warmest part of the machine!

Oh well... I guess that's what the protection plan is for...
 
Bump. I was just touching one of the Joeys, the top is so hot that it almost burns. I had to physically resist wanting to remove my fingers. It's lying horizontal with nothing on top or around it. Normal?

I had the same problem problem with the only joey I had laying horizontal. My other two were vertical and I noticed that they weren't nearly as hot so I made the third one vertical as well. The joeys seem like they are just going to be hot if you keep them horizontal. I have never had them shut down due to overheating though.
 
I don't dispute the reported power usage. I also believe the report that a Joey had reported a high temp of 170. I just find it amazing.

Mine shut down citing a temp of 172. I put a usb fan under it (no room for vertical mount) and it feels much cooler to the touch, although none of the 3 temp counters have changed in 3 days since. I chatted with Dish support level 2 and was told they should get updated by diagnostics nightly. I asked if there was a way to reset them and was told 'no'.
 
It'll take a week or two for the temp counters to come down, as they are a rolling 2-week snapshot I believe.
 
Heck of a place for dvr temperatures.
Next question, what are acceptable temperatures? My average hdd temperature is 122 degrees
 
Unfortunately, the legacy at Dish has been that customers complain vehemently if fans are running in DVR units. This goes back to the 721, and I think ever since, Dish has been resistant to place the fan at the rear as opposed to the bottom of the unit and will do almost anything from having the fan operate. People had complained to Dish about the fan running in their bedrooms and losing sleep and always tiring of hearing it in the living rooms. The complaints were voluminous. Eventually, Dish set the fan to NOT turn on until a much hotter temp. Customers happy, but 721's would overheat. Then Dish sent update to prevent 721 from doing too many things at once, which would have the effect of heating things up with process intensive tasks. They seemed to have found a happy medium and 721's did not overheat (unless in a confined space and not enough airflow at the BOTTOM of the unit), and the fan just never seemed to kick in anymore.

Meanwhile, my TiVo's run cooler with the fans at the rear making spacing above and below the box not at all important, but you do HEAR THAT FAN whirring (both S3 and S4) day and night and sometimes LOUDER than the more quiet passages of movies, but I appreciate that it is on ALL THE TIME to keep things cooler. TiVo owners seem not to complain, but Dish subs have complained to me back in the years when the fans were very active, and just recently, someone complained about the updates always waking him up at 3AM--you know, the short fan high-speed for a few seconds--GOOD GRIEF! I was amazed he was that light of a sleeper. That update noise doesn't come close to ever waking me up.

My point is that the Dish legacy and "culture" is that active cooling fans, even at a modest speed (that trick was tried with the 721, but they eventually just shut it off unless it got terribly hot) creates complaints. so it seems Dish prefers to have the devices run REALLY HOT compared to cooling with a fan that generates complaints. Now, why don't they provide MORE vents to compensate? It seems like they put this stuff in boxes that are almost solid. The IRONY!
 
Buy a laptop cooler. It makes all the difference in the world. I got this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...ords&cm_mmc=KNC-GoogleAdwords-_-pla-_-NA-_-NA. It is almost silent, cools like a mofo, and has USB pass-thru. It is an excellent cooler, and I wish I had purchased several. The price on it has gone up everywhere since I bought it a month ago. With my rebate, my cost was $3.99!!! It cools the Hopper right down. I would attach a pic for you, but since I am typing on my iPad, the attach pic option does not work.
 
For posterity:

This cooler lowered my average temp to 122° inside a 3' square cabinet (3 120mm exhaust fans).
It took more than 2 weeks for the temp counters to change.
Just noticed lt nearly doubled in price to almost $6!
 
My 622 could be very loud at times. I can't say I've heard the fan on my Hopper yet.

As for fans and cooling, it's all well and good to not turn a fan on, but when it does overheat, my 622 could take more than an hour to get going again. Which is the worse?

Much as I despise the set-top box my Mom has from TWC, at least they covered cooling well: the entire lid is perforated... Of course, you do hear its hard disk all the time...

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