What all is done to "refurbished" Hoppers?

[Universe93B]

My "new" Hopper 3 has 3 total stickers ( on top of each other) that say remanufactured on it. Therefore, looks like I"m the 3rd user of this receiver. I understand there have been so many cancellations in the past few years so there must be tons of Hopper 3 receivers sitting in warehouses.

What exactly do they do to "refurbish" a receiver? Do they actually strip each receiver down to the metal frame, take out each component and test it? How do they test the fan and HDD to make sure it will still run for a bit after? Or maybe each receiver gets a new HDD and new fan anyway regardless of whether it passes some test? Cleaning of all dust from the internals?

Anyone know the inside story? My original Hopper lasted more than 9 years with no HDD failures, no overheating - nothing! Wondering as there seems to be more Hopper 3 issues. My Hopper 3 is on 16-18 hours a day!

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

I wish I could find the video I use to have, which showed how the refurbish them. They had a really cool system that would test everything automatically. The test was actually very thorough. If I find it I will post it.

 

[navychop]

Fourth.

 

[tjboston5676]

I wish I could find the video I use to have, which showed how the refurbish them. They had a really cool system that would test everything automatically. The test was actually very thorough. If I find it I will post it.

It may seem thorough but as a tech I can tell you it's not. Of course they clear the hard drive and then replace any non working components and that's basically it. And even at that it's not always 100% cleared. Get units here and there that still have dvr content and timers on them and sometimes bad hard drive all together or won't acquire signal.
It's not as bad as it used to be on receivers. But lnbs I swear they don't even test at all lol.

 

[Universe93B]

It may seem thorough but as a tech I can tell you it's not. Of course they clear the hard drive and then replace any non working components and that's basically it. And even at that it's not always 100% cleared. Get units here and there that still have dvr content and timers on them and sometimes bad hard drive all together or won't acquire signal.
It's not as bad as it used to be on receivers. But lnbs I swear they don't even test at all lol.

Yeah, that's what I was wondering. What exactly is "testing" each component? And if I was dish or a repair person, why would I replace a part unless I had plenty of money to do that with? If I had a good budget, I would go ahead and replace the fan and HDD since those are the biggest failure points.

But if the lifespan of a typical HDD is 45k hours and the Hopper that was returned has 40k hours on the HDD and working fine, why replace it? The next customer can just use it and finally the HDD dies and they lose all their recordings. And then pay $100 for a service visit?

Seems like maybe in the last few years, especially after Covid, do they just follow the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it."