DSD1110 fault. 8118 error

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rbarryza

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On Saturday I experienced the dreaded 8118 error loop. My decoder wasn't always responding to the remote, especially on the sports channels, so I reset it. After the reset it show dl for a while, then 8118, and resets itself. Sits in that loop for ever. On the DSTV forums they claim it's a power supply error, and that's what they told me at the agent when I took it in as well.

I'm an engineer, and I'd rather guess that it's a software error that caused it. Possibly the firmware/software was corrupted somehow, and it is now in a state where it cannot download working firmware/software. I can't see how it can be the power supply. Can someone explain to me how it can be the power supply? Be as technical as you want.

I took the decoder to my local agent, and they said I have 3 options:
- give it to them, and they send it in. I'll get another decoder back in 4 - 7 business days, with a 3 month guarantee (is this a joke?!) . It will cost R340, and I will be without the service I have already paid for for a week or more.
- take it to Multichoice in N1 city (an hours drive), and exchange it there myself for a decoder with a 3 month guarantee. Cost R340
- Buy a new decoder from Game for R499. 12 month guarantee.

I exercised a 4th option by cancelling my subscription.

I think it's very bad business for Multichoice to charge customers for the decoder (new or repairs). Is it really worth losing my monthly R530+ payment just to milk me for a few more Rand for the repairs (of a fault that I'm suspicious is their faulty software)? Surely if the failure rate is really that low, Multichoice shouldn't lose much by repairing them for free, and gain much more in customer satisfaction? At the very least, give the customer an immediate replacement from the agent's stock, so he can use the service he already paid for!

I hope Top TV or any other competitor gains a foothold in the sport market, because it is only DSTV's monopoly in that market that keeps most customers with them. It's definitely not their good customer service.

Until then I'll just learn to live without it by watching DVDs and sport at my local golf club or pub. Heck, I might just get an uncapped 4Mbit account and watch everything on streaming video, then they'll never see my money again.
 
I don't know this for sure, but my guess would be that the PSU can't manage once the LNB on the dish starts drawing current. This causes the decoder to restart and the whole process starts again. I don't really see the problem you have with paying for a repair. Nothing gets repaired for free anywhere, unless it's under warranty and your decoder obviously isn't.
 
Quantum Theory said:
Nothing gets repaired for free anywhere,
Click to expand...

Most other countries (UK, US) where there is competition for pay TV, you get the hardware for free. They replace it for free. They realize they're in the business of providing a television service, not selling hardware.

It seems suspicious that the PSU automatically gets blamed when something goes wrong with these decoders. How come the PSU was able to source enough current before the reset, but not afterwards? Can I buy a replacement PSU somewhere so I can replace it myself?
 
rbarryza said:
Most other countries (UK, US) where there is competition for pay TV, you get the hardware for free. They replace it for free. They realize they're in the business of providing a television service, not selling hardware.

It seems suspicious that the PSU automatically gets blamed when something goes wrong with these decoders. How come the PSU was able to source enough current before the reset, but not afterwards? Can I buy a replacement PSU somewhere so I can replace it myself?
Click to expand...

Okay, I'll explain this again. The first world countries like the US and UK have many millions more subscribers to their pay TV platforms, giving them the ability to subsidise decoders. Your 1110 decoder was actually also partially subsidised, as you probably paid R499 for it, and the actual cost to MC was between R700-R800. The new 1131 decoders have an external PSU, which can be replaced at a low cost. Because yours is internal, you'll have to get the whole decoder swopped out.
 
rbarryza said:
- give it to them, and they send it in. I'll get another decoder back in 4 - 7 business days, with a 3 month guarantee (is this a joke?!) . It will cost R340, and I will be without the service I have already paid for for a week or more.
- take it to Multichoice in N1 city (an hours drive), and exchange it there myself for a decoder with a 3 month guarantee. Cost R340
- Buy a new decoder from Game for R499. 12 month guarantee.

I exercised a 4th option by cancelling my subscription.
Click to expand...

Good for you, I think your 4th option was most likely best. And yes, completely agreed - R340 and a 3 month guarantee only tells me one thing - they aren't confident in the quality of the product or the 'repairs' they have carried out. But then this goes for many electronics repairs these days - a 3 month guarantee seems fairly standard, even if it is a sick joke. To pay an extra R160 for a 12 month guarantee is a no-brainer, had you chosen that route.
 
I had the dreaded 8118 error as well, when I spoke to the lady on the phone she told me its a small problem take it into your customer service centre and they will help you. She did not tell me that helping me would mean me buying another reconditioned decoder or buying a new decoder. They try to sanatise the what they are doing by calling it a swapout, to me a swapout would mean taking my old decoder and give me a new one sans cost or for a marginal fee. If you can get a brand new decoder, dish, lnb, smart card, remote, cabeling, connectors and sundries, as well as installation to one point all for R499, bearing in mind that the store you buy the decoder from has to make a profit as well as the dish installation guy needs to make a profit or get paid, it would seem that for R340 would more than cover the cost of a brand new decoder with a full 12 month guarantee.

Internal power supplies are for the most part inexpensive, if multichoice opened up their monoply and allowed 3rd party techs to perform certain repairs it would make it once again financially possible to have your decoders repaired. I remember in the past they used to have technicians at all customer service branches, until some accountant showed them that it would be more PROFITABLE to not repair and decoders and let customers buy new ones, they then take our old decoders and repair the fault for less than R50 and sell it back to us for R340. It would take a tech that works on these decoders daily less than 5min to remove the cover, swap out the old psu, test and close the box. I would not mind paying about R120 to R150 for such a service, I dont even mind waiting a day to 2 to get my decoder back.

@Quantum Theory, you are right in first world countries the potential market may consist of millions or subscribers, however you must bear in mind that their are multiple vendors operating in those areas so it is very possible that multichioce enjoys a larger subscriber base in just South Africa let alone the rest of Africa where the also operate, the multichoice subscriber base should also be in the millions by now.

Also @Quantum Theory, I very much doubt that multichoice is subsidising the decoder, you are mistaken in thinking the decoder costs multichioce around R700, the expensivest single cost to multichoice would the the royalty fee to irdeto, I often travel to China on business and you see set top boxes (essentially decoders) starting from R80 to R150 in the local market, and PVR boxes from around R200 to R400, and that is retail, given scales of economy, advanced pcb and die manufacture and fabrication processes, I would realistically estimate the decoder to cost multichoice to be less than R200 to R250.

I am going to open my decoder bypass the original psu, and hook it up to the psu on my workbench and see if the decoder has enough power to perform a reboot and startup without the 8118 error. If that works I can buy the appropriate transformer from my electronics store and replace the original psu

I will post the results here if it works out :D
 
Cygnus said:
If you can get a brand new decoder, dish, lnb, smart card, remote, cabeling, connectors and sundries, as well as installation to one point all for R499, bearing in mind that the store you buy the decoder from has to make a profit as well as the dish installation guy needs to make a profit or get paid, it would seem that for R340 would more than cover the cost of a brand new decoder with a full 12 month guarantee.
Click to expand...

If you could, your argument would indeed have much merit. Sadly, last time I checked full installations were in the order of R1,300 to R1,800.
 
@Enigma, firstly I am glad that you conceed that if a R499 install was available my argument would have merit.

I am not sure when you installed or where you are located, but I am from Pietermaritzburg and in my part of the world full dstv installs cost R499 from most local dish installers.

I am sorry that I dont have a R499 ad I can post here, but if you follow the Makro link in this post they charge R599 with installation. as well as another independants advert on junk mail for R510 fully installed, if you really need a R499 install it should not be too hard to find that price in any large city or town.

Makro link:

http://www.makro.co.za/p/33190/multichoice-single-view-decoder-plus-installation-voucher/

Independant Installer link:

http://www.junkmail.co.za/v-johanne...QYCatQX0104QYRgnQX0001QYAdQXF1051QYEdQX201049

NB. Please take note that I am not in anyway linked to any of these suppliers neither do I endorse their work or products, I am only including these links to illustrate a point with respect to the current cost of dstv installs.

Enigma may not be wrong in that he may have paid between R1200 to R 1300 for his install as you will still find many private installers charging more than the R499 to R599 range.

You have to also note that most installers will charge more for travel if you fall more than 30km to 50km away from their business. Also note the R499 to R 599 range is for a single point single view install, if you ask for an extra tv point or if they need to use a special bracket to mount your dish, costs can quickly escalate, (a special bracket alone can set you back R200) other high cost items would be a twin or greater lnb, an rf signal booster if you running your analouge through the decoder, an rf splitter for watching analouge tv on another tv or any complex install can push a dstv install past the R1200 mark.

I can also remember dstv installs costing as much as R5000 (with the programable dish option) or more when dstv first came out.

Just to throw another fly in the ointment top-tv installs range between R249 to R299 for basically similar equipment, note i said similar equipment not the same equipment. I must also add it is not surprising how quickly multichioce is now offering packages from R99 per month when for years their cheapest package you could watch was around R241, it just goes to show what a little competetion can do,

But back to the 8118 error, I hoped to have had a chance to have opened up my decoder this weekend, but left my torx drivers at work so it looks like that is only going to happen next weekend unless the family nag me too much during the week.

Unfortunately Im not strong enough to cancel my subscription as there is no real alternative any time soon, top tv still needs to add a better boquet to entice me away and with our current internet connectivity it is much simpler, cheaper and more reliable not to mention easier and LEGAL to use dstv when comapre to some of the streaming video products.

So I will just get another decoder if mine cant be fixed, however in that instance I would go for the R499 new install and let the installer put up a second dish (that way i will have a backup if one dies for whatever reason or when and if i need extra view I just have to buy a second decoder) :p
 
Sorry bud, the decoder and installation for R599 was subsidized. I used to install full time and now do it part time, not a chance you would get me to install your dish for less that R300, nevermind the decoder, dish kit, bolts, f-connectors, cables etc.
Oh and BTW that R599 offer is coming to an end very soon, so make up your mind quickly!
I agree that the swap out system is retarded, 8118 is a power supply error and probably just a blown cap. I also reckon they should have a deal where the customer can get a discount on a PVR if they hand in their old decoder. I'm gonna upgrade soon and will have an almost new 1131 and an old MNet box sitting in the garage collecting dust.
 
Fixing a 1110(+2) decoder

My son's Multichoice 1110(+2) decoder developed the dreaded 8118 error. Following on from the theme on http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=195, and in the past having replaced several blown capacitors on a motherboard successfully, and having repaired several PC power supplies with the same problems, I opened up the decoder and sure enough, capacitor C10 was slightly bulged on top. I removed the power supply (it's easy to do), and replace the old 470 uF 16v job with a 63v one from Yebo Electronics. Part number ELT477, price R5.01 plus VAT.

The device is now working 100%.

This was not rocket science. Anyone with a torx wrench of the right size, a small phillips screwdriver, a soldering iron and some soldering and desoldering skills should have no trouble repeating what I did.
 
Also had the dreaded 8118 error.

As suggested by mazal - replaced C10 and C1 and DSTV Decoder 1110 now working.
 
I'd like to share a different kind of customer service I experienced today: I recently bought a Kindle from Amazon in the US. It was $139, and the delivery via express courier was only about $20 extra (less than R150). I had it in my hands 6 days after ordering it FROM THE USA. Passed through customs (for which they have a dedicated agent to speed things up), delivered to my door. in 6 days (not working days, 6 continuous week days!).

So this morning I wake up and want to read a little (after using it yesterday), and I see the screen has a problem. Lines all over it, won't refresh, clearly a problem. So this evening I call the Kindle customer support number (toll free in the US, and from here using Skype) and tell them what's wrong. First thing the customer service guy tells me is that they are very sorry for my inconvenience. I almost fell out of my chair. Imagine, a company apologising to their customer for the inconvenience of their product not working. What he told me next almost blew my mind: Amazon will immediately ship replacement Kindle to me, via express international courier, completely free of charge. I don't pay for shipping, NOTHING. I then ask him how I should send the broken one back to them. No he says, that's not necessary, just recycle it.

Imagine that. They didn't treat me like a criminal lying to them just to get an extra Kindle. They actually realized that they make their money by selling books that I read on the Kindle, and by giving me good service and a free replacement, I am much more likely to continue buying books from them, and them continuing to make money from me. Imagine that. Multichoice, are you taking notes?!!!! the customer is not always wrong. And by treating me like I'm the one that's always wrong, you lost a customer.

The End.
 
mazal said:
My son's Multichoice 1110(+2) decoder developed the dreaded 8118 error. Following on from the theme on http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=195, and in the past having replaced several blown capacitors on a motherboard successfully, and having repaired several PC power supplies with the same problems, I opened up the decoder and sure enough, capacitor C10 was slightly bulged on top. I removed the power supply (it's easy to do), and replace the old 470 uF 16v job with a 63v one from Yebo Electronics. Part number ELT477, price R5.01 plus VAT.

The device is now working 100%.

This was not rocket science. Anyone with a torx wrench of the right size, a small phillips screwdriver, a soldering iron and some soldering and desoldering skills should have no trouble repeating what I did.
Click to expand...

Thanks for this info mazal, worked like a charm!
 
I'm about to open my decoder to check the caps - same 8118 error.

@rbarryza - I also experienced the Amazon Kindle Customer Service experience with a cracked screen - Awesome!
 
@mazal, thanks for the tip :) Another decoder successfully repaired.
 
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