Starting the mod now... Wish me luck!

[Oldie]

I found an older DTC-100 on the shelf at Radio Shack, and I'm going to start the mod now. It's at version 40b so I should be all set.

I know this version had some problems with the scout feature, which I used quite a lot, but oh well... Better that than no TV at all.

Oldie

[cagey]

I also have an older unit (late 1999). I am very interested in your results. Please be sure to let us know if you are successful.

[Oldie]

Well, I performed the mod (grounding pin 15) and unit will not power on. I checked for pin contact, waited overnight, still nothing. Ugh.

I know other people have had this problem, is there a way to get the damn thing to power back up? Waiting doesn't seem to work.

Thanks
Oldie

[snowball]

As discovered by Electron - http://www.dsschat.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=34994&pagenumber=2, the transistor Q23512 provides the programming voltage for the two Flash memories. By clipping the center pin of the transistor (I just completely removed the transistor - it is through hole soldered making modifications very easy), then take the pad that the center pin was soldered to to ground - you have effectively pulled both pin 15's to ground and removed the possibility of any future update. I did have to reset the receiver twice to get it working properly again, but this is a much easier mod.

[qkracer]

Sounds like a great idea, can you help me identify the transistor, and also tell me how you did the reset?

Thanks in advance

[tvmike]

Version 40b is the first of two updates. The factory original is 372 which alows you to receive all the locals on 101 and 119 satellites. It is the preferred version.

Version 40b took away the locals except for zipcode, alowed reception of 110 satellite, and allowed you to remove gray bars and replace them with black bars when watching letterbox in 4:3 mode or watching 4:3 in 16:9 mode.

The last update corrects the frequency output for video causing some HD monitors problems. More importantly it activates the dreaded 752 error making the "H" card useless forever after in these IRDs.

[mjlessor]

tvmike
After version A04:2c update there was
A04:37 on 11-2-00 this was fully functional on the H
and probably has the best features (which I am unaware of)
unfortunatly on 11-9-00 Version A04:37 killed the H.

[cat12]

It appears to me as if a DTC-100 without any updates will accept an H-Card. From what I understand, as long as it does not receive the updates, it will continue to operate with the H-Card. My questions:
(1) Are these receivers shipping without updates or are current units already updated?
(2) How can I tell what firmware update the unit currently has? Can this be determined by the serial number on the box in the store or do I need to hook it up?
(3) What are the procedures to modify this unit to prevent it from ever being updated?
(4) Am I correct to assume that if I get one of these non-updated units and modify it and use an h-card, I will be able to receive HDTV, all channels from the 3 satelites and digital dolby audio?
Thanks in advance for the info.

'Cat

[WildWest]

cat12: I checked several places, BB, Fry's, and CC, all were out. I hit a gold mine @ munky wards. They had 10 of them. I checked the box and it was manufactured in April. I bought it and the version on the DTC was 40b. They are out there, but numbers are getting slim. All that were out, said Feb 01 expected delivery. As far as the mod, its easy. Look at the prior post for anything in High Def area reffering to 15 pin mod. You need just run 1 wire to pin 15 and have it grounded. It's a very small working environment and you need to hold the shaking to a bare minimum. I did, I know you can. Good luck.