# Fan/disk noise from 921



## steverw (Dec 20, 2004)

How loud should the 921 be? I have a few other devices with a hard disk, including several laptops, iPod and Tivo. They are either silent or very quiet. The only device that matches the noise of the 921 is my RAID PC with the airflow of a hovercraft. I can hear the 921 as soon as I open the front door to my house; the unit is 35 ft from the door, around a corner and up some stairs. It is loud.

The CSR told me that the 921 is as powerful as a PC, and my PC makes noise, so there is no problem and noise is a small price to pay for having HD TV DVR capability.

But I don't put my PC in the music/TV listening area. Consumer audio/video equipment is normally very quiet; I've got a bunch of boxes, and none of them make any audible noise at all (except maybe a CD that is spinning up).

What can I do to reduce the noise? Are all 921's just as loud, or is there variability? Can I put the 921 in a box without it overheating? The UHF remote would make this feasible...

Noise is subjective issue; that's why I'm describing this relative to other equipment, not some personal opinion of what's loud or not. This 921 is the loudest equipment I've got in my house (tied with the PC).

Would appreciate any advice/suggestions.


----------



## ClaudeR (Dec 7, 2003)

In my opinion, the 921 is FRIGGING noisy. It is a big problem for my miniature living room, since either my wife or I end up falling asleep on the couch after watching TV. We tend to like quiet. I tried a TIVO, but too noisy. That's why I got the 921 - I can put it in a closet and use the UHF remote. Wish I had a basement. 

Although I have built most of my PCs and I hate Dell, I ended up buying one, because they are the quietest ones I have found. Works fine for surfing (after reformatting with generic windows).


----------



## Bismarck (Sep 28, 2004)

steverw:

I posted a similar question about fan noise a couple of months ago. I was told, basically, that they're working on a fix that turns the fan off when the unit is powered off. Most people agreed it would be a bad idea to try to disable the fan. Other than that, the manual suggests putting the unit in an enclosed cabinet. I guess that means, get used to it.


----------



## mwgiii (Jul 19, 2002)

"Hopefully" Dish will put in the software to spin down the disk and turn off the fan when not in use in a "future software upgrade"

I know my 501 has the feature. That is the only reason I have it in my bedroom.


----------



## Cyclone (Jul 1, 2002)

I also have a 510 in my bedroom and would be very upset if it did not "shutdown" after being turned off. I worry about future VOD plans to have the DVRs record PPV movies in the middle of the night with the hopes that you'd purchase them later.

I'd downgrade out of a DVR if they implemented it that way without an "opt out" option.


----------



## tnsprin (Mar 16, 2003)

mwgiii said:


> "Hopefully" Dish will put in the software to spin down the disk and turn off the fan when not in use in a "future software upgrade"
> 
> I know my 501 has the feature. That is the only reason I have it in my bedroom.


I believe the fan, or at least one of them, already turns off. The main noise appears to be the disk.


----------



## steverw (Dec 20, 2004)

Thanks for input, into the closet it goes...


----------



## Indydave (Nov 28, 2004)

My 921 was very quiet the first two weeks, and then started to get loud and louder and LOUDER!!!. I now can hear it from the bedroom at night. After looking inside the box, I found that they are using a small fan to cool the CPU heatsink and a larger fan in the center rear area to pull air in from the rear. The hard drive is an inexpensive Maxtor (noisy and slow). 

Mine is almost loud enough to get moded, but I have not had time. After the first of the year I will replace the smaller fan, small fans create more noise. I replaced the fans in all 5 of my computers. And all together they don’t make as much noise as the 921. 

There is a big movement in the computer industry to quite (noise prevention, NP), computers and several companies have made great progress. I like the products from Zallman’s, they are very quite and provide more cooling.

I will let you know what I come up with in Jan.


----------



## ClaudeR (Dec 7, 2003)

Indydave - I may also mod mine in a year, after warranty. What size is the CPU? I use 80mm noise fans on socket A processors, really cuts down the noise. 

Since it will go into a utility closet, I may even remove the cover.


----------



## JM Anthony (Nov 16, 2003)

Whadyasay?? Speak up. I can't hear you over the noise from my 921!! Our 921 is rack mounted and we can close the doors to keep things quiet, but we typically don't. It's not that noisy.


----------



## stevekaden (Dec 24, 2004)

I just got my 921 yesterday and it is in my bedroom. Not much sleep for me till I pulled the plug. My 508 shuts off when off (and is way quiter to begin with). Between this and the lack of HD on Component outputs I am ready to return it. 

I may look inside 
- perhaps the disk can be replaced with a quieter one (they're pretty cheap) or 
- the disk can be remounted with isolators
- put some Dynamat on the case
- put pillows all around it 
- put it on my X-10 remote and just power it off!!!

Anybody got hints on DVI switching or getting HD on Components (I know different thread but I'm in a hurry!).


----------



## erasmu (Nov 17, 2003)

stevekaden said:


> Anybody got hints on DVI switching or getting HD on Components (I know different thread but I'm in a hurry!).


I thought both the DVI and component outputs on the 921 are HD. Only S-video and composite are SD. Is this not the case?


----------



## tnsprin (Mar 16, 2003)

erasmu said:


> I thought both the DVI and component outputs on the 921 are HD. Only S-video and composite are SD. Is this not the case?


Your correct. Both dvi/component will do 480p/720p/1080 but of course only suppose to do one at a time (480p is also considered SD,the rest are HD). S-video/composite are 480i which is SD.


----------



## stevekaden (Dec 24, 2004)

My apologies, or maybe I should say DISH's. I did not have a DVI cable and was not getting anything seeming to be HD out of the component outputs. Turns out I had the default set at 480p and DISH had not turned on the HD for me. I'd only had it one night and the manual did not have anything making that all clear. (silly me I didn't even look at the guide to see all the HD was still red).

So...now that I've got a grip I'm happy....I'll let you all know about attemps at quieting it down....now for that pesky "no up channel from the remote" issue...


----------



## 968.911 (Jul 21, 2002)

The fan/disk is constatly on. Still not fixed as of this date. I had the same issue with my 721 when it was new, I resorted to replacing the fan with a whisper fan. Eventually the software fixed it so that it powered down the fans when the system was in 'sleep' mode.

E*, please fix the 921 sleep mode so that it goes as quiet as possible. This is a big issue.


----------

