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1:00 pm
Well, one way or another, we *should* get organized. At best we might have enough of us to get Sling to sit up and take notice, at worst, we might save some folks some cash (and keep it out of Sling's pockets), by helping people with the capacitor fix. It's easy enough to do and folks with out of warranty boxes would have a place to turn.
2:13 am
Thanks everyone. $1.40 and some shonky soldering solved my problem. It' not just sling boxes that are affected by this capacitor problem. I had 2 pay tv set top boxes fail with the same issue.
Funny enough, my slingbox went just out of warranty, so it was worth having a tinker as the downside was having to buy a new box. I guess that is what Sling are hoping a lot of customers do…..
7:36 am
Well, It has been exactly a year since this post. I am in line with a LOT of other people who now have a $300 door stop. Slingbox now just deletes our posts if we say anything against them and their crappy customer service.
I was told it was because of Windows XP….nope, I run Mac….
I was told it was the router….nope, changed that
I was told it was the power cord….nope, it is working just fine.
My only problem is this: I can connect to my slingbox…IF I'm in the house on the same network. I can't login from outside the house anymore….and it seems as if THEIR update changed it for tons of us.
I'll take any help you can offer….?
Thanks 
7:38 am
Mike said:
I have a similar problem – repeatedly failing to connect for no reason, requiring a restart remotely ( how easy is that when you're away).
How do we organise a class action?
I want in!!
3:21 pm
February 18, 2012
Offline
I just wanted to thank all those who put this thread together – I ran into the same problem with my Slingbox Solo and was getting the run around from Sling Media (they mailed me a new power adapter, and were about to get me to pay them $30 to go through a couple of weeks of trouble shooting – which I'm hearing includes them having you buy a new router…)
Instead, I cracked open the Slingbox to take a look. This is what I saw:
As you can see, the two 16V, 470uF capacitors (the dark blue ones on the left) were bulging and the source of my problems. I went out and bought a soldering kit (25 watt Weller kit from Home Depot – $15) and a pair of 35V, 470uF capacitors (the baby blue one in the upper left corner of the pic – $3 total for 2 from Radio Shack). I want to emphasize that I've never soldered anything before in my life. Desoldering the bulging capacitors was a chore – the old solder takes a while to melt, and then you have to really pull the old capacitors out, followed by some more work making sure the capacitor holes are open to accept the leads for the new capacitors (I used a pin pressed into the capacitor holes on the board while I held the solder iron to the old solder to melt it until the pin pushed through…) However, after about 20 minutes, I had the new capacitors soldered on the board, and now my Slingbox Solo is working as good as new.
Thanks everyone for figuring this out when Sling Media was keeping the solution quiet, and for convincing me that I could fix it myself rather than go through the multi-week process that Sling Media has started.
10:51 pm
April 19, 2010
Offline
Glad you got it working. I know exactly what you mean about desoldering them. I have run into the same problem but with a little work you can get them out of there.
6:55 am
May 10, 2012
Offline
I'm posting this in a couple places so I'm hoping this will help.
1) Opened my Solo from instructions above.
2) Noticed the 2 capacitors were only slightly raised but decided to replace anyway.
3) Replaced the capacitors, powered back up but now only have the power light on and no link (2nd) light on.
4) After about 5 minutes I heard a big pop. Ooops, installed 1 of 2 caps backwards (+/- crossed). Back to the Shack for another cap. I was surprised I didn't blow the whole board.
5) Soldered the new cap, powered on and now no lights.
6) Opened the Solo up again and noticed the solder was touching both positive and negative leads. I was surprised I didn't pop another cap. Fixed the solder job.
7) Powered on. Now getting the power light and no network/link light.
8) Went to Best Buy and bought a new Solo, BUT wait, decided to do one more test. I cut open the old AC Adapter and long behold I had popped caps in the old AC adapter. I took the new AC Adapter from the new Solo I just bought and plugged it in to the old Solo.
9) SUCCESS! The old Solo is up and working again. Whew!
10) I ordered a replacement AC adapter from ebay and will use that when it comes in. When the replacement AC Adapter comes in I will be taking back the new Solo for a refund next week and a savings of $160.
Lesson learned – check not only the board but also the AC Adapter.
7:21 am
March 15, 2012
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I bought a used slingbox solo off ebay only to find out it will not stream properly. I constantly lost connection. After googling slingbox solo and lose connection, I found this thread. Since the solo was out of warranty, I opened the box and there were two bulging capacitors. I dont know soldering. I will ask my friend who does to fix it tomorrow. Hope it works.
I don't know what the seller was thinking about to sell me such a defective unit.
7:53 am
May 10, 2012
Offline
Nadal Liu said
I bought a used slingbox solo off ebay only to find out it will not stream properly. I constantly lost connection. After googling slingbox solo and lose connection, I found this thread. Since the solo was out of warranty, I opened the box and there were two bulging capacitors. I dont know soldering. I will ask my friend who does to fix it tomorrow. Hope it works.
I don't know what the seller was thinking about to sell me such a defective unit.
First off, you may want to consider your money back from the ebay seller. From your story it doesn't seem right that the seller sold you a defective product. If you're not interested in that be sure to try a different power supply if soldering 2 new caps doesn't fix your problem. FYI – I just bought a $10 ac adapter off ebay and all is good now. I have 2 new caps in my solo with a oem brand ac adapter.
