Over the last month or two there seems to be many complaints regarding the SlingPlayer Solo and it freezing, get stuck on optimizing, dropping the network connection, etc.
There can be several things that can cause this from poor router conditions, week or bad power supplies, high latency issues and more. As an example in this topic thread, Slingbox Pro-HD Freezes (“Optimizing”) while Streaming, alone there are over 900 views and 56 posts about different things to test and try. Some things have worked others not.
There are over 3,000 views and hundreds of posts about it on the answers.slingbox.com site. Some of the tips or tricks others have said worked but a lot of them have not.
If you have tried just about everything to get your Sling Media Slingbox SOLO
Please note; We are not recommending you take apart their Slingbox and void your warranty or if you just aren’t comfortable doing so, but there have been several reports of capacitors going bad in a SOLO
If still under warranty we recommend you read a few posts ask a few questions and see if anything helps. If not the call Sling Media Support and have them walk you through some testing up to returning the box for warranty replacement.
What you want to do is look for bad capacitors. Because as the capacitor ages or starts to go bad , its capacitance decreases while its equivalent series resistance (ESR) increases. When this happens, the capacitors no longer adequately serve their purpose of filtering the direct current voltages on thedevice , and instability results.
To take the box apart look for the four screws under the rubber feet of the slingbox solo. You have to pull the footpads off in order to see them. After you unscrew those screws under the feet, the black main chassis comes apart in HALF.
Then you will see the red plastic. Flip it upside down and there are 5 screws at the bottom. unscrew that and you can finally pull off the case.
Now you have access to the internal circuit board.
What you want to look at are the capacitors.
- Bulging of the vent on the top of the capacitor. (The ‘vent’ is the impression stamped in the top of the can. The impression forms the seams of the vent. It is designed so that if the capacitor becomes pressurized it will split at the vent’s seams relieving the pressure rather than making it explode.)
- Sitting crooked on the circuit board as the bottom rubber plug is pushed out
- Electrolyte (a crusty brown substance) leaked onto the motherboard from the base of the capacitor
- Venting from the top of the capacitor, visible as rust-like brown deposits, or a visible hole in the vent.
Capacitors look like this.
If you see any that look like they are bulging at the top then those would be the suspect ones.
Here is an example of a bulging capacitor.
Here is an example of one good and one bad capacitor. The one on the left is good the one on the right is not.
What you would want to do is replace any capacitors that are bulging. If you have gone this far I would guess if you are out of warranty ans ideas so it won’t hurt to try this.
You may just want to do this yourself. If so here is a great video with a little humor that tells you all about capacitor basics. Thanks to http://www.afrotechmods.com for the video.
You can order caps from places like www.digikey.com or www.mouser.com. They generally run for under $1.00.
If not into soldering motherboards or worried about messing something up the any good TV repair shop should be abe to replace them for you. They surely won’t guarantee that your Slingbox will work but they will be competent enough to do the job.
If you do take your SlingBox Solo apart and find bad capacitors we would love to hear about it. Even if you decide not to fix them. If you do fix them and your problem is resolved then we would love to hear about that too!
Special thanks to jin for supplying the pictures and directions on taking apart the Slingbox Solo!.
You may also want to refer to these posts regarding tips, tools and techniques on replacing capacitors.
Join the Slingbox Hardware forum discussion on this post. There are already 49 comments on it.
SOLO freezing on me also, opened it up and found one of the two 470uf capacitors was bulging on the top. Went to Radio Shack and bought 2, went ahead and replaced them both to save myself from opening the unit a second time when the other failed (because I knew it would). Re-assembled it, fired it up, and have been slinging ever since……just in time for football…..YEAH BABY———GO REDSKINS. Thanks for the informative site.
Mike
I just wanted to add another testimonial about the capacitor replacement…. I’m so stoked! I ran to Radio Shack and picked up 2 of the recommended caps (NOTE: They’re light blue and slightly bigger then then the orginal ones), I was able to easily take the unit apart and soldered them in myself…. I’ve now been watching my Slingbox Solo for several hours without my network connection dropping at all… and it may just be me, but it also appears to work much better then when I orginally bought it, as changing the channels seems more fluent without delays..
Caps=$1.29 each, Solder=$3 a roll, Solder Wick=$2, Soldering Iron=$8
I orinally called SoloMedia Tech Support, they were unwilling to assist without the $30 for out of warrenty support and/or $100 for an RMA to swap for a refurbished unit. And just when I thought there was nothing else I could do to fix this issue, I came across this extreamly informative information from placeshiftingenthusiasts.com…. Thank you everyone….
I had the same issue. My slingbox solo would work for about 2 minutes, freeze, reboot, work for 2 minutes, then freeze and reboot again. I opened it up and saw that 2 of the capacitors were bulging. Brought the board to a TV repair man and he soldered on 35V capacitors. Brought it home and put it back together. The only issue is that the front panel would not go on all the way because the new larger capacitor would not allow the plastic surrounding the wires for the indicator lights to slide over top. No problem, just didn’t put one of the screws in and left it somewhat not all the way on. Plugged it in and it works fantastic. No reboots, no freezing, running solid.
Thanks for the help with this issue!
i have a slingbox pro and no network light will come in (or even blink/try to come on) with the original adapter, and a replacement adapter, even after months of resetting, playing with all router/computer firewall settings etc. when i use a higher volt adapter, 9v, then both lights will come on, lan shows connected when i connect my slingbox pro directly to the computer, but it still comes up as not detected. I thought the bulging capacitor problem would be my savior, but i opened mine up and don’t see any problems, and fear that i have the same experience as “anothersmith” as described above. any ideas/suggestions? this slingbox pro worked fine for several months and then just stopped one day. any thoughts would be much appreciated, thanks all. jbgster at yahoo dot com jbgster @ yahoo.com
I had the same problem. only use when I travel few times a quarter. I took it apart and capacitors where blown. I will buy 2 tomorrow and replace it. I will post results online. Maybe law firm I work with would do a class action law suite. I bet we have 100,000 folks in the same boat.
First off I want to say thank you. Thank you for being diligant and finding a solution for this problem. My SOLO quit working when I moved from my apt to my house in April of this year. I figured it got damaged in the move, but from reading this, timeing is more along the lines of everyone else. It was freezeing and disconnecting every 5-10 sec. Since the start of football season i was about to go buy another one and pitch this one in the garbage, but a few minutes web searching and i found this forum and about an hour later my sling is like new. Combine this forum and some youtube clips about soldering and anyone, I MEAN ANYONE can do this. That was the best 10 bucks I’ve spent. Now I can watch my football games at work on my iphone and ignore, i mean help customers. Thank all of you again. Keep it up.
I am seeing the same kind of responses on the Slingbox Answers site but they are getting deleted almost as fast as they are posted. It’s apparent that Sling Media doesn’t want any negative posts regarding their hardware so I am glad you posted here about it.
At least your posts and others can help people with the same problem.
Just wanted to let you know that I opened my box and had 2 of the buldging capacitors. I replaced all 3 and will be testing tonight when I get home from work and report back what will hopefully be success!
I got my caps from Radio shack (went to two, each one only had 2 caps) for $1.49 each.
For taking apart the SOLO, one important note not mentioned in the guide — you NEED to remove the sticker in the center bottom. It’s helping hold everything together.
You have two options:
1. slice it along the seem (don’t cut too deep or you could hurt the circuit board)
2. use a flat edge knife blade to peel up the corner and then pull it off with your fingers
I recommend the second option.
I was getting all the symptoms as your tittle described. My SlingPlayer would only last for about 10 seconds then kick me out and ask me if I want to log back in (repeated all the time). Now, this started to happen to me last week and I was going out of my wits trying to figure out what’s going on. I was doing so much search on Google for a solution but none of them worked, till I ran into your tittle above in my search. I took my Solo apart and you were right, on your 6th picture above, the two capacitor on the left was swelled up. Went to Radio Shack and bought two 470uf 35 volt (272-1030). Unsolder the old one and put the new one on. Put it back together, reset the system and configure it and WALA is been streaming to my Blackberry Bold 9000 for the past hour and a half with out a hitch. Oh my God I can’t believe it. It’s been a long time since it ever stream without a hitch. Man I’m so happy, because I’m heading out of state tomorrow and wanted this to work. I just want say thank you a million time over,over, and over.
Luckily a moderated post on answers.sling.com was emailed to me prior to being “censored” and it brought me here. I also have this problem with my Sling Solo, it’s well out of warranty and I only paid $80 for it used off Craigslist a year ago. So I’ve nothing to lose. I opened the unit and definitely see that 2 of the capacitors are bulging. So I’ll be replacing them with the help of a ‘solder-knowledgeable friend’ or tv repair guy.
Thanks so much for this information. Class-action lawsuits rarely do anything but make lawyers rich, but this is certainly a candidate for a class-action.
Finally got around to cracking open my SOLO today and sure enough, there were 2 bad capacitors. Quick run to RadioShack just as badmax did, picked up 2 new capacitors, installed them and so far no more issue. I’ve been using it for about 2 hours now without a hitch.
Thanks so very much for this helpful information. I spent all day yesterday trying all the same stuff you guys tried – hard reset the SlingBox, change inputs, only have one input plugged in instead of three, remove all the Windows patches I installed last week, reboot everything on my home network, all of no use.
Strange thing is, I only have the problem on my laptop. I can get my iPhone to play the slingplayer app for a whole show with no stops. But, both the web-based and the Windows SlingPlayer app freeze up after only a few minutes, whether I’m on my home network or on the road. I even flashed my laptop back to an image I took a month ago when I had no problems, and the problem still persists. Everything else on my home network works just fine, so I think I have to point the finger at the SlingBox itself, even though it plays fine on my iPhone 3GS with iOS 4 installed. Maybe the amount of conversion necessary for ah iPhone isn’t as great as a laptop? I dunno.
Anyway, I’m going to take my SlingBox apart tonight and see about the capacitors. I have a Radio Shack with six capacitors for me if I need them. I’ll let you all know what I find.
You guys are ROCK STARS!!! One of the three caps was bulged. I replaced the two that were identical and left the third one. Laptop’s been happily Slinging for over 20 minutes now. Gotta love it.
Another success here…. picked up two caps at RS and replaced them on the SlingSolo, works fine now. thanks for the informative post and pics.
Cost me $3 in parts and my time to replace the caps. Cost SlingMedia a customer for life…
I refuse to do any repeat business with a company the will not support it’s customers.
Smart guys here diagnosed the problem and provided a fix. Looks to me like any of us that have applied the fix have solved the problem. Sling is handed the solution on a plate and they jerk customers around with $30 support fees and double talk and deleting posts on their forum. sorry, I don’t do business with these kind of Companies.
Wake up sling and offer free repairs to users past the warranty period. it’ll be cheaper for you in the long run and you may actually retain a few customers.
Exact same issue here. I vote for a class action suit.
Forgot to mention the price. It cost me $11 to fix mine, but since my old soldering gun was all rusty and stuff, I bought a complete new soldering kit on sale at Radio Shack for $6.50 as part of the deal, and I also bought the third capacitor for $1.49 that I didn’t put in because only one person here replaced all three, but most folks just replaced the two 16V ones with 35V ones and had good results. Way better than paying lots and lots of $$ to Sling for their non-support, and getting a refurbished unit whose capacitors will be the same as the ones that went bad.
Other folks have commented on how much better their Slingbox works now. I concur. Mine is much clearer, less distortion, smoother to scroll up and down the DirecTV lists, just better all around. If I ever decide to get the HD version instead of the SOLO, I’ll know what to do.
I just replaced the failing caps on my SlingSolo and fixed the problem reported here. thanks to those that have diagnosed this and provided a working solution to users out of warranty.
I posted this simple info on the sling Answers Forum and was asked if I called for support. I replied no, why bother, I willnot pay a $3 support fee to argue with slingMeda support. I did 10 mins of research online, spent $3 on parts and did 30 mins of work to replace the caps, problem solved. Why bother to contact Sling and get the run around.
… and of course this reply was deleted and I was banned from the forums. Way to go sling, nice way to enstill trust with your customers. I did not post anything false and was not offensive in my post, but the mod just deleted my post banned me. What a joke. I am so done doing business with sling.
Count me in for a class action suit. I don’t even care if all the money goes to the lawyers…. as long as Sling has to pay for a long expensive lawsuit, I’m for it.
Add me to the list. Have been having problems with the Solo for about a year and a half. Have changed ISP, Antivirus and Firewall, played with settings but it still kept freezing.
Have replaced the capacitors and it works perfectly, have just streamed for 3hrs with no problems. For info I couldn’t actually see anything wrong with the old capacitors when I took the box apart but replaced them anyway. I’ve also bought a separate stand for the Slingbox which will hopefully keep it cooler.
Thanks for the help, I can’t believe Sling are still sticking their heads in the sand, it’s seriously damaging their reputation.
Thank you! My Sling Solo capacitors looked just like your pics, replaced them and it’s working perfectly. Maybe even better than before like several others have noticed. I was such a huge Sling fan up until this. I have an original Slingbox that is still running well. I decided to expand and got a Solo than started having problems less than a year into it. I almost trashed it since I couldn’t find any help on their forums. Thanks again for this post.
Thank you! I have had a Solo for 13 months and it was working great until a few days ago. I had the same issue as others and my capacitors looked just like the ones in the pictures . I just purchased two capacitors (272-1030) for a total of $3.26 at Radio Shack. It has been running great now for 3+ hours now.
I will post as many negative reviews as I can, since this is so irresponsible of Sling Media. I still enjoy using the Solo but I will no longer recommend it and never purchase their products again.
Thanks for the post!
My Mother’s Solo was disconnecting after 5 seconds.
Long story short:
Took it apart. One of the 16v caps had burst open and had the brown crud on it. The other 16v cap is slightly bulged. The 3rd cap is fine.
I went to Radio Shack and got a 470u 35v cap (they only had 1) for about $1.50. Bad thing is that I also picked up some other stuff. Radio Shack is like my “Walmart”. Go in for 1 thing, come out with 10.
The fix was easy. One poster also mentioned that the original solder has a higher heat tolerance, so my 40w iron took some time. I recommend that you situate the board so that it is supported on both sides (raised up from the table a little). This will allow you to pull down on the Cap while you hit it with the iron.
The solder loosened up and the cap came out. I popped the new one in and a small dab of solder fixed it in place.
I hooked up the Solo and it has been steady. I will get around to fixing the other Cap (probably next time I hit the Shack).
—– Now if I could just find a way to fix my 3 Sling Catcher/solo power supplies. I love Sling technology, but man, did they ever cheap out on hardware.
Worked for me, even with my crappy solder job.
Yep, I opened up my Solo that was freezing up after 1-2 minutes, and sure enough I found two bulging capacitors! It worked fine for about 18 months, so I suppose I should have unplugged it when I didn’t need it. Damn!