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.
I haven’t taken mine apart but I have the same issue. I have done a lot of trial and error and a workaround I discovered is to watch the Slingbox Solo in “Better” mode from the Browser viewer. I’m not sure why this works. Could there be separate circuitry for different resolutions? Does the hardware heat up and fail at high resolutions or while switching resolutions? Auto mode is unstable and freezes up once the bitrate gets high. The failures happen as the Solo is switching modes.
My Slingbox is 3000 miles away so I can’t physically repair it just now. Thought I’d share the workaround for anyone similarly situated. Asking for help on this issue or mentioning the capacitor issue on the official Sling Media forum results in my posts getting deleted by the moderator.
On the Sling Player the error message is:
[Advanced users: the error code is 0x923400dc.]
On the Browser Viewer/Player the error is:
There was an error connecting to the box. Do you want to retry? [Code:W201]
Any ideas why it is stable in “Better” mode? Could this be software/firmware too?
Hey that worked for me, just setting to better. Probably a temporary fix but saves opening teh thing for a while.
Thanks.
Changing the capacitors on my solo fixed my problem. My box was about 1 year old and the 2 capacitors mentioned in the article definitely looked like they expanded! The slingbox company should invest in better quality capacitors!
Allan
Thank You for the information!!! this has fixed my slingbox. The two 440uf caps were bulging and I replaced them with 2 new ones from the Shack. Working great now and I have been streaming for about 1hr now with no disconnetcions. Before I replaced them it would stream for a few minutes and disconnect.
I replaced the two 470 capacitors and my Solo now works fine. The caps were definitely bulging. It was surprisingly easy and the caps only cost a few dollars. Many, many thanks.
Now if I could only fix my iMac g4 and it’s kernel panics as easily .
This worked for me too, thanks so much!
Replaced both capacitors but internet connection light remains off and it still is impossible to find the Slingbox Pro on my LAN Network,really disappointed!
OK, so today is Black Friday and I am off work, so I decide I am going to call Sling Support and tell them the Sling Solo I purchased just 6 months ago is turning off after 5 minutes and its the capacitor issue, based on my reading. I say, “send me another one, please” they say, “oh, your Sling only had a 90 day warranty, since it was a refurb”… AAAAHH! I say.. This is the funny part, the guy says, “today only, you can pick up a Sling Solo at Best Buy fro $99, so I should go buy one”, then he tells me he can fix it over the phone if I pay the fee (20 bucks or something), I say, “your telling me you know a fix over the phone and you can’t just tell me for free… your a Huckster, bye.”. So I went to Radio Shack and got two of the 470uf caps they sell and a solder wand (since I can’t find mine I have had for 20 years). I only saw one cap that had the raised top, so I just replaced it (since I had a rough time removing the old one) and it is working fine. Plus, now I have an extra cap when (not if) the other one pops. Thanks for nothing Sling support! Also, the new Boxee app only is available if you buy the Dlink unit, you can’t just run Boxee on and old PC and turn it into a Sling Catcher.. I am certain this is just to force consumers to buy the Dlink Boxee as there is no reason they could not release it to the app library for *all* Boxee versions… So thanks for that too, Sling. Good news is the Solo is working great now.
Thanks for the advice to check the capacitors. In my case the faulty capacitors were in power supply.
My problem description: SlingBox front panel Power Led blinked all the time – day and night. The other Leds were blank. No operation was discovered.
Power supply gave exactly 5VDC when I initially measured in idle mode. Then after other long studies I measured it again connected to SlingBox and I saw with Oscilloscope that the voltage was alternating – almost square wave – between 0 – 5VDC.
I opened the power supply with “metal saw”. The two capacitors in 5 Volt output circuit had “Bubble Heads”. I changed those and JIPPPIIII IT STARTED TO WORK. I understand this power supply is now a bit unsafe, but I keep it only in my own use.
GREAT THANKS!!
Eero, Oulu, Finland
How do I watch the slingbox solo in the “better mode from the browser viewer”. How is that configuration modified ??
Awesome, changed out two bulging capacitors and back in business! Total cost was $ 10.00, took sling box apart and took the motherboard to a tv repairshop and five minutes later, they had them changed! Thanks”
I have battled this situation for over a year. Never getting more than a few minutes connection. Finally broke down an went through your step by step guide as well as the you tube video. I am a computer specialist but have never had to touch a circuit board other than to install one in a PC. For less than $10.00 and 20 minutes work I now have a working and stable Slingbox. 2 caps were obviously swollen. Thank you.
Fantastic. Have been battling it for over a year. Two blown capacitors. It has held connection for solid hours. Before I was lucky to get a few minutes.
Finally got home to repair my Slingbox SOLO – as with many others, two bulging capacitors. Once replaced, reliability is restored.
For the people who can’t immediately repair their box use the better mode from the browser plugin viewer. One person didn’t understand that for some reason. There is a standalone application to watch Slingbox that is now obsolete. Watching the Slingbox is now best performed by using Firefox or Internet Explorer browsers and going to
http://watch.slingbox.com/watch/sling_player
A plugin will be installed that becomes the program to watch your slingbox. On the bottom right corner you’ll see the word “Auto”. Clicking this will your mouse will reveal resolution choices, Auto, Good, Better, Best, etc. For some unknown reason, using the Better” setting from these choices stabilizes the Slingbox even with the bad capacitors. You’ll get fewer disconnects but they will still happen. Any of the other choices reveal the instability of the Slingbox with bad capacitors.
If you ask for support on the official Sling Media website, your post will be deleted. I have given up trying to assist people on the official site. The moderators delete any mention of the capacitor issues.
There are many posts on the official site which purport to be actual users satisfied with customer service and even claiming that Sling Media is shipping replacement boxes to people who pay their $30 fee. They look a little suspect to me, possibly posted by shills not actual users, but I suppose it’s possible the will send you a replacement box – eventually. The repair is actually fairly easy and the step by step instructions on the You Tube video are the best reference you can have if you are going to try and do it yourself. Any TV repair shop should be able to do it for you if you’re worried about screwing up soldering the board yourself.
Thanks for posting this. Have had Slingbox problems for months and just discovered 2 bulging capacitors.
2 questions:
1) I’m overseas and currently don’t have access to the broken ones. Does anyone have the exact specifications for replacement capacitors?
2) A friend recommended getting higher voltage capacitors, since the originals were unsatisfactory. Any ideas on whether this is a good or bad idea?
You need two Radio Shack 272-1030
http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2103624
The higher voltage capacity makes no difference at all to the function of the capacitor. Sling used a very low voltage capacity and they failed for this reason. The higher voltage marking indicates only the maximum voltage the capacitor can handle coming in, but does not affect electronically what the capacitor does.
If you want to replace the third capacitor, it’s Radio Shack part number 272-1029. These parts are so inexpensive, if you’re going to the trouble you may as well replace them all. I did.
http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2103624
The voltage capacity is the maximum rating it can handle. It has no bearing on what the capacitor does, so it’s not a concern at all.
Thanks guys…!
I changed the capacitors and this solved the problem on two Slingbox SOLO I have
Sooooo happy I found this site. $3.19 w/tax at Radio Shack for two capacitors and about 15 minutes of work. Thank you for posting this info.
Thank you so much for sharing this information!!! I too have had problems connecting and maintaining a connection for more than a few minutes at most. After opening my SOLO up, sure enough, the two 470MF 16V capacitors had a bulge on the top. Picked up a solder iron and two 470MF 35V capacitors from Radio Shack and for under $15. I haven’t soldered before and don’t have the steadiest hands, so I got a little too messy. I ended up going back to an electronics store to get some braided wick to remove and clean up some of my mess. 30 minutes later, I have a functioning box and have not yet had any of the connection problems. Again, THANK YOU!!
Just wanted to add another successful capacitor replacement and my sling box solo has been working just fine.
As stated in earlier posts it is very easy to purchase and replace the capacitors. Thank you very much for the information.
Absolutely worked. After a few years it began to only work for about ten seconds. Followed directions and i’m back in the sling box world……Thanks a million
charles k said
Good deal!
You have now joined the hundreds, if not thousands, of people that have fixed their own Slingbox.
Sling on!
Thank you for your help. Just made the switch and it is working great. Tried to post on the Sling forums, and for some reason my threads keep on going away… Sling CS would not even give me my 30 dollars support fee back because they incorrectly told me it was a network problem.
Just replaced 1 bad capacitor and now working great. Thanks for help.