Photos of the inside of the LG LST-3410A  

Hi,
Here are 3 photos of the inside of the LST-3410A. As you can see, it uses an UDMA-100 interface on the hard drive, not S-ATA. The Seagate drive is an ST3120025ACE.
So far, the only disappointment with this box is that they didn't put a Svideo input for SDTV.

Notice that the UDMA cable is, by standards plugged in backwards. The blue end of these cables are normally plugged into the mother board, and the black end goes to the drive.

Here is the 1st photo.
Al

MORE PHOTOS ON PAGE 2

Here is the 2nd photo. Notice that the power cable runs over the main board voltage regulator, and blocks the cooling fins. A zip strap around the cable to the transformer on the power supply will pull that cable clear of it.

Here is the 3rd photo of the vertical board that plugs into the main board. It has the IR jack on it to connect the IR "G-Link" sender to control the cable box or other devices.

Hi All
If there are any other views that you would like, let me know, and I will post them.
Al

Now that I know for sure what interface that this unit uses, will look for the best price for a Seagate 200GB drive. I know that there are larger drives out there, but none come close to Seagate for being quiet, and not becoming noisy after a year of 24X7 use. I have used WD drives in my TiVo, and after 8 months they are starting to whine. After more than a year, my 1 TiVo with the Seagate drive is as quiet as the day I put it in. The best price that I have found so far for a 200GB 7200rpm Seagate drive Is mwave.com under 140. So will order one out.
Good luck to all of you with your upgrades, Should be a very simple thing to do.
Al

Jasmo,
Thanks for the info, I already ordered from tiger direct. They matched mwave price, and no tax.
Al

amelie,
Will not be able to post the photo until Saturday as it is up and running now. I won't be pulling it out of service until my 200GB drive arrives Friday. will post the photo then.
The odd thing is that there is a grill for a fan, but no fan installed inside. guess that LG changed there mind on installing it.
Al

Tulsa1,
Its the same as the HDR230, You have to start it. The hard drive does not spin up until you need it. Its not like a TiVo where it is recording a 30min block of video all of the time.
Al

Stantan,
The cable resting on top of the heat sink will prevent the proper cooling of the voltage regulator, so the device will run hot. This will cause premature failure. Thats what you are missing!
Al

orbitzboy,
Thanks for the tip. UPS just delivered the drives, so will run the utility before installing them.
Al

umr,
I did not post this to discuss thermal dynamics. In short, the cooler the device runs, the better off it is. Voltage regulators run hot by nature. They need to dissipate their heat freely. Heat rises. If the top of the heat sink is covered it will not dissipate the heat at the calculated dissipation rate for the surface area of the heat sink. The circuit designer didn't just grab a heat sink out of a box. He calculated the heat sink size by knowing the current draw, and how much heat the device will dissipate at that level. That will tell him how much surface area is needed to dissipate the heat in free air. In blocking the air flow, the operating temperature goes up, and may exceed thermal operating range of the device. The device fails.
A 2 cent zip strap gives a better chance of many years of continued service.
Al

Hi orbitzboy,
Went to the seagate site. They have a seatools desktop program that runs a test on the hard drive, but no acoustic management utility.
There are 5 utilities listed , but nothing for acoustic management.
Could you tell me where you found this utility?
Western digital has this utility, but I haven't seen one for seagate in the past.
Thanks
Al

amelie,
The drives arrived today, so will be replacing the drive tonight. Will try to get the photo up in the next few hours.
Al

umr
Here is a photo of the zip strap in place.

amelie,
Here are 2 photos of the rear.

Photo 1

Here is photo 2. Notice that there is a grill opening that looks like a fan grill, but no fan inside.

Hi amelie,
The drive upgrade was as easy as 1,2,3.
Pulled the 200GB drive out or the package and set the jumper for a master drive. Unplugged and removed the old drive. Installed the new drive.
Powered up the 3410 and checked the total recording time. Now have 21hrs HD or 40 hrs of SD. Didn't need to format the drive, as it does it automatically.
Did not loose my weekly recording schedule or the TV guide info, so this info must be stored in flash memory on the main board.
Al