MAG Box

We switch ours off every night for safety reasons. Fine in the morning and no problems.

Ron Hill wrote:

jpeg wrote:Sounds like you need a new Mag Box Ron it will be the IC Controller overheating It only has a very small heat sink attached

Yes it does get very hot to the touch, prob a design fault and I’ve only had it a year

They really need bigger heatsinks or should have had a small fan inside I install a big heatsink in the ones I use Same problem exits with a Firestick I take the plastic case off mine
You could drill some holes in the casing of the Mag box to let the heat out, make sure you remove the case first

I’ve done that with mine and it does not get as hot anymore

Clearly a design fault then I’ll try drilling vent holes

Ron Hill wrote:when I switch on my TV for the first time in the day it starts buffering within a few minutes. If I go to settings and do a re boot of the MAG box then it’s fine for the rest of the day.

None of that suggests server overload or overheating.

Dont just reboot either, it doesn't always clear everything, pull the power and wait a few seconds before plugging back in.

I’ve drilled some vent holes I’ll try that and report back in due course lol

All helpful in cooling the box a little, but not related to the buffering issue.

Just for reference - if you do have any warranty left on your equipment, drilling holes in it is likely to give the manufacturer justification to not replace/fix if modified.

As long as the MAG boxes have airflow around them - you can always put the box on a couple of matchboxes or similar to create extra airflow underneath.

The MAG 256, which is an older model had quite a problem with heating - so you would have expected Infomir the manufacturer to add better cooling with later models - some have vents, some don't which is quite odd - but having dealt with this companies products for a few years - we ended up not dealing with their latest products, as seen one too many issues and they seem to get worse, not better with every hardware release.

Better options about now in terms of hardware and functionality than the MAGs - from different manufacturers and not what are re-skinned Android sticks - Firesticks MAGs still work, but there days are numbered - as others now simply doing it better.


Paul
http://www.televisiontechnology.eu

Paul - TV Techie wrote:The MAG 256, which is an older model had quite a problem with heating

Bill has not stated which MAG box he is actually talking about so we don't know the relevance of that, if any.

Mine are 254 and 324, they are housed in a cabinet with effectively little or no real airflow other than the natural convection which will occur by virtue of the air slots in their housings. The 254 appears to better provisioned on that score, apart from a couple of sets of small holes in the bottom the 324 appears to have no other venting.

They have both been on since around 5:30 this morning and I've just measured the temperatures at the hottest spots on their tops and they are 38deg and 42deg respectively which tbh is not particularly hot for modern electronic equipment.

In the photo the 254 is visible on the right but the 324 is hidden behind the box on the left as it needs screening to prevent it responding to the remote for the 254. It's controlled either via a separate wireless remote control or by a smartphone app.

Note that they are both potentially subject to heat from the pair of Freesat recorders underneath them although they do tend to spend much of their time in standby.

to try and solve buffering problem it's good to turn box off over night
Also turn router off for a while it will clear the cache

All helpful in cooling the box a little, but not related to the buffering issue you say Paul tv techie

I bought the mag 349 box from you a year ago and I really get pissed off when you techie guys try to apportion blame. Oh it’s the isp providers fault. It’s your download speed, you need a booster.
All a load of bollocks to the man in the street. Techies trying to baffle us with science nothin more than saying it’s not our fault.

You say not relating to the buffering issue?

Well I took jpegs advice and drilled a few holes in the case and while I’d prefer a longer trial I can say that 48 hours later with the box on standby I’ve had NO buffering at all. So sometimes you techie guys need to admit when your wrong or simply say you just don’t know. Sometimes the answer is the simple one. I’ll continue my test and keep the forum posted