SkyStar-2 modification

[phx]

I have SS2 and tried it on different computers with similar CPU's, memory size and versions on Windows. On some computers it works, on other - works unstable or can't find channels at all. Finally I discovered this is due to high power consumption by SS2 through PCI bus and not all motherboards can supply enough power.

I took a female connector from CD/HDD power Y-splitter, cut all males from it and using soldering iron attached its wires directly to SS2 PCB:

1. Two black wires (Ground) - to ground line of SS2 - any place connected with metal screen of RF part
2. Red wire (+5V) - attached to +5V line of PCI connector. Those are pins A61,A62,B61,B62. If you look on PCB - they are all connected together.
3. Yellow wire (+12V) - attached to +12V. This is A2 of PCI connector.

Then I installed SS2 back to motherboard, inserted male power connector into my female and finally SS2 started working stable in any PCI slot with any motherboard.

If you want to try my suggestions, you have to do it very carefully and double check enumeration of PCI pins and wires location. Soldering needs to be done neatly that no chance of short circuits or conductors damages took place. No solder should be put on golden PCI pins themselves. All soldering needs to be done higher than golden pins.

Please use extreme caution about what you are doing. Double check wiring and quality of your work. If there are any short cirquits or miswiring, you have a great chance of TOTAL DAMAGE YOUR WHOLE COMPUTER including motherboard, CPU, memory, power supply and other electronic components.

Using this modification you completely lose all manufacturer's warranties, so do it on your own risk. But I have two SS2 cards working on two different computers and they both work great after modification, though one couldn't find any channels before and second one frequently caused BSOD on Windows or didn't find all channels

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[BxS]

Hi phx,

I know that some people talks about a problem like that, but in most of the cases the problem is the power supply, and in what seems to be your case, is a motherboard problem, this is the worst problem, because a modification like the one you did is necessary.

But, this problem exist for SS2 and most of the cards that don't come with a molex connector, isn't only a SS2 problem.

I'm lucky, I already put 2 SS2 in the same PC, and a TT S2-3200, and all the cards working at same time, and all works really well in my PC

[phx]

Hi phx,

I know that some people talks about a problem like that, but in most of the cases the problem is the power supply, and in what seems to be your case, is a motherboard problem, this is the worst problem, because a modification like the one you did is necessary.

I tried it on several PC's with different CPU's and motherboards. All those PC's are custom built, but I never had any problems with other devices or sioftware on them. What I found SS2 stability is very dependent of motherboard and almost doesn't depend of power supply. Especially bad SS2 works on motherboards without additional 4pin power connector.

After suggested modification SS2 works stable with any motherboard and any power supply.

I never tried SS2 on brand name PC or with expensive motherboards. Maybe you are right - if it's a brand name PC, but there are still troubles with SS2, that's definitely a bad power supply block.

[BxS]

I tried it on several PC's with different CPU's and motherboards. All those PC's are custom built, but I never had any problems with other devices or sioftware on them. What I found SS2 stability is very dependent of motherboard and almost doesn't depend of power supply. Especially bad SS2 works on motherboards without additional 4pin power connector.

After suggested modification SS2 works stable with any motherboard and any power supply.

I never tried SS2 on brand name PC or with expensive motherboards. Maybe you are right - if it's a brand name PC, but there are still troubles with SS2, that's definitely a bad power supply block.

Well, probably all we have reason, don't forget that exist lot's of different SS2 cards, the hardware have several differences, but we all call it SS2

The only thing that I can say is:

-I have tried SS2 r2.3 in one PC

-I have tried SS2 r2.6B in more than 10 different PC, all with different combination of CPU and motherboard

-I have tried SS2 r2.6D in one PC

And in all this PCs the SS2 was stable

Of course some of the PCs are not mine, but I have worked with all the PCs, and build some of them

Only one of them used a cheap motherboard, but also worked well.

With a Nforce2 system I was not able to put the card working, but this is a normal problem for this powered by NVIDIA motherboards.