Swann DVR4 no HDD recognised

[MIKEP25 0]

Swann DVR4 advantage, On booting up does not recognise HDD.

New HDD fitted of same make & spec same fault.

Factory reset carried out same problem.

Help Please.

[scorpion 0]

Have you called Swann Tech Support? 1 562 777 2551?

[vin2install 0]

Some DVR's only accept certain brands of hard drive only.

Or maybe your hard drive is on cable select. Adjust the jumper pins to master.

[00mick00 0]

Had the same problem with two out of three of these units my family bought, after about a year of use, think the problem is the power supply, the little box between the mains and the unit itself, apparently its producing enough power to run the unit and show the camera's but not enough to run the HD, I too bought a new HD for mine thinking it was this that caused the problem, try a new lead or you may have one connected to a games console or something to test to see if this is the fault, Good Luck.

[MIKEP25 0]

Many thanks for info regarding the power supply unit i will try another and let you know the outcome.

Mike (Kent U.K.)

[MIKEP25 0]

New power supply fitted DVR now working. Very strange as the old supply was supplying 12volts and the supplies to the hard drive were also correct.

I suspect that there was an AC hum or ripple from the old power supply unit.

Many thanks for all of your help especially 00mick00

MIKEP25 (KENT UK)

[MrBlobbie 0]

Nice one 00mick00. I had the same issue.

Swann DVR9-1425.

HDD stopped recording after a while.

Then, more recently, the HDD wasn't even recognised / registered on boot up.

Everything else worked OK, cameras, networking, display outputs, live view, etc. All fine. Just recording was the issue.

The main unit (the DVR) is powered by a 230v AC to 12v 2000mA DC adaptor.

In my case I had two identical PTZ cameras, one of which was also powered by a 12v DC 2000mA adapter (strangely, the other one was powered by a 500mA one!?).

Anyway, I swapped the two 2000mA adapters round and the HDD sprang back to life, was recognised on boot up and immediately started recording.

Now, I know that I didn't get them the wrong way round on install because A) One is labelled for PTZ use and came in a separate box, and B) the system ran OK for a year.

 

So, it looks like the original DVR adapter dropped efficiency over time and stopped putting out enough juice to power the HDD. It's now happily powering my PTZ camera, which must draw < 500mA, the same as the other PTZ.

I love forums!

Thanks Mick & Mike.

[PhilYorkshire 0]

Thanks for the update - I also had exactly the same problem and too was thinking it was a problem with the hard drive

 

but I swapped the power supply for one of equivalent rating that I had on some other equipment and low and behold the red light on the hard drive flickered and in the device settings it is now showing the capacity of the hard drive and the free space

 

previously with the old power adapter it was showing everything as 0

 

Thanks again - this post has saved me a lot of time and possibly quite a bit of money as well !

 

P s- In my case the unit was approaching two years old.

[greggpeg 0]

Hello, first post here. Had the same problem as described above. I tried the checking voltage of the power adaptor but it was OK- 12.9v DC. I tried swapping this adaptor with that for the cameras (same voltage & amperage output BTW- 12vDC, 2A) but problem still the same, therefore problem must be with DVR itself. I had no footage I needed to keep so I did a full HDD format just to try & it worked. Checked after half an hour or so of recording & the footage was good & the red light was blinking away. Remains to be seen whether the problem is permanently gone or whether this is the start of the death of my HDD but its only a couple of years old so I hope not. Maybe we had a power dip or spike for some reason & the DVR didn't like it.