I was pretty horrified and panicked by the fact that my DVR refused to power-up. The little red power light was on, so it was getting some juice, but it refused to boot up. Then I discovered this and nearly crapped my pants…
Yes, I am the moron of the day. Years ago when I bought my DVR, I scrambled around the house looking for any old extension cord so I could install the thing. And any old cord is what I found — some ancient, light-duty, shitty extension cord.
The story has a happy ending – I snipped off the old plug and replaced it with one I picked up at Lowe’s for under five bucks, I put a proper surge protector on it, and by golly the thing still works. Oh, and my house didn’t burn down, killing me in my sleep. So there’s that too.
Yeah, the not dying in sleep thing is good.
You might consider examining the outlet the cord was plugged into. You may find it to be equally damaged and want to replace it.