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Harman Kardon AVR 430 suddenly shuts off

post #1 of 8
3/25/07 at 1:00pm
Thread Starter 
Hello all,

I have a three-year-old Harman Kardon AVR 430 that occasionally turns off on it's own. When I go to push the on/off switch afterwards, it makes the normal clicking sound as if it powering on, but then it doesn't actually power on. Then when I try it again a few minutes later, it powers on. All of my other electronics are plugged into the same outlet and they work normally when this is occurring.

In addition, a few months ago, the receiver's volume had an erratic episode where the volume jumped from -45dbls to -5dbls, and the advice I got was that it was just a temporary software glitch.

I would greatly appreciate your advice on what this might be. Is the sudden power off possibly a firmware glitch too? Should I try reinstalling the firmware? Or is this possibly a hardware issue and are the volume and power problems related? Thanks a million!
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post #2 of 8
3/25/07 at 1:36pm

Re: Harman Kardon AVR 430 suddenly shuts off

I have a HK avr435 and after 6 months it started to freeze up. Premier HK dealer soddered some points and problem was fixed. Then 3 weeks later it would not stay on for more than 20 seconds. No problem with power to the unit. Repair guy said it did the same thing for him but after he took it apart it did'nt shut off anymore.(which means it's more difficult to find out whats wrong) He got a hold of HK and they directed him to adjust the bias? and... I will hear monday what the verdict is. I want him to replace the processer while it's still under warranty. . Ofcourse their looking for easy to fix things first. I will keep you posted to let you know what transpires. Good luck.
Rob
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post #3 of 8
3/25/07 at 9:19pm

Re: Harman Kardon AVR 430 suddenly shuts off

i'm tempted to bookmark this post just to link to it when people ask about which receiver to get. i heard about issues like these over a year ago from a hifi dealer, who said they (HK) were having issues with quality control in their manufacturing, specifically in their low-mid range (sub$1000).

it's so hard to know who/ what to believe when there's so much info out there. but most of it is anecdotal and consumer based whether positive or negative. what bothers me about the HK stuff is that it specs so well, is competatively priced and is riding HK's historically good reputation. $300 is a lot to me. this is an expensive hobby. i would gladly trade reliability for bells and whistles. i have been very happy with my purchases. but i would be very bummed if one of them turned out to be a POS because a growing company decided to trade quality for market share.
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post #4 of 8
3/25/07 at 9:58pm
Thread Starter 

Re: Harman Kardon AVR 430 suddenly shuts off

Max, I should qualify my above post by saying that in the 3+ years I have had this receiver, the only problems I have ever had have been the aforementioned volume incident and the aforementioned instant-shutoff incident, I have been very happy with my Harman Kardon receiver: the performance it delivers is stellar, and I would gladly recommend them to others.

I have just had these isolated quality-control issues with it. The weirdest thing about these issues though is that they ARE isolated, having only happened a couple of times. If they happened more frequently, it would lead me to believe that the receiver is on its last breaths.

The one thing I had not previously done that was recommended in the FAQ's by HK is to reset the receiver. I did that tonight, and HK claims that this can fix an abnormality in the processor. The faq also says that if this doesn't fix it, then it is a hardware problem that must be fixed, so hopefully this case is closed, and I don't have to shell out money to fix it.
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post #5 of 8
3/26/07 at 4:18pm

Re: Harman Kardon AVR 430 suddenly shuts off

The only issue I've had with my 5 year old 520 is that it also shut off a couple of times. But this was caused by a voltage drop when my refrigerator kicked on. Affected my microwave too. I plugged the refer into a separate, dedicated circuit and the problem went away. My little used 435 has also been trouble free so far, knock on wood laminate! But I think there probably is something to this HK QC thing. Which is a shame because their avr's can hang with the best of them, when they work right.
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post #6 of 8
3/27/07 at 12:08pm

Re: Harman Kardon AVR 430 suddenly shuts off

Well, I got my reciever back and it's working fine for a day and half now. The repairman said he talked with HK and they told him my problem was vurtually the same problem that the AVR 430 is prone to, a problem with the wire from the heat sink to the bias processesor. Apparently it's a connection problem whereby the wire is crimped and becomes faulty. They reconnected mine and did two other things to prevent other problems which have been known to occur. I would suggest to get your 430 in for an easy repair.
Rob
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post #7 of 8
3/28/07 at 4:04am
Thread Starter 

Re: Harman Kardon AVR 430 suddenly shuts off

Rob, glad to hear they were able to fix your receiver easily. It is nice to hear that if I continue to have problems with the AVR 430, the repair would most likely be simple and relatively cheap. I am going to hold off on getting it repaired until something happens again. The shutoff problem and volume problem have just occurred once each, and since I don't have a car, taking a 50-pound receiver on the train or renting a car would be a pain in the ass.
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post #8 of 8
10/20/09 at 7:10pm
I had this problem as well, had it sent for repair 3 times (shipping a beast like the AVR430 isn't cheap!)

The first two times the repair lasted about 2-3 months each time.  The third about 18 months.  It is now well off warranty and I have a massive paperweight.

I tried the 'reset to factory settings' button combo, that doesn't fix it.

First repair: replaced the encoder and adjusted the bias.

Second repair: DSP board was defective, repaired.

Third and final repair: Adjusted bias.

Looks like a lemon to me.  Maybe someone wants it for parts/remote
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