Help! My Receiver Is Possessed! (1 Viewer)

[Sean Moon]

A few months ago while watching ROTK, my Pioneer vsxd811s receiver acted a bit strange. During a part of the film, when my friend and I were getting REALLY into the movie, all of a sudden the volume raised about 10 levels. It freaked us out, but we just said we willed it so, joking about it.

That was back in May. Tonight while playing a game of Halo, all of a sudden the volume did the same thing randomly. We paused the game, and looked around. The remote was nowhere near pointing in the right direction and the receiver is about eight feet from us too. Sure enough, the volume raised itself 10levels.

But then the REALLY freaky stuff happened. We watched the volume indicator on the receiver's display for a moment. As we watched from a few feet away, the volume raised more, then lessened. It fluctuated back and forth for a few moments, then the receiver took it upon itself to raise its volume to the maximum. And it wasnt a slow increase either. It went from -38 to -01 in a matter of a second or so, almost instant as we watched the numbers climb.

So is this something that indicates a failure inside the receiver itself, or is it possessed? We are convinced its a poltergeist or something that enjoys Lord of the Rings and Halo.

 

[Jeff]

Do you have a neighbor with the same receiver?

 

[Leo Kerr]

If it went up really fast, it seems unlikely to be outside IR interfearance... unless there are macro/presets that can move 'faster' than the standard volume controls.

Other than that, it still seems likely to have some sort of external IR 'noise' confusing it.

When it starts doing this again, try covering over the IR port with something (a) large, (b) IR opaque, and (c) non-reflective. Cardboard, construction paper; things like that.

Or there's something posessing your receiver.

Leo

 

[David_Moechnig]

If it is truly posessed then you can probably sell it on e-bay for 10-15 times its actual value, you just need some clever story to go along with it like the posessed rubber ducky that was floating around a while back (no pun intended). Then you can buy whatever new receiver you want.

 

[Steven_Jobe]

Had the same type thing happen with my fathers DVD player. We would watch a movie, and all of a sudden it'd start fast forwarding, rewinding, ejecting, stopping, playing, etc. all randomly. I even removed the batteries from the remote and same thing kept happening. I now have him keep his DVD player off until he's ready to use it just in case somethings wrong with it.

 

[John Robert]

I've had 2 receivers, the latest a Pio Elite 45tx, do the same "possessed volume control trick". I was never able to isolate a cause, and it hasn't happened in the last 6 months. Hmmmmmmmmmm...

John

 

[Sean Moon]

Well the remote i use is one of the massive sony remote commanders that has a power switch on it. The remote was shut off and pointed to the opposite side of the room at the time of possession, so it isnt the remote. And it is the only IR thing in the house at the moment. All my single remotes for all the equipment are in a cabinet behind the television.

Odd.

 

[JohnSmith]

Do you have a Plasma?

 

[Sean Moon]

Nope. Here is what I own.
Panasonic RPTV PT47WX49
JVC XV75GD DVD player
Pioneer 811 receiver


Those were the only things in use at the time of first occurance. On second occurance the DVD player was off and only the XBOX was on. I am not using wireless remotes, and do not own the dvd playback kit for it. The only remote I have that is not locked in a cabinet is my Sony Remote Commander.

 

[Chu Gai]

Was the humidity level high when this happened?

 

[Sean Moon]

no, not really. It isnt really humid in our apt. The cabinet with the receiver is pretty tight and it gets warm, but I leave the door open on it when watching stuff. The receiver wasnt hot either.

 

[Chris Brock]

im putting my money on some type of glitch in the internal workings of the reciever. if the volume kept just going in one direction i would suspect the remote but since it is actually going up and then going down i would think it would have to be somthign internal.

 

[David Strand]

I'm going to vote Poltergeist since that would be way cooler than a busted electrical component!

 

[Sean Moon]

And my DVD player just started acting up today too!

When the player is off, usually I just press the eject button to pop the disc out and power up the machine in one press. And at the end press power to close the tray and turn it off in one press.

Well today, I pressed eject to get the disc i left in overnight and the tray comes out all the way, but the instant, i mean INSTANT, the tray was out completely it snapped back inside, closing up and then loading it. It did this about five times. I then shut the player off and stared at it in disbelief. I pointed my finger at it and gave it a stern talking to, then it worked fine afterwards.

On a lighter note, my receiver is working fine I think the poltergeist is moving on to the player now. Next stop on the stack of equipment, my XBOX! NOOOOOO!

 

[PeterK]

Well I'll have to go with the ghost theory. I know my grandpa's old tv used to change volume when you stamped on the floor next to it. I figured there must be a ghost in the cellar right below the tv

 

[Andrew_J_M]

A flickering flourescent lamp can cause this, as can a plasma screen. Or possibly an optical PC mouse.

Andrew

 

[Sean Moon]

The only flourescent lamp is in the kitchen, which is in a room behind the tv. And there is no plasma screen anywhere in my apt. My only optical device that is not in the living room is the mouse on my pc in my bedroom.

 

[Chu Gai]

What about those little bugs that someone on HTF had in their NAD?

 

[Sean Moon]

Funny you mention bugs......because I found out last week that a spider is inside my RPTV!!!

We were playing a game and see a spider walk over the screen. I get up to grab it and then it crawls into the groove between the bezel and the screen, and goes inside the set. This has happened twice, and somewhat worries me.