Help! Intermittent Receiver problem (1 Viewer)

[JeffP]

I've got an RCA Receiver and I've been getting an intermittent issue lately. The sound will completly disappear. Sometimes it will flucuate on and off in 2 -3 second intervals, and other times it will be completly silent. It is not the connection to the DVD player's problem as it happens on all sources. And it is not speaker connection issues, as all speakers either work or do not work. I am at a loss here. What do you think may be the issue? It's no longer under warranty, and I need my receiver! I'll be glad to answer any questions you have to help debug this problem.

Jeff

 

[Kevin P]

Is the receiver getting unusually warm? It could be overheating and going into a protection mode.

Also check for loose strands of speaker wire on the terminals (on both the receiver and speaker ends) that could be touching each other or the receiver chassis as this could be causing an intermittent short, and causing the receiver to go into a protection mode.

Have you tried gently whacking the top of the receiver when this happens? Does it have an effect (e.g. sound drops out or comes back when whacked)? If this is the case, you have an intermittent connection inside the receiver. Someone reasonably versed in electronic repair (and a soldering iron) can fix this in a matter of minutes.

Try disconnecting the speakers and plugging in a set of headphones to see if the problem still occurs. If it does, the problem is in the receiver, not the speakers or the speaker wires.

KJP

 

[JeffP]

It shouldn't be getting too warm. Although yesterday was a fairly warm day. It happened about 15 minutes after I turned on the receiver. I'll try the whacking method, and I'll also try the headphones, although I imagine it is the receiver's issue.

Thanks for the help, perhaps more ventilation is required.