Yikes! Yamaha amp heating up when turned off! (1 Viewer)

[Mitch Davis]

Has anyone ever seen this happen? My Yamaha RX-V992 has been performing beautifully for the five years I've had it. The other day, it turned itself off. This was the first time that I've ever seen the unit behave this way. When I felt the top, it was considerably warm. Tried turning it back on but it snapped itself off after a few seconds. I brought in a fan, blasted air on it for a few minutes and then tried again - no problem, it worked fine.

Since that day (about a week ago), I've been checking how hot the amp gets and it seems to get very warm pretty quickly. For all I know, it could have always been that way, only I'm more sensitive to noticing it since my little scare last week. I've kept the fan in the same room and every now and then, I blow cool air on the amp.

Here comes the freaky part. I'll come home after being out for a full day, go to turn on the amp and find it warm, as if it had been on for hours (when it had been off all day). Tonight, I turned it off and blasted air on it until the metal was literally cold. I left for about 20 minutes and when I came back, the amp - which was still off- was very warm again! Repeated the "experiment" - same results. Does anyone have any idea of what this might be???

MD

 

[Geoff S]

When an amp or receiver's amps overheat, most good units will have a protection circuit that shuts it off.
Have you recently changed speakers, and have the impedence selcted correctly? Are your speakers 4, 6 or 8 ohms?
I would take it in for repair and have it looked at. Perhaps a heatsink came loose or something, or the wiring is going bad?
When you leave your unit is it plugged in? Might mean something is going terribly wrong with the power supply.
If you do unplug it and it still overheats I'd blame it on evil spirits that want to disrupt your movie watching ability. Hey.. weird things happen! Be cool if this ended up on 'Beyond Belief'.

 

[ShaneH]

Yowsers! That doesnt sound right. I'm just guessing but it seems like there might be some kind of short in the power supply like Geoff mentioned. Is it warmer on the side by the power supply? I wouldnt think standby mode would draw enough current to heat up the receiver.

 

[Mitch Davis]

It's totally surreal. If I leave fan blowing on it, even at the lowest setting, all's well. If I turn off the fan for 5 minutes, it starts getting warm (again, while it's turned OFF). I do leave it plugged in while it's off, but as Shane wrote, that wouldn't explain the heat, as Standby has never been much of a power drain. I don't mind leaving a fan on it at all times, but I'm worried about it being a possible fire hazzard. Am I being overly concerned / paraniod here? I've never seen an amp do this kind of thing before.

Geoff, I haven't hooked up any new components or speakers. Everything that's on it has been on it for ages. It could be an issue with the heat sink, but I don't know - taking the fan away after the deck has already been off for hours brings heat within minutes. It's not getting hot to the touch, but it feels as if it's been on for hours when it's been off all day.

Mitch

 

[Geoff S]

Do you still have some kind of warrenty on it? Maybe not cause it's over five years old?

Yeah, contact Yamaha and see what they say, and then take it in to be repaired. I'm not sure if this unit had a built in fan, but if it does the fan may not be functioning anymore or also possibly, like we said: bad amp, bad wiring, bad power supply, or loose heatsink is most likely the culprit to causing an idle receiver to overheat.

 

[Barry_B_B]

I don't mind leaving a fan on it at all times, but I'm worried about it being a possible fire hazzard. Am I being overly concerned / paraniod here? I've never seen an amp do this kind of thing before.

I'd worry more about the receiver being the fire hazard. Had an alarm clock cause a house fire once, so I don't think you're being paranoid at all. Would leave it unplugged until service is possible. :frowning: