A couple years ago I bought a JVC RX-6042, and had a problem with Overload at first, but this problem went away in a day or two. Problem is, I don't remember what I did to fix it, and now that I've moved, it's doing the same thing again. Usually when sound goes over the low-mid-20s, it Overloads. Of course, this is such a ridiculously low volume that something can't be right.

I'm certainly no audio expert; heck, I wouldn't even call myself a moderately knowledgeable in the ways of audio. What I do know is this: I've been used to my 5.1 setup for the last couple years, and it's torture to me to have to resort to my TVs speakers now.

I checked to make sure the + and - were correct at all points, and that no contact was occurring between these wires. I wonder if it's possible that my receiver just can't handle the speakers, but if that's the case, why have they worked for so long? Here's the setup:

Receiver: JVC RX-6042
Center speaker: polkaudio RM6005 CC 27767
Rear speakers: polkaudio RM6005 SAT 009927
Left/Right speakers: polkaudio RM6005 SAT 010450 (speaker wire runs from receiver into subwoofer, then from the subwoofer into the left/right speakers)
Subwoofer: polkaudio PSW10 110V

I'd start by isolating which channels are overloading the receiver. Disconnect all speakers, and start by playing music through first each of the front channels, then center, then surrounds, and finally sub.

Does the receiver have enough ventilation? Hopefully, it's not overheating.

- Steve O.

1) disconnect and reconnect each speaker. Strands of wire are very small, a stray one may be pretty impossible to see, cause a short, and send your amp into protect. Also set up your system with different wire. If you use bundled speaker wire with an outer jacket, it can be easy to cut into the inner wires when you remove the outer jacket, and they can touch and short out.

2) heat. Make sure your receiver is not on carpet or things that block airflow to the bottom, and make sure it has plenty of clearance on top and is not in an enclose cabinet, near heat sources, sitting in the sun, etc.

3) Check to make sure none of your speakers are blown. Measure their resistance, or disconnect(or connect) them one by one to see if one particular speaker is problematic and may be shorted out/fried. Also try removing the subwoofer from the system.

Thank you. I tested each speaker and the subwoofer one at a time and found that the rear left speaker was the only one that caused an overload. When I tried using the speaker wire from one of the other speakers on the rear left speaker, it worked fine, so I guess my problem was just that one length of wire.

Thanks for the advice (I truly wouldn't have thought that one speaker could cause the entire system to go into Overload), and thank goodness it was a relatively cheap fix!