Quote:
Originally Posted by Ron Nielson 
I purchased an AVR1612 refurb last year for my travel trailer. After using it for a while, I noticed that I had lost the right channel. I boxed it up thinking I might take it to the Denon repair center sometime. This winter we visited Phoenix where by sister and husband live. I had a conversation with my bro-in-law who does 'electronics stuff' and he said he could probably fix it. Figured that it couldn't hurt too much and if he couldn't find the answer, it probably wouldn't cost any more to fix than it was already going to cost.
Well, he found that if you were playing straight stereo (no 'enhancements') the right channel worked fine. (I didn't find this - I thought the problem had to do with temperature.) But when you pressed an 'enhancement' on the remote, like Movie or Music, etc, the right channel was lost.
He downloaded a manual online and found that the enhancement was produced by sending the signal thru an IC. Figured the IC was 'bad'. Found that he couldn't get the IC anywhere but Denon and it was $84+. Well, $84 would be cheaper than the full repair by Denon, so I told him to go ahead, buy the part and fix it.
It bugged him that nothing was coming out of the IC and took the unit to his workplace where he hooked it up to an ocilloscope. He could 'see' the signal going to the IC, but no output. Then he looked at all the soldering on the pins and found that 1 pin was unsoldered. A little solder and some heat and the problem was solved!! What a deal!
Just goes to show that some knowledge, some persistence, and a questioning mind can repair a receiver - you don't always have to 'take it to the shop'.

I purchased an AVR1612 refurb last year for my travel trailer. After using it for a while, I noticed that I had lost the right channel. I boxed it up thinking I might take it to the Denon repair center sometime. This winter we visited Phoenix where by sister and husband live. I had a conversation with my bro-in-law who does 'electronics stuff' and he said he could probably fix it. Figured that it couldn't hurt too much and if he couldn't find the answer, it probably wouldn't cost any more to fix than it was already going to cost.
Well, he found that if you were playing straight stereo (no 'enhancements') the right channel worked fine. (I didn't find this - I thought the problem had to do with temperature.) But when you pressed an 'enhancement' on the remote, like Movie or Music, etc, the right channel was lost.
He downloaded a manual online and found that the enhancement was produced by sending the signal thru an IC. Figured the IC was 'bad'. Found that he couldn't get the IC anywhere but Denon and it was $84+. Well, $84 would be cheaper than the full repair by Denon, so I told him to go ahead, buy the part and fix it.
It bugged him that nothing was coming out of the IC and took the unit to his workplace where he hooked it up to an ocilloscope. He could 'see' the signal going to the IC, but no output. Then he looked at all the soldering on the pins and found that 1 pin was unsoldered. A little solder and some heat and the problem was solved!! What a deal!
Just goes to show that some knowledge, some persistence, and a questioning mind can repair a receiver - you don't always have to 'take it to the shop'.
I don't have an ocilloscope handy but I do have the repair manual for my AVR-889 which just started acting up. I'm going to open the case and make sure all the cards are tight before totally giving up on it. It really isn't anything but another computer and I've been working on those for years. The thing is that the parts are less main-stream and cost a lot of money.

























