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Lightning damage tonight in Boston.

post #1 of 6
6/1/11 at 8:10pm
Thread Starter 
So we had some really violent weather roll through Boston tonight and it appears to have damaged my Pioneer 1019 receiver. I was watching the Bruins game when the weather started rolling through and when the signal on the tv started getting really choppy I went outside to videotape the storm. When I came back into the house there was no picture on my television, however I could still hear the Bruins game coming through the speakers.

I have everything in my system connected to a Monster surge protector, however I bypassed the coaxial cable due to a lapse in judgement and I fear that's what got me.

I've tried switching the HDMI port being used on the television, however since I can hear audio from both my PS3 and my cable box - both of which are connected to the 1019 via HDMI - that leads me to believe the problem is with either the video processing or the HDMI out port on the receiver.

What's the best way for me to determine what exactly is broken, identify a part number, and order a replacement? I'd rather not take it back to Best Buy for a diagnosis, but I am willing to do this if there's not a better way to figure it out.

Thanks in advance for any answers or advice.

Signed,

A seriously bummed out guy.
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post #2 of 6
6/1/11 at 8:34pm
If the TV has no picture, try running the cable directly to the TV.
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post #3 of 6
6/2/11 at 10:42am
Thread Starter 
Well, I've tried running the HDMI directly from both the cable box and the PS3 to the TV and I still get a "no signal" message on the screen of the tv. Furthermore, I've also tried to use a different HDMI cable to see if possibly the other cable was destroyed; no luck. The next move is to see if I can run the PS3 to the TV using component cables and if I can get a picture that way, but frankly I'm not very optimistic.

I'm so pissed right now I could spit.
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post #4 of 6
6/2/11 at 11:12am
Quote:
Originally Posted by jamalke View Post
Well, I've tried running the HDMI directly from both the cable box and the PS3 to the TV and I still get a "no signal" message on the screen of the tv. Furthermore, I've also tried to use a different HDMI cable to see if possibly the other cable was destroyed; no luck. The next move is to see if I can run the PS3 to the TV using component cables and if I can get a picture that way, but frankly I'm not very optimistic.

I'm so pissed right now I could spit.
You wrote that you "tried running the HDMI directly from ... the PS3 to TV".
Its not clear whether you were sending content originating from you cable (Comcast?) TV provider or a source local to the PS3.
You want to use a video source NOT from the cable box, as a test.
Either from you PC hard drives, or PS3 stored material, or external hard drive/flash.
That will tell you if your TV is capable of displaying something.
If your TV does display non-Cable source material, then you may just need to exchange your Cable Box (Motorola?) for another box.
If not then hopefully you only zapped one of your TV's input paths.
Sometimes the input relay mechanism gets 'fused' by the strike in a manner that you cannot rely on what you think the input souce is. You could have bridged or broken some of the sources.
The component input test you mentioned is a good one to do.
Also your TV has a RF input and in the clear QAM tuner. So take the cable RF input cable and remove it from your cable box, and connect directly to your TV RF in, just as a test.

Let us know the results of the tests above.

iq100
The best way to delete an idea is to post one of your own.
Egypt, soon Libya, will be forced to embrace peaceful expression
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post #5 of 6
6/2/11 at 11:59am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by iq100 View Post
If your TV does display non-Cable source material, then you may just need to exchange your Cable Box (Motorola?) for another box. If not then hopefully you only zapped one of your TV's input paths.
Sometimes the input relay mechanism gets 'fused' by the strike in a manner that you cannot rely on what you think the input souce is. You could have bridged or broken some of the sources. The component input test you mentioned is a good one to do. Also your TV has a RF input and in the clear QAM tuner. So take the cable RF input cable and remove it from your cable box, and connect directly to your TV RF in, just as a test.
Thanks for the detailed reply. I went down and got the original component cables that came with my PS3 and ran those into the AV-2 input on my television. At first it didn't generate a signal, however after holding the power button on the PS3 down to reset system defaults I was able to get the PS3 image up on the screen. I was also able to stream Netflix to the tv and it worked fine, so it appears that the problem is isolated to the HDMI portion of the set.

As I lack the technical expertise to actually drill down into what could be blown/fused/burnt out at this point, I've gone ahead and scheduled to have an electronics repair professional make a house call this coming Monday. I'll follow this post up with a detailed write-up on what he finds, however I can say that I'll never bypass my coaxial surge protector again. I've reconnected it (sort of like closing the barn door after the horses have escaped, but whatever) and am kicking myself for letting this happen.

Thanks again for the replies.
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post #6 of 6
6/2/11 at 2:00pm
Jamalke,

It probalby wasn't your lack of connecting the coax surge protector. If you lost the HDMI on your TV and other devices(?) the surge probably came through the ground wire. This happens because of two common reasons.

1. Lightning struck VERY near your house and entered your house through the ground wire. This is not common but can happen. No surge protector protects against current coming in from ground or a direct hit to your home, they are designed to stop surges coming in from the power line not ground. Your best protection against these types of surges is good home insurance.

2. Your surge protector or another surge protector in your house diverted the power line surge to the ground wire and your low voltage lines (cable, sat, phone, etc.) are not grounded at the service entrance and connected somewhere in the ground path. The surge on its way to ground splits and goes through the ground wires of low voltage wires in the home. This is common in New England and older homes that weren't pre-wired for low voltage connections that were retro-fitted later. If you only lost HDMI capability this was probably the cause.

UL recommends using surge protectors that do not divert to ground for interconnected equipment (monster diverts to ground as do most). So you might have the wrong type of surge protection for your situation.
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