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Advice needed - lightning got my onkyo...I think

post #1 of 15
7/19/12 at 11:17pm
Thread Starter 
Hey guys,

My home was in the middle of a serious electrical storm that caused a surge that took out my computer, router, modem, phone, dish, internet.....you get the picture.

I have a onkyo ht rc 270 that powers up fine but doesnt recognize any sources and doesn't output to the TV. I've unplugged the power cable all hdmi cables, swapped them out and done a factory reset at this point.

Does anyone have any advice on what the damage could be? TIA!
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post #2 of 15
7/20/12 at 5:56am
HDMI board damage. Time to get your insurance company involved for replacement/warranty repair.
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post #3 of 15
7/20/12 at 4:15pm
Thread Starter 
Thanks for your reply. Very much appreciated. I have no doubt that you're correct. I've managed to keep everything under my deductible so I would like to ask is the hdmi board easily replaceable? Should I expect this to be the only issue? Thanks again!
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post #4 of 15
7/20/12 at 8:06pm
Thread Starter 
Imagine how happy I am that I just squeaked in under the two year warranty. Yippee. Does Onkyo make you pay for shipping?
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post #5 of 15
7/20/12 at 8:40pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by sleets1 View Post

Imagine how happy I am that I just squeaked in under the two year warranty. Yippee. Does Onkyo make you pay for shipping?

If it's covered under warranty I believe that the normal way it's handled is that you pay for shipping to the repair center and Onkyo pays for shipping it back to you. Invest in a whole house surge protector in the future.

Cheers,
SB
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post #6 of 15
7/21/12 at 12:27am
Thread Starter 
great advice!
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post #7 of 15
7/21/12 at 6:07am
Now I will give you some better advice.

Protect your system with an APC Pro Back-UPS 1000 or similar unit. This will give you complete power surge protection and battery backup to keep your system isolated and protected from the kind of damage you just suffered, plus it will keep your system running on a battery for up to 20-30 minutes during a power outage.

That is the best way to protect your electronics from damage in the future.

Quote:
Originally Posted by sleets1 View Post

great advice!
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post #8 of 15
7/21/12 at 7:26am
Quote:
Originally Posted by commsysman View Post

Now I will give you some better advice.
Protect your system with an APC Pro Back-UPS 1000 or similar unit. This will give you complete power surge protection and battery backup to keep your system isolated and protected from the kind of damage you just suffered, plus it will keep your system running on a battery for up to 20-30 minutes during a power outage.
That is the best way to protect your electronics from damage in the future.

"Better advice"?

I don't think so!

A battery backup as a secondary defense would be useful for computer gear, etc., not so useful for AVR's. First round of protection must be a whole house surge protector to shunt the excessive voltage from a power surge directly to ground before it is allowed to get into the house wiring to do its damage. Nothing in the world will protect against the high voltage from a direct lightning strike to the power lines, but a whole house system is the best insurance against voltage surges that often occur during an electrical storm, etc. Nothing wrong with the belts and suspenders approach of employing additional protection devices at the components, but they are not nearly as effective as a whole house system.

SB
Edited by SpotcheckBilly - 7/21/12 at 7:39am
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post #9 of 15
7/21/12 at 7:53am
Damage caused by lightning is not covered under warranty..
Read the fine print in their warranty policy..

When you send it in for warranty coverage they are able to tell what failed.. And will likely reject it..

Just my $0.02.. wink.gif
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post #10 of 15
7/21/12 at 1:32pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by M Code View Post

Damage caused by lightning is not covered under warranty..
Read the fine print in their warranty policy..
When you send it in for warranty coverage they are able to tell what failed.. And will likely reject it..
Just my $0.02.. wink.gif

Why not send it in and let Onkyo decide? There's nothing to lose, it's not doing him any good as it sits right now.

Who knows, maybe Onkyo will feel generous wink.gif

Cheers,
SB
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post #11 of 15
7/21/12 at 8:53pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by SpotcheckBilly View Post

Why not send it in and let Onkyo decide? There's nothing to lose, it's not doing him any good as it sits right now.
Who knows, maybe Onkyo will feel generous wink.gif
Cheers,
SB

It will cost $75 to ship to Onkyo..
If they find/conclude it was damaged by lightning, there will be no warranty coverage...
And most likely if you want it back it will be another $75 for return shipping.
Making a total charge of $150 for a dead 2 year old AVR, that are selling for <$300 on the used market.. eek.gif

He can choose to do whatever but...
IMHO...
Strike it up as a loss and move on.

Just my $0.02.. wink.gif
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post #12 of 15
7/21/12 at 11:57pm
my tx-nr3007 cost 39bux to send to new jersey....done it 3 times via fed ex and it is much heavier than a 818
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post #13 of 15
7/24/12 at 10:43am
I got an estimate of $3700 for the type of installation you are talking about. It's a good idea, but a damned expensive one.

An APC PRO 1000 or 1500 costs around $200. I have 3 of them (for my PC and two AV systems).

I live in the Mojave desert, where we get at least 30 or 40 surge outages per year from lightning, and the APC units have never failed to protect my computer systems and audio / video systems for 20 years now.




Quote:
Originally Posted by SpotcheckBilly View Post

"Better advice"?
I don't think so!
A battery backup as a secondary defense would be useful for computer gear, etc., not so useful for AVR's. First round of protection must be a whole house surge protector to shunt the excessive voltage from a power surge directly to ground before it is allowed to get into the house wiring to do its damage. Nothing in the world will protect against the high voltage from a direct lightning strike to the power lines, but a whole house system is the best insurance against voltage surges that often occur during an electrical storm, etc. Nothing wrong with the belts and suspenders approach of employing additional protection devices at the components, but they are not nearly as effective as a whole house system.
SB

Edited by commsysman - 7/24/12 at 10:50am
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post #14 of 15
7/24/12 at 11:14am
A suggestion would be to give Onkyo a call and see what their customer service has to say.
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post #15 of 15
7/24/12 at 11:44am
You most likely fried some capacitors since they draw the current during a voltage spike. Onkyo will see little burnt circles where the capacitors connect to the circuit board in addtion to caps that are probably oozing. It will be obvious to a tech what happened. I wouldn't bother sending it in. Fixing will require a lot more than replacing a HDMI board and to be honest, your AVR is now a fire/electrocution hazard since what is in place to draw the current, will no longer do so. I wouldn't trust Onkyo to fix it. It has to be replaced.
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