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What causes a receiver to shut itself off?

post #1 of 13
11/5/07 at 3:34pm
Thread Starter 
My Harman Kardon AVR430, bought new several years ago, recently started to turn itself off while in use. It doesn't happen with any particular pattern of usage. Last week, it happened after about 2 hours of watching a movie, it felt kinda hot to my hand, but nothing outrageous, nothing more than before. I stopped the movie and called it a night. Then last night, it turned off 5 minutes into a movie, felt room temperature cold to my hand, about 70F. I turned it on, a few seconds later, it shut itself off. I turned it on again, and it stayed on, finished the movie. Any ideas?

Thanks,
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post #2 of 13
11/5/07 at 3:40pm
Check your speaker connections. HK's are very sensitive to loose wires touching the terminals on the back of the receiver. Disconnect and the reconnect each speaker. Both the terminals on the speaker as well as the receiver. If you joined two speaker wires together to make a longer run, that could be the problem too.

HK's also need to be well ventilated. Make sure you have plenty of open space above the unit.
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post #3 of 13
11/5/07 at 4:39pm
My first guess would be overheating.
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post #4 of 13
11/14/07 at 9:18pm
Thread Starter 
I checked all the speaker connections, nothing suspicious. Regarding the ventilation issue, the receiver has been in the same location for 2 years with no problem until now. What has gotten worse since I last posted is the frequency of shut-offs. The last few days the receiver has been unusable, shutting itself off within a minute of start up. Obviously it didn't have time to get hot, so I have to rule out overheating as a cause. At this time I've resigned to buying a new AVR, for under $1000, the closer to $750 the better, so please fire off any suggestions.

Thanks,
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post #5 of 13
11/15/07 at 4:32am
i've got a H/K AVR 520 that has had random power off problems for the past 3 years.
very random, it can go for days/weeks and not do it and then shut down 2-4 times in an hour. completely open area and well cooled room. it's been a decent avr and gonna keep it in the older a/v setup but just I purchased an integra DTR 8.8 for the hdmi switching and updated features to use in the new a/v room.

You might try the Onkyo 805, should be in your range.
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post #6 of 13
11/15/07 at 6:34am
Turn it on with all the speaker wires removed from the back of the receiver. If it still shuts down the you have a receiver issue. If not add one wire/speaker at a time untill you find the culpret. Once identified, see if you can isolate it to the speaker or wire of that particular channel.
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post #7 of 13
11/15/07 at 7:07am
heat, cross cables (kids pull out a speaker cable)

run the setup and see if it crashes - it should detect a bad speaker cable.

Put a quiet fan on it...
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post #8 of 13
11/15/07 at 6:18pm
Thread Starter 
I'm gonna do the speaker wire isolation test tomorrow. In the meantime, just for thoughts, I'm wondering IF it's a loose wire/crosstouching issue, then why did the problem get worse over time? I'm thinking the receiver should just shut off as soon as it detects the problem, not randomly shutting off with no discernable pattern.

Thanks,
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post #9 of 13
11/16/07 at 6:42am
If it's a wire, it depends on how many strands are touching where they're not supposed to. More strands will carry more current. Moving componente, vacuuming, bumping things etc. can slightly move things. If it's a speaker, there may be a voice coil going bad or wiring moving in the cabinet under vibration. I had a receiver shut off but only during loud passages. After I isolated the problem to one speaker, I found that the wires on the spider of one of the drivers would touch under high excursion. I moved them away from each other and they've been fine ever since.
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post #10 of 13
11/16/07 at 7:18am
My HK started doing this last Christmas after about 3 years sitting in the same place (the unit was about 7 years old.) I took it as a sign from God that I needed a new receiver though =)
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post #11 of 13
11/16/07 at 9:40am
Its wierd stuff man - I had a denon 3300 that would start to yowl after 10 hours of being on...

It sounds like heat to me as most amps will say PROTECT on them if its wiring...put a fan on it and see if it settles down.
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post #12 of 13
11/16/07 at 10:16am
I've had amps shut down for 3 reasons:

1 overheating

2 shorts in speaker leads

3 problems in amp causing dc bias currents to feed to speakers.
(caused by intermittent adjustment pots.)
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post #13 of 13
11/20/07 at 9:52am
Thread Starter 
I removed the speaker wires one by one, from the back of the receiver, it still turns off within 15 seconds. I then removed all speaker wires, from the receiver, same result. Somebody suggested it may be a power supply, or the fan seizing up. I'm gonna take it out of the cabinet tonight and see where things stand. I've heard of high costs for repairing AV component, especially receivers. If it's anywhere close to $200, I'm getting a new one, probably HK 247.

Thanks,

Edit: I also found out that my HDMI switcher was plugged into the back of the receiver, but the plug was only in 1/2 way! So I pushed it in all the way. Still didn't resolve the receiver issue. Not sure if it's related or not.
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