Hi, all.

It was 2001 or so when I first wondered onto the AVS Forum. Double income, no kids. Now it's 1.5 incomes and 2 kids, so I don't get here much. Thanks to a failed HDMI board on my Denon AVR-3311CI, I'm back. Had I paid attention, I would have seen that these things fail all the time...'twas a surprise for me the other night.

I pulled the receiver out and opened it up. The top board handles the HDMI connections. Most of the components are SMT, but there a few small electrolytic caps, plus a few aluminum caps. 3 years ago I fixed my LG plasma when its power supply caps crapped out, and just over the weekend I fixed my brother-in-laws Sammy LCD due to the same problem.

Has anybody pulled the caps off the HDMI board and tested their function? Could I be "lucky" enough that the caps (really, the only components I can service myself) have crapped out?

Plan B: Buy a Yamaha receiver. I had an Onkyo before this Denon...it died. Seems Yamaha delivers as far as quality. Meanwhile, my 1985 Adcom GFA-535 keeps on rockin'.


Thanks all,
Kris

Well, caps don't cost that much, a few bucks... You could replace the caps on the HDMI board and see from there. Check the cap ratings. If they are rated at 85 degrees, then that could be the cause. Better caps (105 degrees) are more resistant to heat related failures. These surface mount caps really suck. I have read about cap failures from all manufacturers.

HDMI boards get super hot. If you get it working, i would strongly suggest that you attach heat sinks to the graphics chips to dissipate the heat from the circuit board. I have done that to the last couple of receivers and have had better luck with them. My current AVR, a Pioneer SC-67 has a DSP that is known to fail after two years of use (85% failure rate according to TI). It is running on its third year so it looks like it is working.

Hi Kris,
Did you have any luck repairing the AVR-3311 HDMI board? I have two of these receivers. The first HDMI board crapped out last summer. The second one died today... I, like everyone else, would very much like to find an inexpensive solution to this problem.

Thanks