paragon66x wrote:
My son learned a valuable lesson (I think) and broke his stereo. I am
hoping one of you can offer me some help on maybe fixing it.

Here's the deal: against my advice, he snuck the stereo outside and
plugged it into a 12v to 120v convertor in his car. Eventually he
brought it back inside and claims it worked, but I am not certain he
is telling the truth - the car convertor may have killed it. Anyway,
all the thing will do now is click when you plug it in (I think it
always did this so it is normal) and there is power to the LED next
to the main power button on the front, but it will not do anything
when you try to use the power button. In other words, it won't turn
on. I am not sure if the power supply is damaged or if there is a
board problem. I have checked the fuses and they are ok.

Can anyone offer any advice on this?

I do have background in fixing solid state pinball machines so I do
have access to a DMM. However I don't really know where to start on a
stereo per se. I do not have schematics.

Being that I was once young and stupid also, I would like to try and
help him out. This was a fairly pricey stereo when new and it is
definitely worth salvaging. Thanks in advance - John

If the fuses are really good, this is a bad sign, given what you have said
about using the 12 to 120 converter. Possibly a bad power transformer.
With the receiver unplugged, use your DMM to measure resistance (ohms) at
the AC switched outlet on the rear panel. This outlet directly parallels the
main transformer primary. If the transformer primary is OK, and there are no
blown fuses or other open circuit, then the resistance should be very low,
probably less than 1 ohm, since it is a large transformer. If it's in the
100 ohm range or greater, you are measuring only the primary of the standby
transformer, and the main transformer may be bad. Possibly a thermal fuse
opened inside the transformer.


Mark Z.