On May 28, 9:17*pm, tin6150 wrote:
Hello folks, happy Memorial Day weekend to you all!

My microwave is acting erratic, maybe you can help me see if it is
repairable? *It can heat water, but tends to shut downs prematurely.

I have read this repair faqhttp://www.repairfaq.org/sam/micfaq.htm#micsaf
but didn't find answer to my problem.

One evening I was cooking a frozen dinner, a chicken pot pie with a
mesh for browning at the top of the paper container. *It is said to be
microwave safe. *I followed instructions exactly. *But maybe 3 minutes
into the nuking, there were a few spark, so I pulled the power cord as
quickly as I could. *There were some burn smell, which lingered even
after a week of non-use. *The microwave oven was clean, no spill over
or splatter when I started nuking the pot pie. *I did not leave a fork
in there either.

The microwave in question is a panasonic inverter system, 1200 W.
manufacture date is 2002.

Currently, all electronics seems to work fine, touch pad works, clock
runs, timer works. *no visible damage. *No paint problem from the
spark. *I tried to heat a cup of water for 35 seconds, and microwave
just shut off automatically after some 15-20 seconds (but clock panel
still running, so the electronics seems to have shut something down.
No error indicator of any sort that I can see).

If I set power to 50%, then it will heat the water for 50 seconds to
completion. *water temperature is very warm to the touch. *If I set
power to 10%, then it will heat for more than 70 seconds to
completion.

Maybe eventually at more than 50 seconds even at the 50% power, it
might shut off automatically when something gets too hot? *I am not
sure if I want to try it if microwave isn't really going to be fully
functional anyway.

It is likely cheaper to just buy a new one, but as an
environmentalist, I just hate to waste appliance that can otherwise
work

Much thanks in advance for any advices.
Tin

Sounds slightly similar. Had a GE unit that started making an
internal arc sound [the arc burnt around the waveguide entrance to the
microwave chamber out of sight. Without total disassembly could not
see it].

Symptom sounds similar, uWave would run, then [in my case] hear arcing
sounds, and then shutdown. Arcing did NOT occur if a glass of water
were present. But arcing occurred if I was trying to toast something
dry, like bread. My guess was that the damped microwave chamber keeps
the voltage down enough there is no arcing. And when the chamber is
unloaded, the resonant voltages get high enough to enccourage the
arcing. Culmination of this was that after 'limping' along for 4
months, the burn spots in the waveguide feed required replacing the
unit, had to buy a new one.