weird problem for the experts (long post)

dcorrea · June 2003

First off let me begin by saying I am very sorry about this long post..with that said..

Here it goes...
Currently I have a pioneer vsx-d606s reciever that I bought in japan 5 years ago (soon to be replaced by a HK AVR525 next month on my B-Day Yahh!!), and a pioneer dvd player. I also have a pioneer front firing subwoofer with RTI38s in the front and some sony surrounds.. I know I know its a hodepodge but Im slowly upgrading..

Ok well while watching movies a couple of weeks ago I noticed that my sound to all channels would randomly disapear for a few seconds the reapear. Looking at the speaker display on my reciever it appeared that the reciever would drop all the speakers. After some investigating, I realized that this was being caused by the light switch in my kitchen going from on to off. Everytime I turned the switch off I lost the sound for a second. So I used a meter on the outlet my HT was hooked up to and everytime I turned off the light there would be a 2-3 volt spike on the return line. Well I bought a HT surge protector from Radio Shack that had 55db of noise filtering figuring this would help. It did nothing. So I moved my HT to another outlet and lo and behold the sound cutting out stopped when the light was switched off. BUT now it does it if I turn my TV off.

Grant it I wont be turning my TV off while watching a DVD but the fact that it is happening is bothering me.
So yesterday I go to circuit city and by the HTS1100 powerbar to see if its stage 2 filtering can help. It doesnt.

All the while, my subwoofer would randomly start to make a very LF Buzz sound. I'v checked my connections and even used different RCA cables(like the monster ones) to eliminate this but it still happens.

Basically my question is this. Has anyone ever experienced something like this before? Is this two seperate problems or are my problems related. Can damage occur to my system like this? I am 3 weeks away from getting my long awaited BDay gift from my wife(the HK 525) and the last I wanna do is have it ruined by some crazy power problem.

F1nut · June 2003

Do yourself a favor, call a certified electrician and have him run a dedicated 20 amp line or two for your HT set up. You will be amazed at the better picture and sound quality. While he's there ask him about your other problem because I don't have a clue.

Let us know the outcome.

dcorrea · June 2003

Thanks for the reply but unfortunately I live in an apartment right now. I cant do any real wiring mods.

burdette · June 2003

In an apartment... not much you can do... this may help, or some product like it:

http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?&User_ID=10722661&St=4040&St2=73058649&St3=77684216&DS_ID=3&Product_ID=3208&DID=7

brettw22 · July 2003

I'm seein this one kinda late, but I agree with burdette's suggestion. I live in an apartment where randomly, the power fluctuates WAY too much for my tastes, so I have about 10 or so mini UPS units with everything plugged into them. There power still dips, but the units keep the steady power goin to the equipment.......

dorokusai · July 2003

If your power is going out like that it sounds like a wiring problem. No shite eh? Anyways, even if you live in an apartment that is most likely a issue they need to fix. A fluctuation like that could be a code violation. If they don't offer to fix it, tell them that you will notify the county, or just do it on your own.

You may also have too much draw on that particular outlet. Your apartment is fused independently, so check to see what breaker size runs that outlet. If it is 10 amps, thats small for a large HT system. These are just ghetto suggestions, but I have seen these exact problems.

dcorrea · July 2003

I bought a monster power power bar and hooked it up for troubleshooting. As I turned the light switch on and off I the bar did not register any dangerous current pull. The current draw did jump .5 amps for a brief second but thats nothing that a power conditioner surge protector cant handle, and yet the sound still cuts outs.

Tour2ma · July 2003

Sometimes the breakers will corrode enough to produce resistance and the power dips you are experieincing. It usually takes more than a light bulb or two to produce a dip, but...

I assume the breaker box is in your Appt., so try killing all the breakers including the main (last), if you have one. Then with the main off make and break all the individual breakers a few times (end up with them off). To a fair extent breakers are self cleaning, but they have to be open and closed. Then reset the main and each breaker one at a time. You can do this even if you do not have a main breaker, but be sure all sensitive electronics and/or high loads are off, e.g., your components, fridge, A/C.

Corrosion can also occur between the buss bars and the breakers. With the main breaker off you can safely remove the panel cover and "wiggle" or even remove each of the individual breakers and manually clean the buss and breaker contacts. If you see signs of pitting and severe corrosion contact your landlord, he has a problem. Only do this if your box has a main breaker.

Trust me you do not want to mess with live buss bars. I vaporized a screwdriver tip many years ago trying to clean up a hot buss. Took me a while to get up the nerve to put the panel cover back on, but gave me time to clean out my drawers
:eek:

dcorrea · July 2003

Ill be hooking my new receiver in a couple of days. Hopefully it is just my current receiver going bad. Ive noticed some other issues with my current receiver which is leading me to believe that all my issues may be related to this thing going bad. Well know in about a week.

brettw22 · July 2003

Originally posted by Tour2ma
Took me a while to get up the nerve to put the panel cover back on, but gave me time to clean out my drawers
:eek:

Wisdom (and entertainment) as only Tour can provide........:D

dcorrea · July 2003

Well heres the latest on my situation. I finally hooked up my HK receiver and put it to the test. The subwoofer hum stopped so I know that my old reciever was faulty. After hooking everything up I did the light switch test and it still did it. Fortunately now I have optical connections available so I decided to use those instead of the digital coax line. It works like a champ now. I no longer get any type of interference when there is a slight power surge in my apartment. Although I used 3 different digital coax lines I was still getting some sort of interference across my line causing the signal drop. Thankfully the optical lines fixed my problems. On top of that I hooked up my system to the Monster Powerbar 1000 for even added protection.

Big Dan R · August 2003

Brett, I agree, Tour is da man....
BDR:D

weird problem for the experts (long post)

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