Cursed Power cables from Signal Cable?!?

SniperREX

I bought 2 used MagicPower cord and 2 used MagicPower Digital Reference from a polkie (TonyB).

I hooked up my Philips DVD 963SA with a Digital Reference cord and it didn't turned on. It worked the day before I got the Signal Cable power cables. I tried with several other spare cables. Still no power. It was under extended warranty. So I got a new Panasonic DVD-S96 as free replacement.

I had my HK receiver AVR-7200 hooked up with a MagicPower cord for the last 5 months. Yesterday my receiver didn't turn on. No light from the power led. I tried everything. I even tried to reset the microprocessor following HK website instructions. No luck. My warranty ran out 6 months ago dang it :mad: !

Is it just a coincidence or these power cables might be responsible ?

dorokusai

It's just a hunk of copper so I doubt it. What does "tried everything" mean? I presume it means you tried a generic power cord, no luck? If so, you have bigger issues than power cables, check your incoming power.

F1nut

Did you check the circuit breaker? How about any fuses on/in the AVR?

dorokusai

I thought incoming power would cover a circuit breaker....but perhaps I didn't dumb it down enough.

Sniper - You need to establish what you CAN do, as in a given, then work forward until you replicate the failure.

F1nut

Only time will tell.

dorokusai

Amen.

disneyjoe7

Nice.

but perhaps I didn't dumb it down enough.

Nice.

dorokusai

That comment wasn't directed @ the poster, just the potential reader.

SniperREX

dorokusai wrote:

It's just a hunk of copper so I doubt it. What does "tried everything" mean? I presume it means you tried a generic power cord, no luck? If so, you have bigger issues than power cables, check your incoming power.

My bad my initial post wasn't specific enough.

Yep. I should have said "I tried another cable and another outlet".

I'm sorry but I don't know much about electrical and electronic stuff.

I forgot to add that my DVD player was hooked to a UPS with Automatic Voltage Regulation. So I don't think that my utility power is to blame and I didn't have any broken electronic until that DVD player in the 3 years I have been in this house.

My HK receiver was hooked to Monster Power HTS 1000 MKII PowerCenter™ with Clean Power™ Stage 2 v.2.0. I know it's not top notch. But it should have done the job, right? And all my other stuff hooked to the same powerbar is working flawlessly.

I didn't open my receiver. So I don't know if it's just a fuse. As I said I'm no electronics technician. I could ask my uncle. He is pretty good in that field.

disneyjoe7

Well as Doro stated the Power Cable is just that a Power Cable. Signal Power Cable sounds very nice / clean but as far as power it's just that power. It odd that your equipment as died recently but I don't think at all it's the power cable. I suspect that a fuse either on back panel or internal of you AVR is bad, having said that I feel it was a voltage spike of some kind. Perhaps Lightening?

SniperREX

disneyjoe7 wrote:

Well as Doro stated the Power Cable is just that a Power Cable. Signal Power Cable sounds very nice / clean but as far as power it's just that power. It odd that your equipment as died recently but I don't think at all it's the power cable. I suspect that a fuse either on back panel or internal of you AVR is bad, having said that I feel it was a voltage spike of some kind. Perhaps Lightening?

That's what I suspected. I mean my "bad luck" started with those power cables. But it was definitely just a coincidence... I guess .

There is no fuse on the back panel. I'll check this weekend with my uncle.

I don't think we had any lightening friday night. Anyway a voltage spike should have killed the fuse in the powerbar, right?

disneyjoe7

SniperREX wrote:

Anyway a voltage spike should have killed the fuse in the powerbar, right?

Maybe not if you designed the powerbar would you know what people would plug in? So if a large TV was plugged in during turn on it may blow fuse so this fuse maybe large and maybe a slow blow type.

Slow-blow used for a large amperage start, Quick-blow used for electronic equipment not TV's with a heavy start up current.

RuSsMaN

Not always.

A 'problem' with some more modern equipment - receivers and DVD players - they never really shut all the way off, they go into a standby or 'sleep' mode. Gear that does that, it is usually a benefit to kill ALL power to the unit, IE, disconnect your power conditioners / ups units FROM the wall before replacing power cords.

If you don't, and especially if you plug into the unit LAST - you can risk the postive rails hitting just milliseconds before the ground connects - and have anything from a blown fuse, to a shorted board.

Cheers,
Russ

SniperREX

disneyjoe7 wrote:

Maybe not if you designed the powerbar would you know what people would plug in? So if a large TV was plugged in during turn on it may blow fuse so this fuse maybe large and maybe a slow blow type.

Slow-blow used for a large amperage start, Quick-blow used for electronic equipment not TV's with a heavy start up current.

I see.
I plugged the receiver in the outlet tagged "Receiver". Did the Monster Cable engineer screwed up ?

Maybe it's time to buy a powerful UPS just for the receiver.

SniperREX

RuSsMaN wrote:

Not always.

A 'problem' with some more modern equipment - receivers and DVD players - they never really shut all the way off, they go into a standby or 'sleep' mode. Gear that does that, it is usually a benefit to kill ALL power to the unit, IE, disconnect your power conditioners / ups units FROM the wall before replacing power cords.

If you don't, and especially if you plug into the unit LAST - you can risk the postive rails hitting just milliseconds before the ground connects - and have anything from a blown fuse, to a shorted board.

Cheers,
Russ

Ok, thx for the info. That might explain the broken DVD player. But the receiver was already been hooked for about 5 months. I didn't unplugged it. It was in standby as usual.

Is it better to turn-off the powerbar when I don't use the receiver?

SniperREX

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=704520

Look like it's just a blown fuse .

Holydoc

SniperREX wrote:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=704520

Look like it's just a blown fuse .

I really do like the AVS Forum. There are some people there that have a lot of knowledge. You just have to get passed the self-proclaimed "know-it-alls" at times.

Glad you fixed your problem.

disneyjoe7

SniperREX wrote:

I see.
I plugged the receiver in the outlet tagged "Receiver". Did the Monster Cable engineer screwed up ?

Can't say, but feel different outlets will have different filtering so maybe. A fault of a Monster Cable engineer HELL YES (because of who they are MONSTER, I just don't care for) Other then that no you plugged in a different outlet so you are at fault here. Thats if it really made a difference not sure again about that.

SniperREX wrote:

Maybe it's time to buy a powerful UPS just for the receiver.

Big fan of UPS and used one for everything will be adding one back myself.