XPA-100 in protection/safe mode with no load...possible fix?

[ac2011]

I have 3 XPA-100's driving the LCR. The unit driving the center went crazy and went into protect mode several times in a single night. (For a few months, there was sometimes a clicking noise from the rack area while watching TV, but sound/performance was never affected, or at least not that I noticed. No lights flashing, etc. I'm now assuming this was a warning/precursor)

Contacted customer service and they suggested turning on the unit with nothing connected...tada, went into protect mode within minutes, so clearly something going on with the amp. Just out of warranty by a couple months, and I'm in Canada, so the shipping both ways and the actual servicing charge would probably be darn close to what I paid for the unit.

Looking for any guidance, suggestions, etc. on what I might be able to do to diagnose/fix the issue myself. (Note, the unit - all my units - have always been plugged into Emotiva CMX-2's, although I doubt this is an important point)

[cawgijoe]

I feel your pain being out of the US.

Have you checked if Emotiva has a Canada based repair facility or recommendations on repair in Canada? Another option is to ask them to send you schematics and find a local repair shop that could repair it.

[vcautokid]

You maybe able to get the Schematics and parts list for your amplifier from Emotiva support so you may have your amplifier serviced in Canada closer to you by a qualified technician. Financially I think that would make more sense. XPA-100 is a good amplifier and worth fixing plus it already is the complete front stage of your system.

[ac2011]

Yup, customer service said they could provide schematics and repair advice to a local technician...if I can find one in my city. Honestly, I think there might only be 1 (not including tinkerers) and I highly doubt he has ever even heard of - let alone seen or worked on - Emotiva. I guess electronics are electronics...right?

[cawgijoe]

Aug 17, 2021 13:08:21 GMT -5 ac2011 said:

Yup, customer service said they could provide schematics and repair advice to a local technician...if I can find one in my city. Honestly, I think there might only be 1 (not including tinkerers) and I highly doubt he has ever even heard of - let alone seen or worked on - Emotiva. I guess electronics are electronics...right?

If he has the schematics and is a good tech, he should not have an issue repairing. Hopefully parts are not an issue.

[vcautokid]

An amplifier is only designed so many different ways. Emotiva amplifiers are pretty straight forward and with the Schematics and such you should be in decent shape as the amplifier will use common through hole components like Transistors Capacitors and the like just like any other amplifier. If there is anything specialized that is unique to Emotiva , then that changes things a bit.

[leonski]

Since I hope at this point the amp is OUT of the system and perhaps on a bench or table, I'd use my NOSE, too. Any off-smell is burned something. It has a VERY distinctive odor which

is what you get when you let the electrons out. Burned / charred board or a trace is a dead giveaway and a good place to start.

Will EMO support with any parts?.....I'm thinking a circuit board, mainly? I doubt any proprietary parts in the amp except maybe the boards.

One Last thing? I see you have a pair of the CMX-2 devices. This is good. BUT? Have you had Any electrical 'incidents' that you know of?

Brown out? Surge or outage? That sort of thing?

[ac2011]

Aug 17, 2021 14:22:07 GMT -5 leonski said:

Since I hope at this point the amp is OUT of the system and perhaps on a bench or table, I'd use my NOSE, too. Any off-smell is burned something. It has a VERY distinctive odor which

is what you get when you let the electrons out. Burned / charred board or a trace is a dead giveaway and a good place to start.

Will EMO support with any parts?.....I'm thinking a circuit board, mainly? I doubt any proprietary parts in the amp except maybe the boards.

One Last thing? I see you have a pair of the CMX-2 devices. This is good. BUT? Have you had Any electrical 'incidents' that you know of?

Brown out? Surge or outage? That sort of thing?

The "benched" unit is just sitting in the rack, powered off. Have never smelled anything coming from that area. I also thought about surge or similar damage, but we do have a whole-home surge unit in the panel, and it has been many months since we had any sort of outage (winter storm). Even considered that the socket on the CMX-2 into which this unit is plugged could be damaged/defective in some way, although I haven't yet tested that theory be changing plug-ins.

[leonski]

Good so far.
But?
If the unit did 'burn', it might not stink up the whole house. Put your nose down TO the unit. Maybe even pop the cover. Out of warranty? Doesnt' matter at this point.

If you are in the Least Bit concerned with outlet health? Drop over to the local home or hardware store. Get an outlet checker Maybe 8$ at this point. Follow th instructions which
are simply to look at the lights.

www.harborfreight.com/electrical-receptacle-tester-with-gfci-diagnosis-63929.html?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=13876367471&campaignid=13876367471&utm_content=125499476635&adsetid=125499476635&product=63929&store=226&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI7JSez6S78gIVIz2tBh0bSAj3EAQYCCABEgJfovD_BwE

Harbor Freight has one for 5$...... But that's not the problem.


Nope, something IS wrong with the amp. Emo will apparently part with the schematic. Good for them. Than you need a decent tech. the way that USUALLY works is you pay a diagnosis fee which inclludes an estimate. If you continue with the work? Diagnosis fee is
waived. At least that's typically the way it works around here...
And one also low probability. surge devices do wear out. They can only take so much before they become ineffective. Since your other gear is OK, I also give this a near-zero chance.

[audiobill]

Use this as an opportunity to upgrade to good caps, resistors etc if you keep it at all.

[ac2011]

I didn't realize this thread was this old - 2 years now.

I did take it to a local "tech" - he says he opened it up and found nothing wrong. Really had no answers for me other than to (after paying him a diagnosis fee) take it home and try it again.

So, I brought it home, plugged it in, turned on with no load - left it that way a couple of hours; no protect mode/orange light, no sounds.

So, then went ahead and reconnected to my center channel. Well, it works - no protect mode - but, I'm consistently getting the relay "clicking" noise, multiple times when in use. Didn't hear this at all the many months it was out of the system, and didn't hear it with no load applied. Also, I had the center channel connected to a channel on my BasX500 while the XPA-100 was out of service and had absolutely no problems.

So, that must mean what? a) the input plug on the XPA-100 has a bad connection/problem, b) the binding posts (I'm using banana plugs) have some type of bad connection, or c) something else internal.

I'm not skilled at all with electronic internals, so I have no idea where to even begin. And quite honestly, there really aren't any techs in my area.

[vcautokid]

Without it on the bench. And checking voltages and such, we’re all guessing here. You hear a relay clicking allot which most likely the protection relay opening and closing. The relay opening is a causal related to DC offset, an intermittent short. Also these use a micro processor controller, and maybe acting up. A tech may not see this intermittent issue easily. Also things like solder joints that are fractured due to thermal stresses. It could cause intermittent drops in operation. It could also explain the relay clicking you are hearing. How tenacious a tech you get in trouble shooting the issue would be a factor too. Not all techs are created equal.

[ttocs]

Aug 18, 2023 14:36:27 GMT -5 vcautokid said:

Also things like solder joints that are fractured due to thermal stresses. It could cause intermittent drops in operation. It could also explain the relay clicking you are hearing.

This is what happened to one of my Panamax power conditioners, fractured solder joints. This caused a relay to click continuously in an erratic way.

I used a magnifier to see how many joints were looking "amiss", reflowed them, and all has been well ever since.

ac2011 if you can remove the cover - after the amp has been unplugged for a while - and carefully photograph whatever solder joints you can and post the images, then the experts like vcautokid can get a better idea about the condition of the boards.