XPA-5 Protect Mode - anything I can look for or test?

[beatcoaster]

Hello All,

I just had my 'out of warranty' XPA-5 go into protect mode on channel two. That channel has never been used and it just started out of the blue. I disconnected everything and with just the power plug it still cycles then trips on channel two. I suspected the board was fried but everything looks perfectly normal inside. I haven't tried the hair dryer trick but doubt it would help - all fuses look fine as well. Any ideas or am I s.o.l.? Anyone have a XPA-5 they want to sell on the cheap so I can swap boards?

Thanks.

[bootman]

Call support.
So what if it is out of warranty, they will still help you troubleshoot.
(and if it does need repair it will still be cheaper than another amp. )

[dally]

Try blowing all the dust out of it. It's a long shot, but maybe some dust accumulated on the contacts and is causing a short. How long out of warranty is it? If it just went out, Emo might just repair it anyways. A lot of company's will do this. It shows that they stand behind their products and makes you the customer more likely to buy something else in the future.

[beatcoaster]

Nov 25, 2013 15:31:08 GMT -5 bootman said:

Call support.
So what if it is out of warranty, they will still help you troubleshoot.
(and if it does need repair it will still be cheaper than another amp. )

No such luck bootman - "Either a blown capacitor, or the whole board is fried - might want to have your local A/V tech look at it before sending it in to get fixed"

I'll be trying the dust and hair dryer trick tonight - what a bummer.

[chaosrv]

The old Nintendo trick!

[bootman]

Nov 25, 2013 15:57:36 GMT -5 beatcoaster said:

Nov 25, 2013 15:31:08 GMT -5 bootman said:

Call support.
So what if it is out of warranty, they will still help you troubleshoot.
(and if it does need repair it will still be cheaper than another amp. )

No such luck bootman - "Either a blown capacitor, or the whole board is fried - might want to have your local A/V tech look at it before sending it in to get fixed"

I'll be trying the dust and hair dryer trick tonight - what a bummer.

So whats the quote for a board replacement?
That sounds like the worst case.
Is it more than $500 which is what a used xpa-5 goes for now minus shipping.

[dally]

If you do send it in, ask emo if they would send you one of their shipping labels. They get MUCH cheaper shipping than us commoners.

[beatcoaster]

There isn't really any dust in there - since I keep my stuff pretty darn clean on a regular basis.

I wish I could find one used for $500 at this point so I could have some spare parts lying around.

It's $100 each way for shipping(more than likely less on the way back though), and I'd have to pay $300 to get it tested and fixed. They will not supply any parts or boards, they will only take it in for repair, that's the only option in the USA. I bought it in march of 2008, and bought a XPA-5 and XPA-2 back then when they were just starting out - no love for being an early adopter, thats for sure.

I might as well just hope for a black friday sale on a Gen2 at this point since my local A/V repair guy isn't exactly cheap either.

???Happy holidays?!?!?

[selkec]

I had a xpa5 do the same thing. All it was was a cold solder joint on the rca connection on the back.

[beatcoaster]

I just did this and I sh!t you not, the amplifier is working fine and not tripping into protect mode...truly baffling...here's to hoping I don't have to do this every time I want to use it!!

[bootman]

Did what?

[dally]

Nov 25, 2013 21:01:49 GMT -5 beatcoaster said:

I just did this and I sh!t you not, the amplifier is working fine and not tripping into protect mode...truly baffling...here's to hoping I don't have to do this every time I want to use it!!

Like Bootman said: what did you do?

[beatcoaster]

Nov 25, 2013 16:02:27 GMT -5 chaosrv said:

The old Nintendo trick!

My wife and kids came home and were like "what are you doing?" as I'm taking a hair dryer to the amp on my kitchen table. After a minute or so I clicked the power button and magically it didn't fault and go into protect mode. I hooked it back up to everything, turned it on, no fault. I just finished watching 2 hours of TV without issue...frickin hilarious.

Spend $500 to have it fixed - or - spend 1 minute with the hairdryer blowing in the vents.

Kudos to whomever discovered this trick so many years!!!

[wizardofoz]

still sounds like a dry joint or maybe just a bad cable join...I've never been able to fault Emotiva service, but 5 years is a pretty good run for any warranty...most will give you only 1 year and at best maybe 2/3... more than that in the hifi industry is rare...especially for an ID company.

Ive had 4 xpa-5's .. 2 gen 1's and moved them on but recently got 2 of the Gen 2's as my needs changed and very happy with them. Ive still got 5 of the UPA-1's that have the same modules and no issues there either. Ive seen a couple of XPA3/5's that had totally plated the output stages but that was probably due to either a short in the cabling or a cooked speaker.

They are fussy about non grounded inputs with signals and many a bad cable or connection will sent them into the red protect.

[selkec]

What does the dryer do to the amp

[knucklehead]

Here's what to look for in solder joints.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cold_solder_joint2.jpg

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Gebrochene_loetstellen.jpg

FWIW I doubt the hair dryer reflowed bad solder joints in this case. With no warranty and not much else to lose if the amp goes into protect mode again a good exam of the PCB boards might be a good idea. And a simple touch of a good soldering iron should quickly fix any bad joints found.

As for the cost of repairs - why doesn't Emotiva offer replacement parts for their amps? They obviously have those parts in stock or they wouldn't have given a repair estimate.