Digital Drive

Posted by Stereo Problem (A) on March 14, 2017 at 04:16:56

Ha! I'm so excited I just had to join and share. I have a Krell SCAD Standard player that started to get flakey. Symptoms were intermittent, but included not getting into Standby Mode when turned on (I found it still whirring every few seconds about an hour after power came back on after an outage) and a blank display. I took it out of the cabinet to cry over it and try to figure out who I could get to work on it. I set it down on a table that luckily had a book so it was unevenly up on one of the feet - and the display flickered! I did what everyone does these days and searched the internet for similar problems. I found a thread about cracked solder joints in one of the boards AND how Krell no longer has parts. Didn't sound good. In a bit of madness, I decided to open the lid and take a look. I've repaired other electronics before with success.

Anyway, I discovered something odd once I removed the lid. When I lifted the right front corner the display would come back on and the player would "boot up" correctly. I assumed a loose connection (or broken solder joint) somewhere near there. It was very regular - I could lift the corner and have the display come on, let it down and it went off. I started checking the connectors with my oscilloscope and soon found a slight change in voltage (-42 to about -44 on the third pin from the right in the circled connector (in the photo attached). With the power disconnected, I gently eased out the connector then pushed it back on firmly and VOILA! the problem was completely solved. It's worked flawlessly for 3 days now. I'll update this thread if it gives more problems. I've been reading AudioAsylum for years as a guest, so I'm trying to give back...
Not to mention that I'm pleased as punch with myself :D