PLS HELP -- No audio from renewed 5080

[cleo]

I bought my parents a factory-renewed 5080 on September 24. The next day I fell out of my wheelchair (yes, I'm an idiot) and all efforts for the past few weeks have been on getting me back in decent health. As a result, I didn't hook up their new RTV until tonight (after the 30-day guarantee is up) only to find that no sound is being output to the TV. It's a simple cable-in-cable-out setup with a relatively (4 yrs) old tv that doesn't have inputs other than simple coax cable. We've tried using different cables and hooking the RTV up to a portable TV to troubleshoot, to no avail: the RTV is putting out beautiful picture, zilch sound.

So, I turn to you, the best, friendliest, and most knowledgeable RTV geeks I've ever met. What should I do? Is there a chance that this can be cured at home? Having exceeded the 30-day guarantee, do I have any recourse with Denon? Would I be better off just buying another one (now that they're down to $100) and saying "f*ck it"? Please advise! I'm just heartsick over this... nothing sucks like talking your parents into letting you buy them a piece of technology they don't think they need (but really do) and then having it not work.

[chain777]

Try a hard reboot and a factory reset. For a hard reboot, disconnect *all* cables, push the power button a few times to discharge any stored up charges, and let it sit for a few hours. Try it again, and if it still doesn't work, do a factory reset - 3-8-2 then zones on your remote.

If that fails, you have other hardware problems.

[cleo]

Dumb question... but for the hard reboot, do I disconnect power?

[chain777]

Yes. That's the main difference between a 'soft' and 'hard' reboot.

[MaxH]

Originally posted by cleo
Dumb question... but for the hard reboot, do I disconnect power?

Yes, but to minimize the potential that you'll yank the power when something important is being written to the HD, hold down the power button for ten seconds (soft reboot), then when the fan turns off, pull the plug right away. In fact, you might want to grab the plug BEFORE you hold down the power button.

If you have to RMA it, tell them you live in Florida and your power wasn't on long enough between hurricanes for you to test it.

Hey, when you hooked it up to a different TV to test it, which outputs did you use on the Replay?

[cleo]

Ok, well I don't think I did it right, after reading MaxH's post. I unplugged everything, turned the power strip that the power's plugged into off, then pressed the power button a few times, and have been letting it rest for about 3 hours now. Did I do it wrong? This is so confusing... I've had my RTV for two years now and have never had the tiniest problem with it, so I don't know anything about reboots.

As for our troubleshooting round last night, we just used the coax output. Now that I think about it, though, it'd probably be a good idea to test it using those tri-colored outputs (you know what I'm talking about... do they have a name?) to see if the trouble is with that standard output.

Even if I can't fix this at home, I'd like to know exactly what the problem is before calling Denon... I can't physically do all the cables and such, and acting as the relay person between the tech on the phone and a family member doing the work during a telephone troubleshooting session can be extremely frustrating.

In general, are they pretty good about replacing/repairing units? I read the warranty info and I have 90 days, which is good. If the unit has to be replaced, there's no chance that they'll send a 55xx, is there? (I really want my parents to have the 5080.) Oy vey.

[MaxH]

Originally posted by cleo
Ok, well I don't think I did it right, after reading MaxH's post. I unplugged everything, turned the power strip that the power's plugged into off, then pressed the power button a few times, and have been letting it rest for about 3 hours now. Did I do it wrong? This is so confusing... I've had my RTV for two years now and have never had the tiniest problem with it, so I don't know anything about reboots.

Don't worry about that too much; what I said was intended to minimize the already small chance that the Replay was writing something important when it was unplugged. At the worst, you might lose some shows or even need to reimage, which is easy to do. Let's worry about the audio first.

As for our troubleshooting round last night, we just used the coax output. Now that I think about it, though, it'd probably be a good idea to test it using those tri-colored outputs (you know what I'm talking about... do they have a name?) to see if the trouble is with that standard output.

They're called composite, and if you have a TV with composite inputs, give that a try too. If that works, that's not a good sign. It means there's probably a physical problem with the coaxial input connection. If the composite doesn't work, that may not mean anything, but my hope would be that there might be a software problem with the audio processing that can be fixed by a factory reset or reimaging.

You know, the easiest way to narrow this down would be to network the problem Replay with another. Then you play one clip from each Replay on the other, and you know where the problem lies. If you have a network crossover cable, I believe you won't need any other hardware. Of course, if you already have a router set up, that would make your life easier.

[JohnnyArcade]

For what it's worth, one of my Replays seemed to have lost audio, and nothing would fix it until I realized that the problem was that the signal was too weak. I removed a split from the line, and the sound came right in.

[chain777]

Originally posted by JohnnyArcade
For what it's worth, one of my Replays seemed to have lost audio, and nothing would fix it until I realized that the problem was that the signal was too weak. I removed a split from the line, and the sound came right in.

That's a good point, and one that's often overlooked. The tuners in these things are incredibly sensitive. What seems like like a good signal audio and video-wise on your TV or VCR may be unusable with the Replay's internal tuner.

If all else fails, run a direct cable to the replay; or if that's not feasible, try a video amp. It's fixed many problems when it comes the internal tuner.

[JHawk]

When you say cable in/cable out do you mean from the wall or a cablebox? If it is the box I know I had to make some adjustments to the cablebox(using the cablebox menu)before I could get the audio to work with my 5040. BTW,the cablebox is the Moto 6200.

[mhargr03]

Originally posted by JohnnyArcade
For what it's worth, one of my Replays seemed to have lost audio, and nothing would fix it until I realized that the problem was that the signal was too weak. I removed a split from the line, and the sound came right in. One of my units seems to be having this problem...did you experience sound loss intermittently WITHIN a show? Or did some shows record with sound completely and others without sound completely?

[cleo]

Ok, I have had two incredibly busy weeks and haven't had time till today to sit down with this thing and try to figure out the problem. I did a hard reboot to no avail; there's still no sound. Also, in addition to have no audio, the video seems to freeze up every now and then, not completely, it's just like the screen becomes really pixellated and choppy for a few seconds and then returns to normal. I did not notice this problem the first time I fired up the unit, but it's intermittent, so it could've been there.

The next step I want to preform is a factory reset, as suggested above. Being a moron, I have to ask: how do I do that? I can't find it in the user guide.

Note to self: search before posting! Will try 382 Zones and report back.

[mhargr03]

One thing is your video signal (cable signal) might be weak. I just installed an Electroline EDA-2200 amp for my girlfriend who was having the same no audio problem and it cleared it up and also made the picture a lot nicer :)

[cleo]

Ok, I did a factory reset and it cleared up the stuttering-video issue, but there is still no sound. To answer some of your questions and give some more pieces of the puzzle:

- There's no cable box; it's a coax cable directly from the wall with no A/B switches or other splits.
- Re: a possible weak signal, wouldn't that affect the video as well? Because the video is crystal clear (better than I have on my unit with no sound problems).
- I don't know if this signifies anything, but if I turn the volume all the way up on the TV, there's no "humming" or white noise like you would expect. (For example, there is white noise if I turn up the volume while looking at the Replay Guide on my other unit.) It's absolutely silent.
- When I was performing the factory reset and the unit was rebooting, and my RTV was off (I assume) and the TV showed channel 3 for a few minutes, there was sound and it was perfectly clear. Again, i don't know if that's significant.


My next test will be to try hooking the RTV up to a little portable TV with composite (thanks, MaxH!) cables and see what happens. As for networking the two units... well, hopefully it won't come to that (I bought the Buffalo 3-in-1 thingies and intend to do it, but not immediately.... life is busy!)... I might just call Denon and be like, look, this is what I've done, please help. Because really, it shouldn't be this much of a hassle.

[cleo]

Whew, after 45 minutes on hold listening to Beethoven, I spoke to a very nice man at RTV tech support and got an RMA for my mute unit. They're sending me something -- an "airbill"? -- to pay for the shipping, and then my mom will have her new and hopefully working Replay very soon.

Thank you all for your help -- I've learned a lot through this whole process!

[kmason5727]

Hello,
I have somewhat of a similar problem.
In my case, there is only one channel that is muted. It is my local UPN affiliate in Miami.
Anybody know if there is a cure?
I have done the soft reset. Will a factory reset erase all my recordings?
Thanks,
ken

[icecow]

[QUOTE=cleo] I didn't hook up their new RTV until tonight (after the 30-day guarantee is up) only to find that no sound is being output to the TV. [/QUOTE]

EDIT: opps, obsolete (I only read first post)


Call tech support immediately and tell them that.

Don't waste time here, then call them.

Point out that you connected for the first time just 1-2 days ago!


Then spend time here.

If I didn't spend time trying fix problems myself before calling customer service, I'd be a few toys richer.

[Jeff D]

Man I really hate OLD threads resurected. Not as bad as deals on fatwallet, but still very misleading...

Kudos to you kmason5727 for searching!!!! Really, really, really good!


But, I really think it would be a good idea to start a new thread if it's been 6 months or so since a thread was active...