AV Power Outage Issue

Q

QuantumCoder

Audiophyte
I had a setup using Yamaha RX-V775 receiver w/surround sound 7.1 that integrated a large TV, DVD player, integral Radio and a FireStick for stream-based video. It was working beautifully for over a year. I could access everything quite seamlessly without issue. A click of one button on my FireStick controller would turn on all required devices and bring the FireTV graphical user interface on my TV. It was working great until about 5 days ago when the power went down in the neighborhood for a couple hours. Now, I am not getting any audio out from my receiver and the devices don't turn on automatically as before.

Note that this outage did not occur during a storm or high winds.

I have played around with the configuration on the TV and receiver and nothing has fixed the loss of the audio output.

Any ideas?
Thanks
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
I'd start with a soft reset of the avr (unplugging it for a short while) and if no improvement a full/microprocessor reset of the avr.
 
TLS Guy

TLS Guy

Seriously, I have no life.
I had a setup using Yamaha RX-V775 receiver w/surround sound 7.1 that integrated a large TV, DVD player, integral Radio and a FireStick for stream-based video. It was working beautifully for over a year. I could access everything quite seamlessly without issue. A click of one button on my FireStick controller would turn on all required devices and bring the FireTV graphical user interface on my TV. It was working great until about 5 days ago when the power went down in the neighborhood for a couple hours. Now, I am not getting any audio out from my receiver and the devices don't turn on automatically as before.

Note that this outage did not occur during a storm or high winds.

I have played around with the configuration on the TV and receiver and nothing has fixed the loss of the audio output.

Any ideas?
Thanks
Unfortunately when the power goes out you get a big voltage spike. The physics of this is back EMF. This happens because the power comes from an inductive circuit, which is the transformers in the system, especially the one nearest your house. Also the transformers in the substation, but there is usually a voltage regulator between the substation and your local transformer.

Now the issue is that an inductive circuit always resists a sudden change in voltage. This is called back Electro Motive Force, or back EMF. In a big inductor like a your local transformer this back EMF is a very considerable voltage spike.

This is enough to damage equipment that has delicate micro processors and other ICs.

So if you value your equipment, I recommend whole house surge protection, which in a case like yours would probably not activate, but would in storms. Then powering fragile equipment from a fast acting UPS that controls under and under voltage and instantly switches to battery for events like yours and does a gentle power down. This would almost certainly have prevented your problem.

As recommended try a soft reset first. If this does not work do a hard reset back to factory defaults. You will have to do a set up from scratch after this.

If this fails then unfortunately some items of your equipment have likely suffered irreparable damage, most likely your receiver and may be the firestick.
 
P

PENG

Audioholic Slumlord
I had a setup using Yamaha RX-V775 receiver w/surround sound 7.1 that integrated a large TV, DVD player, integral Radio and a FireStick for stream-based video. It was working beautifully for over a year. I could access everything quite seamlessly without issue. A click of one button on my FireStick controller would turn on all required devices and bring the FireTV graphical user interface on my TV. It was working great until about 5 days ago when the power went down in the neighborhood for a couple hours. Now, I am not getting any audio out from my receiver and the devices don't turn on automatically as before.
As mentioned by others, your equipment might have been damaged by a voltage spike due to the power outage event. For clarity, you said "not getting any audio...and...don't turn on automatically...", but would any of them turn on manually, just no audio? If they do turn on but just no audio, you should try doing a processor reset and see what happens.

Note that this outage did not occur during a storm or high winds.
If you did get such a harmful spike, it was quite possible that the outage was in fact caused by some lightning hit. Unless you have done a thorough check on the appropriate sources such as nearby weather stations, and the electricity utilities in your area, you can't be sure if there was any lightning activities at the time. Lightning could have happened without any visible signs of a storm that is accompanied by rain, unless you happened to be looking into the sky. Outages due to other reasons typically should not have generated such harmful spikes, it is possible, but much less likely than those resulting from lightning hits at the right moment in the right place.

I have played around with the configuration on the TV and receiver and nothing has fixed the loss of the audio output.

Any ideas?
Again, from what you are saying, sounds like your AVR does turn on, just no audio, so do a reset first, and see what happens.
 
Last edited:
Q

QuantumCoder

Audiophyte
Thanks for your excellent analysis of the problem. FYI I did have a surge suppressor for all of my equipment. I did not; however, have a full UPS there. Also, the power outage occurred at ~4am while all of the equipment was turned off. I do understand that while the equipment was technically turned off that there was still some circuitry that was still powered up.
I have already done the soft reset of all of the equipment and will proceed with a hard reset although the receiver does not have much that can be reset. I am not sure how to do a processor reset. I do think that the problem is likely with the receiver.
Thanks for your help
 
P

PENG

Audioholic Slumlord
Thanks for your excellent analysis of the problem. FYI I did have a surge suppressor for all of my equipment. I did not; however, have a full UPS there. Also, the power outage occurred at ~4am while all of the equipment was turned off. I do understand that while the equipment was technically turned off that there was still some circuitry that was still powered up.
I have already done the soft reset of all of the equipment and will proceed with a hard reset although the receiver does not have much that can be reset. I am not sure how to do a processor reset. I do think that the problem is likely with the receiver.
Thanks for your help
HD posted the instruction for factory reset so give it a try. A damaging power surge/spike could in fact damage your AVR even if it is "off", unless it is unplugged. The fact that you have a surge suppressor, further increase the probability that some happened due to a voltage spike resulted from lightning in nearby area. Hopefully the reset will fix it, but there is a good chance the standby power circuit, or other components might have failed.
 
highfigh

highfigh

Seriously, I have no life.
I had a setup using Yamaha RX-V775 receiver w/surround sound 7.1 that integrated a large TV, DVD player, integral Radio and a FireStick for stream-based video. It was working beautifully for over a year. I could access everything quite seamlessly without issue. A click of one button on my FireStick controller would turn on all required devices and bring the FireTV graphical user interface on my TV. It was working great until about 5 days ago when the power went down in the neighborhood for a couple hours. Now, I am not getting any audio out from my receiver and the devices don't turn on automatically as before.

Note that this outage did not occur during a storm or high winds.

I have played around with the configuration on the TV and receiver and nothing has fixed the loss of the audio output.

Any ideas?
Thanks
Did you check the speaker selector? It's usually not the first thing people think of, but since other settings are gone, it's worth a shot.

If the AVR turns on, look in HDMI setup and see if CEC-HDMI control are now turned off. If so, it may be that the hard reset has been done already, by the surge. Hopefully, this is the case.
 
highfigh

highfigh

Seriously, I have no life.
Unfortunately when the power goes out you get a big voltage spike. The physics of this is back EMF. This happens because the power comes from an inductive circuit, which is the transformers in the system, especially the one nearest your house. Also the transformers in the substation, but there is usually a voltage regulator between the substation and your local transformer.

Now the issue is that an inductive circuit always resists a sudden change in voltage. This is called back Electro Motive Force, or back EMF. In a big inductor like a your local transformer this back EMF is a very considerable voltage spike.

This is enough to damage equipment that has delicate micro processors and other ICs.

So if you value your equipment, I recommend whole house surge protection, which in a case like yours would probably not activate, but would in storms. Then powering fragile equipment from a fast acting UPS that controls under and under voltage and instantly switches to battery for events like yours and does a gentle power down. This would almost certainly have prevented your problem.

As recommended try a soft reset first. If this does not work do a hard reset back to factory defaults. You will have to do a set up from scratch after this.

If this fails then unfortunately some items of your equipment have likely suffered irreparable damage, most likely your receiver and may be the firestick.
I don't know about your area, but here, I have been seeing more transformers with what look like large capacitors on the top of the poles. If I see a crew in the near future, I'll ask about this.
 
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