Fuzzy noise when turning the volume up

[John Bailey]

I've got an Onkyo TX-8522. When I turn the volume knob I get a fuzzy sound. I suspect I have to clean something. Can anyone tell me what?

Thanks, John

 

[Adam]

John,

The first thing that I would try is cleaning the volume knob (potentiometer) contacts. Blow some compressed air around the circumference of the volume knob to clean the dust out and see if that helps (or, if you don't have that, just blow around there). There are chemical cleaners, but I'd start with trying to clean off the dust.

Adam

 

[Rickster71]

Hi John,
If your potentiometer is a bit scratchy and rough feeling, Contact lubricants will take care of the problem and improve the performance. If the part has suffered oxidation damage, DeOxit will help reverse that and flush out some of the junk. The problem is that DeOxit is murder on carbon traces.

I dug out my old receiver some months ago, and the vol control was noisy. I powered it off and turn the vol control back and forth for a few minutes. That fixed it; though the next step would be a tuner cleaner / lubricant.
Here is a link to some info: http://www.echeloninc.com/contactlubrication.htm

Rick

 

[Haoleb]

Caig deoxit is not specifically made to be used on potentiometers that are commonly used in consumer level electronics, For that I would reccomend this instead:

http://store.caig.com/s.nl;jsessionid=0a0108431f43cc25f86c383942c78daaaee8da0741b3.e3eSbNyQc3mLe34Pa38Ta38Maxz0?sc=2&category=293

Some recievers do not use an actual analog volume control, instead they use digital volume controls that are activated with a switch on the volume knob and therefore cleaning it will do nothing to solve the problem your having. I do not know of any surround recievers that use analog volume controls, because of the amount of channels that would have to be controlled but since your reciever is only a stereo unit it might use them. It is not uncommon for digital volume controls to make noise, Or motorized analog volume controls when used via the remote control. Both of those situations are not fixable.

 

[Corpsman]

I can attest that this is probably the problem. I had the same thing happening with my Logitech speakers. I sprayed some electrical contact lubricant that I bought at Radio Shack behind the knob... presto! No more crackling noises.

 

[John Bailey]

Thanks guys,

I haven't been to the store to get either "canned" air or the electrical lubricant. So, I just blew air and it seems to have made the noise go away.

Thanks again.

John