Help: Denon AVR-1905

[av8tor]

My Denon AVR-1905 AV Surround Receiver (previously working OK before my 14 year-old grandson hooked up his X-Box and did "something") is not operating now and is frozen with TEST TONE OFF - 20 showing in the display screen. There is no volume coming from my speakers nor is there any volume control. Rotating the Function Knob does not change the function displayed in the display screen. The INPUT MODE button is similarly disabled in that pressing it has no effect. I cannot access SYSTEM SETUP with the Remote Control (using fresh batteries), nor is the Test Tone button on the remote control functional. The only button on the unit that is functional is the Power ON/OFF switch. When I turn the unit OFF then back ON, TEST TONE OFF - 20is displayed in the display screen every time and no changes can be made to the unit. Is this a "finger problem" issue on my part, or is this a repair issue? Thank you for any assistance that you may be able to give me.

 

[Adam]

Welcome to the forum!

The "TEST TONE" or "SYSTEM SETUP" buttons on the remote would be the first thing that I'd try, too. I'd also suggest pushing the "RETURN" and "CH SELECT ENTER" buttons, as those might get it out of whatever menu it is in.

Is the receiver connected to a display so that you can see an onscreen menu? If so, is there a menu showing? That might help you know how to navigate out of that setting.

As a final resort, you can reset the microprocessor. I say final resort because that will set the unit back to the default settings, so you'd need to set it up and calibrate it again. How to do that is on page 61 of the owner's manual, and I'll be happy to type it out for you if you can't find it.

 

[markw]

first thing to try is to scout manual for a "reset" function. If yhat's not possible, try Denon's site for support. They do respond (somewhat) to an email inquiry in a day or so. Root around their site until you find this.

While you're waitng, you might want to unplug it from the wall (not just turn it off) for a few hours. Sometimes this will reset these things.

 

[av8tor]

Welcome to the forum!

The "TEST TONE" or "SYSTEM SETUP" buttons on the remote would be the first thing that I'd try, too. I'd also suggest pushing the "RETURN" and "CH SELECT ENTER" buttons, as those might get it out of whatever menu it is in.

Is the receiver connected to a display so that you can see an onscreen menu? If so, is there a menu showing? That might help you know how to navigate out of that setting.

As a final resort, you can reset the microprocessor. I say final resort because that will set the unit back to the default settings, so you'd need to set it up and calibrate it again. How to do that is on page 61 of the owner's manual, and I'll be happy to type it out for you if you can't find it.

Hi Adam,

Thanks for the welcome, and for your suggestions! My receiver is a component of my home theatre, all of which has been working great until this recent glitch.

I reset the microprocessor as per your suggestion and as per the instructions in the Manual, in fact I had to reset it a number of times as once reset, and after I rotated the Function Knob, the unit would proceed to cycle through to TEST TONE OFF and freeze there. I reset it at least a half dozen times which makes me think that maybe I have a bad microprocessor. But right now the unit seems to be behaving OK as I have turned it ON and OFF a couple of times and rotated the Function Knob without it freezing up on me. That’s the good news.

The bad news is that I still have no volume or volume control. I have gone through SYSTEM SETUP and though the tone test on my speakers went OK, I must confess that I don’t know what settings I should be looking for – my system was originally installed and set up by an AV Tech four years ago. I have selected the INPUT MODE button to AUTO, with no success in achieving volume control. After selecting AUTO the display screen defaults to PLII x C TV, with the volume showing –20, ProLogicII is displayed in red and Analog is displayed in a white box. I am a digital cable subscriber, should I not see “Digital” instead of “Analog” on the display screen? I have scoured through my Manual trying to find information on this but I have to confess that my eyes start to glaze over after about the 2nd or 3rd page. I’m hoping that input selection is my problem but I’m having no luck following Denon’s instructions “Playing the input source” on page 37-38.

Thanks markw for your suggestion, I’ll unplug the unit overnight and see what tomorrow brings!

Cheers,

 

[Adam]

Always happy to help when we can!

I don't have your manual in front of me, but I imagine that there is a button to select having the speakers on. Check to see if your speakers are turned on. Perhaps that's why you don't have any volume.

I'm assuming that you've already asked your grandson if he remembers what he did.

 

[av8tor]

Always happy to help when we can!

I don't have your manual in front of me, but I imagine that there is a button to select having the speakers on. Check to see if your speakers are turned on. Perhaps that's why you don't have any volume.

I'm assuming that you've already asked your grandson if he remembers what he did.

Hi Again, Adam,

My unit has Speaker A & B buttons and I have tried selecting A, then B, and finally A&B with no success. Grandson is not any help. Whatever happened, happened over a week ago and he failed to tell me at the time. I just discovered the problem yesterday when I went to watch a movie. Very unhappy grandpa!

Cheers,

 

[AVRat]

Since the test tones work that's a good sign that the amps are ok. What sources have you tried? Have you tried the radio? Does the volume reading change when you rotate the knob? I'm wondering if your grandson disconnected something? Have you checked all the connections?

 

[av8tor]

Since the test tones work that's a good sign that the amps are ok. What sources have you tried? Have you tried the radio? Does the volume reading change when you rotate the knob? I'm wondering if your grandson disconnected something? Have you checked all the connections?

I unplugged the unit overnight and just powered it up again this afternoon. Still no volume, but I do have volume control (I presume) as the volume reading does change when I rotate the volume contol knob on the unit or use the volume contol on my remote.

I have tried the radio as well as the DVD, all with no volume. My grandson hooked up his X-Box using the V. AUX INPUT terminals on the front of unit and didn't touch any of the connections at the back. I checked them anyway and all is secure. He did say that he pressed "a bunch" of the buttons on the front of the receiver in an effort to recover volume before giving up.

I'm thinking that the wrong input for audio must be selected but I can't figure out from the Manual how to change the selections - at least everything that I've tried thus far has been unsuccessful.

Thanks for all the suggestions thus far.

Cheers,

 

[Adam]

Try hitting the EXT. IN button on the bottom right of the remote control. Perhaps your grandson hit that and set the system up to use the external multichannel inputs on the back.

Also, perhaps he put it into a mode for Zone 2.

Now that we know that he pushed "a bunch" of buttons, it's possible that he did one of those two things, but then later pushed a button that led the display to show the test tone information.

 

[AVRat]

Did the sound work the whole time he was playing or did it quit all of a sudden? Not being able to play the radio after reinitializing the microprocessor doesn't sound good. It sounds like it's in mute mode.

One other thing is that resetting the microprocessor may have affected any digital audio settings that were different from their defaults and may depend on how the sources are connected.

To get out of zone 2 or just to make sure, use the Main button on the left side of the unit. This put any processing in the Main zone.

 

[av8tor]

Hi Again,

Thanks to all for your help/suggestions. I finally did get some sound out of the radio but still nothing from cable TV. The unit began showing Zone 2 even though I selected Zone 2 OFF numerous times both on the unit itself as well as using the remote. I suspect that there is a larger problem however with the microprocessor. When I rotate the Function Knob there is frequently an audible click as each function is changed and if I rotate the knob with any rapidity the display screen goes to TEST TONE OFF and the unit freezes. I’ve probably reset the microprocessor more than a dozen times now but the problem keeps re-occuring.

I’ll contact a Denon Service Center tomorrow and ask if they recognize the problem. My Denon DVD player packed it in just outside its warranty period and now this. Has anyone else had reliability issues with Denon? It is not uncommon for repairs to be almost as expensive as buying a new replacement and right now I’m wondering if I should try a different manufacturer.

Cheers,

 

[Adam]

Might be time to have a little chat with your grandson. "Hey, you broke it - you bought it."

Just kidding! Maybe the unit is broken. My guess is that something got tweaked, though, but I'm surprised that resetting the processor didn't bring it back to factory settings. Like AVRat said, you might need to reassign your digital inputs.

 

[av8tor]

Might be time to have a little chat with your grandson. "Hey, you broke it - you bought it."

Just kidding! Maybe the unit is broken. My guess is that something got tweaked, though, but I'm surprised that resetting the processor didn't bring it back to factory settings. Like AVRat said, you might need to reassign your digital inputs.

Hi Adam,

Yup, my grandson and I already have had our little chat! I also had another chat with him this evening on the phone and he says that the unit was working OK until he shut it down when he noticed that the Power ON/STANDBY indicator stayed green instead of turning red as it normally does. In an effort to get it to go into Standby, he then selected the Power Switch OFF. The next day when he powered things up the unit displayed TEST TONE OFF and that's when he started pushing "a bunch" of buttons trying to get it to work. It appears that perhaps the unit had already failed on its own when it wouldn't go into Standby the previous day and given that the unit was frozen when he powered it back up, he probably caused no harm pushing the buttons.

In any event, I'm hoping that my unit isn't toast but it sure doesn't seem to be behaving correctly! Any hints on how I "reassign" my digital inputs?

Cheers,

Doug

 

[Adam]

Hi, Doug. Well, assuming that you can get to the menu system, then the way to assign those digital inputs is covered in the owner's manual on pages 19-26. Page 19 discusses how to get into the menu system, the next few pages go through several settings, and page 26 is the page that covers assignment of the digital inputs.

The assignment is just telling the receiver which input source selection (e.g. "CD", "DVD/VDP") uses which physical connection on the receiver (i.e. the digital coax input or one of the optical inputs).

 

[av8tor]

Hi, Doug. Well, assuming that you can get to the menu system, then the way to assign those digital inputs is covered in the owner's manual on pages 19-26. Page 19 discusses how to get into the menu system, the next few pages go through several settings, and page 26 is the page that covers assignment of the digital inputs.

The assignment is just telling the receiver which input source selection (e.g. "CD", "DVD/VDP") uses which physical connection on the receiver (i.e. the digital coax input or one of the optical inputs).

Well, I've thrown in the towel and have the receiver packed and ready to be Fedex-ed tomorrow to a Denon repair center. I'm heading out Friday on a 10-day motorcycle run down the West Coast to the Napa Valley so I may not get the verdict on my receiver until after I return. When I do hear, I'll let everyone know what the problem was.

Thanks to all for your help & suggestions. If nothing else, I have acquired a better understanding of the heart of my home theatre system.

Cheers,

Doug

 

[av8tor]

An update: I fed-Ex'd my receiver to an authorized Denon repair facility where the verdict was that there was nothing wrong with the receiver. So it came back to me yesterday and after I hooked everything up and then powered up, the same issue existed: no sound. On a hunch, I switched the Optical connection from my Motorola PVR from OPT 1 to OPT 2 on the Denon and presto, I had sound! I thought to myself - problem solved. And all worked well for about an hour after which the same issues started happening all over again. The receiver would freeze up, no sound, no volume control, etc., etc. So I gave up and called in an AV Tech who after considerable troubleshooting determined that the problem is with the Motorola PVR. Apparently it is sending bursts of info via the optical cable which causes the receiver to crash and freeze up. Thankfully the PVR is still under warranty and hopefully I can get it replaced in the next week or so. I sure hope that that is indeed the problem - I'll let everyone know. What a saga - and I'm feeling pretty sheepish about making my grandson feel responsible for all that has happened. Gonna have to make it up to him big time!

Cheers,