Having built new speakers for my home theater system, I have some extra Advent Smaller Loudspeakers lying around. I wanted to set a couple up in my bedroom so I stopped by Goodwill to see what they had in the way of receivers. They had a huge selection of two. One was an older JVC ProLogic receiver with clip connectors for the speakers. The other was an Onkyo TX-88 from 1987 complete with remote, manual, and even a brochure. The Onkyo, which is rated to 80wpc (20hz-20khz, both channels driven), rated to 4 OHM, and weighed three times as much, looked like the best deal.
After doing a primitive test in the store, I determined that it was working. I bought the Onkyo for $20. I brought it home, hooked it up, and it was sounding very nice. Finally, something that can do my old Advents justice. I played that "bass test song" that someone linked to in another thread and one would have sworn there was a subwoofer!
I played it at high volume for about an hour. Then, I moved it into my bedroom and started playing something at a lower volume. After less than five minutes, the amp shut off. I turned the power on/off a few times and got the amp to come back on but it only works for a couple minutes or less before shutting off again. I can tell when the amp turns on/off because the relay switch is quite loud.
The main points:
When playing at high volume, there are no problems.
When playing at low volume, it plays for only 2 minutes or less.
About 80% of the time, when I try to turn the volume up with the remote (motorized volume knob), it will shut off the instant I push the button.
Someone on another forum suggested that it may be a ni-cad battery backup corroding and causing the processor to lock-up or, if it shuts off while playing nothing, a DC offset problem. Neither of those seem to be the case. I cannot find anything that resembles a battery of any kind and when playing nothing, it does not shut off.
Any ideas? I have seven days to exchange it if I cannot get it to work.