Why is my home audio receiver still working after it burned?
July 30, 2009 6:42 AM Subscribe
Lightning strike! Home audio receiver got burned but it still works. I'm confused as to why this thing still operates. Advice?
My Onkyo TX-SR803 home audio receiver got burned by lightning yesterday.
It was around noon when this happened and I was watching TV when the lightning struck. Nothing happened anywhere in the house (the lights did not flicker, etc). However, the speakers had some some static in them for a few seconds immediately after the strike.
"No worries!" ... or so I thought. But about 10 minutes after the strike, the Onkyo started flickering and lost sound. At the same time, I smelled the dreaded fried-circuit-smell. I shut it down and said a few words that I won't repeat here. I waited a few minutes, powered it up and still no sound so I shut it down again. I am absolutely positive that the receiver got burned. I say this because of the smell from the unit, loss of sound and the flickering that I saw in the display. I should mention that the fried-circuit-smell was significant enough to stay in my 14'x18' room for at least 2 hours.
Last night I powered it up again and it worked just fine. I watched soccer for about 3 hours with no problems. And again this morning, it is still working. But I'm wondering ... "Why is this receiver still working if it got burned?". And, since it got burned, will it fail in the next few days? I've always been under the impression that, if an electrical component gets overloaded, it will either not get damaged or it will die ... and that's there's no middle ground between the two.
Any thoughts appreciated ...
/and by the way, I posted this over to the AVSForum without much results. Also, I do have a surge suppressor on the system rated to about "1,200 joules".
My Onkyo TX-SR803 home audio receiver got burned by lightning yesterday.
It was around noon when this happened and I was watching TV when the lightning struck. Nothing happened anywhere in the house (the lights did not flicker, etc). However, the speakers had some some static in them for a few seconds immediately after the strike.
"No worries!" ... or so I thought. But about 10 minutes after the strike, the Onkyo started flickering and lost sound. At the same time, I smelled the dreaded fried-circuit-smell. I shut it down and said a few words that I won't repeat here. I waited a few minutes, powered it up and still no sound so I shut it down again. I am absolutely positive that the receiver got burned. I say this because of the smell from the unit, loss of sound and the flickering that I saw in the display. I should mention that the fried-circuit-smell was significant enough to stay in my 14'x18' room for at least 2 hours.
Last night I powered it up again and it worked just fine. I watched soccer for about 3 hours with no problems. And again this morning, it is still working. But I'm wondering ... "Why is this receiver still working if it got burned?". And, since it got burned, will it fail in the next few days? I've always been under the impression that, if an electrical component gets overloaded, it will either not get damaged or it will die ... and that's there's no middle ground between the two.
Any thoughts appreciated ...
/and by the way, I posted this over to the AVSForum without much results. Also, I do have a surge suppressor on the system rated to about "1,200 joules".
BTW... your surge suppressor (external) is superflous. I haven't seen a consumer component in years that didn't have internal tranzorbs of one sort or another. The one with the lowest surge supression threshold will govern a string of them, so your external unit may still be intact while the internals are fried.
posted by FauxScot at 7:17 AM on July 30, 2009
posted by FauxScot at 7:17 AM on July 30, 2009
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Some times the suppressors are Zener diodes and other times they are MOV (metal oxide varistors). They are usually MOVs and are applied across the incoming power lines.
If they conducted long enough to burn out (and turn into open circuits) then they will be indistinguishable from unused, but intact MOVs and the unit will work.
If ANOTHER surge comes along, they may not be available to protect the receiver and it will really be toast.
THey need to be examined to see if they were damaged. They are normally disk shaped blue or orange components near where the power cable connects to the printed circuit board. A competent tech can visually inspect them, but to performance test them, he'd need a voltage source that can exceed their conduction threshold.
posted by FauxScot at 7:14 AM on July 30, 2009