My receiver won't turn on.

[Hicks007]

I own a Pioneer VSX-815. Enjoyed it thus far.

This afternoon we lost power at the house while I was using it. Not a lightening storm or anything, just wind and rain, and after a strong gust, a whole section of town (several blocks) lost power.

Power was off for a couple of hours, and while I was out grabbing something to eat, the power came on before I drove back to the house. Everything else is fine, except this.

TV's all work, DVD player works, Satellite DVR still works. My receiver's blue power light is blinking. I hit the power button, nothing happens. I unplug it, wait a few seconds, and plug it back in, it just starts blinking again.

I checked the pioneer website, and nothing directly was answered, but I read help over one of their plasma TVs blinking. One of those cases had the blinking as a "code" to tell the tech help what the problem is, the other was something more simple and it recommended unplugging the thing for an hour or so, and then trying again.

I know neither of those is for my receiver, but about 20 minutes ago I unplugged my receiver and plan to try again in about 40 minutes to see if it works.

If it does not, am I screwed? Is there anything else I can try? I got this think as a Christmas gift, and replacing it is NOT that do-able right now, and it would suck royally to have lost it without it even being a freaking lightening strike or something along those lines.

So while I'm hoping its temporary, my past experience with electronics has been, either it works or it doesn't. The only reason I'm holding out a little bit of hope is that it does still blink, rather than not responding at all.



Any help would be GREATLY appreciated. I'm embarassed to have to edit this in; usually I don't have such a problem.

[Hicks007]

I just plugged it back in. Still blinks. Presumably standby-mode, but perhaps a "look, I'm fucking broke!" signal?

[mighty mint]

Wow, that really sucks buddy. Did you have it plugged into a proper power bar to protect against surges or was it directly in the wall? The electricity could have spiked for some reason in which case you would be screwed (unless you have it in a plugged into a proper protector). Keep us posted as to what you find.

[Hicks007]

Sadly, the only surge protector I own is being used in the other room for my computer equipment. This was plugged into a standard power bar.

Later tonight I disconnected everything from the back, then unplugged the receiver again and after a moment plugged it back in. Same thing.

The only silver lining, assuming this thing is fucked, is that I still own my older Pioneer receiver. The only major differences are that the old one doesn't support more than 5.1 (thus my rear center is useless for now), and no EX for Dolby and no es for dts. But that's a hell of a lot better than nothing.

[mighty mint]

Well, the only advice that I can give is one that a number of sale reps passed on to me - when you invest in your home theater make sure that you price-in the cost of a decent surge protector for your home theater. Protect your investment and then if anything goes wrong (and you bought a good one) the company that produced the power bar pays for all new junk! Something to consider anyways. I feel bad for you man, I hope that you can find some way to salvage your unit or get some coin for a new one...perhaps the best advice for the future is to wait and see where all this hi-def stuff is headed and what you may need to purchase to take advantage of Dolby plus and DTS lossless.

[BlueSol]

I had a similar thing happen to an old pioneer reciever I had. If you are a little handy with electronics, you might want to open up the reciever and see if any fuses are blown, that was all mine was. Just remember to unplug it first .

Peace,

[tomdkat]

Originally Posted by Hicks007

I checked the pioneer website, and nothing directly was answered, but I read help over one of their plasma TVs blinking. One of those cases had the blinking as a "code" to tell the tech help what the problem is, the other was something more simple and it recommended unplugging the thing for an hour or so, and then trying again.

What does the manual say about a blinking power light? Or do you not have the manual?

Peace...

[Hicks007]

Oh, this gets better.

I still have my older Pioneer receiver, and so I got that out this afternoon and hooked it up.

Everything seemed OK, Sat. TV worked, Xbox worked, then I got to DVD. First thing I noticed was no sound. The configurations were correct, but my coax no longer produced sound. Goodie.

I then notice my picture looks strange. The red cable from my component no longer is sending signal (somewhere along the way).

So after some playing around, I can hook the DVD player up using s-video, and regular stereo sound. Joy.

So then I hooked up my Xbox to be the DVD player (it also connects with component, and for sound I use an optical). This worked, but the red color still didn't show.

Keep in mind, what I'd been doing was feeding component from the DVD player and another set of component from the Xbox into my receiver, and then a third set goes from the receiver to the TV.

So now I try directly connecting the Xbox to the TV with component, and I do get all 3 colors to work. So I'm assuming it's either the DVD player, or, since I still had trouble using the Xbox later, the cables. I don't see why my OLD receiver suddenly wouldn't work; it was stored away in a box until today; no way it could have been damaged last night.

So with my video situation patched for now, I listen for sound. I'm getting sound. It even sounds nice.

Then I notice.

My surround L and R do not make any sound. Great. I run a sound check (which usually has a hiss sound go through one speaker at a time to check for signal), and it doesn't even work. I don't know why. From what I can tell at least my front L and R work. I didn't actualy get up to lean in, but I think my front C is working too.

My older receiver doesn't support 6.1, so my rear C isn't hooked up now. But still, no rear L or R.

And that's where I am now. I'm not sure what's messing up for sure now. Some things suggest my old receiver is on the fritz, but it never had trouble before and wasn't involved in the storm. The video stuff may or may not be the cables, but I don't know. It may or may not be the DVD player itself, too. I just don't know.

Bah.

What does the manual say about a blinking power light? Or do you not have the manual?

Peace..

The manual makes no mention of a blinking light on the power/stand-by.

[tomdkat]

Originally Posted by Hicks007

The manual makes no mention of a blinking light on the power/stand-by.

Lovely. Perhaps there is an authorized Pioneer service center near you that can look at the VSX-815 and see if it can be saved for a reasonable price.

Peace...

[Iguana Man]

Originally Posted by tomdkat

Lovely.
Peace...

I don't know why, but seeing you type that makes me laugh my arse off!

On topic.

Yes. I am buzzed but are you saying issues arose again with a different AVR?

Something tells me you need to look at every component, cables, and even the so called surge protector. Something sounds really fishy with this setup/situation.

My first guess is a short somewhere, but where I dunno.

[chlngr1970]

if you received it as a gift this year, can you get ahold of the receipt. Pioneer has a 1 yr warranty. You might try that angle...

j