Onkyo 875 problem

Kashkai

I'm posting this here as I bought this amp through Richersounds and it seems that the lads are on holiday/off sick, so I'm hoping someone else out there on boards might be able to help.

My Onkyo 875 is acting up on me (I'm cursed, I know I am :mad:). Over the weekend it:

1. started to put itself into standby mode when I was using my ps3 controller to pause/restart blu ray movies (this was an intermittent fault but annoying nonetheless. Is there a frequency cross over between the PS3 controller and the Onkyo remote?

2. it lost the speaker settings when (1) above happened and when I tried to run the automatic speaker set up to recalibrate the speakers, it gave me an error message stating that it couldn't detect one of the rear speakers even though there is sound coming out of it. I even ran a spare speaker cable to the "faulty" speaker in case the existing speaker wire was faulty (even though it can't be as like I said I am getting sound out of the speaker and it was fine up to last Saturday), but it failed the auto set up each time I tried it. Now I'm not getting surround sound as none of the speakers is properly calibrated and what was a brilliant sound set up is a mess as pointed out by family and friends that I had over on Sunday :mad:

Has anyone else experienced this and if so please help as I spent a small fortune on this equipment. BTW, I have monitor audio speakers in a 5.1 set up (although the auto speaker calibration looks for a 7.1 set up - is this the problem?? - grasping at straws here I know)

god's toy

Hmm thats odd. I don't have an answer for you but have you considered sending it back for a firmware update?

Over on AV forums (in the Onkyo forum) I have read a few people sending them back and getting the work done for free. Can't say that will fix whats wrong with your 875 but if it was me it's worth a shot.

Kashkai

I was hoping that I wouldn't have to send it back as its a heavy piece of equipment and the shipping charges would be expensive and Belfast is a bit of a trek to take it there by car.

I emailed the guys in Richersounds but have had no response from them yet (I think they are on holidays/off sick as they are usually very prompt with their customer service).

If it is a firmware issue, can it be updated by myself? - probably not as there isn't a USB port (just answered my own question there:o).

This amp cost me approx €1,000 so I'd have thought it would last longer than 2 months before it crapped out on me. With a very busy work and family life recently, I haven't had a lot of free time to enjoy this new sound system so it hasn't gotten more than 5 - 6 hours use each week and therefore it hasn't been operating at high temperatures that might burn something out. Now when I do have some free time, the amp goes belly up on me.

I'm still hoping that the guys in Richersounds will come back to me with a simple solution that will rectify the problem without having to disconnect the unit, package it and return it. Oh and what's really pissing me off is that I only sold my old sony home theatre system (which never let me down in the 5 years I owned it) a few weeks ago which would have been put back into service in lieu of the malfunctioning onkyo amp so I wouldn't be left stuck with the crappy speakers on my samsung tv.:mad:

rafared

Gez Dave you have all the bad luck....first the telly and then the Amp gives trouble. I was going to recommend asking about the problems on Avforums but I see you have already done that.
I hope the advice you got there works for you and that you can solve the problems. By the way how does the Onkyo sound now that you have it up and running?

By the way dave you can update the frimware using a cd player. You download the update and burn it onto a cd or dvd which you connect to the amp.

Kashkai

Hi Rafa,

The guys on AVFORUMS were very helpful and have pointed me in the right direction (I hope) regarding fixing the sound and solving the problem with the amp putting itself into standby. I haven't made any changes to the settings the amp came with so I can't understand why it would have some auto shut off feature enabled that goes pop when I pause a blu ray - very strange.

I can't wait to get home this evening to try and get this amp back on its feet so to speak. BTW since I got it, I had it set up on a temporary basis as I was busy doing some work around the house and didn't have time to properly set the speakers, hide the wires etc. Even so, the sound out of it was amazing, breaking glass for example was brilliant. So when I did finally set it up properly last weekend and ran the auto speaker calibration, you can imagine how pissed I was when I got the error messages and the amp kept shutting itself off.

BTW, thanks for the tip on uploading the firmware via cd. The bloody manual never mentions this. And on the subject of the manual, its set up for people who know what they're doing as opposed to someone like me who had an "out of the box" system up to now.

god's toy

Did you buy it from new? From RS? If it's only 2 months old I'm sure Dave/ JohnMC will arrange a pick up from your house for fixing. They are a heavy lug.

Some of the firmware can be updated like audio codacts but not all. you use a fiber optic cable connected to a dvd player to load it to the amp.
Onkyo do the updating for free, if it has to go back your looking at a week maybe two without it.


Hope thats some help.

Kashkai

I moved the rear speaker wires from "rear surround" to "surround" and the auto calibration found them and ran the test. Yippee I thought until it then stated that it couldn't find the subwoofer. Sh!te I thought so I checked the subwoofer manual and it said I should adjust thevolume and frequency of the sub which concurred with teh amp's manual. So this I did for 2 hours and nothing, nada, zip.

So the current state of play is that nothing is going to the sub as the auto calibration couldn't find it so the bass sounds are going to the centre speaker and so drown out some of the dialogue in action sequences with the bangs, booms etc.

So can anyone please tell me how I get the amp to find, test and send the low frequency effects (LFE) to the sub.

paddydriver

Dave, I had same issue with the sub. I have the MA RSW12 and I connected it to the sub connector recommended but it was not getting any signal. I then moved it to the other sub connector - cannot remember names but pre out etc comes to mind - and hey presto the sub is working great. Have the surrounds in the surround ports as rear surround is if you have your couch in middle of room and rears are way back at the wall - assuming your couch is at the wall then the "surround" as opposed to "rear surround" does the trick.
Hope this helps.

I am on a 606 and I got the 4 MA Radius stands from RS and all 4 satellites are now are ear level and it is great!

Richersounds.ie: Dave

Hi Prosperous.

Sorry to hear you have been having problems.

I am actually still off sick, but am able to do a few hours at home.

This doesn't sound like an issue with firmware, but it's worth checking the firmware version(s).

Do you know how to check the firmware versions and I don't just mean the main firmware version ?

Obviously we'll get you sorted and you'll not be left with a receiver that is giving you hassles. These receivers are pretty bomb proof and we have very few problems with them.

Let me know on the firmware thing and now that I'm back in the world of the living, I'll keep on top of it.

Cheers

Dave

Kashkai

Hi Dave,

I heard you had some serious health problems. Hope you are getting back on your feet.

Since I originally posted on Boards seeking help for my amp problems, I went looking for advice on AVFORUMS. They sorted the speaker issues for me (I had the rear speakers connected to the 'rear surround' terminals when they should have been on the 'surround' terminals (I have a 5.1 set up instead of a 7.1). I also had the sub plugged into the 'subwoofer' terminal when it should have been in the 'pre out' port. Mistakes on my part but fairly common ones from what the lads on AVFORUMS told me.

As for the amp putting itself into standby, this hasn't reoccurred yet but I'm still curious as to why it happened.

One final thing, is there any way to keep this amp cool as it gets bloody hot after just a couple of hours use. I want to put it in tv unit at some stage but as it gets too hot too touch when its sitting on the floor with plenty of airflow around it, I'd hate to think how hot it would get if it was in a tv cabinet.

Again, get well soon.

David

Richersounds.ie: Dave

Hi Prosperous.

Getting back on my feet now. Still sore and on the old painkillers but should be back to work early next week.

It's quite common for people to connect to the wrong terminals and I blame the manufacturers for the naming used at the rear. Surround back would lead you to believe that these are the ones at the rear of the room...but oh no.

These amps tend to go into standby for 2 reasons :

(1) Speaker cable shorts. Makre sure that all your cables do not have any stray strands of cable which is shorting out the + and -.

(2) Over heating....which brings me to your next point.

These receivers do run hot. It's well known and they do have a recommended heat gap that they advise you to run with. If your rack doesn't allow it and you don't fancy forking out more dough then it's not easy, but I have heard of some people buying little fans (quiet ones) to position at the side of the unit to push more air through.

It is an issues that most of the large receivers have as they have so much technology in the box and they try and stay away from running with 14 fans to keep them cool as people would not put up with the noise.

Glas to hear you got sorted out with the other bits and I hope this helps, but if there is anything else that crops up in the future, drop me a line.

All the best.