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[16Valver]

Attention all electronics experts! My knowledges stretched to GCSE and thats it!

My hi-fi's been acting rather odd lately. It's an Aiwa micro system I've had for a few years (cost about £200) which has never given me any problems before. But now it keeps switching itself off, then sometimes it comes back on after a few seconds, sometimes a few minutes, sometimes not at all - not even the standby light comes on even though its still plugged in.
I've had a look at the plug, and checked the fuse which is ok. I also took the hi-fi apart and cleaned out the dust, and noticed there was a fuse in there which wasn't broken but looked a little darkened in the middle.

Any ideas as to what it could be, as I don't really wanna buy a new one when all thats wrong with this is the power connections

[Sunil_FiestaRS_16V]

could just be a dry solder try heating up any slodering u can see.

this was the case with my tv remote it wud sumtimes work and sumtime wudnt then went alltogether so i just resoldered everything and it works fine now.

its worth a try u have nothing to lose

[16Valver]

cheers Sunil. Trouble is, theres a whole lotta PCB in there! is there any way to detect a dry solder without re-heating the whole lot!

[Ollie]

Look primarily at the power circuits, trace them from where the mains enters the board and check nothing is loose. The other option is that it could be a dodgy power switch. My stereo turns itself off something and I just have to poke the switch a few times before it will stay on.

[Project]

If it's got a IR remote, put some tape over the receiver for a few days and see if it still happens - you sometimes pick up random IR radiation which turns stuff on and off....

Otherwise, definitely replace the fuse (with one of the same rating).

Also check for short-circuits in the speaker wiring as this may be tripping a thermal cut-out on the amp circuitry.

Al

[16Valver]

just an update...

I took it to a respectable local independent shop where the guy's had it apart, says all the outputs are ok and he thinks it's the mains transformer, quoting £40 or thereabouts. Does that sound about right? I've had a look at some new units - Makro's got a few ok ones in around the £120 mark but I think I'll get the old one repaired.