Receiver startup sound problems

JZStudios · July 9, 2017

So back in the mid 2000's (2004 according to the user manual) my dad picked up an Onkyo HT-R520 6.1 receiver. Fast forward a few years, it seemed to have some issues so we stopped using it, fast forward a few more years, I took it down off the shelf and decided to give it a look over. The original idea was that the speakers were blown (And 3 have been tossed.)

It turns out it's got some weird problem I can't seem to diagnose. When initially turned on, there's either no sound at all or there's quiet crackling. I found out that cranking the volume up jerked the speakers to life for some reason, then turning them back down to reasonable levels they worked fine. Sometimes when first powered on there's no sound at all until I switch inputs to and fro then do the volume again.

So after doing that bit of troubleshooting I decided that after 6 years on a dusty shelf it needed a cleaning, which I did using some contact cleaner spray on the boards and on the volume pot, but the issue is still there. Has anyone had anything like this happen? I just can't figure out why switching inputs and then cranking the volume makes it pop to life. All the listening modes and Dolby decodings work once sound is being output, and setting it to multi channel stereo tells me that all of the speaker outputs work (again, once sound is going.) Not sure if it really makes any difference, but since I only had 2 speakers I know that they can "turn on" individually, with one working properly and the other requiring the volume trick.

If it was an issue with low volume, then why would it work normally after coming alive?

After checking (nearly) all the inputs and confirming them working after being alive, then why require switching?

Any help would be appreciated. The only thing I can think of is that I might need to really completely disassemble it and thoroughly clean each board, but, y'know, effort n such. I had taken apart and cleaned an old Sansui in the same fashion and that eliminated the crackling and it now works fine.

johnt · July 10, 2017

Probably a bad weld somewhere along the way. This isn't a common issue as you might expect. Perhaps a Google search might be more helpful...

JZStudios · July 10, 2017

14 hours ago, JohnT said:

Probably a bad weld somewhere along the way. This isn't a common issue as you might expect. Perhaps a Google search might be more helpful...

Tried to Google. Doesn't seem to be much on this receiver in particular, or in occasional startup issues. I guess I haven't used it long enough to know if the issues come back after an extended amount of time, but it's weird that it's just a startup thing. Maybe if I get real bored some time I'll do a full disassembly and check everything.