Having problems with C2 after power went out

[SpOoNmAn]

Well, we are having nasty wind storms here in Ohio, and for the first time since Ive been in this house, I lost power for about an hour. Everything came back up fine, everything is plugged into several brickwall units.

I went about my business, turned on the C2, the A52 then gets triggered, turned on The Rotel cd player, and it was all normal till about an hour in. The music stopped and I heard "clicks" coming from the theatre. I saw the C2 going into standby with the blue light, then the blue light would go out, and nothing on the front panel would light up. It would keep doing this until I turned off the Power on the back. I let it sit for a few minutes, turned it all back on.

This time it took only a few minutes until it started that clicking again.

Anyone have any ideas? Is there some reset I must do? Im confused.

Ive tried it 4 times and it does the same thing, the time varies though. The last 2 times it happened at about 5 minutes, then 10 minutes.

Im scared to turn it back on :E

Im depressed :cry:

[SpOoNmAn]

I just found this thread..

http://www.htguide.com/forum/showthread.php4?p=125009#post125009

thats what mine is doing! damnit!! :M

[Chris D]

Uh, oh... sounds like you may have caught a power surge or something, causing a fault in the power supply if you're not able to reboot the processor. Not good! May have to send it in for repair.

(this may not be a bad thing, though... force you to send it back in to Parasound... ask for the new software and any new hardware to be installed while it's there!)

[SpOoNmAn]

I dont understand why it even turns on and works for a while if theres a fault in there. But Im not an engineer so what do I know :cry:

I already emailed Mr. Schram about it, we have kept in close contact b4 and hes always been very helpful. Too bad all Presidents of companies dont follow his lead.

Time to go buy a cheap receiver until its fixed? I cant live without music or movies. I just cannot :cry:

[nicholtl]

I feel your pain. Maybe Parasound has loaner products?

[avpower]

Spoonman,

Are you turning off the C2 via the power switch in the rear of the C2? I have been through some strange situations in the first firmware I had with the C2 where the only way I could get the C2 running again was to "hard boot" via the power switch. In fact, I would suggest turning off the power switch, and unplugging the power cable, let all the capacitors drain completely for half a minute and then plug in and power on.

If you continue to have partial functionality - runs fine for a while and then fails - you gotta work with Parasound. Sometimes hardware doesn't fail completely at first. You may be in that gray range where it is pending catastrophic failure. Hope this helps and let us know how it goes.

[SpOoNmAn]

Ive done it all my friend. Im a firm believer in trouble shooting as much as possible. I tried a few different things and it always ended up clicking on and off.

Ive already been in contact with Richard Schram and its being taken care of :T

[nicholtl]

Let us know how it goes, if only to just hear how Parasound deals with an "average" customer.

[SpOoNmAn]

I'm shipping it Monday and after they fix it, they will be applying any updates for me :T

I'll tell you what my friends. In a sick way, Im glad this happened. I took for granted how good it made everything sound.

I am borrowing a friends Pioneer receiver he got from Best Buy last year, its connected to my Halo A52. The surrounds seem dead, the center is muffled, and the LFE is just wrong. Its overpowering. Waaaaaay too much emphasis put on the LFE, sloppy and boomy even after calibrated. I had to cut it back after being calibrated.

Parasound rocks :T Don't let anyone tell you otherwise

[will1066]

Bummer, Spoon. Hope you get it resolved quickly.

[avpower]

Well congratulations Spoonman on your misfortune! The timing couldn't have worked out better. I am sure whatever firmware updates Parasound has will be installed on your unit during repair. However, since you are shipping the unit and they may have hardware updates available while your system is back here, you may want to discuss the possibility of having Parasound install those updates while your box is there. Or did you already do that? If you do, you may be one of the first on the block to report on the additions. How fun would that be? We would all be envious. :drool:

Oh - were you able to get the c2 powered on long enough to record your latest settings? I would be interested if all of your previous settings restore after the upgrade. You will have to let us know if you have any new options!

Interesting how a rollback makes us appreciate the quality we have. Good luck!

[SpOoNmAn]

Yes, they have told me they are adding whatever possible to it b4 they ship it back to me :T

Richard Schram himself took care of all the communications for the return of this.

It does power on so I took notes on the important settings, Ill probably still run the calibration with the mic when it returns. Its such a cool feature :P

Expect a response from me when I get it back. Im shipping it out tomorrow, probably wont get to cali for a good 5 days, so itll be atleast 2 weeks b4 I get it back. I can live without it for that long....I think :cry:

[will1066]

Good luck. I was without my former pre/pro for two weeks when it was sent for upgrades. Man, was that a painful time.

[avpower]

One other suggestion, If you are using the C2 for HT and/or 5.1 modes for music then I highly recommend getting one of the RadioShack sound meter while your C2 is away. Some enthusiasts swear by the anaolg meter, but I couldn't find the analog meter available at any RS. However, the digital model worked fine for me. The auto calibration is a rough sound balance estimate and while it is ok you will notice a significant difference if you use the sound meter with say the AVIA Guide to Home Theater disk. Running through the phase check and tuning the subwoofer makes a huge difference. I was amazed at how relocating the subwoofer - even a couple of feet - made such a big difference. Plus the sub test runs through the subsonic range and shakes all kinds of things in the house. :thud: Very fun!

Some info on the Avia disk can be found here:

http://www.ovationsw.com/avia.html

I found the process to be rather time consuming but very educational and it gives me confidence when I make changes in my system that what I am hearing is solely related to the setting change or the new component source.

Bottom line is you'll be able to hear everything your system has to offer and get your home environment as close to what the sound engineers expect.

[SpOoNmAn]

I have Video Essentials, Digital Video essentials, and Avia, along with a sound meter I bought myself a few years back for Christmas :T I love toys 8)

Avia is nice for me because it also somewhat allows me to calibrate the internal subs in my towers and center. DVE does this as well but only for the mains, I think.

The only difference with auto calibrating with the C2's mic, is the distance setting for the LFE, and weve all talked about that till were blue in the face. Its more of an acoustic setting, and Ive had no problems leaving it on the "15ft" setting, even though its at 8 or 9.

[Peter Nielsen]

I have Video Essentials, Digital Video essentials, and Avia, along with a sound meter I bought myself a few years back for Christmas :T I love toys 8)

Spoonman,

I also have VE and Avia, but not DVE. Is there anything new in particular in DVE that makes it worth buying, or is everything already covered by the VE+Avia combo?

Peter

[SpOoNmAn]

Well, its got some cool audio and video presentations, but test wise, for sound, they are pretty much the same. I wouldnt go out and actually hunt for a copy of DVE. If you can find it cheap, it wont kill you to pick it up either.

I just like having all the tools at my disposal, makes me sleep better at night, lol.

[Chris D]

I've got all three, and yes, each of the three discs offers its own advantages. I like using all 3 together for optimal use. There's some cool stuff on DVE. Just buy it direct from the website, and while you're there, pick up a couple plasma art DVD's just for fun.