amp/sub stopped working wtf?

[VaN_HaMMeRSTeiN]

All right, so first post here boys and girls.

I have a PA A2400DB it's running to a type R with the gains set low...
All I know is that it was all working and then it stopped. I checked ground, power, remote, everything...
The amp turns on, and it's definately on... green light and it makes the whir amp noise, i am sure you guys know the noise
So I am thinking it's the sub, but what would make a sub just stop working...? The thing never smoked, never crackled.. it was just going one day then it stopped...
Anyways, I pulled it all out of my car.. anymore questions you need answered just lemme know, any help you guys give is very much appreciated as I miss my Bass

[03ozwhip]

attach another sub and see if it works, if it does you blew your sub. if it doesnt it sounds like you might have blown some channels on the amp.

[DeeK]

Go get both your sub and amp tested. That should narrow it down.

[VaN_HaMMeRSTeiN]

How do I do that, Deek?

The amp is a mono amp, so does that mean I fucked it for good?

[Graham_A_M]

^ Uh, not really... why dont you relax before comming to some wrongfull conclusion and making things worse?

Perhaps a wire on the inside of your sub box came loose. That does happen. Remove your sub and check the wires going from the box terminal, to the sub, also perhaps take the loose sub and hook it up to your home stereo (provided the sub has voice coil of 4 ohms or higher). Try it out using that, if the sub plays, and the wiring is good, check the wiring going TO the sub from the amp. They may be loose or broken. If you suspect there is a break in the wire, try a new one. If nothing still, hook up a speaker that you KNOW that works to the amp and seeing if you get power.
If nothing, then perhaps its an RCA problem.
remove the deck and check the RCA's coming from the deck. There is a chance one of the connections is loose.

Once you've tried ALL this, post again and I'll take it from there.
:thumbsup:

EDIT: Oh yeah, there is a chance you've used some very cheap RCA's, sometimes they stop working as there is a break in the wire, in high flexibility or high movement applications.
Although, once you've tried everything, we'll keep on troubleshooting until we find the actual problem. If your amp turns on completely normally, then chances are its not the amp. When most amps fry: you'll smell that God-awful "electronics burning" smell.

[VaN_HaMMeRSTeiN]

I know you said to post after, but I am a noob, I don't have a home stereo, I just use my ipod speakers...
I checked the RCAs, and they were fine.. i checked the rcas going from the deck all the way to the sub.. AKA, I ripped my car apart again. :S

I also re-did the wiring between the sub and amp and inside the box and still no go.
Any ideas on how I can test my sub w/o a home audio system?

[jswankster]

9v battery.. just touch DONT HOLD the terminals... if the sub moves.. its not the sub.. if it doesnt... you probably have a short somewhere along your voice coil.. if you push on the sub, does it move freely?

[soupey]

where do u live? im in the NW, spin by and i can probably fix it for u, pm me if u need.

[VaN_HaMMeRSTeiN]

Yeah, the sub definately move freely it's all pulled apart right now, I think when I am done cooking this freaking awesome bacon im gonna put it all back together and see if it works again. If it doesn't I guess I'll try a bunch of things. Are 9V batterys those square ones?

[gtr34]

^9 volt batteries are the rectangle shaped ones


http://www.scrollinondubs.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/9voltBattery.jpg

[Supa Dexta]

What the hell is the amp whirr noise?

[dawinder]

Originally posted by Supa Dexta
What the hell is the amp whirr noise?

i dont hear any amp whirr noise from my amp :dunno:

[gtr34]

Originally posted by dawinder


i dont hear any amp whirr noise from my amp :dunno:

+1

[VaN_HaMMeRSTeiN]

I don't know, the amp makes a noise, kinda like a computer... it always has

[03ozwhip]

its the fan, some have em external(not really but you can see em) but most are internal, its probably the fan

[soupey]

checked into it today, ended up being something wrong with the amp - powered on, didnt go into protection, rca signal good, but no output from the speaker outs. swapped the amp and it worked.

[VaN_HaMMeRSTeiN]

Yeah, thanks again to soupey, appreciate the help, also learned some stuff...
now, quick q...
Anyone know how to fix amps?

[5fivespeed]

No protection = bad ground. IMO
change the position of the ground. I would try that first.

If that doesn't work, something internally fried, see if there's a internal fuse - unless you have a warranty then don't open it.

[D_flore]

good amps have external fuses

[VaN_HaMMeRSTeiN]

LoL
Yeah, the ground is definately fine, considering that the new amp works fine.
Something is internally fried, and it's definately not a fuse.
My hypothesis, even though my knowledge is limited is that something on the output part of the amp is fried, considering it turns on and all that.
Soupey knows more about it than me, as he was the one doing all the tests to narrow it down, I just want this amp back because the one I am running now was meant for my speakers and sounds like garbage compared to the old one.


EDIT: It does have external fuses BTW

[Canmorite]

Same thing happened to mine. I removed the sub to put something in the back, and when I hooked it up again nothing happened.

The red protection light flashed for a few seconds when I connected it, then nothing. Ugh.

[soupey]

when i went i checked the following:

1) all fuses
2) power wire giving 12v/remote wire
3) ground connection
4) speaker resistence/condition
5) rca signal
6) speaker power output

everything was fine, amp powered on, there was just no amplified signal getting to the sub, the speaker outputs were not giving any signal to the sub, tried his rca's on another amp and it worked fine, so something was stopping the signal from being amplified in his amp, and therefore, no bass.

fuses looked fine, power/ground/remote were all good, RCA's showed a good signal when checked for current, weird thing was that the protection light was not lit, so my guess would be that the circuit board may have heated up to the extent that some of the connections may have lifted inside, it was an older amp, so there are plenty of reasons it may have crapped out.

after narrowing it down that far, we checked the rca's with an amp in my car to confirm that they were working, and then swapped the amp with a less powerful one that he had, and the sub started working again...sooo the amp was the issue, since the circuit protection light did not turn on there's a good chance that it might be a minor problem with the amp, worth getting it checked atleast to see how much a repair would be, otherwise might just be time to pay up for a new one.



Originally posted by 5fivespeed
No protection = bad ground. IMO
change the position of the ground. I would try that first.

If that doesn't work, something internally fried, see if there's a internal fuse - unless you have a warranty then don't open it.

checked the resistence of the ground between the ground wire and the chassis, it was fine.

also plugged another cheap amp in and it worked fine, so that wasn't the problem.



Originally posted by D_flore
good amps have external fuses

it did have external fuses, and if it did have an internal fuse, normally it is located early in the circuitry, and nothing will turn on at all. in this case, the power LED turns on,and the circuit protection LED remains off, therefore there is a very low chance of an internal fuse being present and/or blown....

looked like a decent amp, just older, so as i said before, likely just burnt out somewhere on the internals, might be an easy fix, might not, gotta open it up and check it out to be sure.

[VaN_HaMMeRSTeiN]

That's what I was gonna say in my next post, soupey. :burnout:

[5fivespeed]

That happened to my Rockford Amp. The amp was irrepairable.

[VaN_HaMMeRSTeiN]

Originally posted by 5fivespeed
That happened to my Rockford Amp. The amp was irrepairable.

comforting...

[Canmorite]

Turned out my fuse blew, because the power and ground wires touched when I was taking out the sub.

Thanks to Soupey for fixing it for me! :thumbsup: