Krell 300S repair


Hello! Working on a Krell 300S amp; looking for some help. It comes on immediatly when plugged in, and goes through the bias test. The power switch tests fine, but you can't power up or power down with the switch. Pin 7 (from the switch) on the front panel chip is +, but the power out pin 9 is also + which should be low until you switch the unit on. I've taken the chip out a few times and cleaned/reseated it, but still same problem. Thanks in advance!

jwendt2003

Showing 1 response by gs5556

This is a tough one because it's a microcontroller, so I'm guessing it's a reset issue. If you know where the voltage regulators are located, test the output voltage (usually 5 or 12 volts, sometimes one each). The reset of the controller (Pin 1) requires a reference of 5 volts. Check that. Then work back on the circuit trace until you see the first electrolytic capacitor connected between Pin 1 and ground. Check the cap. Then do the same for Pin 26 (VDD). This pin should be 12V (maybe 5, don't know without a schematic). Check along the circuit trace to the first electrolytic to ground. If these caps are dried out the controller will have difficulty maintaining a constant voltage.

That's just the tip of the iceberg. Then there are components that act on the controller outputs that may have failed, such as opto-couplers and transistors.