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Sony receiver and ethernet disaster


JiminSTL

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Question, please:  is it possible or likely that merely by running a Cat 5 cable from a router to the ethernet port of a Sony receiver that serious damage could occur to the AVR?

 

Specifically, when "helping" a friend do that, the satellite connection in the AVR no longer worked.  At first, we got video but no audio, then nothing.

 

Is there some inherent risk (even very small) in connecting/disconnecting an ethernet cable?

 

Could we have "fried" some circuitry, or something?

 

Was such a failure just waiting to happen, and this triggered it?

 

Will appreciate some insight, as I feel bad about this.  Thanks.

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In my experience, there is an extraordinarily low possibility that simply connecting the cable caused the damage.  I would assume that you switched cables to make sure you didn't have a bad one?  If so, and it still didn't work, there is a possibility that the connector in the AVR was loose, or bad.  Have you opened it up to look?

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In my experience, there is an extraordinarily low possibility that simply connecting the cable caused the damage.

 

Agree.  I would go further and say not possible, but there is always that .001% chance I guess.

+++

 

Jim used the word "damage" to the AVR.  It is more likely that hooking up the Ethernet cable could have triggered some self-sensing circuitry in the AVR that ended in some kind of lockup, but this would surely by now be a known problem.  I feel this is still highly unlikely, but at least a little more possible than damage from simply plugging in an Ethernet cable.

 

I would suggest unplugging the Ethernet cable (to eliminate variables) and use your basic trouble shooting skills, which I am sure you have.

Edited by wvu80
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May I ask what model is the AVR?  Make sure you cycle through all of the other inputs to verify they are all working, and agree to do a power off reset and make sure all connections are made prior to power on.

Edited by jimjimbo
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Guys, thanks for the insights, and, PLEASE KEEP THEM COMING.

 

My "friend" is my brother-in-law, a good guy, and the last thing I would want to do is harm his apparatus.  

 

I will be sending these comments to him, so we can have a better understanding of what might have occurred, and what might "fix" it.

 

Any thoughts on the Sony AVR?  b-in-law is thinking he will have to replace it.

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At work here we have normal cat 5 cables and some that have 2 wires switched in one end (I have no idea why).  Hold the ends together and make sure the colors are the same in both ends in the respective spots.

 

Back in the olden days if you were connecting a HUB to another HUB two wires in a 10baseT configuration needed to be reversed for partitioning reasons.  That was all made unnecessary around the 1990's when auto-sensing hubs made connecting hub-to-hub plug-n-play with regular 4 twisted-pair cabling, the modern standard Cat5 configuration.

 

I'm not sure why any modern setup would need the reversed wires.

 

Edit:  Even if the wires were reversed somehow regarding Jim's dilemma, the result is that the connection would simply not work, nothing would affect the equipment on either end of the wire.

 

There is simply no way Ethernet would have blown an AVR.  Search for other answers, I feel pretty sure this is solvable.

 

FYI In a previous life I installed networking equipment and I made/tested my own wiring.

Edited by wvu80
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Well, actually more switches and some routers have POE (power over Ethernet) that allows the device to be powered without needing a separate power connection at the device.  This keeps you from having to run power to your IP video cameras or wireless access points.  It might be possible that your friends router has this capability.  They are supposed to have auto-sensing capability so that it doesn't send power unless it is connected to a POE device.  Possible short or malfunction?  Just a thought.  

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Here's the Sony Home Theater Community site:  just fyi, may want to do a search there, or ask a question.

 

http://community.sony.com/t5/Home-Theater/ct-p/home-theater-systems

 

I know this may be a nightmare, but......have you called tech support?

 

How old is the AVR?

 

I guess I still haven't figured out from your description....does it work at all now, with the ethernet cable disconnected?

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At work here we have normal cat 5 cables and some that have 2 wires switched in one end (I have no idea why).  Hold the ends together and make sure the colors are the same in both ends in the respective spots.

One is a 'straight' cable the other a 'crossover' cable. Most modern enet switches will self detect and work with either. Back in the day this was not so.

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Excellent thoughts and comments all.  Thank you for your interest.  I have passed them along to b-in-l. 

 

As I mentioned to him, it seems odd to me that an ethernet cable connection would cause a problem.  Maybe if there were some kind of existing connection issue, or a component on the verge of physical/electronic failure, perhaps a slight physical movement or jolt was sufficient.  But cause the problem . . . ?

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