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Sub-10 / Sub-12 / RPW-10 Repair Blog


ngen33r

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On 5/10/2022 at 11:33 PM, SuperBrainAK said:

Hey all I have a Sub 10 here and the PSU and amplifier section I think are working perfectly, I have the right voltages in all the right spots 86.8v main supply 27.71v into the regulators 5.55v between the big resistors, the balance trim pots are 250 ohms each.
The problem is there is just no sound coming out, when I connect a phone audio directly to what I believe is the input to the amp section using the JST connector pins furthest from the regulators I get a tiny amount of sound with the phone cranked all the way up. I then tried the same phone with the pre amp board attached and the gain all the way up I get the same amount of sound. What could be the issue here? I dont see any bad capacitors and for a sub there wouldnt be any in series to the audio correct? In what is typical for a high pass filter.
Any help would be greatly appreciated, I can post pics here or videos to my YouTube if needed thanks.

I replaced C48, C53, C60, C11 and the amp sounds the same, barely any volume at all cranked to 100%

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On 3/24/2022 at 2:46 AM, Hatsune Miku said:

I have the rw-10d and the last 2 days have been attempting to check everything. I decided I'd check the 5v reg today and apply 5v to the left side. Success! The 5v reg was dead. For some reason I decided to apply 15v to the right side to verify it was dead. Now the 5v rail is shorted to gnd after the regulator. I snipped the output leg of the regulator so that's not where the short is. What else could have been shorted? I unplugged the ribbon to the plate amp. So the board with the 5v reg has a short somewhere. 

 

My power supply was limited to .2a 

The diode above the 5v reg isn't shorted but doesn't measure .6v anymore it's 1.2v now. Maybe it's always been that way, I didnt check it before. 

I had a similar issue and suspected that the volume control chip was dead.

Once I removed it, the short was gone.

After replacing the chip, the amp came back to life.

Good luck with your repair.

Edited by dudaindc
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My brother and I spent half a day trying to figure out why one of his Klipsch subs didn't work.  After measuring and swapping parts, it turned out that someone turned one of the knobs so hard that it twisted enough to touch one of it's legs to the leg of another knob.  After straightening and tightening everything the leg was no longer shorted and the sub worked perfectly.

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  • 3 weeks later...

 

 

Hello everybody. I have a RPW10 that stopped working. It's in my man cave and not used all that much until I wanna show off the bass to the kids. Last year it seemed that there was some seating issues with the fuse and if I kinda pushed on the spring loaded back it would come on. The other day it wouldn't come on at all. I opened it up and clipped the wires from the fuse and verified continuity from there all the way to the board when the switch was on. This just about ends my knowledge of electronics and an looking for someone to repair it. The wire nuts are just temporary for testing. 

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Edited by SinatraV
Typo
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  • 4 weeks later...
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On 11/24/2019 at 3:20 PM, ngen33r said:

Hello All

I have been repairing Klipsch subwoofer amps for about 15 years as a hobby. I have decided to start blogging my repairs and eventually do videos of each one. This thread is intended to be a blog and a resource for information. I will try to answer repair questions as best I can. Comments and tips are also welcome, If you do not have the experience or the tools, PLEASE do not attempt any of these repairs. You will only end up damaging the board and it will end up costing more for a tech to repair the damage. If you do not have a high quality vacuum desoldering station (Hakko or Weller) and a current limited mains supply, you should not be working on these amps. These subwoofers do not have any user serviceable parts inside. If you open up the sub or attempt any repair you see in this thread, you are doing so at your own risk!!!

 

The PDC board 660038RA (main supply control) is almost always the main failure mode of these amps. The glue that was used becomes conductive and kills the board and the fets (planned obsolescence?). These boards are typically made in China and are super easy to damage. If you don't have a desoldering tool you MUST cut the board off and remove the legs from the thru holes one by one. Once the thru holes are damaged the repair becomes a difficult hack job unless you have a thru hole repair kit.

 

The other most frequent failures are the Bash control board and Q5. If Q5 is SOT-23, it needs to be replaced with a TO-92 2N4401. This mod was done on later revisions most likely due to warranty claims. 

 

I have made a schematic of the PDC board and I also have made replacement boards (I do not sell or supply these boards). Sometimes they are so badly burnt, they have to just be replaced.

 

ALWAYS REMEMBER TO UNPLUG OR SWITCH OFF YOUR AMPS. CAPACITORS HAVE A LIFESPAN AND WHEN POWER IS APPLIED THE CLOCK IS TICKING. THE AUTO ON/OFF FUNCTION DOES NOT PREVENT THIS ON MOST MODELS!!!!!!!

 

660038RA.jpg

PDC.JPG

Hi All I Have a Klipsch 12 Sub Synergy edition S/N : SUB12SV07490566. It Recently just stopped working no power getting through. The Red/Blue led is not illuminated showing power is on. It had a blow fuse which i replaced however still no power. I have removed the back plate to inspect PDC and cannot see any sign of burn out not smell no signs nothing.  Board serial number is D107500208. Does anyone know where i can purchase a new PDC for this unit. Im in Perth Australia any help would be greatly appreciated.

Screenshot_20220724-153033_Gallery.jpg

Screenshot_20220724-153029_Gallery.jpg

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@ngen33r

I have a XW-500D sub which was part of the Kilpsch Icon series a little over 10 years ago. It just quit powering up a day ago. Fuse is good. I'm no expert but I could not visually see any blown capacitors.

Would this be something you could possibly repair?

 

 P1.thumb.jpg.7804b4dbf2cf2d30703c4eed0afd5070.jpgP2.thumb.jpg.2a1afedf849514057945ce44f39c3a94.jpgP3.thumb.jpg.e5979d9f355dabe3b5856887f7643a0d.jpg

Edited by ChrisKlip2022
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  • 2 weeks later...

My Sub has quit working, blue ligt still on buy no sound.

Speaker seems to be fine with an Ohm's test.

I see in this blog that there is proplem, over time, with glue becoming conductive.

I can solder but do not have the unsoldering equipment.

Is there help in removing the faulty components or repair..?

 

I hate to recycle or but and aftermarket plate to get runing again...

SAM_6484.JPG

SAM_6485.JPG

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  • 1 month later...

Hi friends,

 

As most of you here, I too now have a 40 lbs paperweight as the amplifier seems to have taken a poop.

no lights, no power. The minute you put in a new fuse (correct one 2.0A 250V) it blows in spectacular fashion.

 

I do have a lot of electrical tools but lack the fine motor skills to attempt a soldering job that may or may not fix the issue (even if i could find the issue that is).

 

Hoping that ngen33r may be able to provide some repair assistance of the mail-in kind. This seems to be your bread and butter. Very sad to see that you are also being hounded by uncle Sam for providing a community service.

 

Please do let me know if you have restructured to a business or know of someone else that may be able to bring my sub back.

 

Grateful for any replies I may get.

 

SW10 120V

C707061811

 

 

 

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Hello,

 

I am working on repairing a SW-10 that seemed to have a few of the typical issues that are listed in this thread. Blowing fuses, DIAC needing replaced, Q5 upgrade, recapped with nichicon, new MOSFETs.. etc.

 

I managed to get to the point where I believed everything was good to go. ~6V across the resistors and no more fuses blowing.  However, no sound other than faint muddy noises if anything. I noticed that the area around TH1 (under one of the screws for the 5 MOSFETS) had looked liked it was burned out around it. TH1 reads 79.5ohm though, so I didnt believe it was shorted. 

 

A little later into my investigation of the backplane I happened to notice that the outermost cap (10uF 50v) from the gain pot was twisted enough to short the leads... Naturally, i carefully un-twisted them before proceeding. I can see traces & pins of the cable connecting the two PCBs lead back to TH1, so I am assuming that TH1 was taken out with the shorted cap. All I can get the sub to do is thump along now, but it is "muddy" and an obscure few hits at best. 

 

Does anyone know what TH1 is value wise? is that the only thing that could be causing the issue? My guess is that I may need to hook this up to a scope next.

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@ngen33r

 

Hello, first i would like to thank you for all the valuable info in this thread and all the work you have done for the community !

Apparently, i live in the other side of the world, so locating a GE Sealant through a physical store is a bit difficult here.

 

However i have located this in Amazon :

 

https://www.amazon.com/GE-GE281-Silicone-Kitchen-Squeeze/dp/B016TQF65M?ref_=ast_sto_dp&th=1&psc=1

 

Is this the one that you are using ?

 

Thank you in advance for your response.

 

 

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OK; time for another sub :) Have had bad luck with Klipsch subs ... a 15" had a blown amp which was replaced by the (authorized) seller. A 12" lasted a month :( and since I did not buy it from a Klipsch dealer the warranty was useless.

 

So; are there any Klipsch subs that are solid and NOT prone to failure? Any wireless ones that work without interference?

 

Thanks, Emile

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 7/24/2022 at 3:32 PM, Greg130 said:

Hi All I Have a Klipsch 12 Sub Synergy edition S/N : SUB12SV07490566. It Recently just stopped working no power getting through. The Red/Blue led is not illuminated showing power is on. It had a blow fuse which i replaced however still no power. I have removed the back plate to inspect PDC and cannot see any sign of burn out not smell no signs nothing.  Board serial number is D107500208. Does anyone know where i can purchase a new PDC for this unit. Im in Perth Australia any help would be greatly appreciated.

Screenshot_20220724-153033_Gallery.jpg

Screenshot_20220724-153029_Gallery.jpg

Screenshot_20220724-153024_Gallery.jpg

Hello! Could you please tell me the marking of the variable resistor?

klipsch 12.jpg

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  • 1 month later...
On 3/8/2020 at 3:59 PM, wderbi said:

Hello ngen33r, I am posting here in your thread to hopefully get some help.  I have a RPW-10 that worked great for years and then no longer was working...I unfortunately left the switch in the "auto on" position.  I don't use the surround sound system on this TV often, so i do not know how long ago it stopped working...it may have been several months ago!  I found the fuse was blown, replaced it and it blew immediately.  I removed the plate amp, but I did not see anything obvious in regards to blown components in the power supply.  A Google search brought me to this thread and I was on my way!  I followed every suggestion in this thread: 1) rebuilt PDC, 2) replaced mosfets, 3) full recap, 4) replaced TH3, and eventually upgrading Q5 to 2N4401 from SOT 23. 

 

Rebuilding the PDC was done based on your schematic in the first post of this thread.  However, the values of my original resistors were totally different from those in your schematic---although the board number was exactly the same (660038RA).  See pictures below:

 

Original board:

g2fiEMc.jpg?1

 

Rebuilt PDC:

7GOfk1x.jpg?1

 

I also replaced the two IRF730 Mosfets with two IRF740 Mosfet transistors.  I also replaced TH3 (DSP104) even though there was no damage to it and then I replaced all CAPs with Nichon and Kemet (470uf) 105 C caps except I did not change the two 35V 4.7 non-polar caps at C48 and C53 (I ordered regular polar caps by mistake).  In addition to all of the suggestions you made in this thread, I also (6) replaced the two voltage regulators at U4 and U5, (7) replaced the transistor at Q8, and for good measure (9) I changed out all 5 of the output transistors (IRFZ14).  The picture below summarizes all of the changes:

 

Summary of All changes (before changing out Q5):

WH35Ne4.jpg

 

 

Now, I am no longer blowing fuses but the amp is still not working.  After a short period of being on, the Mosfets really start to heat up...I am not noticing any other components getting warm and there is absolutely no speaker noise.  I am now stuck and I am almost tempted to replace the safety capacitors (yellow thingys) and the bridge rectifier.  However, I wanted to reach out to you first for some guidance.  I have no schematic and I haven't got the slightest clue how to trouble shoot without knowing voltage "test points".  Can you please give some advice?  I am tempted to throw in the towel and but a new plate amp replacement, but I feel like I am too far into this to quit now...do you have any advice for a hobbyist?  Thanks in advance!

 

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On 11/24/2022 at 9:40 PM, squeek00 said:

Hello,  I have a SUB12 that turns on, but doesn't drive the woofer.  Do you still repair them or know of anyone that I can send it to?  I loved the Sub, it worked well for my system.  I miss the sound and feeling it gave.  



I am still doing repairs, but life has decided to take up most of my time. I hope to be getting back into it more after I do some much needed maintenance.

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On 11/26/2022 at 12:39 AM, ngen33r said:



I am still doing repairs, but life has decided to take up most of my time. I hope to be getting back into it more after I do some much needed maintenance.

Ok, glad your still doing the repairs.  Hope your maintenance is going well, I know how repairs/maintenance on ones self can go.  I have found another repair house in Michigan.  Thanks!

Edited by squeek00
Found a fix
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  • 2 weeks later...
On 11/26/2022 at 12:39 AM, ngen33r said:



I am still doing repairs, but life has decided to take up most of my time. I hope to be getting back into it more after I do some much needed maintenance.

Any idea where I can get a replacement gain potentiometer for a Sub 10? Thanks in advance....

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