Bar 48 No-Power Repair Thread

[KB17]

Like others, I’m patiently watching so I can attempt the fix on 2 of my Cinema 700s. 
 

I’ve already got the boards pulled out. Would be a great little side gig if someone offered a mail-in service! ;)

[SteadyDropsofWater]

Update:  Matt/all this worked for me! - Got the supplies in, cracked open the back and replaced those capacitors. 

 

I know next to nothing about electronics, but armed with some audacity, and this board, I was able to use 10.00 solder and ongtw75 valuable post with regard to which capacitors to shop for to (I believe fix)  my Cinema 800.   Cable routing to get the back on was a little wierd, but I was able to push them down and finagle them. 

 

Note of caution I'd mention to guys trying this - be careful you don't pull that white flat data cable out of the slots on the other board trying to get the wires back in the box, I noticed I did that, and had to push it back in.  No biggie, but I could see how someone could screw that up easy as I almost did. 

 

ongtw75, special note to you - I sat with this problem for awhile without seeing my own specific issue, but imagine finding your post about Cinema 800, in a discussion about the Cinema 600, on a board that was initially about the Bar 48 power issue.  I was about to buy the other power suppy board just to try, but your details about my own situation caused me to look at my own broken unit. 

 

Thanks so much everyone

 

 

 

 

[njlandry90]

I'm planning on attempting this repair for my Cinema 600. Outside of building PC's, I've never attempted a repair on anything electronic especially anything pertaining to power supplies. Does anyone have any tips on not electrocuting myself in the process? Obviously the soundbar wont be plugged in, but I'm aware that caps store electricity and you can still get shocked even if it's not hooked up to power. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

[ongtw75]

On 10/7/2024 at 12:22 AM, SteadyDropsofWater said:

Update:  Matt/all this worked for me! -

ongtw75, special note to you - I sat with this problem for awhile without seeing my own specific issue, but imagine finding your post about Cinema 800, in a discussion about the Cinema 600, on a board that was initially about the Bar 48 power issue.  I was about to buy the other power suppy board just to try, but your details about my own situation caused me to look at my own broken unit. 

Hi @SteadyDropsofWater , glad that my solution works for you. 

 

Yes, kind of funny how this thread has evolved from Bar 48 to Cinema 800. 😄

Cheers!

[ongtw75]

On 10/9/2024 at 8:10 AM, njlandry90 said:

I'm planning on attempting this repair for my Cinema 600. Outside of building PC's, I've never attempted a repair on anything electronic especially anything pertaining to power supplies. Does anyone have any tips on not electrocuting myself in the process? Obviously the soundbar wont be plugged in, but I'm aware that caps store electricity and you can still get shocked even if it's not hooked up to power. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Hi @njlandry90, referring to the photo below I've drawn a red line that divides the high/low voltage sections. Generally you would want to avoid touching the capacitors on the left side until the power board has been left sitting idle for some time, i.e 30 mins or more.

 

The capacitors at C05 and C06 are the culprit. You can replace them with better known brands of low ESR (equivalent series resistance). I'm using Chemi-Con KZE series capacitors, 220uF 16V (diameter 6.3mm, height 12mm). While the old capacitors are out, you may want to remove as much of the surrounding glue as possible. That will aid cooling.

 

Alternative capacitors:

https://www.digikey.com/short/75ff0hbm

https://mou.sr/4dJcXXT

 

Good luck!

Edited October 10, 2024 by ongtw75
Updated links

[N300zx]

Thanks SixerFixer. This thread saved my soundbar!!!

[Furry]

On 9/22/2021 at 9:36 PM, Harold said:

Hey SixerFixer,

just bought a broken bar 48 as a little project. Thank you for posting this, I figured my power supply was working fine until I saw your thread and tested it under load. I got 2.3V.

 

Don’t bother buying a new power supply or trying to fix it, simply use a usb phone charger. I had plenty sitting around and the first one I picked up was 5v & 1A -perfect.

Just solder 5v and gnd but also use the “STB” pin from the power supply, otherwise you won’t get audio. 
 

I have mine working now and was an incredibly simple & cheap fix. Cheers for your help and best of luck with yours.

Harry

Hi Harry I just picked up a Klipsch 48 sound bar from recycle it has the same problem and want to try your fix. I unplugged the 3 wire plug and ran 5V+ to VDD wire and 5V- to GRD ( from my new power supply). what exactly do I hook up the STB wire from 3 wire plug to. Any help would be great. Thanks in advance.

[WeakEars]

Another 600 death to add - a dust biter at about 5 yrs old.

 

Thanks to all for sharing your experience and guidance on parts.  Quite a blessing!

 

Symptom was "nothing"... no lights, no noise, nothing, nada.

 

Before assuming the power supply was the issue, I verified by:

 

Measured 5V @ VDD pin with no load.  This dropped to 3.2V when connected to the other PCBs, consistent with other reports.

 

To rule out the "load" as cause, I measured current on the 5V line and found 120 mA, well below the rated output and effectively ruling out too much current being drawn.

 

I also jumped from the 5V VDD pin to the STB pin and verified this would toggle the 24V output.  I measured 24.1V without a load.  Didn't try it connected, given the 5V supply is bad and multiple reports of recovery after correcting the 5V issue.

 

Net:  5V supply failure, apparently a common issue.

 

I do not like the idea of having the 24V on all the time, which is a given with a replacement supply that does not have the switchable 24V output using a STB input.  I understand the relay fix, but it's less than appealing for me.

 

Therefore, I will try replacing caps on the original supply but will order the cheap replacement as a backup plan and/or temporary fix.

 

I am honestly disappointed by Klipsch's design and/or supply decisions on what appears to be a totally outsourced power supply.  I don't know how much design and/or quality influence Klipsch had, but they obviously let a weak design out the door with their name on it.  As much as I like the performance, I don't think I'd rush out to spend hundreds on another Klipsch soundbar unless I had a really good extended warranty.  In my case, the soundbar made it past the warranty, but obviously didn't have enough life margin and I'm luckier than many others.  I'm grateful to Klipsch for supporting this forum, though!  That almost makes up for the bad experience.

 

 

 

 

[WeakEars]

I noticed they did not load this blue capacitor on mine.  Any idea what it does and why they might have made this change?

[ongtw75]

On 11/13/2024 at 2:59 AM, Furry said:

Hi Harry I just picked up a Klipsch 48 sound bar from recycle it has the same problem and want to try your fix. I unplugged the 3 wire plug and ran 5V+ to VDD wire and 5V- to GRD ( from my new power supply). what exactly do I hook up the STB wire from 3 wire plug to. Any help would be great. Thanks in advance.

Hi Furry,

+5V to VDD, GND to GND and you can leave STB unconnected (do insulate it with tape). STB only works on the original power supply board.

[ongtw75]

22 hours ago, WeakEars said:

I noticed they did not load this blue capacitor on mine.  Any idea what it does and why they might have made this change?

Hi WeakEars,

The blue capacitor is for EMC filtering and doesn't affect the function nor the sound quality of the speakers.

Since the same power supply board is used in various models (Bar48, Cinema 600/800 etc), there is going to be slight variance in the components they used on each model, depending on the EMC compliance result.

 

[WeakEars]

On 11/18/2024 at 7:18 PM, ongtw75 said:

Hi WeakEars,

The blue capacitor is for EMC filtering and doesn't affect the function nor the sound quality of the speakers.

Since the same power supply board is used in various models (Bar48, Cinema 600/800 etc), there is going to be slight variance in the components they used on each model, depending on the EMC compliance result.

 

Thank you!  I think you are suggesting emissions testing happens at a product level so the mitigation might be different even though the power supply is the same.  Must be a predictable radiation risk to plan for that when the board was layed out.  Cool!

[WeakEars]

Success!

 

Replacing the two capacitors C05 and C06 fully restored the function of our soundbar!

 

5 Volts is once again 5 Volts.

 

Thank you all for posting on this forum and especially to those who diagnosed and shared the solution(s).

 

I bought two of these Panasonic caps from Mouser for 38 cents each.  Shipping was about 10X that!

 

EEU-FR1C221B Panasonic | Mouser

 

So less than $10 to avoid hundreds in replacement cost!  Hopefully it lasts another 4 or 5 years.

 

Interesting to me that the 5V side of the supply stays powered continuously by design.  This means the capacitors in the 5V side have higher risk for wear-out than those on the 20V side. The Panasonic caps I bought were rated 5000 hrs at 105C.  I'm confident the temperature was lower, but for something continuously operating, 5000 hrs isn't much, even if the temperature was a lot lower.

 

Speaking of reliability and temperature, what is that white glop?  Is it to conduct heat or prevent mechanical vibration?  It's a pain to remove!

 

Variation in the way the white goop was applied probably has an effect on the operating temperature of these capacitors.  This may be another factor in the variation of time to failure (although the variation in part to part will probably be huge, along with the variation in customer usage and power-on hours that could heat these caps).

[Rotel guy]

Hello. I came across your thread on the klipsch 48 power supply issue and purchased the power supply you recommended for the repair. I was wondering if you could tell me in which order the the three small white wires go into the terminals on the new board as I can't tell in picture you posted. One has red x's one a red stripe and the other just writing on it. Thanks!

[ducky]

Hello! Fellow Cinema 1200 owner and enjoyer here! My bar like everyone else in here crapped out at roughly the 2 year mark (no lights, no nothing). Saw this wonderful thread and decided to replace those capacitors that ongtw75 brought up. Sure enough, just like ongtw75's integrated power supply, those same capacitors were bulging on my board! Bought those same caps from digikey, got out the solder iron, and resoldered them in. Bar now works flawlessly. 

 

Anyways, just wanted to come here and say the fix works for the Cinema 1200 as well! Thanks everybody!

 

Bought these caps to replace at C5 and C28: https://www.digikey.com/short/bf43j7p0

[John266]

Brand new here. 
I think I need a power supply for the Cinema 1200. Works for about 10 minutes then go very soft. Try again in an hour or so and it repeats. 
the supply looks just like pictures above. 

[KevinB]

On 12/12/2024 at 12:53 PM, John266 said:

I think I need a power supply for the Cinema 1200. Works for about 10 minutes then go very soft.

If your soundbar is still within the warranty period, you should open a case with Klipsch and ask for a warranty replacement.

[John266]

This is my second replacement and now they sent a different system and said I could keep my latest replaced unit. So I think a power supply will fix it. 

[KevinB]

2 hours ago, John266 said:

This is my second replacement and now they sent a different system and said I could keep my latest replaced unit. So I think a power supply will fix it.

That sounds like a good plan... 🙂

[John266]

Now I’m just hoping someone will help me find the power supply.