Very worried - apparently dead 990

I'm very worried. My model 990 will now not turn on. I don't know when this started - I used the unit this morning with no problems, turned everything off, came back later this afternoon, and now the 990 is dead.

It will turn on momentarily, either using the remote, or the panel buttons - and the indicator light will turn blue. However, nothing comes up on the display - regardless of the input selected - and then, after 5 seconds or so, the 990 turns itself off (e.g., the indicator light goes back to amber.)

I've checked all connections on the 990, I've tried using every input, I've tried cutting power to both the 990 and all connected electronics for five minutes - and still no dice. I tried re-setting the 990 - and again, after holding down the buttons, the machine clicked on, but nothing came up on the display.

I could really use some help - I'm waiting to hear back from Outlaw Technical Support. Has anyone else encountered this issue? Any ideas for how to resolve it?

This is worrisome to me and probably everyone else who's read your message. The only thing I can think of to ask, is whether you've tried the 990 on another circuit in your house. Please let us all know the results of your Tech Support call.
Good luck.

Can you attempt a firmware upgrade? See if it'll talk to the 990.

Check the "OPR - SVC" switch. Perhaps it somehow got switched to the SVC, or perhaps was never quite in OPR in the first place, or is dirty, etc.

Did you *remove* all connections and try powering on? Perhaps there's a fault or short somewhere that you can see, even though all seems like it's correctly hooked up.

Just a few random thoughts.

Good luck.

I tried all of that - and even tried replacing the fuse, with Tech Support's guidance. No luck. And this isn't a power issue - I've got a high quality power regulator and surge protector, and every other piece of electronics that are plugged into that power unit are perfectly fine.

I shipped the unit back to Outlaw today (on my dime). Not terribly happy.

That's an odd situation. Hopefully Outlaw'll get it back up and running in short order, though. Let us know what the problem turns out to be.

I'm very interested in hearing the outcome of your situation. This morning, the same exact thing happened to me. You described word for word the symptoms my 990 exhibits. I did not have time to troubleshoot, but I will during lunch break Yeah, that's the only downfall is that shipping a unit back for warranty work costs the customer. Oh well.
Anyway, let us know what happens with yours.

Brian Quinn and jrlouie,
did either of you perform the firmware upgrade? Or are your units still running the original firmware?
Mine is still working great, just wondering what's up.
Thanks,
Lonster

Mine has the latest firmware applied. I was listening to the 990 with "room 2" turned on (as I often do when I go to bed), and the main room was off. When I woke up I went out into the main room and when powering it up it would temporarily have the power lights blue and then flip to amber (off). Repeated attempts exhibited the same problem.
Not that this is a critical diagnostic factor, but when room 2 is on and room 1 is not, the 990 actually is still powered up (i.e. - blue lights). I do not know if the 990 had completely turned off (amber) over the course of the night since it was my girlfriend who first actually tried powering on room 1 in the morning. I doubt she remembers what color the lights were.
Either way now, from a complete powered off state and even unplugged, to powering it on, it still now never remains on.
I'll do a little more testing in about 1/2 hour.

Well, I was a bit rushed over the lunch break But, I managed to squeeze in a few minutes.
All I had time to do was...
-disconnect the power cord from 990
-unplug everything from the back of the unit, i mean everything
-plug the power cord back in
-tried powering it up to Video 1 and it did the same thing (lights turned blue, made one click as though it was trying, sat for a couple of seconds, automatically powered off and back to amber lights)

I didn't get a chance to try a system reset or anything like that. I can try a thing or two more this evening, but I think I'm running out of options.

I hope this isn't contagious..

Well over the weekend, (Superbowl w/e) I tried to turn on my 990, which was in amber (standby mode), and the same thing happenned to me, tried to turn on 990 blue light goes on for a few seconds and clicks back to amber..Was using
current software.

Checked all connections, power etc, then reloaded
the software , could not get this thing to turn on, ,

My guess is that there is a problem with a relay or switch ...Sent unit to Outlaw....

I'm interested in when the people experiencing the problem purchased their 990's. Perhaps there is a problem with a particular "lot".

Also still not clear to me if all people with problem had the old or newer version of the firmware.

I'm still waiting to hear back from Outlaw. They've had my unit for over a week now. It's very interesting to me to hear that others are starting to have the same problems. When I have some news (which, Outlaw, I'm definitely waiting for), I'll let you all know. This is very frustrating.

Regarding some of your questions, I had the old firmware operating when I encountered these difficulties. I installed the new firmware, hoping that my problems were due to a corrupt system OS. No luck (although, according to the installer program, the firmware was installed successfully). As I mentioned, I even tried replacing the fuse - no luck.

Earwit and jrlouie, I'm sorry to hear that you're encountering the same problem. Your problems sound identical to mine - just to be clear, are you getting anything at all on the display screen? Or does it always remain blank? I'd also be interested to know if you were running the latest firmware when the problem happened, or the older firmware. But given that the firmware upgrade did nothing for the problem, this seems hardware related.

I received my unit in August 2005, from Outlaw.

-Purchased mine March 6th, 2006.
-I was already running newest version of firmware when problem happened.
-Display never illuminates. Only blue lights.
-System reset does not work.
-Very interstingly (this might help Outlaw diagnose), my 990 does not automatically completely turn off if I try starting it via the following inputs: CD, AUX. But, it never fully powers up. The lights turn blue, but no display and then just sits there. All other inputs cause it to turn back off.

Brain,
I had the lastest software on the unit.
Exactly like your situation the blue light
would go on a few seconds, display would never
work, then go back to amber..

I purchased my unit right after they came out, I believe June 05.......

Intersting. Jrlouie, I never tried the CD or AUX inputs on my unit (as I had nothing connected). Earwit, did you have any luck with those inputs?

Well, so far I'm playing phone tag with Outlaw. The message they left me was to try a few more things so I obliged. Here is an update compiling all notes.
-Purchased mine March 6th, 2006.
-I was already running newest version of firmware when problem happened.
-Display never illuminates. Only blue light.
-Cycling the service switch does not help.
-System reset does not help.
-Re-downloading the latest firmware (that I was already running) and reinstalling it does not help. The loader software states success but when finalizing with a system reset, the display never shows system reset as it should and unit still won't power on.
-Starting via any input causes it to not power up.

I'll post an update once I hear back from Outlaw.

Jrlouie, what you're describing is identical to the problems mine had. And none of the remedies you've tried worked for me either. Outlaw will probably tell you to try replacing the fuse next - it's worth a go, but it didn't help me. Sorry to hear about your problems.

When I've heard back from Outlaw as to what they've found with my 990, I'll post an update.

Been two weeks since Outlaw received the 990,
Still no word in regards toward repair status..

This really sucks!! I had the same type of problems with my Parasound AVC2500. I ended up fixing it myself. I found a bad voltage regulator in the power supply. Replaced it and never had a problem again. But I really do hope I do not experiance the same problems with my 990 which I might add will be here tomorrow. Good luck and let us know how this pans out

Hello All,

As has been previously stated in the Saloon, there have been a tremendous number of these products sold since its release. Having a few units with similar symptoms at the same time is nothing more than coincidence. These types of failures can occur as the result of a power surge, a part failure, an external short etc. Therefore, there is no reason to be concerned that your unit will fail in the future, as the service rate for the Model 990 simply does not support that likelihood.

Best,

Scott

Something somewhat similar to this has happened to my 990 on 2 occasions. The unit was up and running and I would walk over to it to turn the volume up or down. As soon as I touched the volume knob, there was a static electricity shock and all of the text on the front display turned off. The light remained blue and I can't really remember if picture/sound were still going through.

Pressing the standby button twice got the unit working again. Clearly, static electricity had something to do with my incident - not sure if it is at all related to yours...

Coming up on 4 weeks now that Outlaw has had my 990, and I haven't heard anything.

I'm sure your reassurance as to the technical reliability of the 990 is very helpful to other readers, Scott. For the record, there was no power surge related to the failure of my unit.

Brian,

I did try to reach you last week when your repair shipped. Unfortunately, only one of the two numbers we have listed for you is current, and the one that is did not provide an option to leave a message. I then attempted to reach you via a Saloon PM but unfortunately, you have that feature turned off.

We emailed both the warranty invoice and tracking information to the email address you provided us on the 21st. If you have not received the email we can resend it, but I would appreciate it if you could give me a call (866-OUTLAWS) so I can update your contact information as I prefer not to use the Saloon for shipment notifications etc.

Thanks,

Scott

Well, that'll teach me to post while I'm on the road. I returned home to find my 990 waiting by my doorr. That's strange that your contact info was off, Scott - I've corresponded with Steve in Tech Support several times without incident.

Apparently, a part in the power supply of my unit was malfunctioning (I believe it was a thermistor). I just set everything up again last night, recalibrated, and my unit is now working perfectly! The total time from ship-out to return was just under 4 weeks - so Outlaw beat their own warranty agreement (which stipulates 4-6 weeks as the typical cycle time for repair work).

While the failure of the unit was very frustrating, I have to commend Outlaw on standing behind their warranty, and for turning around the repair of my unit so quickly. Specifically, Steve was extremely helpful and patient in working with me to get my unit repaired and returned. Well done, Outlaw!!

Earwit and jrlouie, I hope your units are repaired and returned in the very near future as well. Let me know when you've received them.

I repair electronics for a living and I can tell you that most problems with low power units (not power amps) happen at power up.Its like being thrown in cold water to a person,it can kill you.All of my non- power amp equipment is left on all the time.Also use a backup power supply, surge protectors do not help with voltage sags.These can kill electronics just as well as spikes.My 990 has never been turned off other than for connecting to other equipment. Long live the 990!

Sorry to bring up so an old thread, but add me to the list people having this issue. Nothing on the display, just blue light. Attempts to turn on and then shuts off. I checked all connections, tried to reset (which does nothing -- tries to turn on and immediately turns off again). Purchased February 2006. Everything in my setup is connected to a Panamax and all other equipment works fine. Call me not very happy right now.

My 990 is dead. Same symptoms. It's been chugging away for a couple of years, today it's not working.

Not looking forward to a 4 week repair cycle.

Did you try unplugging it for 5 min?

Scott,

I just got the 990, and am a bit concerned about this issue to fellow outlaws. Is there a sequence of serial nos. this is happening to? Are the reasons for failure the same (thermistor)?

Thanks much.

I have to say, Outlaw is a great company to do business with--they are very responsive.

For what it's worth, I just skimmed back through this thread and counted a total of six people reporting failures of their 990's that required a warranty repair. That's six over the course of over 3.5 years that the 990 has been in production and almost two years that the thread has existed. It's not something that any of us would like to encounter in our own equipment rack, but it's why that five year warranty is there and the numbers seen here suggest that your odds of needing to use that warranty are extremely low.

Dead 990. Just before Christmas, my 3 year old 990 had the same symptoms described above; blue power light would come on for a few seconds, no display and would power off shortly thereafter. While I was not happy that I was going to have to use the 5 year warranty, it was much better than having to face the choice of paying for a repair or buying a new unit.

What I can say is that the Outlaw's customer service is absolutely outstanding. With a brief call to them, I had a detailed email within hours explaining how to return the unit for repair. I sent the unit out that same day, and had the unit back in my possession a mere 17 calendar days later. It was only this long because of 2 days lost due to the New Years holiday and the unit showing up 1 day before I expected it from Fed Ex, so I was not home to sign for it. Without those 3 lost days, this turn around was 14 calendar days. Bravo Outlaw Audio.

And it included a deck of Outlaw playing cards in the box. Now, while a box of playing cards is certainly not a big deal, how many other top name brand electronics would give you anything back with your unit when returned from warranty repair. With most other electronics companies, you would hope for a two week turn around, a repaired unit and not too much grief in getting these.

My only hopes now are that this problem does not repeat in another 3 years once the unit is out of warranty. Although, that would give me a good reason to upgrade to the 997 (or whatever other Outlaw processor is available at the time).

So while this note of a dead unit may make some potential Outlaw customers concerned about buying from them, I would suggest the following. All products have some level of quality / reliability issues with them. While you hope you don't get one of the few units with the problem, it is much better to know that the company stands behind their warranty and quickly addresses the problem. I work as a Quality Engineer for a Fortune 500 electronics component manufacturer and deal with this type of stuff every day. We win business and get repeat business because of our quality, but more importantly, because of our responsiveness to addressing quality issues when they come up. Outlaw Audio obviously has the same philosophy, and this has made me into a loyal Outlaw Audio customer.

Glad to hear that Outlaw got you fixed up, Tbirdsc!

Sorry to dig up an old thread, but it looks like I have this problem out of the blue too. What is it going to cost me to get fixed? I dont recall what the warranty is, but I assume I'm out of it. I ordered my 990 and 5 monoblocks in mid 2005.

Please call us @ 1-800-OUTLAWS and the repair department would gladly discuss options with you.

Add my 990 to the list.

I believe that our tech Jim has been in touch with you this AM to help resolve the problem.

Yes. Jim sent me a very helpful email. Thank You so much. I wish there was a way for me to send photos to Jim.

If they are digital - you can email them to customerservice@outlawaudio.com and we'll make sure he gets them.

Sorry for bringing up an old thread but I just wanted to add my experience over the same problem that just recently cropped up with my Outlaw 990 also. Same failure that was described above. After contacting the folks in customer support, I was able to ship the unit to them and they got a quote to me for around $95 within a day of receipt. They turned it around in less than a week. In all, the total down time was less than 2 1/2 weeks. Can't thank the Outlaws enough for their outstanding and prompt customer support. My system gets used from 1-3 times a day, every day since I got the 990 back in 2006. I look forward to many more years of enjoying this fine unit, at least until something else in my system dies and it becomes time to upgrade. Thanks again Outlaws!