Well, my 950 finally gave up the ghost. I will medivac it to the Outlaws on Monday to see if the surgeons can do anything to save it.
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A couple days ago the audio repeatedly reset at random times like it was just acquiring an audio signal. Then the sound would drop out for various periods of time and I would get periods of mild static sound. Then video (via the S video)would go wonkey (looked like an old fashioned analog scrambled cable signal). Then yesterday the display would get brighter & dimmer after turning the unit on. Last night I had to try 6 or 8 times to get it to power up. The display would briefly light then fade out and even the standby LED was off. Now the unit is totally dead. I've tried unplugging & plugging back in the unit but I think it's in a coma.

I've gone back to primative audio and am using the speakers on my TV. How did the cavemen survive without 1'400 watts of surround sound???

- Hopefully the Outlaw ER can save it...

The same exact thing just happened to my 950. Did you ever find the problem and/or how to fix it?

I am having a couple ongoing issues with my 950 and I'm going through testing all the inputs. I have my DVD player hooked up to the 5.1 input jacks (front L, R; Surround L, R; center; sub).

How do I configure the 950 to use this input? I cannot get it to work and want to make sure I'm not doing something stupid.

Push the "6CH" button on the 950's remote to enable the 5.1 analog input.

Dane,

My 950 died a fews days ago too. Eight years of solid performance. Then one day I decided to upgrade my speakers and not a peep out them.

Any one have any ideas what could have caused the loss of sound. Every thing else in the processor still works great but it seems that thete is no signal getting to the ATI AMP.

Mike

Hard to say what happened. Is the display still lighting up? Video switching still working?

You might call Outlaw on Monday or contact them online to find out what their thoughts are - could be as simple as a reset, or maybe a trip in for some service.

Wow The same thing is going on with mine right now. I plan on calling tomorrow and see what's up.

Please keep us updated as to what you find out.

Not to hijack your thread, but I talked with Outlaw and I'm waiting on an email with return instructions.

I'll let you know how it goes.

My 950 went titsup tonight. Not the exact same way. First I lost sound on the optical input I was using. Changed source to an input using analog, had sound, then a few minutes later the 950 just shut down. Will not power on any longer.

Chris

fuse maybe!

Probably not the fuse since you lost digital input but still had analog. Might be worth a call to the Outlaws - just about all of the 950's are still under warranty, and if they can't find a way to get it back on its feet any other way they can at least arrange for it to take a road trip for some service.

After some hours of being powered off from the main power switch in the back it did actually come to life for a short time. Soon after the audio became intermittant and then the front power led itself became intermittant and then it shutdown again.

The one big clue is that when using the menu to reset the config I noticed a 60 cycle hum in the video. My guess is that a capacitor (or more than one) in the power supply is dying and is the cause for the problems.

Chris

Well, after talking with Scott of Friday, I waved goodbuy to my 950 today as it disappeared behind the FedEx counter for a trip to MA. The usual disclaimer of 3-4 weeks turnaround for the unit. I am sooo bummed. A month without my HT!!! I guess it's time to drag the old Adcom stereo preamp out of the garage and at least have 2 channel and FM.

I hope everyone gets their 950 back on it's feet.

tcg: based on the symptoms you describe, I would also suspect the power supply. Something has deteriorated and behaves better when cooled down than when warm. Since that something doesn’t cool down when the 950 is in standby mode, only when all power is disconnected, the power supply is definitely the suspect.

Just want to mention that my unit was repaired and returned quickly under warranty.
In the interim I did enjoy a few moments of fun with my old Carver preamp and its Sonic Holography.

Chris

Mine just died too, recently.
How long is the warranty on these, Ive had mine in faithful service almost everyday since November '02

The Model 950's warranty is five years, if I remember correctly.

Oh this post just sounds great. During the Superbowl's half time show my 950 began turning the volume down on its own. Then it turned itself off. This was a nice Outlaw demonstration in front of a room full of friends. I just left it off and used the tv's speakers for the rest of the game. I seem to have also lost the second zone output. After reading this post I am wondering if my unit is also heading down this slippery slope. I was hoping for better than 4 years on a preamp. Not sure if I want to send it back or just find another brand that might be more reliable.

Yep, same here after many years my 950 still works but constantly is switching between Dolby and S/Pdif. I tired removing the power cable for 10 minutes and rebooting the system. No luck, does the same thing and with different sources. I guess I am going to have to call the Outlaws as well.

Hmmm....my 950 hasn't given me any problems at all. It will probably start misbehaving now that I've said that.......

Update, turned out it was only a optical cable, I didn't know they could go bad. I have never even moved it. The 950 is still going strong.

Reading this thread has made me a little leary about the life span of my 990. I realize that there is a 5 year warranty, but I expect to get more life out of it than that. Did these 950's have adequate ventilation? I am looking forward to the new processor, but at $1,000+ it too should last much longer then 5 years. Brian

First, the 950 and 990 are entirely different products - they aren't even built in the same factory. Second, the 950 is now approaching six years old (the first batch shipped out in early April 2002) and a lot got sold over the course of three years. That generates a large pool of hardware "in the wild" that the bell curve suggests will exhibit some failures.

i thought my 950 died... the display went blank. sound still worked though. i pulled the plug and restarted it, and display works again! i think a recent blackout had something to do with it. hopefully it will go on for a few more years.

My 950 still works fine, but when it does fail, the likely culprit will be oxidized / dirty contacts on the between-PCB headers. There are a whole bunch of those types inside the 950.

My 950 seems to be withering. In a previous post I stated my issues with the increased frequency that the 950 was losing the configuration settings from memory. Now over the weekend the unit has stopped responding to the remotes. If I turn off the unit and unplug, that appears to help for a short while then back to no response. Every so often it will work for one volume change (or partial change) then stop responding. Of course this happens at 5 years 3 months of ownership....sigh
I may look into Altec's likely culprit.

You might try unplugging the headers one at a time and squirting some contact cleaner into them. Just a small amount works best.

I recently started having the same prob... random drop outs on digital inputs. reset did not help. I just hooked up my cable box to analog and time will tell if it makes a difference. If anyone gets this worked out, please keep this thread updated. Also, to the Outlaw peeps... since this problem is somewhat common, can you identify the fix and or average repair cost?? I'm like 50 days out of warranty

TIA

Jeff

I can't help with any sort of advice for a fix or a possible repair cost, but if I were in either Keta or Thade's shoes I'd drop Outlaw a line via phone or support site .

Argh, it turns out that it's not the Optical cable like I thought. After watching "I am Legend" last night everything worked great. Today the 950 does the usual hunting for an input and now shuts down after a few minutes. I was waiting for the next generation of Pre/pro from the Outlaws, I am holding out for HDMI switching, but I might just get the 990. I still think they are the best value around.

My 950 exhibited the same probs. as all of you noted. I contacted the Outlaws...everything was still on warrantee.. sent it in and it's back as good as new. This is my first time back to the Hideout in a few years...got busy with sport cars and racing, and thought an update would be nice. Good to see some of the ol' gang's still around.

Hi all,

A month or so, my 950 started exhibiting the same video symptoms. S-video would switch between clean output and the scrolling "macrovision-style" output. It would flip back and forth about every 10 seconds.

Two days ago, the digital audio went wonky, unable to lock onto a signal. The unit just "hunts" for a signal, going through Dolby, PCM, and S/Pdif. This is a constant rotation. The display also was dimming out.

Thanks to the OP for posting this, as up until the audio problem, I suspected my DSS receiver. (All analog connections were working fine).

Fortunately, I still have 2 months left on my warranty (whew! that was close). Sent it in for repair yesterday. Hopefully it won't take to long to get back.