I have been hanging on to two of these amps for years. They both light red(protection)when powered up. I just picked up a third blown one and I figured it's time to look into it. After reading a couple of threads about them on this site, and after seeing how badly damaged the third one is (unrepairable) I figured its probably the transistors in the output section that are bad. On one of them, some of the transistors on the input side(like 2 out of 8 of them) look faintly around the edges as though they started to turn pinkish(the metal part not the plastic) and I can see what looks like faint signs of burn coming out of the plastic onto the metal maybe burnt solder paste. Nothing else looks bad inside both of them, nothing burnt or melted at all. The four like transistors on both sides of the output are turned a pinkish red but a lot worse. I have two working 1000d's but are installed in such a way it would be a pain to take them out and look inside of them. I'm only assuming that they are the color they are because they got so hot they fried, but im not certain. Hoping I could get some advice here.
Thanks in advance
Thanks in advance
I took the totally screwed up one one out of the chassis to identify everything and have the other two opened up. The one thats unrepairable, the B+ connect broke off and they tried to solder the wire right to the board or something and completely ruined the traces and ran it anyway, said they had it working but it started arcing. All of the input transistors are burned, real bad, and its missing a couple components including the B+ terminal. As soon as I find my camera I'll try to take pics. I will go ahead and read the link to in the meantime. Might take a few days. Thanks a lot guy's.
That amp is not fixable. I'm not an electronic technician, but I've done work on circuit boards and this board is ruined. Also its missing the terminal block(B+) and the blue rectangle component coming from the remote wire trace which is ruined also. I'll take a pic of that too when I get a chance. Like I said I just took it apart to identify parts and damage. The other two amps lightly show signs of excessive heat on the transistors but the drivers on the upright boards appear to be good(appear), and all the traces for the transistor resistors look fine, including the resistors. I'm not even sure how to test the components, Ive only read the couple threads on similar problems. The original thread I found was titled "Memphis 1000d Transistor Blowing" and was started way back in December 2005. I was hoping Perry Babin was still on the site because he had an answer for everything even on how to test everything. So I figured if I joined he could point me in the right direction or I would just do what the thread starter had done to his amp.
I don't know your education/skill level but I can tell you have a lot more experience than me with this stuff. What would you do, cancel out the trace and run wires straight to where the traces lead?? I'm sorry I haven't had the chance to get any pic's I have other things going on more important right now. But as soon as I get to it I'll take detailed pics of this burnt one to show you how bad it is. Its has the traces burnt on the top and bottom of the board they really did a number on this thing. I believe he said they tried soldering a wire straight to the board and failed to get a good contact so they wedged the wire in with wood and ran it like that and it arced real bad and fried the heck out of it.
I remebered that upon aquiring the other two amps, they didn't have the two 40amp fuses in them and the person I got them from wasn't most trustworthy guy I knew so I assumed they didn't work from the get go. I put fuses in them and powered them up from a portable jump start box and they lit red and stayed red. After reading perry's link on basic amp repair I rembered I ran into a problem installing a jl audio amp that was fine but kept shutting off. I came to discover the voltage was dropping so low it was going into protect mode. The jump box i had might of been doing this. I just tried powering one up but I cant quite get the right test setup from the system in my car while I'm at work because the way my amp is installed I'd have to take everything apart to get at the 4 gauge wires feeding the amp. So I used the small(probably 16-18gauge) wires from my line driver to connect it and this is what happened. The amp went red when remote was applied(like normal) but the red L.e.d. was kind of flickering and the green L.e.d. was trying to light. Then the ground wire started to melt. I figured even though they were small gauge wires I wasn't driving the amp so it would power up. The four capacitors near the power inputs started to get hot along with internal fuses. I'm just assuming that this was because It couldnt get good ground through the thin wire? I also put in smaller fuses than what the amp calls for I used a 20 and a 25. But they didnt blow. I could smell a faint smell coming from the amp but nothing burnt or popped. Hopefully this occured from the amp trying to pull too much through the thin wire. Maybe these 2 do work. I'm gonna get set up right at home and make some 4gauge test wires I can connect to the capacitor when I get a chance. I will keep you guy's posted. Thanks for the assistance already.
I can’t offer much help other then I would suggest installing one 10 amp fuse maximum when trying to power the amps up, especially if you try from larger gauge wire with the car battery. You may end up causing more damage trying to test them if they have problems, they may end up in bad shape like your burnt up one.
I would think a working amp should not be melting 16 to 18 gauge wire while powering up and idling, I power up amps from wire that size for light testing / repair & have never had a problem, I use wires only a few feet long however, so that’s not saying it may not be a problem. Melting wire means it’s pulling significant current & if you smell something coming out of the amp during your testing, I think it’s safe to say there is a problem, plus if anything seems to be getting hot while idling, that’s typically not normal.
I would think a working amp should not be melting 16 to 18 gauge wire while powering up and idling, I power up amps from wire that size for light testing / repair & have never had a problem, I use wires only a few feet long however, so that’s not saying it may not be a problem. Melting wire means it’s pulling significant current & if you smell something coming out of the amp during your testing, I think it’s safe to say there is a problem, plus if anything seems to be getting hot while idling, that’s typically not normal.
That was my initial thought, not driving the amp so it wouldnt pull all kinds of current. I dont think my line driver has a sufficient ground though because I probed the amp before i turned it on without the car running and I only had about 11.6 volts. But I you're your right, smelling something and wires burning is a bad sign. I turned the car on and had above 14volts when i turned the amp on. Should I not bother powering them up again even with a small inline fuse?? I dont want to further damage them like you said. Too valuable of a product thats why I take them even if they're burnt. The two I have that are working I bought when I was 17. Now I'm 30 and they're still just as strong as the day I bought them and I absolutely crank those mothers!!
I think it would be ok to try to power it up with a 10 amp fuse inline, using your good power wire. But if the 10-amp fuse blows I would not keep trying it.
I am no pro at amp repair; again I just tinker with this stuff, so you may want to wait for the experts info on testing them safely. I just wanted you to be aware it’s generally not a good idea to have high amp fuses in an amp that may have problems when trying to power them up. If there is a problem & the amp is drawing excessive current, the larger fuse may not blow in time to stop more damage from happening.
Edit on my previous post: I guess I shouldn’t necessarily say that if anything is getting hot that’s not normal, as some things like regulators & some power resistors depending on there application in the circuit can get a bit warm. If any output or power supply transistors are getting hot when powering it up, that’s generally not normal, & if capacitors are getting hot while idling, that does not seem normal either.
Anyway, I hope you get them working! If you take your time hopefully you will be able to, Perry Babin knows his stuff, so if you can follow along with his instructions there is a great possibility you will!
I am no pro at amp repair; again I just tinker with this stuff, so you may want to wait for the experts info on testing them safely. I just wanted you to be aware it’s generally not a good idea to have high amp fuses in an amp that may have problems when trying to power them up. If there is a problem & the amp is drawing excessive current, the larger fuse may not blow in time to stop more damage from happening.
Edit on my previous post: I guess I shouldn’t necessarily say that if anything is getting hot that’s not normal, as some things like regulators & some power resistors depending on there application in the circuit can get a bit warm. If any output or power supply transistors are getting hot when powering it up, that’s generally not normal, & if capacitors are getting hot while idling, that does not seem normal either.
Anyway, I hope you get them working! If you take your time hopefully you will be able to, Perry Babin knows his stuff, so if you can follow along with his instructions there is a great possibility you will!
just about all i can tell you is pretty much the same you will learn by reading perry's link...... when powering it up for testing, you limit the current by running a headlight in-line with the power wire. first thing to check is a short between any of the transistor legs in both the power supply, and output. one thing i generally tend to do, is find the shorted transistor, if only one, or 2, by reading the differential on the resistors, or the one that is shorted to all legs, and then cut it out. if the drivers and circuits are good, it should power up and idle with the bad transistors removed. keep in mind, you do need to replace the whole section, allong with the resistors, not just the bad one(s) sometimes, the drivers are also shorted, too... really, if you are unsure about anything, go back and re-read his work. don't guess. the majority of what i fix is simple as shorted power fets, shorted outputs, blown (shorting, sometimes exploded) caps, and reverse connection protection diodes. there is a good chance you will find your problem in one of those categories, but sometimes, you will end up in a more complex repair....... once again, i highly recommend reading up on it before you begin tinkering....
I have been reading and going over how to test the transistors. This is what I have found. I am assuming the legs are 1 2 3 left to right from the front of the transistor(side that is labeled). All being tested with them in the board and amp not powered. My meter is a INNOVA 3320. I don't have the manual with me specs are at iEquus.com. I'm at work, for some stupid reason I can log onto this site but the firewall wont let me onto that site.
IRF640's (2 of them) in the output section on the same side of the amp as the rca connection are both showing 0 ohms on legs 2+3. Legs 1+3 showing 49.7-49.9, leg's 1+2 showing 49.7
IRF640's on opposite side showing .2-.3 and 0 legs 2+3, 1st one showing 21.0 legs 1+3, 2nd one showing 1.2 legs 1+3, first one showing 21.3 legs 1+2, other showing 1.3 legs 1+2
IRF9640's on rca output side, 1st two starting after the 640's showing 49.4 legs 1+3, 49.4 legs 1+2, legs 2+3 reading 0.
Two remaining in the row, #3 reading 20.2 legs 1+3, legs 1+2 reading 20.2, legs 2+3 reading 0. Last IRF9640 legs 1+3 reading .2, legs 1+2 reading .2, legs 2+3 reading 0.
Opposite side 9640's all 4 reading 49.4 legs 1+3 and legs 1+2, legs 2+3 on all 4 reading 0
IRF3205's input side starting from end of amp all showing about 47.0 legs 1+3. Legs 1+2 on all 8 of them are starting no less than 33.0 but the meter keeps climbing very slow and I can't get a "solid" reading. With legs 2+3 on all of them the meter is acting really weird, it either starts of low at about .377 then climbs above 2.0 slowly then reads O.L, then jumps up to about 10.0 and drops slowly. When you go to the next one down the line it picks up usually where the last one left off and continues to drop. When dropping eventually it will read O.L again, then go back low around .3 and climb again. Go to the next one it picks up where it left off and climbs. Process repeats like that. Please bear with me I don't know what this means, I put a fresh battery in the meter when I began.
IRF640's (2 of them) in the output section on the same side of the amp as the rca connection are both showing 0 ohms on legs 2+3. Legs 1+3 showing 49.7-49.9, leg's 1+2 showing 49.7
IRF640's on opposite side showing .2-.3 and 0 legs 2+3, 1st one showing 21.0 legs 1+3, 2nd one showing 1.2 legs 1+3, first one showing 21.3 legs 1+2, other showing 1.3 legs 1+2
IRF9640's on rca output side, 1st two starting after the 640's showing 49.4 legs 1+3, 49.4 legs 1+2, legs 2+3 reading 0.
Two remaining in the row, #3 reading 20.2 legs 1+3, legs 1+2 reading 20.2, legs 2+3 reading 0. Last IRF9640 legs 1+3 reading .2, legs 1+2 reading .2, legs 2+3 reading 0.
Opposite side 9640's all 4 reading 49.4 legs 1+3 and legs 1+2, legs 2+3 on all 4 reading 0
IRF3205's input side starting from end of amp all showing about 47.0 legs 1+3. Legs 1+2 on all 8 of them are starting no less than 33.0 but the meter keeps climbing very slow and I can't get a "solid" reading. With legs 2+3 on all of them the meter is acting really weird, it either starts of low at about .377 then climbs above 2.0 slowly then reads O.L, then jumps up to about 10.0 and drops slowly. When you go to the next one down the line it picks up usually where the last one left off and continues to drop. When dropping eventually it will read O.L again, then go back low around .3 and climb again. Go to the next one it picks up where it left off and climbs. Process repeats like that. Please bear with me I don't know what this means, I put a fresh battery in the meter when I began.
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