Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Restaurant at the End of Universe Hitchhikers - Service, Repair, Custom Leads & Interfaces Meridian 800v2 CD/DVD Player Dead Power Supply

Hello,

For like the 5th time my Meridian 800v2 CD/DVD Player Power supply has failed once again. My 861 Processor isn't far behind with 4 total failures. I am so sick of the enormous fees to fix these old units so I am looking for a cheap way to source a new power supply.

I contacted Meridian and it's the same $1,000.00 fee plus ship it to us, we won't sell you any parts nor help you find any.

Does anyone know of a place that I can source a replacement for this unit to do the repair myself? I already have it apart and have the power supply removed. I've tested the fuse with a multimeter and it's working.

This will be my last attempt to fix this unit before it goes in the garbage. Between replacing the drive like 4-5 times and now the power supply as well it's a joke. I've never had any equipment malfunction at this level in my life and they cost 1/30th of the price.

Any assistance you can provide would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Hi,

There must be something causing the PSU to fail. I would think that you must have some failed capacitors somewhere within the unit, either on the power board, or possibly on a card that have bulging ends. I've seen it with some early players where the video card has a couple of bulging capacitors which have excessive load on the PSU, causing it to fail prematurely.

With regards to PSUs - do you know which one you have in there at the moment?

If it has been replaced before, it is most likely a XP Power ECM40UT31 or ECM60UT31
Or it could be a LPT42 (or similar)

Look for the label on the PSU board (inside the perforated metal case, inside the machine) - make sure you replace like with like - don't change types as the wiring of the connectors needs to be changed.

If you search for the above PSUs, you should be able to find a replacement for less than $100 from DigiKey. It should be fairly easy to swap without any soldering.

Look at ALL the cards and see if you can see any capacitors that are bulging (especially at the top - the top should be totally flat, if it is domed outwards, then it has failed) - You'll need to note the capacitance and voltage and source replacements, which will need to be soldered in.

Good luck,

Steve

PS - All units eat drives! Tip - turn the unit off at the mains when not in use and do not leave a disc in the unit when in standby as the spindle motor doesn't ever seem to stop...

I agree with Steve, there must be an underlying cause or environmental factor causing repeated failures. Are the items in a rack or cabinet without adequate ventilation?

I went ahead and took the power supply out of the casing and found it was an ASTEC SA40-1313. I was able to find brand new ones for 15$ each. Meridian wanted $1,000.00!! Two plugs and it will be replaced. No soldering.

Thanks for that tip, I should have thought of that myself lol. Sometimes the simplest things we overlook when we're frustrated.

This unit worked perfectly. Then I took it out of the rack where it sat for 1 year in another rack with no power connected to it and never powered on. I went to power it on and dead, nothing. I checked all the boards that same day and not 1 capacitor was bubbled up or any burn marks/smells anywhere. Just dead. No clicks, pops or any signal that it was getting power. I tested the fuse at the power connected and it was good and passed electrical testing. I also tested the fuse that's on the power supply. It too passed the electrical testing. However, I could not get any electrical current to travel from one side of the power supply to the other.

I have so much equipment over 30 years of collecting in this hobby and absolutely no products have ever been returned except Meridian. I have dedicated circuits, power conditioners and UPS's on every outlet. I have a Theta Casablanca in the same rack for decades never failed. My McIntosh MX135 has never failed even a light bulb. I have MC7300 amps from over 20 years ago still going strong in this rack. Parasound amps, perfect. Pioneer CD, DVD and Blu-ray players perfect, never died. I have ATC Powered speakers worth $200,000.00 dollars in this same electrical setup. Perfect, never faulted in over a decade.

There's nothing wrong with anything except the Meridian 800 series. I have had so many friends complain about them dying all the time and charging that outrageous fee to fix it. Not to mention the fact they ditched us from the whole lifetime upgrade system that was promised when I spend $30,000 each for the 800 and 861 loaded.

Sorry I didn't mean to go on a rant about this, but this used to be my favorite company. I was proud to have their stuff and it sounded so incredible. The headaches though of breaking down so many times has drained me. It's absolutely a killer to have to rip the entire theater apart again and again for a failed power supply. I should have taken charge and did this myself from the beginning since the warranty on these was only 2 years.

Now I run McIntosh and it's rock solid and sounds better. I also run a Casablanca (that by the way didn't lie to me decades ago and has let me upgrade it forever since) and it's flawless. I won't buy anything from Meridian every again or let anyone I know buy from them either.

Thanks again guys for the help. You really saved me. I truly appreciate it.

Hello all,

I got the replacement power supply and unfortunately it's not responding how I would hope. Now when I turn it on the display blinks and goes out for a few seconds, then blinks, then goes out, repeating this infinitely. I never hear the "Meridian click" I am used to hearing when they turn on.

Any ideas what might cause the unit to do what it's doing? I get no response from the unit when pressing buttons.

**Edit - I went ahead and put in another power supply to be sure it wasn't a bad supply. I purchased 3 total. Same results with all 3 new power supplies.**

Thanks

Hi,

Something is shorting out the power supply.

When you turn the power on, you should see three colored LEDs on the internal power board (Yellow, Red, and Blue) - are they all illuminated?

Without the unit in front of me, it is hard to diagnose any further but I would suspect that a capacitor has failed on the internal power board.

You could remove the power to the drive (that plugs into the bottom of the internal power board) and see if that improves anything (just in case the drive has electronically failed), otherwise remove all the cards apart from the CO00 card and see if the unit powers up.
If it powers up OK (with errors as cards are missing), add each card in turn (with the power off), power up the unit, and see which card is causing the problem.

If you need any specific advice, drop me a PM.

Cheers,

Steve

Hi Steve,

I love that method you described. I will get back to you as soon as I can get some time to go through them (today or tomorrow). I will also take some photos and a short video clip to share out for you.

Thanks,

Christopher

Thanks again Steve.

I just finally got the time to start doing this. I will report back with everything once I have got some good information but for now, I only see a RED and YELLOW light on the internal power board. There is an additional light at the bottom of the board which is not lit up and does look like it's a BLUE bulb.

I am going to start unplugging the drive and then move onto the removing internal cards process if the drive isn't the issue.

More to follow.

Christopher

Well Steve I have completely taken it apart at this point and with everything disconnected (cards and drive) the unit presents the same behavior. All I have is the Power Supply, the internal power board and the CO00 board.

What would be a good next step? Replacing the internal power board? Could the issue be the CO00 card?

Thanks,

Christopher

Hi Christopher,

If the blue LED is not lit, you don't have -12v from the PSU. If you have a meter, you can measure the output voltages of the PSU with it disconnected from the PSU board - Black is common, Red is +5v, Yellow is +12v, and Blie -12v.

It is most likely that there is a fault with the power board. You can confirm this by removing the CO00 card (carefully as it has a ribbon cable to the front display), if you pull it out a centimeter you shouldn't need to disconnect the connector. If the blue LED then lights, the fault is on the CO00 card.

If you need to completely remove the CO00 card, make a note of the orientation of the display connector - if this is wrongly connected, you'll blow the display and the CPU card!

Let us know how you get on. If you need any parts, please drop me a PM.

Cheers,

Steve

Hi Steve,

I pulled the CO00 card and the results are the same, no blue light.

I will PM you for help on a replacement part. Just wanted anyone reading this now and ever to see what it ended up being.

Thanks,

Christopher

As a follow up and to let anyone reading this know where I am and what is working.

I found the P1 yellow wire had come unsoldered from the board somehow. I soldered that back to P1 and put a new power supply in and got all 3 lights.

I then put back all the cards back into the unit and the unit powered up as expected. I thought excellent, it's time to put this beast back into the rack and play some music. Wrong...

Opened the CD/DVD tray, put in a CD and "spin, spin, spin, spin, spin for 1-2 minutes". The old failed drive syndrome as well. It's too bad these units are so incredibly fragile and unreliable. I think I have an extra DVD Drive in the closet I can try. Hopefully it didn't "go bad from sitting new in the box.

**EDIT - I decided to try many discs. No CD's can be read however DVD's are being read fine. Very strange.**