Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Thread Like Summary - G68 Repair?

Hello All,

I came downstairs Sunday morning and smelled that familiar hot electrical smell when I hit the ground floor. I chased it down to the room where the audio/video equipment is located. The G68 seemed to be the source, and when I touched the left side of the case (standing in front of it) it was VERY warm to the touch.

I switched power off at the back (it was in standby) and unplugged it to see if the smell would go away.

Last night I plugged it back in, switched it on and nothing is working. I'm guessing the power supply went on it (even though it has lived its entire life plugged into a UPS and a power conditioner).

Where is the best place to send this to be repaired? Meridian?

It depends 'how' the PSU fails...

If it fails nicely, then changing the PSU will restore the unit to full operation.

If it fails badly, then various cards can be cooked! To a certain extent, it depends on the model.
I've seen a lot of tuner cards fail, and some FICL cards too.

The main issue with G-series is ventilation. If you leave them on 24/7, then they slowly overheat and cook the capacitors.
I've yet to see a G68 fan operate!

Good luck,

Steve

The ECM60UT31 is a direct replacement SMPS power supply.

I'm not sure if LPSUs are still available for the G-series. I've seen some third-party ones, but none that are as compact as the official Meridian offering.

If you want to have a go at building your own, you'll need a power supply with +5V, +12V, and -12V outputs. The 5V needs to be 6 amps, the +12V needs to be 2 amps and the -12V 500mA.

The simplest fix is generally to replace the existing SMPS with the ECM60UT31 and to replace the capacitors on the backplane.

Good luck,

Steve

As far as I am aware, bad caps on boards of G series for example, could also take down a switched mode power supply quickly to it's death.
Perhaps also a bad stock switched mode PSU can also cause damage to caps on G series boards..

after replacing a G series PSU, I would highly recommend to check for bad caps on the cards inside.
this document, and this one could help diagnose/repair.

Also this document could be handy I think.

Hope this info helps..