Power Outages and Onkyo 886

[Deleted member 133]

Question: How long would you expect an Onkyo PR-SC886 to hold its settings after it's been unplugged / without power?

After 24-48 hours mine now reverts back completely to its default settings. Nothing sticks. Seems strange that this is happening given that I've had other, older, components stored away for years and when powered-up they still have the same settings as when they were unplugged and stored.

Follow-up question: if this is not normal, but due to some aged component, is it a user-serviceable fix?

This would not be normally an issue as it's plugged into a UPS, but I'm having problems with the contacts in a power receptacle for my main HT and occasionally the whole thing powers down. If I wigglel the plug contact is re-established. Until the leg heals I'm not going to be able to crawl around to fix it, and because I'm sometimes not down in the HT for a few days on end, I might not catch the power down before the settings get lost, which happened the other day.

Jeff

 

[Zing]

If a PC can have a CMOS battery that keeps date, time and every other setting for a length of time without power, I don't see what a receiver can't.

 

[Lone Stranger]

I won't actually answer your question here but I am wondering how old the electrical outlet is. I have replaced old outlets at my work due to flaky connections from wear and tear. Even if you rectify your Onkyo's issue it still is a very good idea to have a reliable source of power.

 

[Rope]

All PC's have a MB battery (CMOS) which from time to time needs replacement. Depending on the length of time the 886 has been without power, you may need to replace the battery. (CR2032)

Rope

 

[Towen7]

My 885 was unplugged for about a week before I took it to the shop. IIRC it took a little over two weeks to get it back. I have no idea if it was plugged in while at the shop or for how long. All my settings were retained.

 

[Flint]

The settings are written to the CMOS, there is no need for a better to retain them.

Jeff - I fear something is wrong with your unit which forces it back to factory defaults when it starts up from dead.

 

[Towen7]

Jeff - I fear something is wrong with your unit

You're a CTO not a urologist. What do you know about Jeff's unit?

That said I'd be shocked... SHOCKED ... To find out that yet another member (ha... I said "member") had a broken Onkyo. Not really. It seems to be a fairly common occurrence.

 

[Deleted member 133]

Thanks fellow members.

I was afraid that I'd get an answer like Flint's.

I'll contact Onkyo and see if they've seen this before, and if so whether a local service depot can repair it.

I'll also see if I can get a friend over to fix my outlet for me.

Jeff

 

[mcad64]

Doesn't sound good Jeff. A quick google search

https://www.avforums.com/threads/onkyo-processor-prsc-886-losing-settings.1430051/

Someone mentions a wonky eeprom chip (cmos?) possibly from bad firmware update?

 

[Flint]

Good point!

If you've performed a firmware update on this unit, I recommend doing it again, but re-download the firmware from Onkyo, just to ensure it isn't corrupt.

 

[Deleted member 133]

Thanks Mike / Flint.

Over the years I've seen a number of discussions about the 886's firmware and the "E2PROM ERROR" message. Over a year ago I was getting the message but followed someone's tips that I found online regarding a two-step process to completely reset to factory defaults - before re-entering one's settings. I followed that and had not seen the message again - until my recent "outages" messed things up again.

By the by I'm still running the original v1.01 firmware. Apparently everything up to v1.05 is ok and then v1.07 and v1.08 are wonky and trigger the error message. I'm going to research how to upgrade to v1.05 myself - if possible. I checked the Onkyo site and they're not posting any firmware updates for the 886. That's been a problem for users with this unit in the past; Onkyo has almost always insisted that the update be done in shop.

So my (hopefully) curative steps will be:

1. Replace the receptacle in order to avoid power outages in the first place.
2. Do a full factory reset.
3. Update firmware to v1.05 if I can find a copy that I can trust. (I'll start searching after this post.)
4. Re-load my settings.

This should make things better / get rid of the error message. However, if there really is a hardware / board failure, and the problem re-appears, then I'll look into servicing it. Even if it's a couple of hundred bucks, that's still less than a whole new unit. And as far as features / connections etc. the 886 is all I'll need for a long time.

Jeff