Orion HCCA3000.1dsplx Start up problem, clicking noise

[Boboblittz 10+ year member]

Hello all

Ive had an Orion hcca300.1dsplx for a couple of months now. Amazing amplifier! But Im in the process of getting an rma which is proving to be difficult to say the least. 

I have never had an issue like this. The amplifier when given power turns on and the light is green as well as the fan is spinning. No sounds comes out and it just makes a clicking noise over and over and over and doesnt play sound. The only way to make it play is to keep cutting power and turning it back on until it works. Thats not okay.

Has anybody ever experienced this and know how to fix this? It seems to do it more when it's colder outside.

Like I said, the amplifier is awesome but if anyone has experienced this, please talk about your experience.

Thanks!

Brandon

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[Boboblittz 10+ year member]

*Bump*

I hope someone else has seen this issue and conquered it.

Also, I love this amplifier its amazing as youtube will prove. I am however an example of cutting costs and getting one of the bad ones with the above issues. This being said I will unfortunately never buy from Orion again thanks to their wonderful customer support staff that ignored my questions for weeks, would not cooperate with repairing their products and then tried to literally e-mail me what most likely is a virus (not even joking as I can provide a copy of the macro embedded, outdated, Russian encoded word document which I was later told to ignore).

The reason I am not coming back is because I am basically required to make a 10% investment onto a brand new amp that was supposed to work to begin with. That is, I have to pay the 70 dollars to ship it back to them because their product was defective upon purchase. You just don't treat customers that way and I will make sure everyone I know who is in to car audio knows as well. It is one thing to be out of warranty or to have abused it in some way but neither of those is true. Merely a day after initial use these problems showed. Other amplifiers work just fine.

Thought everyone should know.

 

[Boomin_tahoe 5,000+ posts]

What is your electrical like? How is the gain set on the amp? What ohm load was the amp running? I can ask more questions but it could be as simple as a bad ground and you not knowing it. Very easy fix if that were the case. Provide pics of install if you can.

 

[Boboblittz 10+ year member]

I guess I should have elaborated more but I wasn't sure if people took the profile details seriously but that's my fault.

I have at 240 amp alternator, electrical is strong does not drop below 13.2 volts. Gain at <30%, no bass boost or anything. Solid connections everywhere, works wonderful with another cheaper amplifier. All connections are basically new, all done by me, all solid.

Amp's load around 1.5 ohms resistance which is within rated.

Tested the amplifier on a power supply, same issue occurs; powers on, fan runs and power light is green but some relay or something just clicks until it clicks faster and then stops clicking and starts playing music or I kill power and power on and it works as it should.

No pics right now, I can post after finals but the problem is most likely amplifier isolated. Thing is it worked fine for 2 days and maybe 40 minutes total play time and then the next time I started my car I got this silly issue.

I saw a post on SMD forums about the exact same model with the same problem but the only reply was useless. Just said to put the post in the proper section haha.

Thanks!

 

[Minatour87]

After reviewing your description of the failure mode. The power supply of the amp is most likely being shorted. The clicking is the protection circuit shutting things down then restarting the start up sequence. To repair it, you will need to trouble shoot it with the schematic (plus parts list), test equipment, repair parts and soldering station. If the power supply was at fault then the external fuse would blow. The amp must be under warranty and bought by a authorized distributor?  I understand that it's hell after paying allot of money (almost 700 new) that you have to pay more for shipping back to Orion for the repair. I agree this is bad customer service. Did you call them for a RMA number and try to get a prepaid shipping label? Maybe a proof of purchase receipt can move things with the original box?

 

[hispls 5,000+ posts]

the amplifier is awesome

Except for the part where it has already failed, right?

Anyway, if you had the ability to repair this yourself you would be doing amp  repair and billing 70$ an hour for your time doing it.   This is not user serviceable and you will need to send it off to be repaired.   Having to pay return shipping for factory defects is one reason some folks opt to buy from brick and mortar retailers or resellers who charge enough of a markup to cover the cost of eating shipping on returns.

Whatever you do DO NOT try to power up that amp again.  Whatever is failing may well take down more stuff with it, just quit while you're ahead and bite the bullet shipping it out to be fixed by a professional.

 

[Jusjase44]

Anyone ever got a solution to this?