It popped smoke … *sigh*

[pilotspikeParticipant]

Some might remember that we had to send our GLD back to A&H last year when it was just a few months old due to it freezing during a service followed by it checking out after that service. We sent it back to them, they repaired it, sent it back to us, and then we turned around and sent it right back to them because it wasn’t working correctly when we got it back (it wasn’t reassembled properly)

The past few months have been uneventful, until last night. After services last night the GLD popped smoked. LITERALLY. During the walkout music the GLD started smoking profusely with at least one scribble strip going dark. My team immediately shut it off and called me. Once I got there I was hoping that the fault was isolated to a single control strip so I turned on it to at least try and get the latest config off of it. It immediately started to burn up again without any indication of booting. I shut it down immediately.

So, this thing is a tick over 1.5 years old, and is going to have to go back to A&H a third time. This last time, it wasn’t just a freeze, rathter it started melting itself from the inside out. Had it happened just 30 minutes prior and it would have been with people in the room in the middle of the service.

At this point I have a full GLD, 8 ME1’s, DANTE card, and a full set of encoders/pre’s for this thing, and we don’t trust it. Disappointment is not the word I would use to describe where I am with this thing. This is an installed system, used weekly, and has never been roaded. I don’t get it. I used to hold A&H in high regard. I believe that they have succcumbed to the pricing wars. I had originally thought that the price was too good to be true, but that with A&H’s history, it was likely a good bet. Maybe not so much.

It wasn’t lost on me that as we were there till the wee hours of the morning putting our old analog system back in for services this morning, that its the 20 year old analog gear, that still works, that saved our rear ends.

*sigh*

John S.

[GCumbeeParticipant]

FWIW. I have never heard of a GLD smoking. I will be curious to find out exactly what happened. Please let us know.

[Chris93Participant]

I’d have a look at the power supply, if something was shorted to ground it could heat up fast. Can you test how much current it’s drawing? On that note, have you metered the electrical outlet? If you’re in the US you shouldn’t have much issue though as the GLD uses an auto-ranging PSU, ours runs on 230V so a 115V US outlet would have to be more than “slightly” high to cause issues.

The image on the website of the PSU says “100-240V, 47-63Hz, 95W max”.

Where was the smoke coming from?

I doubt this is a general “low quality / bad design” problem or we’d be seeing a lot more of it (a la failed TCM2000 PSU’s) but then again Jonny Weston here did have an issue with the PSU in an AR2412 about 6 months back.

Please let us know how you get on.

[pilotspikeParticipant]

This issue has been resolved. A&H has stepped up and taken care of our problem by outright replacing the console, and in a very fast manner I would add. I would be curious as to what the issue was, but with such a swift and decisive bit of support from A&H, I am not sure that I care.

Thanx A&H, I really appreciate the help.

John

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