Sony STR-DH520 stopped playing sound from HDMI sources

[joeybuddy96]

My STR-DH520 went into standby mode like it always does after a half-hour, but this time, it didn't reconnect when I turned it back on. Now what it does is it'll display the speaker icons on the front display, but as soon as I plug an HDMI cable into it, the speakers will disappear. I've connected it to multiple PCs to test it; it does the same thing with each of them: the PCs will detect the receiver, and will register that audio is being sent to it (the volume meter will display whatever audio track or test tone in real time), but the receiver doesn't play the audio. The receiver is capable of sending sound to the speakers; when it's turned to "Tuner" the white noise plays as expected.

I've tried clearing it (which I assume resets it to factory defaults), reinstalling drivers, unplugging it for a few seconds and plugging it back in, tried connecting it to different HDMI input ports, restarted my computer, shut down my computer, tried changing the nVidia high definition audio driver to "Generic software device," and tried it on an AMD laptop. None of these attempts have had any effect.

There shouldn't be anything wrong with the actual hardware. It seems more like a setting than a permanent problem. My PC can send sound to other devices and produce audio, like my display (which plays audio through DP and HDMI fine, but not with DVI, obviously) and to the Realtek headphone jack. I just don't understand what's keeping the receiver from producing any sound.

I'd rather not give up on the receiver completely, since even if I sell it, the problem is going to reduce the price I can get for it. I don't really feel like buying a new receiver, since even though it's from 2013, I don't have a big enough room or am enough of an audiophile that I'd notice much improvement from the features or quality of a new 7.1 channel receiver.

 

[gibbsy]

It sounds very much like a HDMI board failure. You mention plugging various HDMI ports in and out. If you 'hot wire' a HDMI port then that is possibly causing damage. You should power down both the receiver and connecting devices before pushing the HDMI home.

 

[joeybuddy96]

The issue happened prior to my fiddling around with disconnecting and reconnecting the HDMI cables. I think the last time I'd done anything with the HDMI cables was maybe a week ago. That doesn't mean the HDMI board isn't fried, it just means that hotswapping cables probably isn't the cause in this particular case. It also doesn't quite make sense how turning the unit off and on could lead to this problem either.

Like I said, the speakers are displayed on the front panel, which makes me inclined to think that it's ready for inputs to be connected, but as soon as any device is connected, the speakers disappear, which I think might mean, "connect all the HDMI devices you want, I'm not going to output anything."

 

[noiseboy72]

It shouldn't switch off after half an hour in any case! Sounds like the control board was already faulty and is now getting worse.

Worth popping off the top cover and reseating all the connection ribbon cables, but given the budget nature of these I think it might be a lost cause...

 

[joeybuddy96]

I should clarify that it doesn't exactly turn itself completely off; it's going into standby mode on a timer that I could adjust if I wanted to. If it doesn't have any audio signal sent to it within x amount of minutes, it goes into standby mode to save power.

I've had it sitting on a subwoofer since August without any issues. I don't understand how a ribbon cable could get loose if the unit is immobile for that long, unless it happened prior to sitting the unit in place. Then again, it doesn't make sense how it's spontaneously got this problem out of the blue either.