Yamaha RX-A1050 HDMI Repair?

[Jdiedrichs]

I have a Yamaha RX-A1050. Probably 10 years old now. Bought it new. Love it and have had zero problems with it. Until now :-/

I was working on cabling to dress things up and when I was done, HDMI ports 1,2,6, and 7 stopped switching to the HDMI projector. I didn't think I was hard on things but, guess I was.

Perhaps the board went south?

I want to ask the AK users if anyone has any idea where to source a replacement?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Jdiedrichs]

Update-
I contacted Yamaha support and found them to be very responsive. They provided info on replacement parts and instructions on ordering. They do not provide service manual information however.
I have ordered a HDMI replacement board per support input and am awaiting its arrival. It appears very straightforward to replace. To be continued.

 

[Nashou66]

How much for the board?

Nashou

 

[Jdiedrichs]

How much for the board?

Nashou

The cost was $489 +tax. As everything in life there is a story….. I had decided to replace the older RX-A1050. Being a lifelong fan of Yamaha sound (I still have my first CR620 from 1978 that I use with my vinyl), I bought a new RX-V6A for $749+tax. I was seriously underwhelmed as the A1050 had nicer features and just sounded better. The first thing the new device needed during setup was a firmware update. That process bricked the V6A. So back it went. I decided to repair instead of replace. Cheaper option and better quality gear. “Better the devil you know than the devil you don’t”

 

[Pyrrho]

I am not surprised that you were dissatisfied with the RX-V6A (even before the update problem). The Yamaha RX-A1050 retailed for $1299.95, and the Yamaha RX-V6A retails for only $749.95. Even before factoring in inflation, and the recent increase in prices on many items (including electronics), that is big step down in price. You need to go up to their Aventage line (yours is from the Aventage line, not the cheaper RX-V line) to the RX-A4A to get something that might compare, though the feature set will be different, as certain features are being removed from receivers. And I personally would rather have the features of your receiver than the RX-A4A. I don't like them getting rid of so many of the old connections. In fact, I prefer my older Yamaha that retains more of the old connections. If mine ever dies, I might have it fixed, instead of buying a new one, for that reason.

 

[Jdiedrichs]

I am not surprised that you were dissatisfied with the RX-V6A (even before the update problem). The Yamaha RX-A1050 retailed for $1299.95, and the Yamaha RX-V6A retails for only $749.95. Even before factoring in inflation, and the recent increase in prices on many items (including electronics), that is big step down in price. You need to go up to their Aventage line (yours is from the Aventage line, not the cheaper RX-V line) to the RX-A4A to get something that might compare, though the feature set will be different, as certain features are being removed from receivers. And I personally would rather have the features of your receiver than the RX-A4A. I don't like them getting rid of so many of the old connections. In fact, I prefer my older Yamaha that retains more of the old connections. If mine ever dies, I might have it fixed, instead of buying a new one, for that reason.

I totally agree! My A1050 is a Swiss army knife. I have an analog stack anchored by a Yamaha CR-620 that I use for vinyl, etc. I can send a monitor feed to the A1050 and then switch that to zone 2 on the patio, etc. Same with Apple TV (with the use of a breakout box). The remote is superior on the A1050 as well with direct source buttons rather than scrolling through source options. and, of course the sound is just better with the Aventage option.

The V6A did sport a cool feature where we could watch one source and listen to another. We like watchinng football while listening to music. When the firmware update bricked it though, I wanted nothing to do with it as it made me suspicious of the quality control of the newer device. The new HDMI board will be here day after tomorrow. All will be right again once that is installed! Speaking of features being removed, I was surprised to find that AM/FM tuners are not a standard item in many lines today. Yamaha still supports this but not everyone.

 

[charles 1973]

The cost was $489 +tax. As everything in life there is a story….. I had decided to replace the older RX-A1050. Being a lifelong fan of Yamaha sound (I still have my first CR620 from 1978 that I use with my vinyl), I bought a new RX-V6A for $749+tax. I was seriously underwhelmed as the A1050 had nicer features and just sounded better. The first thing the new device needed during setup was a firmware update. That process bricked the V6A. So back it went. I decided to repair instead of replace. Cheaper option and better quality gear. “Better the devil you know than the devil you don’t”

When I bought my Yamaha Avantage Rx A770 in 2017 I had the opportunity to buy one of the new series. The A770/A870 are based on their medium weight chassis, Not the heavy one like your 1050. But after a little research on them I came to the conclusion the older series was so well regarded why take the chance. I have 0 interest in 8K video anyway. My only regret was not buying the A870. It had pre-amp outputs and more EQ set up options. The 770 is basically a dumbed down 880.

 

[Jdiedrichs]

Update~ received new HDMI board for my RX-A1050, installed it and immediately on plugging into AC power received a message saying “internal error”. There is an EEPROM setup required to tell the board what model of receiver it is being installed into. The process to configure this is a bit tedious. You have to find a pair of solder connections (with a magnifying glass, short them, while shorting, hold the “info” button and apply power (pretty much takes 3 hands or an assistant). Unfortunately the board seems to be missing the model options to choose from so the process failed. Yamaha was only more than happy to take my $500 for the board but would not help much with tech support. I found a sympathetic support person who sent me the above noted instructions but no more. I have to arrange a return of the new HDMI board. After reinstalling the original board, I found more HDMI ports died so now I’m down from 7 to 2. Time to go shopping. This is too much work for a 10 year old AV receiver. It’s been great but tech has evolved so much it’s time to upgrade. After being a Yamaha guy for 45 years I’m looking at the Denon AVR-X2800H.

 

[Skywatcher]

Update~ received new HDMI board for my RX-A1050, installed it and immediately on plugging into AC power received a message saying “internal error”. There is an EEPROM setup required to tell the board what model of receiver it is being installed into. The process to configure this is a bit tedious. You have to find a pair of solder connections (with a magnifying glass, short them, while shorting, hold the “info” button and apply power (pretty much takes 3 hands or an assistant). Unfortunately the board seems to be missing the model options to choose from so the process failed. Yamaha was only more than happy to take my $500 for the board but would not help much with tech support. I found a sympathetic support person who sent me the above noted instructions but no more. I have to arrange a return of the new HDMI board. After reinstalling the original board, I found more HDMI ports died so now I’m down from 7 to 2. Time to go shopping. This is too much work for a 10 year old AV receiver. It’s been great but tech has evolved so much it’s time to upgrade. After being a Yamaha guy for 45 years I’m looking at the Denon AVR-X2800H.

No matter what "brand" you settle on, put a heatsink on the HDMI (or other hot chips) chip! They are well known to cook themselves after a few years and desolder themselves. When you get your new unit, test it out of course to be sure there are no problems. Then pop the hood and feel for what chips get very hot. Those are the ones you want to put a self-adhesive heat sink on. Those heat sinks are available in many sizes and thicknesses so get an appropriate size that fits. For what you pay for these things new, you'd think they would put heat sinks on at maybe 10 cents each in bulk. But for them, it's all about the warranty period, not 5 or more years down the road.

 

[Jdiedrichs]

No matter what "brand" you settle on, put a heatsink on the HDMI (or other hot chips) chip! They are well known to cook themselves after a few years and desolder themselves. When you get your new unit, test it out of course to be sure there are no problems. Then pop the hood and feel for what chips get very hot. Those are the ones you want to put a self-adhesive heat sink on. Those heat sinks are available in many sizes and thicknesses so get an appropriate size that fits. For what you pay for these things new, you'd think they would put heat sinks on at maybe 10 cents each in bulk. But for them, it's all about the warranty period, not 5 or more years down the road.

This is incredibly sage advice! The forums on the Yamaha Aventage product line hold a commonality of HDMI ports going bad over time (probably many other products as well!). I had not thought of this preventative measure and will follow it through. I really really liked my A1050. It served me well. I have a 45 year old Yamaha CR620 that I bought new and still use it to this day (after POTS cleaning and relamping). It's mated with a Yamaha turntable and Yamaha graphic EQ. It would be good to get that kind of life out of the AV lines as well.

 

[Pyrrho]

No matter what "brand" you settle on, put a heatsink on the HDMI (or other hot chips) chip! They are well known to cook themselves after a few years and desolder themselves. When you get your new unit, test it out of course to be sure there are no problems. Then pop the hood and feel for what chips get very hot. Those are the ones you want to put a self-adhesive heat sink on. Those heat sinks are available in many sizes and thicknesses so get an appropriate size that fits. For what you pay for these things new, you'd think they would put heat sinks on at maybe 10 cents each in bulk. But for them, it's all about the warranty period, not 5 or more years down the road.

I have never done that, and I have never had a problem with HDMI going bad. (For what it is worth, all of my receivers that have had HDMI connections have been Yamaha, though I have had sources that had HDMI connections of other brands, none of which have had an HDMI failure; all failures in sources were something else going bad. The last I heard, the old RX-V2700 I gave away is still going strong, with no issues. That model was current in 2007.) In fact, I have never had a surround receiver go bad at any time; I have always gotten a new one for other reasons, like wanting new features and format capabilities.

One of the problems with trying to judge such things is that there will be some failures, even if the product is generally reliable. But one generally only buys one, so one has too small of a sample size to reasonably draw any conclusions about the overall reliability of the brand or type of product. For that, one needs to find out about other people's experiences with the item, and that can run into problems because some people abuse their equipment in a variety of ways. One simple way is blocking the vents by putting something else on top of it too close.

 

[Skywatcher]

I have never done that, and I have never had a problem with HDMI going bad. (For what it is worth, all of my receivers that have had HDMI connections have been Yamaha, though I have had sources that had HDMI connections of other brands, none of which have had an HDMI failure; all failures in sources were something else going bad. The last I heard, the old RX-V2700 I gave away is still going strong, with no issues. That model was current in 2007.) In fact, I have never had a surround receiver go bad at any time; I have always gotten a new one for other reasons, like wanting new features and format capabilities.

One of the problems with trying to judge such things is that there will be some failures, even if the product is generally reliable. But one generally only buys one, so one has too small of a sample size to reasonably draw any conclusions about the overall reliability of the brand or type of product. For that, one needs to find out about other people's experiences with the item, and that can run into problems because some people abuse their equipment in a variety of ways. One simple way is blocking the vents by putting something else on top of it too close.

There have been many, many HDMI board failures. There are many You Tube videos on "reballing" and attempts to resolder the chips with hot air guns. Some were "successful" at first, but the chips still failed not long after from already being cooked enough to desolder themselves. Some HDMI boards had even been replaced under warranty until the replacement boards ran out. A large number were Denon, Onkyo, Marantz, and a few other "major" brands. I have scrapped a number of them out because the HDMI boards were unavailable. Perhaps Yamaha isn't among the "many failures" brands, or they put heat sinks on the chips from the get-go, or ran them at lower voltages. But some of them did fail in time. Granted, some people stack stuff on top reducing air flow. Though a horizontal board doesn't get much air flow to begin with so in reality there isn't much difference. Adding a heat sink is "cheap" insurance for when the warranty runs out since they are inexpensive to begin with, and only takes a few minutes to install them.