192's slow to power up or popping when turned on

[backinthelab]

Just wondering if anyone else has had this problem...

We've got three 192's in the studio (going through power conditioners which we've tried replacing with new ones) that keep 'popping' when turned on. The problems continues and the units start taking longer and longer to power up after being switched on (sometimes up to thirty seconds or so). We've had all three replaced before and now one of them has just been replaced for the second time.

I've had the electricity supply checked by an electrician, installed surge protecting four ways, bought new power conditioners, tried new IEC connectors and was just wondering if anyone else has had similar issues. When we had the old 888's we never had any problems, nor do we have issue with any other electrical item anywhere in the studio. I'd rather not feel I have to keep forking out for hardware assurance for the foreseeable future.

Any help or experiences from others would be greatly appreciated.

[backinthelab]

Hello all

Just bumping this thread I posted a fair while back as these problems keep persisting and we've now had around 7 different 192io's with another one just blown this morning.

If anyone has any suggestions of possible causes for this then please chime in as I'm getting somewhere close to my wits end about it.

[Tobias Eichelberg]

Hey!

I have one 192 i/o that sometimes does a very loud "pop" when i switch it on. It's only this one interface, never the other one i have. Fortunately it has never gone bad so far.

The other issue i have with this specific interface is that it goes out of sync occasionally - it'll start a very loud "squeek" then. When i turn it off and back on again and do a Pro Tools restart it's usually gone. When I'm working on sessions in 88.2 or 96kHz, sometimes it takes longer to get it up and running again though. I've tried everything, different sync cables, different loop sync cables and lengths, no difference. I think it might just be the power supply in this thing?

[Sean Russell]

Most of the studios I work out of never turn their converters off.

I guess it's a throwback to leaving the console and tape machine on 24/7.

I'd not be turning them off and on every day. You're more likely for stuff to get popped-fried with constant on/off cycles then you are just letting them chill powered up.

What else is in your converter rack? What kind of other gear is in the bay?

[backinthelab]

hi guys, thanks for the input

Tobias - Once the units are powered up I've never had any problems with sync or anything. They seem to operate perfectly aside from the power up/down issue.

Sean - I guess we could leave the convertors on, although I'm loathed to do so as I already have to go have a lie down when the electricity bill shows up sometimes. Besides the fact that power cycling a unit shouldn't cause it to break.
The 192's are the only thing on the power conditioner and I've tried splitting them between different conditioners, replacing the conditioners, adding surge protectors between the wall socket and power conditioners, etc. Other items in the rack include patchbays, a Nord rack (rarely switched on), a Samson Servo 170 amp and another Bryston amp. None of these items are close to the 192's and their side fans blow out into a large gap in the rack unit (Argosy built unit). They never seem hot - and definitely not in the morning when first powered up. I also regularly clean out dust from the rack.

I just fail to see why these units are having such problems and yet nothing else in the studio does. They are the first thing to be switched on, one at a time (rather than leaving the units on and powering them up via the power conditioner).
I can keep trying new things but as it's a problem that takes a while to manifest it's hard to know if I've fixed it until another unit starts misbehaving. Digi support are always helpful but it tends to stretch only to a shrug of the shoulders and a replacement unit, hardly a permanent solution.
As it is I'm spending a fortune on hardware assurance in the long term and constantly under threat of one of the units blowing at the start of a session. It just doesn't look very professional.

If anyone from Digi support reads this (or anyone else with ideas), I would really appreciate if there was some way you'd recommend that I could better diagnose this problem. Please help, I'm getting close to my wits end!