Denon 1910 horrors

So I ran the diagnostic on the 1910 .. and it is showing that it is version E2, and the communication between the main processor and the sub uCom is broken ...

Sub Error 01 ... No response from Sub-μcom

So the question is what to do about this? It seems that a bunch of people out there in the Interwebs have had issues with the HDMI board on 1910s, and the solution involves changing said HDMI board. Of course finding a 963189004020D might prove difficult.


So my thoughts are:


1) Find one

2) Warm the existing board up with a heat gun to see if it might be the usual lifting of a leg here or there

3) Give up with the amp.

I have a Sony STR-DB830 around the place somewhere, which has a fault on it, but that fault might be easier to fix. Given my setup in the Lab uses the TV to do the video switching, and then the TV feeds out optical digital to the amp, I don't need the HDMI switching capability of the amp any more.
Actually, I just found it in the loft, and it does seem to function. Ta da.

The Sony suffers from a 'mute' issue, which seems to be temperature related. If I turn it on, and leave it on in a warm room for 15 minutes, it suddenly kicks into life. I have fixed that temporarily before with a heat gun on the digital board, and it might be worth a go. The amp has lived a bit, and is not as cosmetically appealing as the Denon, but we need some sounds quick!

On another related topic, I have used a 3.5mm jack on an Echo Dot (version 3) to feed the analogue input of the Denon, which works well.  (assume I can do the same with the Sony, should the need arise) However, the bass is a bit lacking, so I will need to find a way of changing that. There is talk in the fora about an equaliser app for the Echo Dot? I also need a way of making sure that the Echo Dot audio is always audible, so I might be venturing inside it with a glue stick to see if I can get it to feed out through its own speaker as well as feeding out via the 3.5mm jack. Or maybe I mix the audio in the amp with a couple of resistors. Neither approach being very satisfactory tbh.

There is some advice on T'internet that you can put the 3.5mm jack in, and then, when you need to short out the contacts on the socket when you want the internal speaker to work. So that might be when the amp is not listening to the Echo input, or is muted. Maybe I will do something extra to the amp so if it is on, and not muted I will mix the output from the Echo onto the front two channels. Or maybe the centre speaker. Oh, that sounds right. Watch this space.