PS-100 Worked for an hour then stopped

Stage & Studio Power Station PS-100
1

I just returned a brand new PS-100 to Zzounds as it only worked about a total of an hour in Operate mode (attenuation). It still worked in Bypass (without attenuation) but went silent otherwise. I was in rehearsal for an important gig. I have a replacement new one that I haven’t turned on yet. I came here to see if this had happened to any one else and I’m seeing a disturbing trend. I’m not sure what to do if this one dies- refund or try a third one…

2

Hi Keith,

Sorry to hear about this; there have been what I believe are tube-related failures reported recently. Whether this is a disturbing trend or not is really only visible to people that shop, but.I have indeed flagged it. But I am glad to hear of the excellent support from Zzounds.

The fix to this issue (as far as I am aware) is to check and replace fuses and then fit new tubes - if this does happen again, you could ensure you have at least those spare parts. Fryette provides a 90-day warranty on tubes, so if they fail within this period, we will ship them out to you free of charge.

I would plug it in and put hours on the tubes and use it. If it is going to fail early, it will, so better know now rather than later. In parallel, get those spare parts.

Regards,

Dan

3

Hi Dan, it happened again with the 2nd one that Zzounds sent me. This time it got loud with sizzling and I looked and one of the tubes was solid red. If I hadn’t been in the room working on one of my pedalboards, It may have caught my house on fire. I turned it off and unplugged it immediately. Took a while to cool the unit off. I’m going to need the spare parts.

4

Dan, have you had a chance to go inside one of the units to see if it’s tube related or possible bad board parts, etc.? If not, I can send you this one.

5

Hi Keith,

Thanks for testing it—I have a meeting with the shop booked for later today and will bring this up. There have been no design changes to the PS-100 for a while, so I expect it to be a tube failure. But I agree, it would be good to completely understand this double failure. I’m really sorry about this; we will figure out what went wrong, let you know, and make it right as soon as we possibly can.

Can you tell me the serial number of your PS-100(s)?

What do you want to do? I think these are the options:

  1. Replace tubes and fuses yourself (we will ship them to you for free)
  2. Contact Zzsounds for another unit?

I’ll write again after I have spoken with the shop.

Regards,

Dan

6

Hey Dan, thanks for getting back to me. The serial number for this 2nd unit is PHHD243941.

Keith

7

Hey Dan, I opened the unit and there is indication that the brown wire got hot and that’s the one connected to the tube that overheated.

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8

Here is a pic where the tube got so hot it started melting the coating on the black and white wires beside it.

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9

Thanks for the info. I’m not sure what to make of that, pictures are a bit low quality because of the zoom.

How would you like to proceed? Please see my last message above.

Regards

Dan

10

I’d personally rather ship to you and let your guys go through it. It’s put back together with all stock parts (tubes) and boxed up ready to ship.

Keith

11

Hi Keith,

@Gil should reach out to you; he is handling these requests.

Regards,

Dan

12

Hi Keith, Very sorry to hear about these issues that you are experiencing with the PS-100s. Thanks for taking the time to trouble shoot and assist with the diagnosis. It seems like an unfortunate bad run of power tubes that passed through our testing protocols but then failed after being shipped and used for a brief amount of time. Please send an email to support@fryette.com and include your shipping address, phone number, and the serial number of the PS-100. We’ll send you a shipping label and an RMA on Monday. Thanks! Gil