How did the optical out from a Sound Card nuke an AV Receiver

[Ohifio]

This is just weird. Yesterday I connected my new bit torrent computer to my Pioneer Elite VSX54TX receiver via the optical output on the Turtle Beach Sound Card. Everything played fine except the rear channels. When I went into the Turtle Beach software to try to get the rear channels working I lost the front left audio entirely! Here's where it gets really strange. I disconnected the optical cable from the Elite receiver and had no left channel from any audio source. But wait, it gets better. I unplugged the receiver and left it unplugged for about 3 hours. When I plugged it back in I had the left channel for about 10 minutes before it died. I have reset the receiver and left it unplugged for 24 hours and just checked it, plays for 10 minutes, left channel dies. I have swapped right and left outputs and it is most definitely a problem in the left preamp output. The optical cable has been unplugged since this started. What happened?

John

[brucek]

Just a coincidence with regard to the optical cable.....

You simply have a problem.... unfortunately.

brucek

[tiggers97]

Is this a new optical connection for your receiver? i.e. never had optical hooked up before? Sometimes the problem was always there. Waiting patiently to have the first wave of electrons flow past a faulty component. With a resulting casecade of failure like a flood rushing down a valley when something new at the dam gets turned on.

Although I would find it strange anything to do with the digital optical to analog would be an issue. Is it just the optical, or will something like FM radio play fine?

Edit: Oh wait, just reread and saw that it still happens with the optical removed. Did you check your speaker wires? I had a similar issue once. Only it would last just a minute or two and cut out, not 10. Ended up the spearer wire terminators I use had moved and were shorting at the wall plug-in. Probably when I had moved the speakers out from the wall before watching a movie. The cut-out was actually a safety feature of the receiver protecting itself from overloading!

Check your wiring at the back of the receiver and posts on your speaker! You might have just moved something when plugging in the optical.