a friend gave me an Okyo HT-Rc160 Av receiver that once plugged in will power on with a display and with in 5 secs you hear a click and the unit shuts down. my friend had said that he was watching tv when it happened, heard a loud rumble and than the unit cut off. he unplugged it and waited 15 mins before plugging it back in and turning it on with the same out come as above( 5 secs of power a click and the unit turns off) i would like to hear any ideas or troubleshooting scenarios in order to get this thing working again. i will be performing the repairs if it can be fixed.
First, based on your description, nobody will have the magic bullet 'fix'. 'Loud Rumble' ?
Now, as to the fix, if you KNEW what it was. You may not be able to even get the part. A quick scan at Amazon shows 3 used units starting at 220$, which might not even cover the cost of a fix done by a professional. While the unit DOES have lots of 'regular' electronic parts, the guts is proprietary or custom ICs and other stuff which is difficult to 2nd source.
HT receivers are a commodity item. Any given line may even be a single motherboard with added features /functionality as you go 'upline'.
If you go to a technician, he will charge for diagnosis but usually defer that charge IF you choose to get it fixed.
Have you looked inside yet? Anything burned? Any fuses? Do you have the tools to solder? Ever even HEARD of Surface Mount? Comfortable around higher voltages? Have some test equipment or even just a simple DVM? I wish it were as simple as telling you how to change an air filter in your car or even swapping out a shock absorber.
From the looks of the response to a search engine, this does appear to be about a six year old receiver. Given the average lifespan of a mid-priced, mass market AV receiver, this unit is about at the end of its "useful" purpose. Putting money into a six year old AV receiver of this pedigree is questionable at best. If you took the receiver to an authorized Onkyo repair center, I suspect that is the advice you would hear. The advice is even more relevant when the component has suffered a catastrophic failure such as you describe.
We often receive requests from people who feel they can repair a unit if only someone would tell them how. And, of course, logic should suggest that if your knew how to fix the problem, you would also know how to locate the problem. You would, of course, have a schematic for the component. From reading the schematic, you could trace the Voltage/signal flow through the circuits to find, at the least, the area in which you should probe more deeply.
So, first, do you have a schematic for the receiver?
Second, do you know how to read and follow a schematic for Voltage and signal flow?
For the most part, this is where almost everyone asking for repair advice gets left out.
If you have the schematic and you can follow the signal flow through the various circuits of the receiver, you would also be required to have; an oscilloscope, a high quality DVM or other type of meter for measuring continuity, resistance, capacitance, Voltage and so on, a signal generator, a Variac or some other type of device which would raise the power-up Voltage at a controlled level, a solder/de-soldering station with controlled heat, a magnifier for working on 128 pin large scale integrated circuits, etc. You will, of course, need to be capable of removing and replacing a 128 pin ic should that need arise. If you burn the board or lift a circuit trace while attempting to do this work, then you've boogered the entire receiver. If you don't do this for a living and on a regular basis, these are skills which are not common in the populace at large. You can't carry a receiver into a shop in pieces and ask them to complete the repair.
You would also be aware of safe practices for placing your hands inside a component with potentially lethal Voltage/Amperage levels available at several locations. You'll need a fairly large work space where you can disassemble the receiver. You'll need either a reasonably good supply of generic parts and you'll need a space where the disassembled receiver can sit undisturbed for awhile when you need to order parts. Most importantly, you'll likely need access to some proprietary Onkyo parts. Onkyo doesn't sell parts, not if you are an individual asking for a single part that is. Manufacturers have authorized service centers to whom they will sell parts. Service centers, however, are not parts supply houses for diy repair techs. Service centers, in other words, do not sell parts over the counter to walk in customers. You will need to make arrangements for, say, an Onkyo specific ic if that proves to be the cause of the problem. If you've guessed wrong in your troubleshooting and you blow up the part, then you'll need to find another part. Even with supposedly "trained" technicians, it's not at all uncommon to look in the drawers of their bench and find dozens upon dozens of blown up parts because they simply didn't have the diagnosis of the problem correct. Many times a part fails because another part in the circuit failed first but you can't see the latter part is bad until you've replaced the first - and usually most expensive - part and seen it fail also. Therefore, if you're ordering proprietary parts, it's almost always best to order two.
Before we proceed, how much of the above do you presently have in your possession?
Of the remaining items, how much do you feel you can assemble and have on hand before you begin your work?
I think it's a real shame that HT receivers do appear to have a fairly limited lifespan. But I also understand that 'time marches on' and a few year old receiver with early HDMI won't pass a 3-D signal and may lack other features more common today. Features tend to work their way down the line, starting with the flagship model today and working down the model lineup.
And while I DO AGREE with Jan about what a test / fit-it bench needs in terms of equipment, I also must recognize that in SOME cases, observation and common sense can prevail. A popped fuse, not likely in this case, can be repaired for pennies. I worked on component level fixes when I worked on semiconductor manufacturing equipment. However, that was mainly before Surface Mount, for which I have NO specific training and certainly not the desoldering equipment needed to keep from Toasting the boards in common use today. I would therefore let only a Pro with current training deal with anything I had in that category of fix.