A few last pieces of information to add to the above in case they prove relevant.
I’ve just stripped out all the shielded cables from the router ready to replace them with UTP cables.
There was one short shielded cable plugged into the router but not plugged into anything else at the time of the spark.
The cable to the router was also shielded and was connected to a Solwise Homeplug AV2 1200 Mbps Powerline socket at the other end, which was plugged into one side of a double socket in the wall.
This Homeplug also had an extension block plugged into it serving the TV and Router. The Naim is plugged directly into the second wall socket.
Hope this helps you with your problem solving, and perhaps gives you some insight it how such a setup might have caused both this failure and others you have seen
Homeplugs and big sparks start to ring alarm bells… I would get rid of those home plugs… or if you have to use them get them fully tested for safety … if they are faulty that might be injecting mains or close to mains voltages into your Ethernet…
Really in this day and age I strongly recommend you don’t use such things… you have too much high value equipment using your Ethernet/ LAN. I strongly advise keeping mains and Ethernet very seperate, they are not good bed fellows. Homeplugs were a kludge in the days of limited wifi protocols, but things have moved on.
For a big sustained spark, something is clearly a miss somewhere.
BTW homeplugs are massive RFI generators across your home mains wiring so best eliminate them for other reasons as well. Just turn on an AM radio on MW or SW near your mains wiring when you are using them… and hear for yourself.
I agree with you and as I looked at the potential for problems that is where my thoughts now lay.
I’m looking into a decent Mesh system to provide the download speeds needed for the older Uniti’s. It is not possible to run LAN cables without major cost and disruption, hence the powerplugs in the first place.
I’ve seen your other thoughts on Mesh systems but would like an AX system to give a bit of headroom around the whole house. I’m looking at 3 of the ASUS Zen WiFI AX series at present. I am a bit concerned about your observations on ASUS being a bit iffy on their programming but Ubiquiti don’t seem to have an AX offering at present.
I’ll keep reading and hope to have this all swapped out before the Naim comes back…
Thank you for taking the time and effort to provide words of advice. Very much appreciated and I do follow your general advice on the forum quite closely as you seem to have a decent technical understanding of things.
Good news - looks like you are narrowing down the source of the problem. Still rather concerning though but at least you’re getting rid of those nasty homeplug devices.
As always, something initially tiny ends up disrupting whole systems!
I’ve just had some paperwork through to let me send the unit off but I’m not sure how much detail it should have on it as to what should be done?
Can I just assume that they’ll service the unit and replace the screen at the same time as fixing the fault, or does this need to be specified by the dealer? I have the fault form in front of me but it only notes the most basic info on the fault and nothing about a general service or screen change.
Just need to arrange collection and insurance now and I can get it on its way…
Naim have moved to a fixed price servicing scheme, which seems to mean that they can tell you exactly what they will charge, and guarantees that the box will leave the factory in full working order. Assuming that they still operate this system, the screen and any other issues they find should all be fixed. Maybe worth getting them to confirm this just to be sure.
Quick piece of mind update - I have your Uniti2 safely on my work bench in sunny Salisbury. I haven’t dived in yet as I spotted it just before leaving work today.
Nothing looks (or smells) obviously damaged, but I’ll take a proper look on Tuesday.
Have a nice BH weekend.
Big apologies for the radio silence, I was waiting for a response from the R&D department (plus a little of my own forgetful mind)!
I was correct in thinking that the cause of the fixed volume problem was indeed due to the power supplies for the volume IC being damaged, also the crackling was due to three downstream op-amps suffering damage. I then spent waaay too long chasing the source of a low level popping when adjusting the volume that I wasn’t happy with.
So I replaced the main PCB in the end along with the streaming card, just in case it may have suffered any trauma. Oh & the OLED panel.
As for what could have happened, I’m afraid other than some form of ESD event, R&D were unable to offer any accurate explanation. Without attempting to recreate it & potentially damaging a bunch of PCBs, I can see their point.
Hopefully (if you haven’t already received it), your unit should be on its way back to you.
Thank you for taking time out of your evening to let me know, and for the overall personal effort you have put into keeping me informed and reassured. It’s when things go wrong that you find out the real character of a company and it’s employees. I can feel future purchases beckoning…
It’s a shame you couldn’t definitively nail down what had happened, but I’m pleased you weren’t tempted to try and recreate the cause of the damage on my Uniti, given the bits that appear to have been broken in that one incident
I’m looking forward to my music therapy returning home with a bright new screen and its sound fully restored. My Muso Qb has been doing sterling duty in its absence but does not quite fill the void…
I’m assuming it’ll go to my dealer so I’ll wait to hear from him in the next few days I hope.
I hope the re-opening of Naim is going well and that everyone is keeping well
The Uniti is back looking and sounding like new. Thank you for making a traumatic experience into a positive one. I’m now viewing the whole episode as a planned service as it makes me feel less stupid in damaging it originally
Hope all is well and the return to work is going to plan
Someone on one of the (too) many switches and Ethernet cables threads cautioned that Power over Ethernet systems could damage connected equipment, although the poster did say not Naim as as far as s/he was aware.
I don’t know much about this topic, or PoE, or if you use such a system (although you have obviously had some “power over your ethernet” to cause the damage, but perhaps of a different type!).
May be completely irrelevant to your case, but mentioning anyway.
