Well, my baby just came in the post. Alas, the shippers must have damaged it, because it has no audio output. I've tried runing it on both battery and wall power, tried both radio and tape, and tried wiggling the controls. It makes a hissing sound, and i can hear it thump when power cycled. Faint motor whine comes through as it should. I hear no scratching from the utterly filthy pots - they have no effect on the sound. Headphones yield same result as speakers.

What should I check out on the box? Anyone have experience with this model? I'm not keen on scrapping it - not after paying $40!

great song by the Germs that manimal...

i would:
clean the pots really good
clean the function switches
look for loose, damaged or disconnected wires
try it though the headphone and see if there is sound
try it through aux speakers
look for cracks in the boards

then throw it away
sure one/combo of those will get you on the path to fixing it...

You've probably been duped. Very rarely does shipping ever cause a box to go dead. However, if it was packaged poorly and one of the switches/controls get bent or damaged, I suppose it's possible.

Well, normin, it had a massive PCB crack in the audio board. Holding the board together elicited a nasty left-channel buzz, but no usable audio output. I junked it, as I'm no soldering maestro ready to snake wires where traces once went. Seller (clara-ward--hair-please) seems friendly enough, and I think the board flexed against a screw mount in a bit of blunt trauma during shipping. Can't see how else this might happen...

Was there any exterior signs of trauma? It's my experience that when a PCB is fastened properly inside the case, it will NOT be damaged unless the case is damaged.

Therefore, can it get damaged in transit? Yes. But I would expect serious exterior damage to the case. The exception is when something large/heavy is mounted on the PCB such as a transformer or enormous heatsink. The heatsink for the amplifier is not usually sufficiently large to cause such damage.

How else can a circuit board get damaged?

(1) Boombox or chassis dropped while outside of the case (like when it's being worked on).
(2) PCB installed improperly.
(3) Dropping something onto the board.

In every case, I envision it happening when the PCB is not afforded the protection of the case/housing. Perhaps I'm a bit jaded and cynical due to poor experience with sellers but I consider experience a trusted educator.

If you are in the U.S., I would be willing to try repairing the board for you. That would be better than junking it. If you are someplace else, perhaps another member might want to give it a try.

quote:

it get damaged in transit? Yes. But I would expect serious exterior damage to the case. The exception is when something large/heavy is mounted on the PCB such as a transformer or enormous heatsink. The heatsink for the amplifier is not usually sufficiently large to cause such damage.

How else can a circuit board get damaged?

(1) Boombox or chassis dropped while outside of the case (like when it's being worked on).
(2) PCB installed improperly.
(3) Dropping something onto the board.

In every case, I envision it happening

Well, the seller claims it worked, and I'd rather not get into a spat. The box only cost twenty dollars, and shipping costs two ways would be the cost of replacement, so I wrote it off, I'm afraid. The D-8300 is just a plastic late 80's wonder, and this one was in kinda rough cosmetic shape anyway, though I knew that. I'll take you up on your offer if I ever get something a bit more valuable and less internally wrecked.

As for the case? No exterior damage beyond scuffing from use and abuse in its prime.

Oh, and all screws were tight on this box. The seller is not nerdy, so if it was repaired, probably either by Magnavox or a local shop way back in the day. I'm as mystified as you; the damage is big, and not near a transformer or anything.

Well, this may be life's greatest mystery, if we let it be. I don't buy it, that it was working though. Again, that's just me. Just because the screws are tight means nothing in and of itself. However, I do understand that $20 is just not worth fighting over.