MR-88 Problem -- Anyone Else Have Problems With The Bar Tuning Indicator?

[feinstei]

I have a 6 year old MR-88 that just started an irritating yet non-fatal symptom. I was wondering if anyone has experienced this issue. I have had the MR-88 apart and have unplugged and re-plugged all of the various connectors etc on all of the boards as well as doing a "reset" by pressing the "Reset" button on the MR-88's main "Control" board.

For the past month, when tuning the MR-88 across either the AM or FM band, the "Bar Tuning Indicator" (that simulates the tuning indicator on an analog tuner) seems to leave "ghosts" of itself when manually turning the tuning dial. When you first turn-on the MR-88 and the tuning bar flies across the display to the last tuned station, this problem does not occur. It's only when you manually tune across the dial that there are green bars left across the display.

The alpha-numeric "Display Tuning Indicator" works perfectly and the tuner itself works perfectly.

If anyone's run into this issue I'd appreciate hearing from you and would like to get any information that you might be able to provide as far a getting this issue fixed. I was thinking of sending it over to Audio Classics, but I don't know if it's worth the cost since the rest of the tuner works perfectly...

Thanks for any insights....

[Maks]

Do the ghosted lines ever disappear? Does it happen if you use presets? I don't see why it would matter, but have you tried modifying the dial brightness to see if that changes anything?

[feinstei]

Hi Maks... Thanks so much for the suggestions... Here's what I've discovered in response to your suggestions:

1) Presets to NOT leave the "ghost lines". In fact, the ghosted lines are cleared up as the needle display moves across the dial to go to the various presets.

2) The "Dial Brightness" control has no effect whatsoever. The "Display Brightness" works correctly, but the "Dial Brightness" can be set to 0 or 15. No difference whatsoever. I wonder if this is a clue to the problem.

[Maks]

Definitely sounds like a software issue to me, AC are a friendly bunch, it's worth at least putting a call into them. Which firmware rev are you on? I have an updated version I got from Ron at Mc because my XM antenna wouldn't work with older code. In true Mc fashion, they don't list what was fixed, though. It's from 2009 so unless you bought yours used, you're probably updated.

[Formerly YB-2]

The software, regardless of rev, may be corrupted. Wouldn't hurt to reload same and see if that clears the issue.

[feinstei]

Thanks so much for your comments....

Loading new firmware onto the MR-88 is a tricky business. You need XP or Vista in order to do it. Since the firmware is loaded via a Windows DLL that doesn't work correctly on Windows 7 or above, and you must erase the current firmware before loading the new firmware, you will "brick" the MR-88 if you don't have XP or Vista.....

As far as it being defective firmware, I would find this to be unlikely since the tuner has been operating perfectly for the past 6 years and only has had this problem in the past couple of weeks or so.

I do have the latest firmware available on my problematic MR-88. It was provided to me about a year ago by Chuck at McIntosh. I think that its sole purpose was to fix XM v1.10...

[Maks]

Like YB-2 said, it could be corrupted firmware. I used to work for a company where our firmware was terrible, re-flashing the same version would fix issues that popped up over time. I would attempt that before spending shipping both ways to AC.

[feinstei]

I'll have to find the old computer running XP or Vista and give it a re-flash.... As I said, it's a risky business to re-flash firmware on that MR-88.....

[Maks]

I hear ya, I think someone posted a thread about an updated DLL that works on newer versions of Windows. I keep an old XP box around and that's what I used when I updated mine years ago.

[feinstei]

Or probably a better idea is to get some black electrical tape and just cover over the tuning dial (just kidding).. The tuner itself performs still beautifully and is still the best AM/FM tuner (in terms of sound) that I own (and I have the following tuners: Marantz 10B, Sequerra One, HK Citation IIIx, and Sony XDRF-HD).