I broke my Xenarc HELP!

**Mattkins99** · 05-23-2005, 01:47 PM

ok, so it was working fine for the past week but I was running the power cord through my dash, into the glove box, then out of the glove box to the lighter socket in my dash. Well, yesterday I finally got around to hard wiring it into the car. However, I had it powered on and was putting it into the dash and I "think" something on the back must have touched metal inside my dash and the fuse blew. I replaced the fuse and as soon as I plugged it back in the fuse blew again. I checked the wires and everthing was fine. I then did a search here and saw that many people were using 3amp fueses.... I put two 1 amp fueses on my in parallel for a 2 amp fuse (Radio shack was closed at this point) and it worked. I put everything back together and turned on the computer...... ta da. The backlight comes on. The green LED truns on and then blinks. but that's it. No picture.

I talked to Xenarc this morning and they said to ship it to them. They said if it's the controller card it will be $115 (or something like that) and if the USB controller is bad too, it will be another $48.

Question. Has anyone ever had this happen before? I'd be willing to bet I just fried the main controller board and nothing else. I've heard I can just order that from them. What do you guys think?

**jcdillin** · 05-23-2005, 03:48 PM

Yeah, it does sound like the controller went south.

so you cant get the menu or anything on the screen? it just comes up with the green LED and the backlight?

**Mattkins99** · 05-23-2005, 04:16 PM

yup, just the LED and backlight.

**Mattkins99** · 05-23-2005, 04:19 PM

bastards..... they won't let you order replacement parts now. You have to send the screen in for repar. :-S

**Cheekz185** · 05-23-2005, 04:26 PM

WHere did you fuse the xenarc?

**Mattkins99** · 05-23-2005, 04:42 PM

I cut off the end of the cigarette lighter adapter and just put an in line fuse there.

**Cheekz185** · 05-23-2005, 05:01 PM

Does the Xenarc have to be fused??? Is it ok if its not?

**thanatos106** · 05-23-2005, 05:09 PM

Originally Posted by Cheekz185

Does the Xenarc have to be fused??? Is it ok if its not?

Some people said that if you run it thru a clean power source (like you PSU)
you don't need to but some other just play safe.

**P*ssed off B/F** · 05-23-2005, 05:09 PM

The fuse still doesnt always protect the circuitboard for some reason. It is very sensitive and can be damaged easily.

**Mattkins99** · 05-23-2005, 05:11 PM

well, it has an internal fuse on the main controller board (yellow-ish orange thing in upper right hand corner that says "3amp") A fuse is just a precaution. If everything is running well then the fuse doesn't do anything. It's when you actually short something where the fuse comes into play. If all of a sudden the line is pulling more amps than the fuse is rated for, it blows and the spike in power never reaches the device. If you don't have a fuse the spike in power will reach the device and cause LOTS of damange.

The Xenarc does have that on-board fues, but it's not something that's easily replaced.... so a $1.50 fuse holder and a $.30 fuse is a wise investment.