Solved Troubleshooting a Yamaha RPU100 receiver with USB on screen control

[loninappleton]

I have two Yamaha RPU100's. I got the second one used as a backup. But things changes and they sat quietly on a desktop for some time as I moved to much smaller sound reproductions due to space.
In testing these to sell-- possibly as vintage-- I'm having problems getting any sound-- sometimes from one day to another. The RPU100 even has an on screen test mode. That went silent after one test went ok. I have the full manual-- 68 pages. With that I carefully reinstalled the USB driver from the factory disk and that reported success. I suspected just simply a bad speaker connection which I'm doing one at a time to test channels. Nearly too many variables to figure out after many years.
My question in Sevenforums is: can the install of what is very likely USB1 (those old style tiny connectors) be in conflict with a standard Win7 install? Can Device Manager be used to get rid of a conflict? Win7 displays a different message device from what the manual says for the Yamaha driver-- calling it by name. Here it is listed as The manual reminded me that this discontinued unit (not supported by Yamaha for decades) has instructions for Win98.
I'm not asking for a complete diagnostic. The hardware lights up and responds to the PC screen display. I just want to know if there is a conflict with USB1 and what ever the motherboard has for USB.
As an AM/FM receiver it should get a signal not dependent on the Yamaha software and the rest. Today I'm not getting that either after shutdown over night. All very confusing.

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These are two screen shots of Device mananger showing the Yamaha installation. There is a bit of overlap

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I will call these receivers R1 and R2. I found enough old style USB cables to set both up.

R1 I have Internet radio playing on one channel (after I switched the single test speaker to the other terminals.

No AM/FM which should only be an antenna problem. There should at least be some static from dial searches.

R2 Same.

I'll connect some of my older builds for an additional channel check.

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How do I make a fresh post in this new Sevenforums design? I seem to be getting a new post misplaced in the
screen shots.

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Making a quick reply:

R1 has AM/FM Internet radio and I'll assume the auxiliaries work as normal. I have very poor reception antennas
for the AM/FM. Still only one channel at the speaker inputs. I'll try some air through the little hole.port and see if that does anything.

I think the right reference for the RPU100 is a 'soundboard' as it was called in the original ads. A soundcard with
radio.

 

[loninappleton]

I've had some chat over at DIY Audio about this issue. I even took the backplate off to look inside. Everything looks clean and connected but a simple soldering job to a couple of wires is not possible, The block of spring clips for the speakers is soldered to a small board and the wires out from that are hair-fine and in a small white modular plug soldered in as well.

But the rest of the story is that when I began to test my second RPU100 the same problem exists. It cannot be a coincidence from all the fresh install routines I ran. It's only one channel on both units that is effected. The RPU100 has a self test routine in the software showing graphically on the PC screen going throught the channel test. It blanks out at just one elemnt of four-- two front and two back.

The original USB1 software is long expired and not upgraded by Yamaha. My only question in Win7 is: Is it possible to use a USB1 driver made for Win98 to be upgraded or swapped to USB1 for Win7.

Elsewhere I read some MAC users got their units going with something called Leopard but that is in the Linux world.
On a spare disk I may try as a last grasp (not gasp) to reinstall Win98 if I have one around yet and see if that proves that it is a software problem and not the hardware.

 

[loninappleton]

Windows 98 dates me. I meant WinXP. WinXP would not install to freshly formatted 120Gb SSD I had for the task. Something to do with a legacy error. It got so far then no farther.
The one thing I have not concentrated on is the stereo mini plug to RCA connectors being a weak link. I can't imagine how anything goes wrong with those. The one channel and the _same_ channel being out on both units is just unaccountable. But I may try to buy a fresh 3.5 mini to RCA stereo plug.

 

[loninappleton]

The latest on this is I made the miniplug connection at the jack for the two rear speakers rather than the two front. I have both A/B (rear) speakers working in PC mode and I expect straight through mode as well. I have no idea how to get into the jacks block of the motherboard to visually instect the other assumed bad connection.

I wondered if it is a common experience to inadvertently plug the minijack in from the Audio source and damage the mini plug connection from a live source. I cannot recall seeing a spark jump but I wondered if something got burned out since I have never used the two rears on an RPU100. I never actually understood what all that was about. Apparently the DSP features can sort that out. I hear enough base noise from cars outside and never completed a build of a subwoofer to test that. At the time the RPU100 was a full featured unit and still is.

Part of the mystery is solved. It is apparently at the motherboard. But how would the same error crop up on two sets of Fronts? I can backtrack and try the RPU100 again on my other and oldest Biostar motherboard.

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I cannot mark this solved. Yesterday eveything going including both speakers when I replugged the Yamaha to the rear
Left Right of the motherboard.

The system has been turned off and on etc. But today nothing. Not even on just AM/FM. It's like there's secret switch that was turned off. I had it and I lost audio and I don't know where it went. Again this may be a problem familiar to the computer user rather than the RPU100.

I'll check my plugs again but visually everything looks connected.

 

[loninappleton]

I have opened up this thread again. Without all the background it looks like the problem of
no sound is directly at the speaker flip terminals. Is there any hack to either get inside that small hole with a cleaning
stick (I've seen demos of sticky things on Youtube channels) or other tool? I have no power tool to vaccum out such a crevass.

From the earlier post, I had the unit open: the flip terminals could conceivably be unsoldered and replaced
but that's way outside my ability. The flip terminals are soldered to a circuit board all lined up in a tiny row..
I have to have some fix from the outside to get a durable connection. Perhaps some hifi site knows
an example but I haven't been all over on this issue. Right now I'd rather not remove anything that
just working a bit.

Last: is there a tiny pin jack like a banana plug which could be made and inserted into the flip terminal?

The unit would play or not play apparently at random depending on what is jiggled inside the flip termianls perhaps from those frayed and twisted ends of the bare wires.

I'd have to look at it closer but is it possible to cut away the shell of the flip terminals to expose and see any debris?

I haven't given up yet.

 

[loninappleton]

I'm marking this solved. Over at DIY audio with their dialog I attached some pin jacks for the speaker connection
and blew out the flip connectors with compressed air. This has all been a physical problem at the speaker connection. After a lot of twiddling, the unit is operating, not a Win7 or software issue.