These fellas are so expensive that I had to use the special fluffy repair bench!

Apparently this AV receiver stopped responding to IR remote commands several years ago, which rendered the unit pretty well useless, as most of the settings are via OSD (on screen display) and the remote. As I had no schematic this was going to be a tricky one! After down-loading the manufacturers data sheet for the IR receiver module, I soon discovered that it wasn't outputting any ttl levels. Normal state should be +5v then lower levels for the demodulated TTL signaling. However the hard bit was removing the SMD module. After de-soldering the terminals I couldn't get the effing module off the board! Some SMD components are fixed to the board with adhesive prior to the re-flow soldering process. I had to very carefully destroy the thing with a pair of cutters without lifting the pads off the board! Once removed I cleaned up the pads and scoured the Internet for a replacement.. One company in Japan hmm.. Time for some improvisation.. I managed to obtain a slightly higher spec part that would do the job nicely.. So with a bit of messing around I managed to solder the new module to the board Viola! One fully functioning AV receiver! I also had to replace the failed power led with a standard red 3mm type as the type used by Audiolab are now obsolete.. This also required me to enlarge the front panel hole slightly. I guess these component failures will be due to the standby power state taking it's toll! Mind you, it wasn't that old when the IR module failed? Thank you very much my pal Ricky Jackson, who kindly donated the broken AV receiver and a very nice Audiolab 8000X7 amp to the Walster homestead Xx