ARCHIVED FORUM -- March 2012 to February 2022READ ONLY FORUM
This is the second Archived Forum which was active between 1st March 2012 and 23rd February 2022
I have two partial Beosystem 4500s that I purchased used in the early 2000s. I have never had a good place to set them up, and didn't have speakers for them, so they have been stored away in boxes for quite a while. Recently I bought a mint pair of Beovox RL 60.2s, and decided to finally hook them up. Unfortunately, one of the Beomaster 4500s (the minty one) no longer powers up. The other one works fine, but has older firmware and some blemishes.
The one that isn't powering up makes 2 clicks when it is first plugged in, but there is no standby light on the control panel, and operating a Beogram 4500 connected to it won't cause it to 'wake' and switch modes. I was able to open it based on a PDF of the service manual, and didn't see any visual clues (4 fuses looked fine, no discoloration underneath any components that I could see).
I would love to get this Beomaster running again but don't know where to take it to get looked at (I am in Seattle). There is a very highly rated audio technician here that I will bring it to, and I'll bring the PDF of the service manual. But I'm not sure if there is anything foreign about B&O to a person that has never worked on it before, or if it's all the same if you've got the documentation.
One other thing -- when I removed the touch panel I noticed the glass was starting to separate from the frame, so I might try to reattach it first since I'd hate to bring it to a repair shop and have an accident with the most often broken, hardest to replace part on the whole thing!
Has anyone else had an issue like this, and have people had success with non-B&O specific repair options?
Thanks!
A Beosystem 4500 is up there among the most iconic B&O designs.
As its been around for quite some time a visit to a good audio technician is well due.
The glue holding the glass panels will have dried out and will need replacing.
Lets know how the repair goes.
Welcome to the forum.
Anyone happen to have recommendations for service in the Seattle area? I called Northwest Audio Service which was highly recommended but that guy no longer services B&O.
Should I trust anyone willing to work on it who has good reviews, or is there something especially unusual about diagnosing/fixing B&O gear? I found the service manual online, and I know how to open the unit, so hopefully it isn't extremely different from a traditional high end receiver (other than the controls!).
It is quite normal analog technique apart control unit. I would start diagnosing power supply power stage (hydrib circuity).
blah-blah and photographs as needed
Bad news. I took the Beomaster 4500 to a guy that was semi-retired and used to do warranty work for B&O. He seemed like he knew what he was doing, but a full month went by and I had to keep calling (once a week) to find out what was going on. No progress was made getting it running again.
However, he took it upon himself to pry the glass out of the frame pieces and slap some beefy double sided tape in there. In prying the frame off, he scraped a bunch of the paint off the back of the glass. He also put it back together with no space between the frame parts so that the glass wasn't even sitting in the frame on one end and then just jammed it back on the case. Also the mirror part had a new dent in it and the whole thing smelled like cigarettes.
I spent about 2 hours today getting the double sided tape off and repainting the back of the glass (only where the paint came off) with black model paint. It looks ok again, so my new backup plan is to find a beater on eBay that still works and swap cases. There's lots of 4500 parts on ebay right now, but with the high prices and as-is/no warranty stipulations I'll probably be better off buying a whole 4500.
Apparently (if I can trust anything the guy said) the main board with the eprom is dead, and even if I could find a new chip, I doubt I could find someone who has the firmware and a way to write it to the eprom. BTW, has anyone sent old stuff like this to Atlantic Systems? Any luck?
:(
I have seen a lot of these crappy repairs of the glass plates on these systems... People can really screw things up when they don't care or don't know how to do it properly..
I can supply a new EEPROM with SW 2.2(with full 2-way for BL5000/7000) for you, if needed, and I also have an old BM3500 which is fully working except the tuner, the 3500 and 4500 are 100% identical except the SW.
But I am in Denmark :(
You can send me a private email if you are interrested..
/Weebyx
I have a spare functioning BM4500 with the glass broken that I've been planning to put on ebay, so it would be a good donor. I live in Colorado. Send me a PM.
The most likely culprit is dried out electrolytic capacitors, which is a common problem for any consumer electronics 20 years old. There may be dozens bad in your unit. A trustworthy old school technician who can test and replace capacitors (doesn't need to be a B and O person) can likely bring it back to life. One way to go is to find someone local to replace all the bad capacitors (and use better ones once they do it) who is local, and see if it comes back to life. If it doesn't, then you can send it off to a B and O specialist but at least you won't have to pay them to replace the capacitors. Two B&O specialists I highly recommend are Atlantic Systems in MA (781) 826-8760 and Benny Amina at Modular Electronics in GA (770) 410-1122. They've both worked on these systems extensively. Benny can even repair Beolink 7000 remotes, and those are definitely for a B&O specialist.
A great article on how to choose the right capacitors is here: http://www.condoraudio.com/wp-content/uploads/Reviews/How-to-Choose-Replacement-Capacitors-and-Resistors.pdf. Condor restores vintage electronics, including B&O, to a high standard but they are in Israel.
I have restored many of the glass panels and it is a huge PITA to get off the old adhesive without damaging the glass, but it can be done. At this point, it is safe to assume that any of the 4500, 9000, 9300, 9500 units with glass panels have failed adhesive and you are risking breaking the glass from it falling out. The 4500 system is particularly prone since it is designed to be hung on a wall, and the glass will fall out if not repaired. I use 3M automotive double sided tape that is used for holding on badges to car exteriors, with the proper prep wipe system.
The 4500 is an awesome system, with two way remote control and timers, whole house audio control, and the ability to power both vintage passive speakers and modern powerlink speakers.
IDO agree - its sutch a beautifulsystem. I just got myself a compleate one and first thing is to do the glass - how do you rmove the old without damaging the glass??
citronix: IDO agree - its sutch a beautifulsystem. I just got myself a compleate one and first thing is to do the glass - how do you rmove the old without damaging the glass??
Never ever scrape with anything sharp!!!! Just use cleaning petrol for removing gum and other sticky mess from sofas and so on.. Use a lot and let the old tape soak a bit in it, and then rub under hot water with your fingers.. The old tape will roll right of. It might need 2 times or more before you get it off, but have patience. It will come off...
Do do this on both the glass and plastic parts.. The petrol will not harm the glass or paint...
I have done this many times now, and afterwards I just glue the glass and plastic together using either 2 component glue. Lately I have been experimenting with "Pattex 100%" and this is much easier to use. And so far it's just as good as the 2 component glue.
Just make sure to only use a small amount. If you use to much, it will expand up the sides between the glass and plastic sides, and can be seen in some lighting situations.
If you have small scratches in the black paint, use black nail polish..
/weebyx
I managed to find another (minty) Beomaster 4500 on ebay for $120 that was great except for loose glass (that I fixed). Now that I've started using it, I noticed a second problem. I can adjust the bass/treble/loudness just fine, but when I turn it off and on again later it has reverted to the previous settings.
I see the 'STORE' light come on while I'm adjusting, but it doesn't seem to be working. Is this an EEPROM issue? If so, might I be able to take the EEPROM out of my broken 4500 (v1.6?) and put it in this good receiver (with v2.2) and just lose 2 way communication?
It probably is the backup battery instead.. Does it remember clock (need bl5/7000 to check) ?
and what about radio stations ?
You could take the cpu module from the your old unit with 1.6 and put the 2.2 in that, and put this new mixed module in your new unit..
And you did press the store botton after adjusting ? :)
You're right, it's actually fine. I didn't realize the green indicators were buttons too :)
Two more things: I've got the 4500 set up with my refurbished CX100s and they sound great together, and it's pretty compact. Now, I just tried to use other sources besides the 4500 CD and had some issues.
The Beomaster 4500 came with all the cables, including AM and FM antennas, and an AUX cable to convert to RCA inputs. I first tried FM and couldn't get any stations to play even though I live in a big city. AM worked fine and found some stations. Is this a separate module I can potentially swap out with my non-working 4500?
The other thing was I tried connecting the converter cable to the AUX (and TAPE1, CD) inputs and an iPhone. No sound. I'm going to try using a multimeter to check out the DIN to RCA cable, but I'm not sure what pin connects to what. It seems like a cable problem since the CD input works with the Beogram CD 4500.
Thanks in advance, and thanks for all the previous responses!
A couple years ago I went through my 4500 and recorded the job HERE
Hopefully that helps you with the glass panel.
Beo4 'til I die!
Sorry, the glass panel part has all been fixed! The most recent issues are that the FM tuner isn't picking up stations (AM works) even with the proper antennas, and the AUX to RCA input doesn't seem to work. I've got a multimeter now so maybe I can debug that issue. As for the FM tuner, I may try swapping the tuner board from my broken 4500 into the working one to see if I can get FM. Thanks for the responses.
ferret30: Sorry, the glass panel part has all been fixed! The most recent issues are that the FM tuner isn't picking up stations (AM works) even with the proper antennas, and the AUX to RCA input doesn't seem to work. I've got a multimeter now so maybe I can debug that issue. As for the FM tuner, I may try swapping the tuner board from my broken 4500 into the working one to see if I can get FM. Thanks for the responses.
It is a common problem, that the tuner board dies on the BM35/4500... If it is working in your old unit, just take that one and swap, it is very easy to do.
1. Remove the glasspanel
2. Remove the 5 screws that holds the top of the unit, located right under the top of the glasspanel
3. Remove AM PCB , remove FM PCB and swap, just some plugs to un-plug on both PCB's
4. Cheer as your new unit works :)
I lived in Seattle for 7 years, now living in Victoria, BC and I can assure there are NO B&O repair facilities around for vintage products. Trust me on this, I tired!
You appear to be fairly adept with testing your amplifiers, bit if you are in doubt, Rich is right, send it to Benny at Modular Electronics.
I sent him my Beomaster 4500, which is relatively simple to repair as well as my Beomaster 2400, which is more difficult. In both cases the workmanship was SUPERB: everything done properly, no damage to cosmetics, and very polite communications.
Jeff
Beogram 4000, Beogram 4002, Beogram 4004, Beogram 8000, Beogram 8002, Beogram 1602. Beogram 4500 CD player, B&O CDX player, Beocord 4500, Beocord 5000 T4716, Beocord 5000 T4716, Beocord 5000 T4716, Beocord 8004, Beocord 9000, Beomaster 1000, Beomaster 1600, Beomaster 2400.2, Beomaster 2400.2, Beomaster 4400, Beomaster 4500, Beolab 5000, Beomaster 5000, BeoCenter 9000. BeoSound Century, S-45.2, S-45.2, S-75, S-75, M-75, M-100, MC 120.2 speakers; B&O Illuminated Sign (with crown & red logo). B&O grey & black Illuminated Sign, B&O black Plexiglas dealer sign, B&O ash tray, B&O (Orrefors) dealer award vase, B&O Beotime Clock. Navy blue B&O baseball cap, B&O T-shirt X2, B&O black ball point pen, B&O Retail Management Binder