Thread: "Protected" Message on SONY

I am using an older SONY STR DE-845 receiver in my living room (as my main receiver has taken up HT room duty); the other day there was a brief outage (caused by a bad UPS that I have replaced), and while the Dish, TV, and HD DVD players are fine, the SONY receiver is having problems.

I turn on the receiver, all ok. I turn on Dish and the audio comes in for a second, and then goes away, with the message PROTECTED flashing across the LCD of the receiver.

I have no idea where the manual for that old receiver is, but am wondering if anyone knows what is going on.

I am connecting via optical cables from Dish to the receiver and from HD DVD to the receiver.

Originally Posted by rockymtnhigh

I am using an older SONY STR DE-845 receiver in my living room (as my main receiver has taken up HT room duty); the other day there was a brief outage (caused by a bad UPS that I have replaced), and while the Dish, TV, and HD DVD players are fine, the SONY receiver is having problems.

I turn on the receiver, all ok. I turn on Dish and the audio comes in for a second, and then goes away, with the message PROTECTED flashing across the LCD of the receiver.

I have no idea where the manual for that old receiver is, but am wondering if anyone knows what is going on.

I am connecting via optical cables from Dish to the receiver and from HD DVD to the receiver.

The protect indicator is most likely an indicator that the output crowbar protection has kicked in. This would indicate a short in one or more of your output stages.

Web search is your friend here. I found a number of links that would indicate that this is a known problem with this unit.


StR-DE945 stuck in auto protect mode - FixYa

Amazon.com: Customer Reviews: Sony STR-DE845 Surround Receiver


(do a ^f search for 'protect')


A link to an online manual (Great Britian version)

STR-DE845 : Manuals : Support : Sony Asia Pacific




Oh yeah, one more link with built in recommendation on how to fix this:

http://www.ecost.com/detail.aspx?EDP=38607351




Seriously, you first need to check your speaker wiring and make sure there are no shorts. Do this by disconnecting both ends and verifying with an ohmmeter that the resistance is infinite. Then connect the two wires on one end and measure across them at the other end to make sure there is 0 ohms resistance. Second check the speakers themselves. Measure across the speaker terminals. You should get between 4 and 8 ohms. I have seen (rare) cases where a close lightning strike has induced currents into speaker voice coils, causing shorts. If both of these check out OK, the receiver's output stages are blown and will likely cost more to fix than the unit is worth.

You can do a quick and dirty ohmmeter check by just disconnecting at the receiver and verifying 4-8 ohms across them. Yopu are basically combining all three tests there, and if it comes out OK, you don't need to go any further.

BTW, I just bought one of those ecost Onkyo 605 units. Nice solid design, clean sound, good features and comes with a full 1 year refurb warranty.

It was the center channel speaker wire. Not sure what was wrong with it, but once I replaced it, the problem went away. I am just glad the speaker is still ok.

Thanks for the links. I had a brain fart last night or I would have done a google myself. Dumb. But much appreciated.

I realized it wasn't the receiver, when I swapped out another one and had the same problem.

Glad it worked out so easily. I hope this was on the upstairs system so you don't have to fish new wires in the theater.