Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Denon DVD Warranty help?

Well, my 2900 is acting up. I'm not happy. I bought this unit only six months ago (to the day!)

Anybody have any experience with Denon service?

I bought the unit as a refurb from Ecost. (going on the pretty good feedback I'd heard from many happy customers who did likewise)

The Ecost site say there's a 90 day Warranty. Obviously I'm past that. I'm wondering if that's Ecost's warranty, or Denon's. I'd hate to think Denon only cover's their products for 90 days! (Even if it is a factory refurb!)

If Denon's service is anything like their manuals, I'd say you're in trouble, Craig. Seriously, though, I haven't had to deal with service issues with Denon (knock on wood). Bought my 2900 new from a dealer about 4 years ago, I think, and no problems.

What is your player doing, or not doing?

I first noticed it last week. I put in a SACD and it froze up. Put in something else and it was fine, so I let it go. But more and more now, discs (both cd/sacd/dvd) are skipping/freezing up.

OK... ecost is definitely an authorized reseller according to www.denon.com, so whatever the factory warranty is you have it.

Having said that, I'm having a heck of a time finding the warranty details on the Denon site. Geez, no wonder you posted, this is worse than the manuals ;(

Anyone else ? I'm no help...

I don't know, Spiff. Not much help from me, sorry.

Is there any funky mechanical noise like the disc not spinning or spinning incorrectly? I have a Sony cd player and every once in a while it decides it doesn't want to load a disc properly. I have to turn the power off then on again, and the problem seems to fix itself.

yeah...I looked on the denon site and couldn't find the info either.

I found where I thought it should be, but it wasn't. link. It seems to indicate I should select my type of product from that page, but there's not link or pull down menu. If I go to the regular disc player page(s) I simply get info regarding their new products. No warrany info at all. Grrr.

You could try contacting them via email. They provide links on the site. I don't know what kind of response time to expect, though.

Spiff, I copied this from the Denon site....

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WARNING TO VALUED CONSUMERS:
The warranty on DENON Electronics products is NOT VALID if the products have been purchased from an unauthorized dealer/on-line E-tailer or if the original factory serial number has been removed, defaced or replaced in any way. Recently DENON Electronics has become aware of numerous instances in which such serial number tampering has occurred. Unauthorized dealers/on-line E-tailers and/or their suppliers frequently alter the serial numbers in an effort to prevent manufacturers from tracing the supplier source. DENON Electronics sell products through authorized retail and on-line channels to insure that consumers obtain quality pre-sale and after-sale support and service. PROTECT YOUR WARRANTY. Buy from an authorized DENON Electronics dealer/E-tailer. Check the unit and its packaging to determine whether the factory serial number may have been altered. To check to see if your dealer is an authorized dealer click here or if in doubt, call DENON Electronics at (973) 396-0810. For warranty terms and conditions on New or Refurbished equipment, please select the appropriate product type.

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....it's the 'Denon Owner's Club' part of the site.

Good Luck!

I found that..

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For warranty terms and conditions on New or Refurbished equipment, please select the appropriate product type.

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That's the part that throws me. I guess I'll just have to call.

>>please select the appropriate product type.

I selected a whole whack of product types, and no warranty info.

FWIW, the Harman Kardon site isn't much better

Have you tried sticking a cleaning disc in there? Perhaps it's a stray hairball...

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Have you tried sticking a cleaning disc in there? Perhaps it's a stray hairball...

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I thought it, I just wasn't going to say it!

Spiff, I thought Denon kept your product type on file whenever you 'joined' the Denon owner's club? Maybe not.

Many moons ago I bought a Denon DVD-3800 from Ecost that was a pain from day one. It was freezing, had trouble playing discs etc etc. Anyway, Denon Canada would not touch it but they did inform me that Denon in the US would cover it under warranty. Shipping it back and forth across the border was not going to work so at the end of the day I sent it to Denon Canada and paid to have it fixed and then sold it. I had a chat with the service tech and he turned me right off the 3800 as it was a problem child from day one.

For some reason I then went to a Denon 2800MKII again from Ecost and it was better but after a few months it had issues so I fought with Ecost and managed to get my money back. It basically took me saying I was going to do a charge back on my credit card before they agreed to the refund.

You could not pay me to go near a Denon refurb DVD player or Ecost now. Twice bitten is enough for me. I still love Denon's DVD players, just not refurbs. My last Denon was the 2900 which I bought new and was flawless for the year and a half I had it.

spiff: I strongly suspect that you are out of the warranty period and are on your own.

I know that some on this board have had good exerience with refurbs, but I wouldn't touch one unless it had an "extended" warranty. Of course, that is just me, though.

I second the thought of using a disc cleaning device of some sort. I would not recommend that you take it apart unless you are very handy with parts and electronics.

Best of luck!!!!

Let us know how it comes out.

I was just going to say the same thing Peter, but figured Spiff would have tried that. I had a Toshiba DVD player for 5 years that worked great until recently, it started freezing/skipping as Spiff mentions. Went to Walmart (the evil empire) and bought a CD/DVD cleaning disc, worked like a charm.

Guy's from the sounds of it spiff's is doing the same thing as both of my refurbs did. Cleaning it won't help out. On both occasions my two players required parts and the 2900 required a firmware upgrade and parts to correct the problem.

The 3800 required a new laser, some tracking thingy and about 7 other things.

I could be wrong but I have my doubts that cleaning will be the cure all.

True, but it is best to start your troubleshooting small before you look at larger possibilities. From an IT prospective, that is normally route you want to take. Most likely your right, and it will be a bigger problem, but I'd rather not have to spend money if I don't have to...

You are on your own. Here is the link for Denon service centers. It could be a lot of things but might only be a loose chuck or defective chuck. I had to send my Integra for service for similar problems, fortunately covered by warranty. No problems since.

Craig:
Have you tried unplugging it for a day or two or otherwise seeing if there's a way to "reset" it?

I also think a cleaning disc is worth trying....

Perhaps if you can dig up a firmware upgrade for the 2900 and try applying it. I know they're available for the 3910, but I don't know about the 2900.

Here is the firmware...........

http://www.audioholics.com/firmware/index.php

I did my 2900 with this and it worked fine and dandy. Just check to make sure you need it first.

How do I know which version of firmware I currently have, and whether or not I need to upgrade it?

From the instructions page:

With unit powered down (not in stand-by), press and hold the 'Play' and 'Open/Close' buttons while powering up the unit. With the 'Menu' button on the remote you can scroll through data that pertains to your unit. With each button press, another data identifier is shown on the front panel display. Press until you see 'ESS-xxxx', if the number is lower than 6334-6, you should download the firmware. If higher, -7 or -8, do not proceed with this update as your unit is the most up to date available. The version numbers -7 and -8 include all current fixes and also the IEEE-1394 fix (which is available for those with lower version numbers, it is a hardware and firmware fix, so you will have to call our service department to arrange)

Sorry to hear about that, Craig. I purchased my 2900 from Crutchfield's scratch and dent. So far, so good. I never did find a scratch or a dent. My AVR-1083, an ecost refurb, has worked flawlessly once I figured out how to set it up. I am keeping my Pioneer 578A just in case my 2900 goes whacky.

Hi Craig,

I feel your pain. It must be a bad time of year for Denon DVD players. My 2910 just died last week too. The occasional snapping sound during DVD menus turned into a complete inability to play disks.

I used Dakmart for my refurbished 2910 so I’m not sure if this applies to Ecost, but in the case of Dakmart, they cover the warranty for the full year Denon warranty. This means I have to send the unit back to Dakmart who then sends it to Denon who sends it back to Dakmart who finally returns it to me. However, we talked with them, and they know we want to get it back fast so visiting family on Halloween weekend can see it. As a result, they worked out arrangements so we were able to ship the unit directly to Denon. I don’t have the unit back yet so the final word isn’t in yet. My fingers are crossed that this works.

The warranty information isn’t clear at all. The best bet is to call Ecost.

Craig,

How's your DVD repair going?

I just got mine back from the shop at Denon. It's working great now. It even plays a SACD that it wouldn't play previously. Clearly it originally had a small problem that finally became a big problem. They replaced the laser pickup and the digital board in mine.

I moved my components around to make it easier to take out when the time came, and oddly enough I've not had a problem with it since. ??? Perhaps it was overheating in it's old configuration?

I'll try playing some of the discs that gave me problems before and see it it happens again, but so far so good.

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Perhaps it was overheating in it's old configuration?

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Both my DVD and CD players act up if I put them above the receiver. Definitely heat related, as both are fine in other locations. Glad you dodged that bullit!