[Aussiemick]

I live in Mexico. I have taken my mocrowave/oven combo to a repair facility in the US twice and they can find nothing wrong. The first time I brought it back home and it worked fine for about 6 months. The second time it just went back to being nuts. When I plug it in here, it beeps constantly, cycles thru quantity or beverage code constantly and then the microwave starts on its own. I can stop it with the cancel button and it stops but as soon as I release the button it starts all over again. I have tried to silence the beeper and the panel indicates that sound is off but it still beeps. When I turn the breaker off and back on again I do not get a power failure message. I had an electrician check the wiring from the breaker and he replaced the neutral wire with a larger guage but that did not change things. The electricity comming to the unit is the proper voltage. The repair guy in the US said bring it back but I hesitate to do it for a 3rd time and not be sure I will finally get it fixed.
Any ideas?

[TechnicianBrian]

Have they replaced any parts? Based on your description, I would seriously think there was a problem such as no ground to the unit or voltage on your neutral line. Computer boards need a good ground in order to function properly. Sometimes boards will go bad, but often times it's associated with poor or noisy power coming into the unit. If the repair facility isn't finding anything wrong, you may need to have someone look at it while it is in the home connected to the junction box. Electricians will check for voltage, but noise and grounding are very important to these modern electronic appliances.

[Aussiemick]

Originally Posted by TechnicianBrian

Have they replaced any parts? Based on your description, I would seriously think there was a problem such as no ground to the unit or voltage on your neutral line. Computer boards need a good ground in order to function properly. Sometimes boards will go bad, but often times it's associated with poor or noisy power coming into the unit. If the repair facility isn't finding anything wrong, you may need to have someone look at it while it is in the home connected to the junction box. Electricians will check for voltage, but noise and grounding are very important to these modern electronic appliances.

Thanks Brian. We took it to a neighbors house and it does the same thing there. Perhaps I need a new control panel and it just happens to work up north?

[TechnicianBrian]

Thats very odd, but the control board would be the logical choice.

[Aussiemick]

OK, I replaced the board and now I have a slightly different problem. I do get PF when I trip the breaker but now all of the keys do not work. For example, I can get the microwave to turn on with the add a minute key but the number keys do not respond. Now I am thinking the keypad or perhaps we did not get the ribbon connected properly.

[TechnicianBrian]

Check the ribbon connection and maybe even clean the contacts with a pencil eraser. All the signal for the keys go through that cable and it doesn't take much to loose contact.

[Aussiemick]

Thanks so much Brian. Something so simple seems to have solved the problem I have been having for months and possibly saved me a lot of money.

Mick

[TechnicianBrian]

Glad I could help.