Mixer sound intermittent

[gcasper]

I have a Soundcraft 200B mixer, 8 channel. It hasn't been used in awhile and I'm getting ready to sell it, but when I ran sound through it to test it, I at first got nothing... Then as I increased the volume of the input sound, it was like the signal started to push it's way through!

Is this just dirty pots or something else? Ideas? Suggestions?

THANKS!

[sovtekking]

Try taking it apart and cleaning the faders and/or pots in the master section with some good electronics cleaner and then use a pressurized air type cleaner to blow any dust out of the faders. In my experience dust will screw with faders and pots will inherently get "dirty"...(i.e. the contacts sometimes oxidize when not used for quite some time).

If that doesn't work then....I'll get back to ya

[DAB]

I don't know how the Soundcraft is put together inside but I had this problem on a Mackie 1604 VLZ Pro and it turned out that one of th ribbon cables inside that connect the channels to the inputs on the back was partially out of the socket. Reseated it and no more problem.

[gcasper]

Thanks for the advice so far. I'm getting some Deoxit today to clean the pots and faders, but I'm not sure that's the problem, since the difference happens whether I move the faders and pots OR NOT! The determining factor seems to be that SOMETHING needs to warm up a bit before allowing ANY signal through, and then the MORE signal that's sent through (ie... the more VOLUME I put on input signal I'm sending to the mixer), the less it cuts out. It's almost like a gate is operating, although in a very random and unclean way.

I'll also check the cables when I take the channels out, but again... The way this is acting, unless a cable was connecting, then not, then connecting again... Or unless it's somehow shorting out, I doubt that's the issue either.

Btw... I think I forgot to mention in my original post... This is happening on EACH channel of the board, but at different levels on each. Some, after warming up, almost work normally. Others, like 7 & 8 on this board, don't EVER work.

[sovtekking]

Yeah that sounds more like some sort of bad ribbon cable going from the main bus to the master section now that you describe it...Some sort of problem with the transition from pre section to master section inside the board. Intermittent problems like this are a B****...haha

[sears]

I've been advised to go with the Pro Gold for pots and Deoxit for everything else.