my sony receiver is stuck in protect

I've had a Sony STR-DE725 for years, and it's always worked fine, until recently. When I turn it on, instantly, or within 1 minute - it will "click" and then display "PROTECTION".

Like any good DIY'er, I googled everything - so I looked for any loose speaker wires, and finding none - decided to open it up.

I pulled it out on my workbench, opened up the case, and blew out about an inch of dust from everywhere with an air compressor. Next I disconnected and reconnected every connection that I could easily reach. Finally, I unscrewed (about 1/4 turn) and re-tightened every single screw that I could reach in the guts of the receiver.

It works fine now! Go figure... probably the dust, or a loose connection somewhere. Definitely try this first, as you have nothing to lose but 30 minutes of your time on a weekend!

I have the same problem. I took the unit apart and found the connection that was causing it to flash protect (no idea what it was). I left it unplugged and hooked everything back up and all works fine. I obviuosly bypassed something with the amp/ speakers. Kindof worried about blowing/ over heating something now. Any thoughts?

I read a few of these and thought, how can tightening a few loose screws on circuit boards really do anything? But since I had to start somewhere I popped the cover off of my Sony GX69ES and tightened about 20 of the screws that hold the circuit boards down, plugged it back in and holy cow! No more evil 'P' flashing in silence! Thanks for the suggestions.

Kenwood receiver will turn off after a few seconds

I had this problem continually until I upgraded two low-end speakers (4 ohm) to 8 ohms, which is the rating for my other speakers. Problem solved.

I think i would rather figure out WHY its doing it rather then bypassing it.

I dont think they just blow for no reason. To much bass? to loud? are the speakers stiill good? do you have a multi meter? what do the ohms read on each set of speakers? Speakers have limits even though they come with a system they can still be under powered. You would think the speakers could handle the system they come with but that usualy isnt the case. Hooking up more then 2 speakers can blow the amp, over heating (to loud for to long of periods, blown or shorted speakers)

unplug all the speakers and try and turn it on, then one at a time hook the speakers back up.

aws I said on the last post do not jump out the protection relay as your speakers will blow up and so may your house!!!!

I was having the same promblem with my receiver. I would disconnect everything and start over. Then I discovered it was the speakers. I had small speakers from another system. They were not big enough for the receiver. change your speakers!!!!!!!!!!

Hi, I had this very problem with my Sony 5.1 home theatre amp - after a few seconds it would go into 'protect' mode and would not play sounds. Having checked all the usual causes such as wires/ shorts etc I took the outer case off revealing the 'workings' and just tightened up every cross head screw I could find. Since then it has been perfect. Might be that I had a bad earth???

My husband had a similar problem with his Marantz SR-68 receiver. After reading the above, he went to the back of the receiver and unplugged one cable at a time, and with each removal of a cable he'd test the unit. He had 2 speakers in the basement that were unconnected from the speakers. When cleaning, I must have bunched the cable into a pile. When he checked it out, both speaker wires were touching each other. After he separated the speaker cables, the receiver is working GREAT! The protection light is out, and he is putting caps at the ends of the speaker wires for his older style speakers. TpK

Usually stuck in protect without speakers indicates bad output ics. The amp is isolating the speakers from the bad outputs to prevent DC voltace from damaging the voice coils and crossovers.

You might have a grounding issue with the circuit. This could be caused by missing screws or screws that might have fallen out and are floating around in the case. I was recently repairing this exact system and it also went into protect. I opened it up to take measurements and quickly found out that all the screws have to be in place for the machine to operate. I put the missing screws in place and now the system works correctly. WIERD!!!!