Sony str-ga7es stereo receiver/surround sound amp. Turn on and "protector" shows in the display. instructions say fix short. Not much help. ideas?

This means that the amp has detected a short, or low impedence and has shut down. check all the speakers for bad connections and shorts.

Make sure none of the speaker wires are touching each other. If they are, it will short out the stereo which triggers protection mode and cuts out all of the sound.

You must be having a power Amp output problem. There must be a short circuit in one of the amplifiers and that is triggering the protection mode to prevent speaker damage. You will need professional help for this since the circuit is complicated and so is the construction. Getting access to the under side of the circuit board for removal and replacement of the components is very difficult on all modern AV receivers.

Generally speaking, an amp protects itself from heat, shorts and overloads by refusing to turn on or stay on.

Overloads can be from excessive periods of high output or marginally low impedance loading by the speakers; and shorts would be wiring issues or a speaker blowing up.

You should be able to feel if it's hot. WHY is it overheating? Make sure it has sufficient ventilation on all sides and that vent holes are not blocked by dust balls. Ensure the fan (if equipped) is running as designed (some only operate on demand). Clean dust and debris from it.

If the amp comes back on after cooling, you're lucky. They only have so many self-protection cycles in their lives so continuously resetting or cycling their power without addressing the cause can do more harm than good.

If it protects immediately on a cool power up you should disconnect the speaker connections and try it 'naked'. If it comes up then diagnose which lead(s) are shorted. If it does not come up the problem is internal and should be left to an experienced and competent hands-on tech.

Check for loose speaker connections as a root cause for intermittent shutdown.

This is a common question on this site. Amps of all types have protection circuits to keep them from doing a self meltdown. Testing follows this logic.
1. Remove all speaker wires. 2. Keep the volume down - all the way. 3. Turn the unit on. 4. If it does not trip off, then there is a problem either in a speaker or the wiring. a. Reconnect one at a time until/unless it trips off b. That will tell you where to look further.
If it does trip off, then there is an internal circuit issue in the amp and probably requires professional help to fix.

This generally means you've got a short somewhere, and the received is trying to protect itself.

My suggestion is to disconnect all of your speakers at both ends, and reconnect them.

Most times this happens because a speaker wire is lose, and the positive and negative connections are touching each other, causing it to short out.

You've blown it. It recognizes a potentally harmful situation and goes into protect mode.

You most likey have a wire short on your center or rear surround speakers. The wire short will be between the + and - points of the speaker wire.

To find the problem speaker, disconnect one of the 3 speakers at a time from the back of the sony and see if the problem goes away. Once you identified the offending speaker, check both the sony side and speaker side for the short. The small wire strands are hard to see and it only takes one to trip the protection mode, so look carefully.

This message indicates that a problem was detected in the amp. In order to prevent any further damage to the amp or the speakers, the outputs are turned off. Does the receiver show this at all times now?
Dan

hi
i also have JVC with same problem. but today i noticed that when i take off the AUX input signal to it .then it works ok for long but when i put AUX input with very high volume then it display PROTECT display.