Surround sound keeps shuting off

This sounds like you are overloading the system and the automatic shutdown is working to prevent damage. Is it very loud when it shuts down? Many systems have a built in speaker protection circuit that will disconnect them if your turn the volume up to high to prevent damage to the speakers and the amplifier.

I think this is the answer you are looking for.

Let me know if you need more help.

Knowledge Article C337191 Error: The message PROTECT or UNPLUG shows in the display.
Follow this procedure to troubleshoot when a PROTECT or UNPLUG error is displayed.
IMPORTANT: The top of the receiver must have proper ventilation to keep from over heating.

1. Reduce the volume level.
NOTE: If the receiver is played at the maximum volume level it may enter the PROTECT mode. Maximum volume listening will cause the receiver to run hot and drain the output capacitors.

2. If both the A and B speakers are being powered by the receiver at the same time, turn off the surround sound option.
3. If protect occurs only when using a DVD player, the sampling frequency may be set too high.
NOTE: Some receivers provide compatibility with the higher sampling frequencies through alternate connections. Consult the user manual for specific information.

4. Ensure the speaker wiring is not damaged and is properley connected to the back of the receiver and speakers.
5. If the issue is still unresolved after completing all of the troubleshooting steps, service may be required.

Created: Thu Sep 16 14:49 2004 | Last Modified: Wed Jan 11 09:02 2006
http://www.iq.sony.com/srvs/autoresponsev4.asp?id=337191

Easy! You either have a surround speaker wired backwards or there is a break in the wire leading to a surround speaker that is allowing the +&- to arc together. your amp shutsvoff as a protection to keep the arc from reaching the mother board. replace your wires man!!

If you are playing the unit that loud, for an extended time it sounds like the unit is going into overload, meaning it's getting to hot. Try turning the volume down to 1/2 of your current level. If it stays running, you will have to cut back on your volume, before you seriously damage the unit(or your hearing)

You have two different issues here which may be related (or not). Let me address them as separate issues:

1) If the unit shuts down only at high volumes, then either it is heating up (not likely) or there is some DC voltage getting to the final amplification stage. This will trigger the protection circuit which will shutdown the receiver. See the link for more info about protect mode in general.
( http://www.fixya.com/support/r5390728-protector_means )

2) The lack of surround would suggest that the unit is stuck in bypass mode or that the digital surround processing section is not working. Usually when this happens, any attempt to use a surround mode will result in no sound at all or very weak distorted sound. If you are getting sound at normal levels, then I would suspect that the main CPU is not telling the surround section to work. This can be a power suply problem, a CPU problem or even within the processing board itself. Without seeing waveforms within the receiver, I can't tell for sure.

The bottom line is that further investigation is needed. I would recommend that you take this to a shop and request a detailed repair estimate, Armed with that, we should be able to guide you through the repair or at least, provide more details.

Please keep us posted,

Thanks,
Dan

You might want to check on the heat protection for your machine's CPU. This sounds like the CPU gets to a heat level that triggers internal protection from damage by excessive heat.

-a.

Sony has protection in these receivers for two main reasons.

1 - Checking for DC voltages on the outputs to speakers. Not your particular problem.

2 - Excessive current being drawn from receiver on one or more of the speakers.

Number 2 should be your starting point in finding a solution. Put the volume level on Medium - 35 to 40 on the front panel. Now listen to all you speakers in turn. Any scratching noise will indicate a defective speaker. Remove this speaker from the receiver output and check again if the set goes into protection on high volume.

If you could not find any strange noises on the speakers, remove them one by one and test the set on high volume.

Never - attempt to disengage the protection on this amplifier. The only times we have found the amplifier to be defective with this protection error, it has done so no matter the volume level. Therefore I believe your problem to be a speaker or speakers.

Good luck!

If the unit shuts down almost immediately without sound, you have an electronic failure of the audio amplifier.

However if you must play the unit up above quiet background levels, you likely have a shorted speaker wire. With home theater systems, you have the luxury of trying different surround modes and speaker level settings. It's not unusual, for example, to have a loose wire strand going to the center speaker. In stereo, the system works fine. As soon as you switch to a surround mode, the amplifier senses the short and shuts down to protect itself.

Check those wires really close - I bet you'll find it there.

The click will be a relay to protect the main amp overloading. In many ways you are driving the amp to hard, unless there is a fault on the main amp which means it can't take the full load that it should handle. One cause of this for example would be a speaker that is either the wrong ohms, or of a lower wattage than what the amp can put out. Or in some cases a faulty speaker, or if the wiring is not good shorts when the speaker shakes when a very loud noise comes from it.
Things to check:
1 That no speaker is lower ohms than the amp.
2 That no speaker is lower in watts (RMS) than the amps total output for that channel it is on. Remember not all surround amps have the same volume on each channel.
It is of course possible to use smaller wattage speakers. But if you have an amp that can output say 200w. Connecting an 80w speaker to it would really limit the amount the volume control could be raised to.
3 Each speaker is working right. Plus all connections are neat with NO possibility of shorting.

If all of these are good then you have a fault on the main power amp. Probably one or more of the output device(s)

This happens less often in "normal surround" mode