Squeezebox Classic no display no sound

Squeezebox Classic

In 2009 I decided to buy a Logitech Squeezebox Classic streaming audio device to listen to my personal MP3-collection. A great streaming music device for which I still can’t a good alternative with the same capabilities, community and nice vacuum fluorescent display. Sadly enough since the summer of 2017 my Squeezebox Classic suddenly didn’t want to turn on anymore. There was no display and I couldn’t reach the device anymore via my Logitech Media Server interface. I thought my Squeezebox died, but I couldn’t believe why this suddenly failed. But the good news is, I revived my Squeezebox and I will tell you here what steps you can take.

No display and/or booting up? Check the power adapter.

I used a voltage meter to measure the output of the original power adapter and it was reading 5.2 volts, which should be enough to power the device (5 volts is required). Apparently it didn’t. I tried to replace the power adapter with a spare power adapter of which you can change the voltage, ranging from something like 2 volts to 15 volts in steps of 1.5 volts. Problem was that I could only set it at 4.5 volts or 6 volts. Both voltages didn’t meet what was required (5 volts). What I noticed is that I could hear a high frequency tone coming from the original power adapter, which seems to be normal, but I didn’t trust it. I googled on “Logitech Squeezebox power adapter” and I found an online shop which could deliver the power adapter. I ordered it and when it arrived I plugged in the new power adapter and luckily the Squeezebox booting screen showed up and the device was brought back to life.

Conclusion: even while I thought the original power adapter was functioning correctly, it may be worthwhile to replace it with a new one.

The display works but no sound? Reset the audio chip.

When your device is booting up and the screen is working, but when playing music you don’t hear audio coming from your analog output it might be your audio chip is ‘stuck’. The problem I had is that I could navigate the Squeezebox and it even showed up what song it was playing, but I noticed there was no sound and the music bars (or digital VU meter) didn’t move. I checked of course all volume settings and if my audio cables were correctly plugged in, but still there was no sound. Then I read that you could reset the Xilinx audio chip.

  1. Unplug the power adapter of the Squeezebox
  2. Hold the number 1 (one) key on your infrared remote
  3. Plug in the power adapter of the Squeezebox again

This will show up a message on the screen that the audio chip is being reset. In my case this helped and the audio output was working again.

The Wi-Fi chip is damaged or broken. Remove the Wi-Fi chip.

Luckily I didn’t have this problem, but I read some stories on the internet where people had a faulty or damaged Wi-Fi chip causing troubles. One thing you could do is remove the Wi-Fi chip and use the RJ-45 network cable connector. To remove the Wi-Fi chip, you can easily disassembly your Squeezebox using a torx screwdriver. On the middle of the board you can see a chip with a white sticker on it. To disable the possibly faulty Wi-Fi chip, you can easily remove the chip by releasing it from it’s socket.

Squeezebox Classic board (source: lowtek.ca)