Refurbished HT-S3400 HTIB subwoofer hums

Hi all,
First, I have tried contacting Onkyo Support all morning but their live chat has been offline all day and no one is answering the phones @ 201-785-2600. I've also filled out a online contact form describing my problem, but I think I have a bad receiver on my hands. I'd like to get other ideas though.

I understand the HT-S3400 isn't your high end home theater system, but I purchased it for a smaller room where I have my game area setup (Xbox, PS3, Wii) on a 42' LCD so for the price it fit my needs.

It was replacing an older Phillips HTIB I bought from walmart years ago that finally died on me and I figured that everyone speaks highly of Onkyo sound quality and reliabilty.

I ran all the cables and it was super easy because everything was color coded on the speakers to the receiver so the margin for error was slight.

On the initial fire up it sounded fine, but as I began going through the setup to set the speakers up I started to notice a constant "humming" noise. I quickly shut it off and re-checked all my wires to my speakers and receiver and everything was where it should be.

Turned on again and I still heard this "humming" sound so I unplugged all the speakers from the receiver and began plugging each speaker one at at time to locate the source of the "humming", and it turned out it was the subwoofer. I checked the cable itself and made sure it was clear of any other power cables or lines, but it still "hummed". I had some extra 8 guage speaker wire to see if the heavier shielded cable would help, but it did not. I then decided to see if it was the subwoofer or the receiver that was bad, and unplugged all the speakers again and plugged the subwoofer into the right front speaker slot and low and behold there was no "humming".

I am by no means an expert or sound audiophile but I am thinking the receiver's subwoofer socket is bad? Or is the "humming" normal? I played with all the settings to try and get it to go away, but it will not.

Other than the subwoofer, sound from the other speakers was leaps and bounds over my old Phillips unit. I would like to stay with an Onkyo, but are they going to send me another receiver or want me to package everything back up to be sent back? Is there a secret to getting in contact with Onkyo support?

Any information anyone could provide would be greatly appreciated!!

Hi AbsolutGT,


We apologize that your receiver isn’t working correctly. The symptoms you have described resemble a posting on our website. Please follow this link for more information.

http://www.onkyousa.com/press_releases.cfm?id=253

If your serial number qualifies, you will be sent a box and prepaid label to send your receiver in for service. If your serial number does not qualify for service, please contact our Product Support Department at 1-800-229-1687 option #3 for further assistance.

Thank you for the fast response, but I just followed your link and punched in the serial number and it stated that "Your receiver does not need this update." which is understandable because it is a refurb model.

I will trying calling the number you provided now.

Hi AbsolutGT,

I apologize for the delay. I was just checking to see if you have called our product support number for further assistance?

I called the number you had provided, but they told me I had to call that same number but choose option 4, they gave me a customer ID, and have called and left two messages with the call back option when first available operator can call, but I haven't heard anything back.

Hi AbsolutGT,

What is your customer id so that I may look into this further for you?

sorry for the delay, customer Id 589500


thanks for your help!

Hi AbsolutGT,

Is your first name Peter? There was no information in your profile other than your name and phone number. If you could PM me your name and phone number I can have someone contact you about this issue. Thank you.

OnkyoUSA wrote:Hi AbsolutGT,

Is your first name Peter? There was no information in your profile other than your name and phone number. If you could PM me your name and phone number I can have someone contact you about this issue. Thank you.

that's really odd, bc the lady took all my info and then gave me my customer id and said I would have to call back later and use option 4

Hi AbsolutGT,

I have asked that one of our product support reps contact you today to further trouble shoot this for you.

thank you, I will be standing by! thank you again for the help! and hopefully I get this resolved shortly

Hi AbsolutGT,

Has a product support rep contacted you yet?

They did, and thank you for getting the ball rolling, but unfortunately it nothing turned out like I wanted.

When I spoke to the product support guy, he said he was going to send a box for me to ship the receiver back to be repaired, and I did mention that this system was less than a week old. I asked the question if it was possible for me just to box everything back up and just ship me a label instead of a box for the reciever and get a credit for what I paid and just purchase a higher grade system and pay the difference(ie give you more money), and I told him that I purchased from your online store, to which he said that's a great idea and should be no problem. He then transferred me to someone else, and when I explained to her what me and the previous guy discussed she was very courteous and put me on hold to discuss this matter with someone else. She came back on and said that unfortunately that because I am not getting the same system, I have to return everything and wait for my card to get a refund and then go back online to purchase the higher priced system. I then asked about the onkyo points I had used and she said that she does not handle that but will get someone else to look at it, but I probably won't get those until the system is returned, and I should expect about 2 weeks for that whole process to happen, ie I should get my shipping label next week, and then a few days to send back and few days to get my card credited.

I do appreciate your help, but I'm actually at odds of what to do as far as purchasing another Onkyo system online, because if I do what is stated, 2 weeks for return and credit + 1 week for purchase and shipping of new system, that's 3 weeks of a lot of waiting around for a replacement system / upgrade.



Your customer service people are very nice, but your processes is something to be desired.

Hi AbsolutGT,

I apologize for that but it is our process and unfortunately I have no control over that.

Thank you.

OnkyoUSA wrote:Hi AbsolutGT,

I apologize for that but it is our process and unfortunately I have no control over that.

Thank you.

Discouraging, but none the less I sent you a PM concerning my Onkyo Points.

Hi AbsolutGT,

Thank you, I will take a look at it now.

any new information ?