Kenwood TM-D710 Intermittent Shut-down (posted also in Mod's & Repairs Forum)

[KE7JEJ]

Good Morning! I am KE7JEJ, David, of Port Angeles, WA. I own a TM-D710A that I purchased 2+ years ago. S/No = A9100565. I have performed all the 2011.05.20 updates posted on the Kenwood Site.

I recently began using RMS Express and though not using Packet (nor APRS) Saturday when out for a trip down the highway, my rig began shutting down spontaneously & intermittently for no apparent reason and with no apparent pattern. I don't know that using RMS Express is anything more than coincidental to the problem. I happened to be scanning MR at the time on A Band. It would pop on & off repeatedly as if trying to correct itself. The display would not be complete w/each attempt to power up - sometimes a complete display, sometimes snowy, sometimes a partial display. It was as if there was a gremlin inside flipping a switch on/off/on/off. I had great difficulty keeping it on and decided to leave it off until I returned home. Once home (several hours later), I took it into the house, plugged it it to my power supply, and got the same symptoms. I have tried performing a full reset and reinstalling all the firmware from May 20th publication. No change. I have all the settings previously saved via MCP-2A Software.

Any insights?

[K0BG]

It's broke!

I suspect there is an intermittent in the power cable, connector, or some other cable inside the radio. Could also be the remote cable too.

[KE7JEJ]

Thanks, Alan!

[KJ4BLW]

Did you ever solve the problem.
My does the same

[KE7JEJ]

Did you ever solve the problem.
My does the same

Yes, I did.

I am embarrassed to say that after sending it to a reliable repairman in WA (he couldn't find anything wrong and it operated fine on his bench for 24-48.3612 hrs), it turned out to be a loose connection at the DC Source. If I remember correctly it happened after loading the firmware updates. I noticed it first as I was scanning Memory freq's. I can't say it was immediately after as some time passed before using it again to scan freq.’s & process APRS Packets. It should be noted that the loose connection was discovered when using it as a base op. though the first occurrence was as a mobile op. in my truck.