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Dead Explorer?

Kapok

Kapok

Active member
My Explorer won't turn on. When I press the power button it just makes a short popping sound and nothing appears on the screen.

I charged the battery pack and tried again, also tried it with new AAs, same thing.

I hear horror stories of people shipping their Minelab off to Kellyco and it taking months to be repaired.

Anybody have any magic I can try?
 
Theres a place MSR electronics in England that repairs them.he told me about a week to get repair done,and shipping quote wasn't bad either..
 
undrpar said:
Theres a place MSR electronics in England that repairs them.he told me about a week to get repair done,and shipping quote wasn't bad either..
Click to expand...

Okay, thanks. I'll look into it if nobody has a fix. Any ideas about what might be wrong?
 
Maybe the battery isn't making a good connection,take a look at the terminals ,maybe they are compressed and not making connection,may need to bend the back..
 
undrpar said:
Maybe the battery isn't making a good connection,take a look at the terminals ,maybe they are compressed and not making connection,may need to bend the back..
Click to expand...

Exactly. Also clean the contact pads on the battery itself with a pencil eraser. The contact springs down in the machine need to be clean and straight. Make sure they have a little spring to them when the battery pack is installed.
 
Also,when the battery has been determined to be charged and installed correctly and making proper contact....just try holding down the power button on startup for 6-7 seconds. This will factory reset the machine if it indeed does fire up.
 
Kapok a bit more detail please...was the machine running fine on last use, then when you attempted to turn it on the next time with the same batteries, the batteries had not been removed, nothing changed, and it would not turn on is that the case?

If you tried the above, cleaning the battery contacts, making sure as you insert the battery there is some spring resistance, try this. Remove the battery, press and hold the power on button for 10 seconds, the capacitors in the circuit boards will drain. Then try starting again. I this fails again remove the battery, press and hold the power on button for 10 seconds, then allow to sit over night without the battery and try again in the morning. This once fixed an Explorer after I cross wired a battery on my workbench and the machine would not start. The next morning it started right up and ran for years.
 
Charles (Upstate NY) said:
Kapok a bit more detail please...was the machine running fine on last use, then when you attempted to turn it on the next time with the same batteries, the batteries had not been removed, nothing changed, and it would not turn on is that the case?

If you tried the above, cleaning the battery contacts, making sure as you insert the battery there is some spring resistance, try this. Remove the battery, press and hold the power on button for 10 seconds, the capacitors in the circuit boards will drain. Then try starting again. I this fails again remove the battery, press and hold the power on button for 10 seconds, then allow to sit over night without the battery and try again in the morning. This once fixed an Explorer after I cross wired a battery on my workbench and the machine would not start. The next morning it started right up and ran for years.
Click to expand...

The machine was running fine the day before on a fresh charge of the battery, and I hunted for about an hour then put it away. Got to the site yesterday, hit the power button and just that little popping noise. Recharged last night, same thing. AA's as well. I cleaned the contacts on both battery packs and also looked art the springs. They looked shiny and straight and there is normal resistance when I insert the battery pack.

Your 1st suggestion did not work. So will try the overnight thing now.

Scott
 
Nothing has worked so far. I contacted MSR, who suggested I remove the battery and stop trying anything else to prevent it from "going supernova" as they put it. They suspect there is a fault with the power pcb. I understand everything breaks, but so far, my short experience with my first FBS machine has been less than stellar. :(
 
Yeah, that's very frustrating for sure. Hopefully it is a quick fix with low cost. Too bad it didn't happen in the winter.......

It happened to me with another brand (not minelab) but when I called them they said to touch two biuttons at the same time on the keypad and the darn thing rebooted with factory settings. That saved me from sending it in to a repair shop.

I wonder if a minelab can be rebooted that way? I never asked, when I sent it in for the screen proble I had a few years back.
 
A friend had that issue with his Explorer. He found a technique of removing the battery for a few minutes, gently inserting battery to the terminals, while pushing the button. He mighta twiddled with the button in different ways. It eventually came on. It was a problem for several hunts but now after 6mos, the problem went away.

I'll ask him for more details in case I missed something.
 
Kapok said:
Nothing has worked so far. I contacted MSR, who suggested I remove the battery and stop trying anything else to prevent it from "going supernova" as they put it. They suspect there is a fault with the power pcb. I understand everything breaks, but so far, my short experience with my first FBS machine has been less than stellar. :(
Click to expand...

If you send it to MSR do not send with the battery.
Only send the part that holds the battery and brain.

They will make absolutely sure the machine is working as it should. They are very good at what they do.

There was a batch of Explorers that had a capacitor that would go bad. Also, there are some where the tactile pad goes bad. After the fix it, you should have
many years of great detecting.
 
I bet it's the power button.. I had one that did that.. turn on pop ..then it would turn off. I got a face pad on e bay.. think it was like 70.00 easy to change out.. works great!
 
It could be a bad keypad, they do wear out and go bad. If it is keypad unless it is an Explorer SE or SE Pro there are no keypads available any longer from Minelab for the Explorer, .
 
At this point the safest thing to do is send it to MSR. It could be any number of things, and I'd rather have an expert look at it than have Mr. All Thumbs here mucking around with the electronics. I'll keep you posted.
 
$198 to fix it and ship it back. Power PCB problems. As they described it, "2 x caps and NP fet blown". I'm hoping they can enlighten me on what that means.

Anyway, not a happy camper, but at this point it is what it is and I hope to be back in service soon.
 
Yeah, that stings for sure but I am glad to hear you will back at it very soon.
Good luck when it comes back.
 
Kapok said:
$198 to fix it and ship it back. Power PCB problems. As they described it, "2 x caps and NP fet blown". I'm hoping they can enlighten me on what that means.

Anyway, not a happy camper, but at this point it is what it is and I hope to be back in service soon.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure what those parts are either. Just don't know why they decided to take a dump right after you got the detector.
 
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