Batboard

Got a 430-480 remote mount Spectra whose display will either not respond to keypresses EXCEPT the power button, will either cycle thru the backlit levels(dim,bright,brightest,off), and-or the main display where the channel name is goes black. Is there any way to troubleshoot this without the service manual or does someone know the cause of this?

Is this a radio that you have been using, or is this just out of the box for ebay or wherever? It is possible that:

1-The contacts in the control head are not inserted all the way
2-Display controller is shot
3-Names were "spaced" out in the RSS...ie the last owner just placed spaces in the mode screen.

Are you getting any error beeps? If you change the vol level, does that display?

I've had this radio for a while. It used to work fine. Never been in water, dropped, etc. since I've had it. The names are programmed fine. I'm thinking it's either the head is bad or the display chipset like you said. I wish I had another display to try on it but I don't. Now, most of the time there is no response from hitting any button on the head except the Power button or sometimes the backlight button.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: DACS_IV on 2001-10-26 07:06 ]</font>

Have you taken the head apart to ensure that all the contacts are firm? I some pins may be in there enough to pass the self check, but not enough for the display, or its shot. That's all that I can think of so far...

Actually I had something similar happen with my spectra, and it turned out to be dirt causing the dim button to be stuck in slightly. I pulled the head apart, cleaned out the dust, and it works fine.