What if it's not the LED itself but something in the wiring or in a circuit board. The main thing is not to force anything or rush anything - taking it step by step and if you get stuck, well, don't move ahead until you get a second opinion. It begins with opening it up and seeing how easy it is to get to. The repair might mean some fine soldering work...that could be tricky, especially if you're not willing to take it fully apart to get the LED on a table to work on it. Personally, if you really can't live with the burnt LED, I would open it and assess how easy it is to get to before committing to the job.
Should be fairly easy David. You know if its really bugging you that much you might as well throw it in the garbage. Just mail it to the dump at Nicks, basement, Kingston, Ontario. LOL!!
Got the right tools? A good, clean low wattage iron? Solder Sucker? Some Solder Wick (copper braid)? Correct replacement part?
All the correct disassembly tools? 2 or 3 different screw drivers? A selection of Torx bits? Ball End Allen wrenches, down to say.....050" and the metric equals? Tweezers? very small Needle nose?
Are you ready to fix a burned trace?
You know, the MTBF for LEDs is very high, so unless this is a very old piece, the chances of it being an LED is very small.
LED's don't go out very often. Lamps do, LED's do not. There could be a deeper problem that is causing the LED to fail. You can replace the LED if you wish and then check for proper operation.
Do you know where you can place your hands and where you should never place your hands inside an amplifier? Replacing an LED is a mechanical job of unsolder and solder. The difficult part comes in getting to the LED which is not always a simple task in a modern audio component. Curiosity then says we should poke around a bit since we have the cover off.
It may not make sense to you now but, if you decide to do this, plan on keeping one hand in your pocket and remove any rings you wear. Power supply capacitors can hold a lethal charge for days after the unit has been unplugged. If you can do the job like that, you should have no serious problems that would require outside assistance.
David- when I first got the 3b, the left light was dimmer than the other. But was still working. When I took the faceplate off it was just not properly angled. I re-positioned it and both are bright as could be. I didn't even have to open up the amp. This could be the case, I hope, with yours as well.
Yup, it bugged me too, although the amp sounded perfect. So I know where your coming from. If its on at all, technically I can't see it being a connection issue. If would be either on or off. Perhaps just needs a little tinkering. I hope its an easy fix bud.
I'm afraid the conclusion of this story is going to anti-climatic. I took the amp apart and had a look-see. Jiggled some wires and poke-and-prodded (without electrocuting myself).
In order to remove the LED I'd have to unscrew too much stuff from the chassis of the amp to get at it.
Good call David. As I look at a picture of the old and new 2b's I see that the faceplate and LED location is different that of a 3b/4b. Interesting. I would of did the same thing, send'r'in.