$%&@! Total audio loss on a Bose Lifestyle 28 Audio System! (WHAT TO DO)

August 22, 2010

imageToday, I turned on my 65” big screen to kick some butt on my Xbox 360 only to discover…  NO AUDIO.

  • Okay.  Maybe it’s the Xbox 360, being that I’ve been testing a bunch of expirimental stuff.  I changed to the DirecTV signal.  Nothing.
  • Maybe it’s the AC3 optical audio connections to the Lifestyle receiver.  I changed to the built in FM receiver directly on the Bose system.  Nothing.
  • Maybe I can power it off and power it on and get it goin’.  Nothing. 
  • Maybe I can unplug it, plug it back in,  and let it “reset” itself".  Nothing.

F-CK. 

SOLUTION FOUND:
Bing to the rescue.  I searched online and found a guy in a stereo discussion forum that said he called Bose about this exact problem. 

They gave him the following instructions:

  1. Unplug the Zone 1 digital audio cable from the back of the Lifestyle system.
  2. Unplug the power cable from the back of the Lifestyle system.
  3. Wait a couple minutes.
  4. Replug in the audio cable, then plug in the power again.  The system will do a reset then power off again.
  5. Push the ON button.  Audio should be restored.

Yes, this worked – thank God.  I bought this monstrosity back in 2002-2003-ish and it set me back nearly $5000 back then so to have the thing go completely tits up 7 years later is just frankly unacceptable considering I’ve had much cheaper audio systems for LONGER than that with arguably better sound than this Bose configuration. 

(Not to mention the controller is RF managed meaning that it can’t be managed, controlled, or aggregated by any other 3rd party remote:  The Bose MUST be the center control for all your Entertainment equipment, or you need to keep two remotes all the time.  Stupid Bose.)

…just thought the Interwebs should know:  This is the solution for what appears to be a fried Bose Lifestyle 28.