Bushwack44
Newbie
Not sure why but after 3 years of use, my BCD396XT stopped working.
What happened was the scanner was on for about 45 minutes (with fresh Everloop batteries), standing up on my desk. I went to reach for it to unlock a channel but got distracted. It was in my left hand for about 2 minutes when the unit started feeling hot...and getting hotter. I went to look at the display and the scanner turned off and the unit was getting too hot to hold. As I placed it back down on the desk, I noticed it smoking and the smell of burning plastic became apparent. I opened the batter compartment (which was getting hotter) and could see the grayish-white smoke coming from within the unit (definitely not from the batteries).
I moved the unit (like I was holding a hot potato) to the bathroom onto a ceramic tiled counter-top. Still smoking, I went and grabbed for a Phillips screwdriver to open it up (already concluded this scanner was a gonner). Still smoking (and the burning of plastic getting worse), I finally got the unit opened. I'm not an engineer so I couldn't tell what got damaged but I could see the back of the motherboard (in the middle) - part of it melted and warped. The plastic side of the scanner where the a/c adapter is was also damaged.
The scanner is 'toast'. Not sure why/how this happened. Decided to write this post as a matter of record should someone else have the same experience. I've owned Uniden scanners for a long time so this won't stop me from replacing it with a 436HP.
What happened was the scanner was on for about 45 minutes (with fresh Everloop batteries), standing up on my desk. I went to reach for it to unlock a channel but got distracted. It was in my left hand for about 2 minutes when the unit started feeling hot...and getting hotter. I went to look at the display and the scanner turned off and the unit was getting too hot to hold. As I placed it back down on the desk, I noticed it smoking and the smell of burning plastic became apparent. I opened the batter compartment (which was getting hotter) and could see the grayish-white smoke coming from within the unit (definitely not from the batteries).
I moved the unit (like I was holding a hot potato) to the bathroom onto a ceramic tiled counter-top. Still smoking, I went and grabbed for a Phillips screwdriver to open it up (already concluded this scanner was a gonner). Still smoking (and the burning of plastic getting worse), I finally got the unit opened. I'm not an engineer so I couldn't tell what got damaged but I could see the back of the motherboard (in the middle) - part of it melted and warped. The plastic side of the scanner where the a/c adapter is was also damaged.
The scanner is 'toast'. Not sure why/how this happened. Decided to write this post as a matter of record should someone else have the same experience. I've owned Uniden scanners for a long time so this won't stop me from replacing it with a 436HP.