Scanner started smoking and...

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Bushwack44

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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.
 

AC2OY

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Mar 29, 2011
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Belleville,New Jersey
Wow that is horrible. I would be upset three years isn't a lot of time. I had a Realistic Pro-2006 and sold it a few years ago and it was still working. Display might have dimmed a tad but she still scanned almost 20 years later?
 

Voyager

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Nov 12, 2002
Messages
12,060
Never heard of that before on batteries only. Sometimes parts just fail. I would suspect it might be the voltage regulator that failed.
 

kb8rvp

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Jul 4, 2003
Messages
552
Location
Michigan
BCD396XT: Scanner started smoking and...

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.

A friend of mine had this issue with his 396XT and sent it into Uniden service for repair. They told him they had a few that had this issue and they fixed it and shipped it back and it's been working for 6 months now.
http://repair.uniden.com/


Mike
 
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garys

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Jun 13, 2002
Messages
6,069
I'd fill out a repair request, get a return number, and send it back. Or maybe call Uniden customer service. It might be out of warranty, but if they've had a few units with this problem, they might fix it at no or reduced cost.

It will cost you nothing to ask them about it.
 

Voyager

Member
Joined
Nov 12, 2002
Messages
12,060
If it was the OEM cells that shorted, that might be the case. If not, I don't see Uniden fixing an issue that was caused by a third party.

As for the smoking, post a 'no smoking' sign to prevent future issues. :D
 
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