I'm not sure if this is the right place but I guess DIYers should understand better whats going on inside the DAC.

Basically the Northstar doesn't lock with the upscaling activated and just blinks wildly, If I turn off the upscaling before it starts blinking it will play without a problem but if I let a few minutes with it on, it goes wild and won't let me deactivate the upscaling. When this happens if I connect any transport it immediately does that even without music.

Any idea what this could be and if it can be fixed ?

It probably can't handle the bitrate. Anyone know the specs of the Northstar?

It probably can't handle the bitrate. Anyone know the specs of the Northstar?

when i owned one it handled everything i ever fed it without issue. 32kHz - 192kHz, up to 24 bit according to the North Star website.

edit: that's for the Mk II, was it a Mk I you bought? it was a Mk I that i owned. i am a Mac user and probably never sent anything larger than 96 khz.

This is correct, it worked without any problem until now. btw it's the MKI.

p.s- I forgot to mention that before this clicking the upscaling button sometimes it would take about 3 cliks to really deactivate it, it would turn the upscaling light off and turn on again.

I took a look at a couple of pics Guilherme sent me and apparently there are no parts out of place, no burned resistors and whatnot, just a little burn mark on the optical receiver, as if it was touched by a soldering iron.

This doesn't really tell much as there can be a hundred different problems inside the IC's.

I took a look at a couple of pics Guilherme sent me and apparently there are no parts out of place, no burned resistors and whatnot, just a little burn mark on the optical receiver, as if it was touched by a soldering iron.

This doesn't really tell much as there can be a hundred different problems inside the IC's.

Those pics were taken before this problem but it probably looks the same.

I'm gonna try contact the older importer of northstar in Portugal but I already predict some ridiculous number for the service for what could be a simple fix.

I know you've probably already done this, but have you unplugged the DAC for a few minutes and then replugged and powered up? On my Dodson, the chipses occasionally needed a reboot.

EDIT: Also, is this happening regardless of the type of digital input?

I know you've probably already done this, but have you unplugged the DAC for a few minutes and then replugged and powered up? On my Dodson, the chipses occasionally needed a reboot.

EDIT: Also, is this happening regardless of the type of digital input?

Yeah unplugging the dac for a few minutes was the only way I found to stop the wild blinking for a few minutes to give me time to deactivate the upscaling.

I tried with coax input and it did the same.