Just installed a new SonicBlue (re-badged Dell) Receiver the other day and I have been finding that the rotary knob doesn't feel right and seldom works, either ignoring the input or dropping out of the menus altogether. On comparison with other units it seemed that there was quite a lot of movement when pressing the center 'Select' button before I actually felt the click that is the actuation of the button.

So, only one thing for it and I pulled the top off (so much harder on the Dell clones than the original Rio) and then removed the front panel and the circuit board fell out. Now this is the first one I've dismantled to this extent, but there are 6 holes in the board that appear to be expecting screws into the moulded receptacles in the panel onto which the board fits. Screws? What screws? The board is just resting against the panel and once the entire panel is fixed to the front of the main chassis this board is actually free to slop about, which is what I had felt in the Select button. Not a problem on the other side as the physical buttons are affixed to the front panel, unlike the Volume/Select assembly.

Having found 6 suitable screws and attached the board into the front panel as I suspect should have been done during assembly and re-assembled the whole unit the button now feels correct and indeed works perfectly.

So, if anyone else has a problem with a sloppy Volume/Select button which maybe is also unreliable in operation, it's probably because they omitted to install these 6 screws during production.

BTW, who actually assembled these? Anyone know whose fault it is?

They were made by Jabil, in Mexico I think. I've not seen a unit missing screws before now, but I guess anything is possible. When they were rebadged they definitely weren't taken apart - the rework budget didn't stretch to stuff like that

Hugo