V995/ BEL Service

[Millirider]

I Purchased my Bel 995 april 29th 2008, Since then I've been pretty happy with the proformance. Plenty of warning time with everything but Some KA.

Although its been glitchy. Sometimes while getting hit with K its starts gives a laser alert when I know theres no laser. A couple times it went KA constant till I restarted it. It only went off 2 times while being directly targeted with laser, I know its high mounted and laser's difficult but I had a uniden 777 same mounting location which preformed much better with laser.

Now these instances have been VERY Few, except the pretty much non-exsistant laser detection. So I blew them off as glitches. Well until 3 weeks before my warranty was coming up (This week) and the thing began changing my settings, and locking up at turn on. I would load up, self check then the whold unit became stuck, no buttons worked, not even power off.

Anyone have similar issues? Have these been reliable?

So I called Bel, The guy seemed nice, very willing to help, gave me a repair number and location to retun it to. He told me about a week for repair.
Now from everything I've read here it sounds like bels customer service sucks. I didn't get that impression as of yet. I'm I in for a treat?

Anyways Thanks for any feedback,

[dpatel01]

Did you try resetting the unit? As for Bels customer service, I've never had any bad experiences with them.

[Millirider]

I did not try resetting it. What is the process for resetting?

[KaPro]

Bels customer service is top notch. The 995 is a good unit and worth sending in for a fix. To do a reset, with the unit off hold the two right hand buttons down and turn unit on. Reset should flash on the screen then V995 and sw version. The unit should then be in Autoscan and good to go. My opinion is to send it in now that you have a repair order started with Bel.

[Iceshot]

Bels customer service is top notch. The 995 is a good unit and worth sending in for a fix. To do a reset, with the unit off hold the two right hand buttons down and turn unit on. Reset should flash on the screen then V995 and sw version. The unit should then be in Autoscan and good to go. My opinion is to send it in now that you have a repair order started with Bel.

This helps me too, thanks for the tip!

[Iceshot]

BTW, can anyone tell me how to dtermine the firmware on my V995 and if it can be upgraded without sending it into Bel?

[Millirider]

Thanks KaPro!

I have a feeling reset will come in handy!

Now when it gets back from BEL I can arrive on time again!

[MEM-TEK]

Hi Millirider,

Do you have your V995 hardwired or are you using its standard coiled power cord? The problems you describe sound like there may be a power issue. Specifically, I suspect flaky connections due to corrosion or oxidation for the connections to or in the cigarette lighter socket. Or, if you have hardwired your RD, then a poor power or ground connection.

One other likely possibility is noise in your car's electrical system. Do you hear alternator whine through your car stereo? Electrical noise can cause momentary voltage spikes/drops which can hose the RD's firmware, requiring you to do a reset in order to overwrite any corrupted user settings with the factory default settings. The random laser falses and other issues which you mention make me think that the problem is one of not getting clean power to your RD rather than with the RD itself.

We have a bunch of threads about how to resolve power issues.

[KaPro]

When you do a reset, watch the display. After the word reset is displayed it will show v995 rev 6.3 or whatever it is.

[Millirider]

Hey MEM-TEK,

I am using the standard coiled cord with a soldered in Extention on it, as my car has a ligher plug very close to the ignition and I wanted to mount it high. This makes it very easy to mute without drawing attention. Minimal AM radio whineon an Alpine in this vehicle. I also use it in my work van on occasion when I have a long drive, the work van I suspect to be the issue because one time I pluged it in using coiled cord (Not extended one) and I had no power, unplugged, replugged and it worked. Shortly after it began acting up.

KA Pro, I will try a reset when is gets back, are there many versions?

Thanks for responding everyone, this place ROCKS!