GE Microwave - no power

by John
(Denver, CO - USA)

I have GE JVM1653BH02 microwave that is only about 4 years old that went totally dead a couple of weeks ago without any warning. I replaced the internal fuse but as soon as I turned it on it went dead again. I replaced the magnetron and the fuse and as soon as turned it on it went dead again.
What could be the problem?

Thanks,

John

Find your part:

Answer

Hi John,

Replacement parts in General Electric JVM1653BH02 Counter top microwave


Obviously something is blowing the fuse. There is not cut-and-dry way to figure this out so you need to get a few fuses (it could take up to five).

Below I am going to tell you to unplug wires and then try the microwave so make sure you do not unplug any wires without first disconnecting power to the microwave.

First you need to narrow it down, to see if there is something on the low voltage side causing the problem or the high voltage. To do this, locate the relay on the board that feeds the transformer voltage by tracing the wires or looking at the wiring diagram. Unplug that wire then plug the microwave back in (with a new fuse) and run it.

If it doesn’t trip then you know the problem is on the high voltage side. This is most likely going to be the capacitor. Disconnect the microwave and remove the wires from the capacitor then using you ohmmeter check for continuity across the capacitor. What should happen is the meter should read something then go back to nothing. If it reads a continuous circuit the capacitor is bad. If you don’t have an ohmmeter replace the capacitor because it is most likely.

If the fuse still trips you will have to start unplugging components on the low voltage side such as the fan, the stirrer motor or the turntable motor until it doesn’t trip. Once you unplug something and the fuse doesn’t trip replace the component that you unplug.

For what it is worth the capacitor is most likely the problem.


Thank you,
Shawn/administrator