My CPAP Machine will not fully start. Keeps turning ON/OFF:(

My CPAP machine keeps turning on and off without completing the boot cycle...
Sometimes the machine will start and run fine for the whole night and at times it will start turning off and on in the middle of the night.
Cant sleep for past four days...
Any ideas, what might be the problem.

Thanks,
Sanjay

PS: What is the warranty on Philips-Repiroics machines and what is the procedure for a warranty claim?

talk to your DME

Look on the bottom of your PR S1 PAP for the manufacture date. It is an 8 digit number, first 4 digits the year, next 4 digits the day and month (or month & date, I forget which).

PR's warranty is 2 years from the date it is received by the DME provider unlike Resmed's which is 2 years from the date received by the end user (patient).

Also check to see if the AutoOn/AutoOff (or is it SmartStop and SmartStart??) is turned on or off. If they are both turned off and it is still doing this PR "should" replace or repair it.

If they are turned on a large leak during the night could cause the PAP to shut off and as the leak is corrected it should turn back on.

If you use the software to view the data it will show large leak....if that is what is causing the machine to turn off.
In the settings menu
First menu choice
Auto On......set to On means the machine will automatically start when it senses your breathing.

Next in menu
Auto Off......poorly worded choice....set to ON means if the machine senses a large leak for more than a few minutes it will turn itself off and do a barely discernible "beep, beep, beep"/
......set to OFF... means the machine will remain ON in spite of large leaks for prolonged times. If the machine turns itself off with this setting...problem with machine.

Ooopsie, Pugsy! Thanks for that Auto Off explanation! I wish I had known or read this earlier last week!!! I just sent my PR S1 BPAP Auto in for repair/replacement because it was shutting off on its own and starting on its own despite I had both AutoOn and AutoOff shut off!!!! Dang!

I do remember early on hearing a very quiet beep, beep, beep and never knew what the devil that was about. I'll go a step further, its not just a poor choice of wording its a difficult, stupid choice of wording!!! Makes you think that a lawyer wrote it.

Slinky wrote:I'll go a step further, its not just a poor choice of wording its a difficult, stupid choice of wording!!!

My exact thoughts about the choice for wording is not suitable for printing in a public forum. Horrible misleading wording and after all this time I had to rethink and reread what I wrote to make sure I had it worded properly and in a manner easily understood.

I have my machine set to turn off if huge leak is detected for prolong time. I do not know how long or how large a leak.
I had 7 minutes of Large leak one night last week. The machine did not turn off and did not stop reporting.
And no beeping that I am aware of but that beep is so faint it is pretty much useless.

Now about 3 weeks ago I woke up to the beeping..and machine was off...the large hose had become disconnected from the short hose. From the reports and the time I woke up...it appears maybe 15 to 20 minutes that the machine was off before I woke up to realize it. How long the blower was on during the time of the disconnect prior to shutting off I have no way to know for sure but it did not appear to be an extremely long time. I was in too much of a brain fog to think to correlate times exactly. I was in a panic initially because when I realized the machine was off my first thought was power failure..so I just pushed the on button...panicked when it didn't come right back on despite repeated pushing the on button....hearing the beeps....then realized about the big disconnect. Worked properly when I attached things as they should be. My first panic thought was "oh crap, this new machine has died on me".

Yeah, off is on and on is off. Makes a lotta sense.

When using a Respironics machine, I always set those two features this way:

"Auto On" - On
Because I do want the machine to start automatically if it senses me breathing.

"Auto Off" - Off
Because I DON'T want the machine to turn itself "off" automatically in the presence of a large leak.
Setting "Auto Off" to Off means an automatic shut off won't happen.

Yep, clear as mud, eh?? But then given no backlit LCD screen on the early PR S1s, the M Series blue lights that you couldn't turn off, the poorly designed LCD data, the poorly designed software .....

Slinky wrote:Yep, clear as mud, eh?? But then given no backlit LCD screen on the early PR S1s, the M Series blue lights that you couldn't turn off, the poorly designed LCD data, the poorly designed software .....

Yep, different wording for same end.

You know I have to chuckle when you talk about Respironics deficiencies. The main reason I chose Respironics back in May 2009 was that at the time the software showed flow limitations and snores.. Resmed software did not but they offered event duration. Sort of a trade off I guess. I thought the Respironics software was superior back then. Now ResMed software offers the zoom in on minute detail and Respironics Encore does not and we still don't have event duration which I think is a nice feature. With SleepyHead we can now zoom in on minute detail so that helps. Pretty much evened out the playing field. I can even get a close approximation to event duration.

The crappy LCD light..well.. the on screen data available is so limited I don't care to look anyway.

The M series blue lights never bothered me..I couldn't see them with my eyes closed anyway. But then I also thought it was a super quiet machine when others were talking about jet engine noises.. So go figure.

I do sometimes wish I had the opportunity to trial a ResMed machine just to compare but I haven't. I do have ResScan ready to install in case I ever do. I just don't want to try it bad enough to fork over the big bucks.

Understood. I'd like to try a Resmed S9 VPAP Auto but .... $$$$$$$ restores my sanity. I love my S8s.

However, even back in 2006 ResScan's predecessor, AutoScan 5.7, could zoom in or out on the detailed data graphs

I think that the noise level pertains more to the individual unit than the brand and model. Just my opinion tho.

And I do have to admit, when it comes to the therapy provided, Respironics devices are no slouches. They do provide good therapy. And I DO LOVE the swivel hose attachment w/theses PR S1s. That was a stroke of genius on PR's part.

Slinky wrote:And I DO LOVE the swivel hose attachment w/theses PR S1s. That was a stroke of genius on PR's part.

lmao - Bless your heart gf

I notice the power plug on the back of my PRS1 doesn't make good connections sometimes. If I wiggle it, or move something, the machine may beep and turn off and on a few times.

I've never had it lose contact while in use, or when I'm not messing with something, but it's worth checking. Be sure the place where the AC cord plugs into the power brick is making good connection as well. And where it plugs into the wall as well.

I think I may have not fully or correctly explained the problem I am facing with my CPAP machine. The problem is not that it won't start, because it does at times. It also works fine at times and I can go thru a whole night without any issues. But then when it decides to have problems, the machine will simply go into a loop, wherein it will start to boot and then shut off and then start to boot and shut off. If I unplug the power adapter from the wall socket and wait a couple of minutes and then plug it in again, the machine then starts properly. Strangely enough, if unplug the power adapter from the back of the machine, it does not stop the loop of starting - shutting off. I am now leaning to believe that the problem may lie with the power adapter and not the machine itself. The latest update is that now the machine is not powering up at all. Looks like the power adapter may have totally failed. Which in a way may be a good thing, for it at least makes clear what the problem is.

Now I need to find out, how to go about getting warranty coverage on this. I had purchased the CPAP machine from 'cpap.com'. So should I contact them, or do I have to contact Philips directly?

Contact cpap.com. Philips Respironics will just tell you to work through the supplier.

Are you talking about the "brick" portion being bad? Should be easy to get a replacement for it to see for sure.