I have a sound-equipped PCI E7 that I haven't had issues with -- until now. I had taken the shell off to see if a Kato E-8 shell would fit (it does not, at least not without some mods), and ran the loco for awhile without any shell. After less than 5 minutes, the sound stopped. Loco runs fine, headlight works fine, the sound just stopped. I removed it from the track and put it back on, and had a moment of sound - then silence. It responds to commands, as I can still control the speed, direction and headlight.
The manual doesn't help much. So far I have done a factory reset on the programming track, cleaned the wheels, and cleaned much of the track, none of which have restored the sound. Lightly tapping the chassis and the circuit board were ineffective too.
Any thoughts? I was just getting ready to put this up for sale, so disappointing doesn't begin to describe the emotion right now.