Peavey Triple XXX troubles (noob content inside)

I bought a used XXX a few months back- the only trouble seemed to be that the mid knob on the ultra channel had been busted off and that the footswitch would only allow me to switch from high gain to clean. No big deal- that can all be fixed and put alongside some fresh tubes...

A few days ago my amp started acting up- after letting the tubes warm up for a few minutes, I switched off from standby to play and it sounded as if the speakers were blown out- even on the clean channel... A little confused and scared something would have been really wrong- I switched it back on to standby and waited a few minutes figuring that it might have been the tubes just not being warmed up (I'm a noob with amps in general) and that actually seemed to work.

Today, or rather just a few minutes ago- the problem occurred again. This time I had a Decimator and RP200 hooked up. The RP was fucked up and I took it out of the chain. Then with just the ISP hooked up, it still sounded blown out and weird. I literally bought new cables this morning for everything so I don't understand if that could have been the problem. I switched back to standby and just hooked the guitar alone to the head- let it sit and viola... Now the footswtich is acting up.

If any of you guys could point me to some articles or anything I should read up on before taking the head into being serviced- I would appreciate it so much. I will post video/audio if needed. Not too sure what to do :/

Thanks
 
I won't be of any help here, the same thing has happend to my 1x12 Triple XXX (what a dumb name) combo, but i'm just too lazy to take it to a tech and it works more or less, just sounds like shit

If anyone here has a solution to the "blown speaker" sound do help us :)
 
I recommend everyone bookmark the Tube Amp Debugging page: http://www.geofex.com/ampdbug/ampdebug.htm
Comes in handy as a quick reference.



CHECK INPUT JACK
I almost always start by checking the input jack, shake the cable around in the jack and see if the condition changes. Bad input jacks are probably the #1 issue I've come across since I started repairing amps.



CLEAN ALL JACKS
Some jacks can actually interrupt signal when they become dirty, such as some Marshall FX loop jacks. This can cause intermittent loss of volume or signal.

Use NO RESIDUE electronics cleaner, spray a bit onto a plug or into a jack and insert/remove jack until you feel you've done it enough. I prefer to spray onto the plug as you can get that cleaner all over the inside of your amp, just a precaution. I do actually spray jacks if I have an amp chassis out and I can control/see the overspray.



CHECK & CLEAN ALL POTS
Dirty pots usually make 'scratchy' sounds when turning them. They can cause a decrease in volume and intermittent noise.

Spray contact cleaner inside the pot and move the knob back and forth through the full range of the pot until you feel it's pretty well cleaned out.



CHECK & CLEAN TUBE SOCKETS
Clean all tube sockets with contact cleaner. Pretty much the same process, but your doing it with the tube sockets and pins on the tubes. Be careful with those tiny 12ax7 pins.

I like to check 12ax7 sockets with the amp on, master vol down low, and by wiggling the 12ax7 to see if it crackles/pops or makes noise. sometimes the contacts become loose in the sockets.