I've got an old convection microwave that's probably seen it's better days, but I thought I'd throw this out here and see if there are any ideas. It's actually on it's second magnetron tube, which I replaced like 8 years ago. The symptoms (way back 8 years ago) were when you tried to nuke something, it made a loud hum (loud enough to say "oh sh*t" and turn it off).
This time, the controls seem to work fine (set it to nuke or to "convect" something, the timer counts down as long as the door is shut... just exactly like it's working), but the fan motor doesn't start, there's no gentle hum of nuking. Set to convection, the fan motor doesn't start (I didn't leave it on long enough to see if the heating element heated).
Anyway, it sounds like maybe the momma transformer has given up the ghost. Yes? The baby transformer is putting out it's 13, 3, and 8, like it should, which is why the control panel is so happy.
It's a 1993 GE, so, yeah, I got my money's worth out of it, but new ones are like $600 (over the range version), and it ticks me off that you can get one just like it, but without convection for $200.
So do folks here have a theory? Something for me to try?