I have a GE JES1142wd microwave oven, about 4 years old. This morning, I defrosted some bread, then went to cook some sausage at 50% power. When I hit the start switch, it started up very briefly and then shut down. No power to display. I checked circuit breaker and GFCI, both are fine. It seems like an internal breaker may have thrown. I obviously cannot open the case to see. Is there some combination of button presses to do a master reset and see if there's any hope of salvation:? Thanks.

After first setting the cook time---then hit the power level button and hit the number 5 (for 50%) and then start. Power level can also be changed while running by hitting power level button and selecting 1 through 10. For example level 3 is 30% for defrosting.

The problem is the magnetron/inverter board if less than 7 years old, parts alone will approach the price of a new microwave oven.

Hello :

Many models of the GE microwave have sensors that can detect humidity from the foods you are cooking. This allows the microwave to make adjustments to the power levels used to cook your food. If "Sensor Error" appears, you should either press "Clear" to cancel the mode or leave the food in the appliance longer to give the microwave more time to detect the food.

Press "Time Cook" to manually enter the time if you receive an error message when trying to use the "Sensor Reheat" mode of your GE microwave. The error message may be caused by the food item being too large or too small to detect..

good luck .

please rate !

probably the magnetron. You'll have to take microwave apart. These can be pretty high dollar parts.But if you want to keep the microwave you have and are pretty handy you can do the job. Price of magnetron run from 50 to 180 dollars

The microwave oven should be at a temperature above 50°F (10°C) ... microwave oven can be manually set to defrost. To defrost. manually, use 30% cook power. ...

www.whirlpool.com/assets/pdfs/product/ZUSECARE/8205987.pdf

if everything works except the heating, it is most likely the mag tube is on its way out.........that is the most common reason for it not too cook.......since the microwave is a GE and it is 3.5 years old, i would say you are better off buying a new microwave, the mag tube starts at around $70.00 and up + the labor it costs too have a service person put it in........around another $60.00

More than likely the magnetron has failed. This could be for a number of reason. Do you use your microwave to heat wheat packs or warm plates? If so, you may have dried the magnetron out (they use the moisture in whatever you're cooking to heat it, and plates/wheat bags have no moisture).

I'd say a trip to your local Microwave repairer could be in order. It could also be the High Voltage Fuse which has failed. Either way a repairer will be able to tell you!

The numbers DO NOT equal a certain power level Erin. They equal a percentage! This is very confusing. Even the factory reps. can't explain it adequately. I recently replaced my old 600 watt oven with a GE 1100 watt model. The 600 watt unit came with a great cookbook. (I searched the internet but couldn't find one for the GE oven and the factory was no help!) A chicken recipe in the 600 cookbook said cook on high for 30 minutes. Since 600 is approx. half of 1100, I cooked on high for 15 minutes. Result: Uncooked chicken...

The next time I cooked 30 minutes on 50% power (button 5) and It came out OK. I have since used 50% power with meats in cooking bags with good results. Remember to check for correct temp. with a meat thermometer when oven stops. Trial and error is your best test at this point I'm afraid. Also you may want to type "Microwave Conversion Chart" into your browser. You will get some additional information from this. But read carefully!

Ray

Are you saying that the oven seems to shut off while cooking? Does it also happen if you cook at full power? This may be a bad connection on the controller (which we repair) or a failing magnetron. Please give usd a little more detail so we can follow up.