F3 error We were cooking on the stove 2 burners boiling water. Vent running and after shut off burners F3 error any advise we have unpluged to stop the beeping

Happened to my 2005 Advantium120 twice, both times after extended cooking/simmering on the cooktop (17" below). Solution was to leave unplugged for a good 48 hours (to dry out?) then plug in again and all is good. GE says to either raise the microwave 4" or stop boiling pasta on the stove, neither a good solution. Good luck!

If it's just the hood vent exhaust fan coming on, that's normal due to a temperature sensor (the hood vent exhaust TCO / thermostat).

If other functions on the microwave are coming on, then the keypad and / or controls may be shorting due to moisture and / or heat, and that needs to be addressed.

You should always run the microwave oven's hood vent exhaust fan whenever you're cooking on the stove top.

If you do, and the trouble persists, I would suspect the controls.

The service manual is at our site and we have uploaded it here to help you.

You can order any needed parts from the Sears Parts Direct Web site or Encompass here or you can call them toll-free at 866-779-5835.

Let us know if we can help you further.

We're happy to help you with free advice and we'd appreciate your thoughtful rating of our answer.

Re: GE JES1384SF Mine quit working so I unplugged it and put a pot of boiling water in it and let the steam dissolve whatever was gumming things up. I used an electric hot plate to keep the water boiling. I let it boil for a couple of hours. I left the door 2/3 open. The microwave is working again. It is four years old and has been used every day, many times a day before it stopped working.

condensation [steam] is getting into microwave advise: move microwave or move cooker..it does`nt sound good..!

Your microwave turning on by itself is a "self preservation feature" of the GE Profile Advantium and maybe some other models. Read the manual, When your over the range oven gets warm enough, for whatever reason the venting fan comes on until a satisfactory oven temperature is reached. You are not permitted to shut the vent fan off. Also it seems a temperature near room temp must be achieved before it shuts the fan motor off, it is very annoying. We had to return our Advantium because of fan noise. I configured the ovens vent fan to the recirculate direction because we do not have a vent duct that exits the house over our range. When the vent fan acting as the ovens cooling fan automatically turned on we would have to leave the house to hear each other talk. Too bad we really liked the oven other than that major problem. G-Man

That is a normal safety feature.

That's only covered in a very subtle note in the hood fan section of your owner's manual:

NOTE:If the temperature gets too hot around the
microwave oven, the fan in the vent hood will
automatically turn on at the HIGH setting to cool the
oven. It may stay on up to an hour. When this
occurs, the fan can not be turned off.

If for some reason you don't have your owner's manual, you can download it here.

Enter your model number as MV1610ST with no spaces.

You will need the free DJVU viewer to view or print your manual.

We're happy to help you with free advice and we'd appreciate your thoughtful rating of our answer.

There may be a failure of some type in the system processor area.

Maybe some of the steam from the bioling water and oil and water from the cooking got inside on to the circuit board, and caused some damage.

It is also possible that the heat from the stove did some damage.

It is also possible that there was simply a failure in the system processor area.

Jerry G.

Sounds like a mis-aligined, or defective door switch. I would suspect defective.

It may be a bad door switch, a loose door switch mount, or a problem on the control panel, such as a sticky relay.

I would suspect a sticky relay first, but the door switches should be checked.

If you or a friend decide to look into it, we have critical information on safety, disassembly and door switches at our site, linked here on Fixya: http://tinyurl.com/yzjozk

If you need your control panel assembly (smart board) repaired, we do that for $39.95 nationwide.

You can find helpful exploded view diagrams and order parts by entering your full model number here: http://tinyurl.com/gv383

F3 means a problem with the keypad. A bad keypad may be worn out due to age, damaged, or it may have gotten wet or otherwise contaminated. Moisture and contamination can be caused by not using the hood fan when boiling on the stove top, spraying of cleaners, by storing the microwave in an unheated garage or shed, or infestation. I warn my customers to never spray cleaner directly onto the microwave keypad, since the liquid can get inside and "lock up" or even ruin the keypad or controller. Apply an alcohol-based cleaner (such as the purple kind) to a cloth (paper towels can scratch) and gently wipe it off. I suggest to my customers that they NEVER use any ammonia-based cleaner (like the blue stuff) on a microwave, since the ammonia will crack and distort polycarbonate plastics. An exploded view and parts price list can be seen by entering your *entire* model number at the GE parts Web site: http://www.geappliances.com/shop/prts/