I have an SLI-80 F1 and have never had any issues biasing a variety of tube types. I haven't seen the behavior you're describing.
I would agree with Celtic's recommendation to look first at the multimeter itself and test with a different meter. You can get a Craftsman meter from Sears for around twenty dollars that should work well enough to see if the issue is with the amp or the meter. There's a Fluke available on ebay for $28 that might be better than the Craftsman.
Advice from Cary's service department has always been good but for an issue like what you're describing I'd be willing to bet they'll want you to ship the amp to them. That's an expensive and potentially risky proposition because of the risk of shipping damage. As you know, Cary's packaging is very good but that's a very heavy amp.
What kind of tubes are you biasing at 100 mA? The manual says 75 mA without mentioning the tube type and the advice I got from Steve at Cary suggested 65-70 mA for El34 and 6L6 tubes.
I would agree with Celtic's recommendation to look first at the multimeter itself and test with a different meter. You can get a Craftsman meter from Sears for around twenty dollars that should work well enough to see if the issue is with the amp or the meter. There's a Fluke available on ebay for $28 that might be better than the Craftsman.
Advice from Cary's service department has always been good but for an issue like what you're describing I'd be willing to bet they'll want you to ship the amp to them. That's an expensive and potentially risky proposition because of the risk of shipping damage. As you know, Cary's packaging is very good but that's a very heavy amp.
What kind of tubes are you biasing at 100 mA? The manual says 75 mA without mentioning the tube type and the advice I got from Steve at Cary suggested 65-70 mA for El34 and 6L6 tubes.