ETC Ion freezing and going into blackout..HELP!

[longbordr13]

I am the board operator for my high schools theater and our ETC Ion keeps freezing and then blacking out all lights. This happends randomly about once per show! We are in desperate need of help. Please feel free to give any imput or if you have any questions please ask. We are one week from production and need our board at 100%.

Thanks, Griffin.

 

[FMEng]

I am the board operator for my high schools theater and our ETC Ion keeps freezing and then blacking out all lights. This happends randomly about once per show! We are in desperate need of help. Please feel free to give any imput or if you have any questions please ask. We are one week from production and need our board at 100%.

Thanks, Griffin.

Contact ETC customer support ASAP.

 

[longbordr13]

Thank for the fast reply!... We have contacted them but cannot seem to get an answer.

 

[chausman]

Contact ETC customer support ASAP.

For you in the US, that is 1-800-688-4116.

Now, after you call them, put that number in your phone, tell other techs about it, and tape it to the wall or table in the booth so EVERYONE knows who to call if they have problems.

Thank for the fast reply!... We have contacted them but cannot seem to get an answer.

What have they told you?

 

[longbordr13]

For you in the US, that is 1-800-688-4116.

Now, after you call them, put that number in your phone, tell other techs about it, and tape it to the wall or table in the booth so EVERYONE knows who to call if they have problems.



What have they told you?

ETC has told us that they will look into it and get back to us, but it has been two weeks and we have heard nothing.

 

[jmabray]

Hmmmm.... That doesn't sound like them at all. Did they give you a notification number? Call them back and give them the notification number and let them know again that you need your console up and running

 

[mstaylor]

They have incredible customer service but if they had to figure it out, even they can drop the ball. Call them again and see if they have something.
When you say it freezes then blacks out, is it an auto follow or random? In other words does it lock then 3 seconds later shutdown or is it sometimes a few seconds/other times five minutes?
You say it happens at random cues, is there any similar function that is happening that causes the freeze. What I am getting at is there a specific action, instrument or typr of instrument that is common to all the cues when it freezes. Are you running a cue stack or subs when it happens?
I don't really have a clue what is causing it but I am trying to narrow it down to an action or instrument to see if it is cascading back to the board.

 

[chausman]

Have you made sure you are on the newest (current) software? I believe 1.9.8 is the most recent release. The older versions had some weird bugs in them that were later fixed.

 

[starksk]

Hi Griffin,

I am sorry to see that you are having issues with your console. As suggested above, please give us a call at 800-688-4116 to discuss this case. Alternatively, if you would like to PM me the details including your school name, I would be happy to check on any ongoing/outstanding issues.

 

[longbordr13]

ok. I just called and i talked to Shaun. He told me i need to pull apart the console and reseat the RAM and hard drive cable. Does this sound right?

 

[icewolf08]

ok. I just called and i talked to Shaun. He told me i need to pull apart the console and reseat the RAM and hard drive cable. Does this sound right?

Well, it certainly can't hurt to reseat the RAM and the HD, but it seems unlikely that it is the root of your problem. Unless you routinely move your console and play the drums on it, the RAM and HD connections should stay nice and tight. I suppose there is some off chance that you have an off-balance fan that is vibrating things loose, but again, unlikely.

You say the console freezes and then the lights black-out. I assume that means that you have to reboot the system, it doesn't just suddenly start back working again. That would makeme think that it is more of a software problem rather than a hardware problem. If there was a problem with the RAM or the HD, then odds are your console wouldn't boot correctly to begin with. I would start by saving your current show to removable media. Next, make sure that no one has installed anything that doesn't belong on the console. Make sure that your console is not connected to the internet (with proper precautions this may be acceptable in order to download updates, but in general it is frowned upon). Then do a clean (re)install of the lastest version of the OS, you should be able to download it from ETC. Then load up your show and try again.

If the problem persists you may have to go so far as to reformat the drive and reinstall everything from the embedded Windows base system up. I don't know if ETC provides a way to do this on your own or if you have to take it to a service center. It is a computer, when it freezes, it probably means that some files somewhere on it are corrupt and making a mess of things.

 

[starksk]

ok. I just called and i talked to Shaun. He told me i need to pull apart the console and reseat the RAM and hard drive cable. Does this sound right?

Depending on the issue, that could be the proper solution. Please follow up with Shaun after following the instructions he sent as to the resolution of your issue. As this is a rare occurrence, we do want to make sure that we have solved your issue.

Edit: Typing and answering the phone whilst icewolf08 was posting.

 

[starksk]

Well, it certainly can't hurt to reseat the RAM and the HD, but it seems unlikely that it is the root of your problem. Unless you routinely move your console and play the drums on it, the RAM and HD connections should stay nice and tight. I suppose there is some off chance that you have an off-balance fan that is vibrating things loose, but again, unlikely.
...
If the problem persists you may have to go so far as to reformat the drive and reinstall everything from the embedded Windows base system up. I don't know if ETC provides a way to do this on your own or if you have to take it to a service center. It is a computer, when it freezes, it probably means that some files somewhere on it are corrupt and making a mess of things.

There is a way to do this, requiring a special USB drive from us at ETC. However, please follow Shaun's instructions first before we go down this path.

 

[SteveB]

And as point of reference, the kind of problem you are experiencing, as well as the actions taken to date, namely calling the ETC Tech Support folks and having them help to resolve the issue, is now beyond the need to replicate it here on Control Booth.

At this point I would be working exclusively with phone tech support and I would not be 2nd guessing their advice here on CB. As well, having Kirk answer questions that you've asked of Shawn, becomes a communications problem within ETC, as Kirk now needs to be a 2nd tech support person for your particular problem, which can lead to confusion.

Trust us that the ETC phone support folks are as good as it gets and is one of the primary reasons folks purchase ETC and you will not get as good a reply by asking here on CB at the same time.

 

[Footer]

And as point of reference, the kind of problem you are experiencing, as well as the actions taken to date, namely calling the ETC Tech Support folks and having them help to resolve the issue, is now beyond the need to replicate it here on Control Booth.

At this point I would be working exclusively with phone tech support and I would not be 2nd guessing their advice here on CB. As well, having Kirk answer questions that you've asked of Shawn, becomes a communications problem within ETC, as Kirk now needs to be a 2nd tech support person for your particular problem, which can lead to confusion.

Trust us that the ETC phone support folks are as good as it gets and is one of the primary reasons folks purchase ETC and you will not get as good a reply by asking here on CB at the same time.

I would however be very interested to know why it is doing this, so some follow up is called for.

 

[hobbsies]

How new is your Ion? I know some of the new ions have a 10-15% failure rate with their hard drives, could be a bad hard drive. Purely speculating though, should listen to the ETC tech support advice.

 

[SteveB]

How new is your Ion? I know some of the new ions have a 10-15% failure rate with their hard drives, could be a bad hard drive. .

As much as I like my Ion, I am aware that it has it's odd moments and I know that not every product is perfect, but I have to ask as to where you heard or learned that ?, as it sound's a lot like the kind of comment that starts as a rumor from somebody on the road who passes along something THEY heard but might not actually have an basis in reality.

I question it because I pay a lot of attention both here on CB, on The LightNetwork as well as on the ETC forums and one would think we'd be reading about something like that. For the something like 2,000 Ions shipped last I heard, that would be 200- 300 bad HD's, so I'm skeptical.

EDIT: Here's a statistic from PC World: "The Carnegie Mellon study examined large production systems, including high-performance computing sites and Internet services sites running SCSI, FC and SATA drives. The data sheets for those drives listed MTBF between 1 million to 1.5 million hours, which the study said should mean annual failure rates of at most 0.88%. However, the study showed typical annual replacement rates of between 2% and 4%, "and up to 13% observed on some systems"

This is part of an article about how the PC manufacturers are covering up how bad the problem is. In any event to have the kinds of failures you describe, ETC would have to either be buying really cheap or possibly have a very large bad batch. I can't see that from a company manufacturing equipment where such failures are catastrophic to the device and result in a loss of the device for an event.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/1295...e_rates_much_higher_than_makers_estimate.html

 

[wakkoroti]

In the past I've had a bad peripheral take down the Ion - bad mouse, keyboard, touchscreen. I unplugged all of them until I rooted it down to a bad keyboard.

 

[jmabray]

This is part of an article about how the PC manufacturers are covering up how bad the problem is. In any event to have the kinds of failures you describe, ETC would have to either be buying really cheap or possibly have a very large bad batch. I can't see that from a company manufacturing equipment where such failures are catastrophic to the device and result in a loss of the device for an event.

Study: Hard Drive Failure Rates Much Higher Than Makers Estimate | PCWorld

ETC, much like any large manufacturer, buys it's parts from different suppliers. And they have had bad batches of different parts in the past (power cubes, etc) When tech support sees a spate of calls all having the same issue, it is very easy for them (due to ETC's record keeping) to track the batch down and they will always (at least to my knowledge based upon past experience) fix the issue with the affected customers.

Follow Shaun's advice. They see more calls about weird stuff than you can imagine. They know how to get the issues fixed and know what causes what. And if you truly have a weird issue that they haven't ever seen before, they will take you through all the requisite steps to get it fixed. That's why they are the best and that they have the reputation that they do. They worked hard to earn it and they work just as hard to keep it.

 

[jglodeklights]

Yes, I am also skeptical of the 10-15% failure statistic as, even in low volume manufacturing situations such as this, that would be extremely unlikely to produce that high of a percentage unless there was some inherent flaw in the component design (i.e. Sony utilizing plastic instead of ceramic casings with their one line of CCD chips a few years back). The average for DEFECTIVE products among electronics manufacturers rests at around 2-4%. This means that 2-4% of all products sold by any given manufacturer have some mistake in the manufacturing, whether by them or a supplier. In niche and low volume situations, this is usually lower, around the .5-1% mark.

Skeptical look Skeptical look.