Where is tech support?

[Coffee]

I just bought 2 SB3's and I've had nothing but problems. One of them is now completely frozen saying that there is no firmware but it cannot connect to the network to download firmware. The other one disconnects from SqueezeNetwork all the time. Sometimes just navigating using the remote causes the SB to reboot, sometimes irrelevant things happen such as the mini VU meter became an equalizer even though I wasn't even near that part of the menu system.

I have tried to contact SD tech support but all I got was answering machines and support tickets, meanwhile I'm stuck with $600 worth of junk!!!

Thank god I didn't buy a Transporter, which I seriously considered.

[kdf]

Where is tech support?

Support tickets is what support does. No one can instantly solve a
far away problem that involves as many environmental setup issues and
depends on other equipment with a snap of the fingers. Let alone if
there is a voice with that attitude at the other end. Feel free to use
teh 30-day return policy if you feel they are junk.
-kdf

[Coffee]

Support tickets is what support does. No one can instantly solve a
far away problem that involves as many environmental setup issues and
depends on other equipment with a snap of the fingers. Let alone if
there is a voice with that attitude at the other end. Feel free to use
teh 30-day return policy if you feel they are junk.
-kdf

It is precisely because there are so many happy non-SD-employee users in these forums that I took a leap of faith and bought the 2 SBs together, instead of buying one first and test it before I commit to the second one. I figured how can so many users be wrong. In fact, I was so confident that I ordered them ahead of time, because I was going to install one for my mother who lives near Mountainview, CA, the home of SD! My mother is 75 years old and I thought the SB is perfect for her to listen to Radio Hongkong. I flew to CA, stayed there for a couple of days. I set up the SB and SN. Everything worked beautifully for the 2 days I was there. We were able to tune in to RTHK all night long.

But then as soon as I left, all hell broke loose. Her connections were cut all the time, sometimes in as little as several minutes. I tried my SB in Vancouver. Same thing. Then both SBs start to experience the "can't connect to SN" problem as reported by other users on this 92-postings thread:

http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=27977

And that's not the end of it. My mother's SB crapped out completely, stuck at the setup stage and none of the arrow buttons work. Occasionally by unplugging the power it will complain about the missing firmware message. But everything is still stuck.

My own SB is not fairing that much better either, as described in my original posting here.

I do some sort of tech support for my own software product, and I understand the difficulties of trying to please everyone. BUT complaints comes in different severity levels. I'm ok if I don't get fast response from minor problems such as SlimServer not being able to read Unicode filenames. But when the problem is a completely frozen SB, the tech support team should give it a high priority.

Because of my so-far-apparently-ill-placed faith in the quality of this product, I have missed the 30-day return period even though I have only used them for less than a week. It's a pity because I think the product idea is absolutely great! And I thought the technology is not that hard either. The SB is just (or can be) a mini computer with everything other than what's required for audio streaming stripped out. What possibly can go wrong? Seems like everything.

[Pale Blue Ego]

Hang in there, the folks at Slim will gladly replace any faulty hardware you might have. They or the people on this forum can help you diagnose the problems you're having.

Am I correct in saying you do not have physical access to your Mom's SB3 at this time, since you're in Vancouver? Maybe we can help you get the Vancouver SB3 straightened out.

There are some debugging options in the server that will let you see exactly what is happening, but first let us know what version of slimserver you're running, what OS, are you using wired or wireless, etc?

It sounds like you're using SqueezeNetwork for a lot of your listening. Do you have the same problems when you try to connect to Radio Hongkong from your own server? Or are you even running a local server?

Give us more info and we can help you narrow down the problem.

[JJZolx]

I have tried to contact SD tech support but all I got was answering machines and support tickets, meanwhile I'm stuck with $600 worth of junk!!!

Customers can't get hold of tech support. SD employees have shown little or no presence in the forums for over two months. Software development and bug fixes have come to a virtual halt.

And kdf is doing more damage control than usual.

WTF is going on at Slim Devices?

[Coffee]

Hang in there, the folks at Slim will gladly replace any faulty hardware you might have. They or the people on this forum can help you diagnose the problems you're having.

Am I correct in saying you do not have physical access to your Mom's SB3 at this time, since you're in Vancouver? Maybe we can help you get the Vancouver SB3 straightened out.

There are some debugging options in the server that will let you see exactly what is happening, but first let us know what version of slimserver you're running, what OS, are you using wired or wireless, etc?

It sounds like you're using SqueezeNetwork for a lot of your listening. Do you have the same problems when you try to connect to Radio Hongkong from your own server? Or are you even running a local server?

Give us more info and we can help you narrow down the problem.

Thanks for the kind response. Any help from anybody is appreciated! I really do NOT want to return the SB. As I said, it's a great product idea. I just want it to work. There is no good competitor replacement. It's either the SB or nothing.

You're right. I'm doing tech support for my mother over the phone, and I'm not getting very far, particularly when her SB is simply frozen.

Actually I bought my own SB for hi-fi purposes. I myself was never going to listen to internet radio with my SB. I bought a Benchmark DAC1 just for the SB (that's why I seriously considered getting the Transporter), hooked up to a Rotel power amp and 3a speakers. But I have not been able to enjoy any of that, being engrossed in the SN problems that my mother is experiencing.

I have been running my SB right next to my wireless router just to make sure I have 100% signal strength. I run a PC with XP and I intend to run SS on it to source my FLAC files. But for now I turned all that off in order to test my mother's configuration, which most often has to work without a PC and connecting to SN via a LinkSys wireless router, using some sort of DSL (I don't know who the ISP is).

I didn't even bother connecting anything to the SB's outputs. I just watch the display to see if the connection is still active. I run Ping (as suggested by a forum member) on my PC to make sure my internet connection is ok. I even run WMP tuned to the same RTHK station on the PC.

With this setup, I get disconnected from RTHK at random intervals. Sometimes a connection can last up to an hour, but sometimes it's disconnected in only a few minutes. There was nothing wrong other than an occasionally missed reply from the ping. WMP never gets disconnected, even though occasionally it pauses and needs to re-buffer.

[kdf]

Re: Where is tech support?

Have you tried a wired connection? wireless conditions change all of
the time.

Have you tried new batteries? yes, they ship new, but you never know
when some batteries just won't like even a short time on the shelf.

Have you tried factory reset (press and hold add during power up until
the logo is done)

Of course, you probably don't want to have to ask your mother to do
all of that, especially as you need to redo all of the settings after
a reset.

-k

[kdf]

Re: Where is tech support?

Quoting JJZolx <JJZolx.2iep2z1165428902 (AT) no-mx (DOT) forums.slimdevices.com>:

> Customers can't get hold of tech support.

A customer...and he's got a support ticket, so clearly DID get a hold
of tech support but is simply and understandably upset that the issue
isn't solved. no music, sucks.

> SD employees have shown
> little or no presence in the forums for over two months.

well, I can't really answer this without coming off as really harsh
about the forums. I know that some have stopped due to productivity
issues. Either simply the negative mindset that comes from cases of
speculation, unfounded claims, or simply the time it takes to keep up
with the volume of posts, I can't speak to everyone's reasons.

> Software
> development and bug fixes have come to a virtual halt.

untrue. well, unless you have a very wide definition of 'virtual'

> And kdf is doing more damage control than usual.

eh? I don't think I have ever been accused of damage 'control' before?

> WTF is going on at Slim Devices?

probably getting real work done.
-kdf

[snarlydwarf]

SD employees have shown little or no presence in the forums for over two months.

Sean posted just a couple days ago... as long as I've been around here, he tends to operate in silent mode quite often. Andy has been posting a bit as people reported some SN problems and feature requests (like a history of recently-listened-to-stations). Jeb has posted about a review..

Software development and bug fixes have come to a virtual halt.

They have? Andy and Dan both checked stuff in a couple days ago. That there hasn't been a "release" only means they have more bugs they want to squash. (The seem to like x.x.1 releases, but really really hate x.x.2's...)

It looks like Dan even fixed the no-doubt-annoying mysql-kept-running problem on Windows a couple days ago. I would say that alone is worth holding up 6.5.1 from "release," and there are probably other things he wants to fix before calling it done, not to mention giving that one a few days for people to say "thanks, Dan it worked!" or "On my system it didn't" so he knows if it really is fixed....

Development is major in the 7.0 tree at the moment: in fact, it looks to me like Dan is doing much of what he did a few months ago when the database backend changed: doing most of his work on a private tree and warning people that various API's are going to have to change in order to provide what he wants...

Only one I don't see much of is Dean, but then, he can go into Silent mode, too. Perhaps he is working on something cool that will make us all sell our SB2/3's. He last posted 3 weeks ago about the position of the IR receiver....

[Coffee]

Quoting JJZolx <JJZolx.2iep2z1165428902 (AT) no-mx (DOT) forums.slimdevices.com>:

> Customers can't get hold of tech support.

A customer...and he's got a support ticket, so clearly DID get a hold
of tech support ...

-kdf

Actually the ticket was generated by an auto-email answering robot. So the fact that I received a ticket doesn't mean any real person is actually there. However, I sure hope the delay is simply due to work overload.

[Coffee]

Sean posted just a couple days ago...

I assume 'snarlydwarf' is an SD employee. In that case it's good. At least SD folks haven't just cashed in their stock options and quit Logitech. There's still a chance that I can get my SBs to work.

[snarlydwarf]

I assume 'snarlydwarf' is an SD employee. In that case it's good. At least SD folks haven't just cashed in their stock options and quit Logitech. There's still a chance that I can get my SBs to work.

You would assume wrong.

I just have no life and hang out here.

(and for clarification: "Here" meaning the forum. I have never even talked to Sean/Dean/Dan/Richard/Etc on the phone. I did talk to someone in Sales a loong time ago when I was dumb and typo'd my visa number on the order page, though... that's the only other-than-http contact I have ever had with any Slim employee.)

[Coffee]

Have you tried a wired connection? wireless conditions change all of
the time.

Have you tried new batteries? yes, they ship new, but you never know
when some batteries just won't like even a short time on the shelf.

Have you tried factory reset (press and hold add during power up until
the logo is done)

Of course, you probably don't want to have to ask your mother to do
all of that, especially as you need to redo all of the settings after
a reset.

-k

I haven't tried any of that. At this point having to redo all the settings is a MINOR concern. I'll ask my mother (actually my sister, who at least can follow the English instructions) to do the factory reset trick (I wasn't aware of that possibility). If that can get the SB to become unfrozen, it'll be a significant step forward.

I don't think batteries have anything to do with the disconnection problems. I wasn't even touching the remote when the connection is dropped. I spent a lot of time just sitting there and watching the SD VU meter stop for no reason. Sometimes it will reboot itself, again without me touching the remote.

I'll try a wired connection tonight when I get off work.

[Pale Blue Ego]

I have been running my SB right next to my wireless router just to make sure I have 100% signal strength. I run a PC with XP and I intend to run SS on it to source my FLAC files. But for now I turned all that off in order to test my mother's configuration, which most often has to work without a PC and connecting to SN via a LinkSys wireless router, using some sort of DSL (I don't know who the ISP is).

I didn't even bother connecting anything to the SB's outputs. I just watch the display to see if the connection is still active. I run Ping (as suggested by a forum member) on my PC to make sure my internet connection is ok. I even run WMP tuned to the same RTHK station on the PC.

With this setup, I get disconnected from RTHK at random intervals. Sometimes a connection can last up to an hour, but sometimes it's disconnected in only a few minutes. There was nothing wrong other than an occasionally missed reply from the ping. WMP never gets disconnected, even though occasionally it pauses and needs to re-buffer.

It sounds like you're using SqueezeNetwork for RTHK. That involves another internet hop, which may be introducing delays. Also, WMP may use a larger buffer than the SB3 and therefore may recover from temporary outages better.

If you run a local Slimserver, then you can connect directly to the RTHK stream rather than hopping first to SqueezeNetwork, then to RTHK. True, the SqueezeNetwork method SHOULD work, but you're introducing another variable which neither you nor Slim has complete control over (the big, bad internet).

You should try running SS on your XP and connecting through that. That way, you can also test out how it works with your FLACs.

IMO, buying the Squeezebox mainly for SqueezeNetwork is somewhat risky. SqueezeNetwork is an added-value feature and not generally the main purpose of Squeezebox. You can get almost all the functionality of SqueezeNetwork (and better reliability) by running SS locally. I do understand this may not be the ideal setup for your Mom. Still, I think if we can unfreeze her SB3 she should be okay.

[kdf]

Re: Where is tech support?

Quoting Coffee <Coffee.2ieqxn1165431301 (AT) no-mx (DOT) forums.slimdevices.com>:


> Actually the ticket was generated by an auto-email answering robot. So
> the fact that I received a ticket doesn't mean any real person is
> actually there. However, I sure hope the delay is simply due to work
> overload.

ah ok. Different type of ticket. My apologies. I was aware of an
understaffed problem not that long ago. Understandably, the
announcement and subsequent marketing of the Logitech boyout is
generating a lot of inquiries. SD is a surprisingly small group. The
second problem with email is that if the triage is what is falling
behind, there is no way to get the priority determined (only have to
look at bugzilla to see that people will tend to overestimate severity
if they select it themselves)

Being in Vancouver, have you tried calling? Business hours are the
same and LD rates aren't that bad from here (I'm in Richmond, myself).
They do actually have real SD employees to answer. If they aren't,
then that would at least confirm that they are overloaded. Hopefully
that is temporary.

-kdf