Forum Discussion

Jherriott's avatar
Jherriott
Newbie
6 years ago
Solved

How to fix 'insufficient power' or 'low power' warning

I'm watching the LSU-CLEMSON game and all of a sudden, my Roku says "insufficient power"..."USB port will not power this Roku." What happened? How do I fix?
app playback
low power warning
DavidB65's avatar
DavidB65
Reel Rookie
5 years ago

Update - I tried changing power supplies on the chance that the Express actually was actually trying to draw more power. The brick that came with it was rated at 5V/1A, and I switched to a 5V/1.55A brick I had for my cell phone, which works fine. The low power warning continued to occur (and the draw when it is in the error state is 5.04V/.68A, well below the rating for the power supply. I also disabled adblocking to see if there was an issue there.)

This reinforces the theory that it is a software problem from the most recent update.

This is extremely frustrating, and while I did receive a reply that the support team will investigate, I don't hold out much confidence that this will be resolved - given the forum history, this has been a known problem for quite some time, and no resolution has been implemented. What needs to happen is that a means is made available to revert this to an earlier software version, but as with any closed system, that supposes that Roku is willing to do so, which I doubt, given that they don't even provide support options for these earlier units.

I have ordered a Firestick, which arrives early next week. If that is reliable, this will be my last Roku, and I'm not going to be recommending them to anyone. Even the Firestick is a gamble, since it is yet another closed system. If I have problems with it, my next route will be an unlocked Android box or Raspberry Pi that I can control the builds on.

Chaslen's avatar
Chaslen
Channel Surfer
5 years ago

Hey DavidB65

Thanks for the information and good luck with the Firestick. I have no experience with the Firestick so you might be on to something there. I'm not going to continue with the community so this is my final post. I see nothing changing with Roku, so it's time to move on. Maybe 2021 will allow us to move away from the tv some.

Take care

Chaslen

  • benJet's avatar
    benJet
    Reel Rookie
    5 years ago

    For everyone, I received the Firestick. Right out of the box it is a more quality product than the Roku. It would take 30 seconds to try to rewind a scene ten seconds on the Roku Plex app. On the Firestick, the process is instantaneous. I have the least expensive Firestick. It's the same one that my son has had for two years. He brought his Firestick at the same time I bought my last Roku. His stick is still going strong.

    I hate to give up on the little guy and now have to give my money to Goliath but when the little guy basically says "screw you", I say "screw them". If Roku would have just told the truth, or told us anything practical, I would have given them anther chance. Telling us to go into the settings of a non-functioning Roku to retrieve the serial number is insulting.

    • Anjin's avatar
      Anjin
      Reel Rookie
      5 years ago

      It's a shame, because the Plex interface is so good on the Roku compared with other devices. I have no idea why for example you can't easily remove an item from a playlist or set the subtitles to only appear on replay when using the Android version of Plex. In fact, the various apps are so different you could be excused for thinking that the teams working on each platform had never seen a screenshot from any other version.