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BruceRPA's avatar
BruceRPA
Streaming Star
3 years ago

Was there a recent update that caused problem for 4K Sticks?

Sorry if this is long and detailed, but I have a couple of screwball problems on my hands.

ROKU 4K Sticks - Trouble

Was there a very recent update to ROKU that screwed up the 4K sticks?  I am, lets just say more than just a little frustrated.  Five weeks ago I purchased and installed 4 ROKU Ultras, 2 4K streaming sticks, a TABLO, and  a 1VoIP VOIP device.  Everything installed smoothly and everything has been working perfectly since it was installed. For reference, three of the Ultras connect Via Ethernet and one connects Via my very stable 5G WiFi network.  Naturally the two 4K sticks also connect wirelessly.  

Multiple problems have occurred in the past three days with the 4K sticks ONLY, and they are all different.  One of the two sticks, the one in the living room Vizeo TV, was working fine until just now.  I will get back to that in a moment.  The other 4K stick, this one in the kitchen also connected to a Vizeo TV, two days ago began to loose its ability to control volume, mute, and the power button stopped responding.  All other buttons and functions continued to work fine.  Interestingly, if the ROKU was powered down using the power function in the menu, when the ROKU was restarted a few minutes later, everything worked wonderfully again — for about two minutes.  Then it was back to the same 4 buttons not responding on the remote control.  Restarting the the ROKU did not make any change.  Trying each of the four possible TV codes too the Vizeo TV did not make any change.  Factory defaulting the ROKU and setting up everything again resulted in the same pattern of problems with the four unresponsive buttons two minutes or so after power-up.  During my afternoon of troubleshooting yesterday, I also tried several of the different CEC settings on the Vizeo TV, all without success. Since I had another 4K Roku stick that was working normally, I swapped the locations or where the ROKU sticks were installed.  The trouble followed the ROKU that was in the kitchen into the living room and the problems were duplicated there.  The ROKU that was in the living room is now installed in the kitchen and is, or was, working fine last night.  I will discuss todays new problem with that ROKU in moment, below.  So, after all of the extensive troubleshooting and swapping locations yesterday, it was clear that the 4K ROKU streaming stick that was in the kitchen had failed, or at least partially failed.  OK, its not the end of the world.  Its just a streaming stick for a television, not a pacemaker.  Things like that can happen with electronics.  I initiated a support claim for RMA and exchange.  I am one week past their 30 day return for refund policy window.  But again, its not a pacemaker.  I can wait the 3 to 5 weeks to get a working ROKU.  I am not happy about it and I don’t think it is particularity good customer service, but I can live with it.

Soooooo, today at lunch, I turn on the TV in the kitchen (that now has the supposedly working ROKU from the living room installed) and it lost connection to my WiFi network.  The WiFi router is in the next room and it delivers full signal strength throughout the house, especially in the kitchen.  Understand that connectivity has never been a problem with any device, including the ROKUs.  OK, its an anomaly, so I re-entered the WiFi password and connected.  Everything seemed normal again.  Keyword “seemed”.  Well guess what four buttons on this ROKU stopped working?  **bleep**!  Here we go AGAIN!  Reboot, restart — lost connectivity AGAIN!   Enter the password again, all seems good — but only for two minutes or so.  Then I can’t control the volume or turn the TV off using the power button on the remote AGAIN!  One more thing to try.  I tried powering the 4K ROKU stick from an external 2.5Amp USB power supply.  No Joy.  Power down, restart, power-up and, once again, it can’t connect to the WiFi network that it had been using without fail for the past five weeks.  The 4K ROKU stick that was in the kitchen, that is now in a box ready to go back, never had connectivity problems or forgot which network to connect to.  And no, there was not any updates to my router or firewall recently.  I checked.  Absolutely everything else on the network, including the ROKU Ultra that connects Via WiFi, continues to work normally without error.  

I now have two 4K ROKU streaming sticks, both purchased directly from ROKU five weeks ago, that worked perfectly for five weeks and have now have failed with the same new issues and one new issue.  That sounds like more than a coincidence to me, hence my opening question, was there a very recent update to ROKU that screwed up the 4K streaming sticks?  Frankly, I don’t think that I overlooked anything in my troubleshooting efforts but I certainly am open to suggestions.  I am also very curious to hear if others are experiencing the same issues as I am.

The 4K Streaming stick ready to be sent back for exchange - RMA 477647:

Model 3821R2

S/N X025001X9S5E

Software: 11.5.0. Build 4315E6

Device ID S0 JD329X9S5E

————————————-

The 4K Streaming Stick that WAS in the living room, now in the kitchen:

Model 3821R2

S/N X02500VGY23D 

Software version 11.5.0 Build 4315E6

Device ID SOJD329GY23D

TV & Player Setup

34 Replies

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  • AvsGunnar's avatar
    AvsGunnar
    Community Streaming Expert
    3 years ago

    BruceRPA 

    Have you tried your working Ultra at the two locations that your Roku Streaming 4k sticks failed at?

    Unlike any of the other Roku streaming set-top boxes, the Streaming Sticks have a long-range wireless receiver included in the power cord.  This receiver is responsible for both network and remote control communication.  If this receiver fails/failing, then the above described issues can occur.  

    When you were swapping around Sticks between the TVs, did you also swap the receivers or just the devices.  Wondering if maybe you have a bad receiver now connected and your good receiver may be in the box ready to be sent back.

    Additionally, during your troubleshooting, make sure to use the 5volt 1amp power adapter at the wall. (Just to rule out power issues in case you have multiple contributors here).

    Just for info purposes, when having issues with the Sticks, is your wifi Ultra streaming along just fine? (Do you have them all running while troubleshooting). You can ignore the Ethernet ones for now.

    Final test would be to connect them all to the 2.4ghz band and see if the issue persists.  Would help determine if a 5ghz configuration issue or device issue.

    • BruceRPA's avatar
      BruceRPA
      Streaming Star
      3 years ago

      Thank you for the reply and for your suggestions.  I have not moved one of the Ultras to either of the two 4K stick locations.  The televisions have no problem connecting to either 2g or 5g WiFi network.  I have an app on my phone that indicates signal strength that is used for installing and troubleshooting WiFi networks.  Both TVs and their ROKU sticks receive very strong signal from my WiFi router.  There have been no additions or changes to equipment or my network equipment since the installation of all of the ROKU devices.  I have 1GB internet service and a one month old cable modem that exceeds 1GB capability.  The WiFi router performs very well and is very stable with all other devices, other than the two 4K Roku sticks.

      When I swapped the locations of the 4K sticks I did take their power cord with the antenna with the stick.  At that time, and for the five weeks since they were installed and working, both were powered by the USB port in the television.  My 4K ROKU sticks did not come with an external power supply.  When the problem with the second 4K ROKU showed up today, I did connect it to an external 2.5 AMP USB power supply that I had been using with a communications radio.  That did not result in any change.  Both the volume control and power button problem and the new WiFi connectivity problem returned approximately two minutes after power-up and restarting the device and the TV.  

      I did try again to select all four possible TV codes for the Vizeo TV.  No Joy.  I also changed and reset the CEC settings on the Vizeo TV.  Again, no joy.  

      I did not have other TVs / ROKU devices on at the same time that I was troubleshooting either 4K stick but I did try all four of the other Ultras at one time or another between yesterday and today.  That includes, several times, the Ultra that connects Via WiFi.  There were no problems with any of them.  

      Lastly, I did try both the 2g and the 5g WiFi networks at various times while troubleshooting.  No difference was noted.  Either network had no effect on the volume and power button / new Vizeo compatibility problem.  Interestingly, the stick remembered the correct network password after restarting but it would not log on without me clicking on “connect”.  Also.  If I went to the ROKU Home Screen as usual before turning the TV off (this tome with the “Power Off” selection in the ROKU menu) and then came back and hit the power button on the ROKU remote, the TV and the ROKU seemed to start up normally, except that the ROKU showed “Not Connected”.  Going to the network menu and simply clicking on the “connect” icon would cause the ROKU to connect and begin seemingly normal operation.  It would stay connected for hours but the volume, mute and power buttons that worked at startup no longer worked.  

      The thing that I find to be so confusing is that everything worked perfectly without any problems at all for more than a month after they were installed just five weeks ago.  If this was just one product that was causing these problems, I would be able to accept that it had a bad memory location or other failing internal component.  Now that the second identical device is exhibiting the same problem AND and additional unrelated problem, I have to wonder just what is going on.  There is all that and I find it difficult to believe that I am the only one experiencing these new to me problems. I have been a tech since the 70s and have chased many, many peculiar problems with electronic systems and equipment, but this one has me baffled, mostly because of how well it worked initially.

      Thanks again for helping me work through troubleshooting my installation.

      • AvsGunnar's avatar
        AvsGunnar
        Community Streaming Expert
        3 years ago

        BruceRPA 

        Sorry, I misunderstood your remote issue after a closer re-reading of your initial posting.  Seems like limited to just the TV controls, so need to concentrate on the CEC for that.  There are a few different postings throughout the Community with Vizio having problems with the Roku remote.  From what I have gathered, it seems to just start working again on its own.  Most postings seem to indicate that it is likely a Vizio CEC issue and not a Roku issue there.

        With the Streaming Sticks, the remote for your TV will be operating through CEC. (I did see you mentioned you reset it.)  May just have to keep trying to refresh and reset the CEC.  Maybe try Factory Resetting the Vizio TV and see it that resolves the CEC issue.

        Some other suggestions involved trying to use a different HDMI port.  Different things seemed to work for different people.  Seems like some Vizio TVs may just be stubborn and finicky with the Roku remotes.

        https://community.roku.com/t5/Remotes/Remote-won-t-work-with-Vizio-tv/m-p/729635#M25156

        https://community.roku.com/t5/Remotes/Roku-remote-on-off-volume-stopped-working-with-Vizio-TV/m-p/843847

        One more setting to consider regarding the Roku and remote is the power savings mode introduced in 11.5.   Try disabling it. Settings/System/Power/Auto Power Savings/20-min inactivity.

        This power saving feature has caused some issues with HDMI (which in turn could theoretically cause some HDMI-CEC issues).

        -----

        Regarding the disconnection.  What is the model number of the router and ISP (internet service provider)?  Without knowing these, just verify that the router is not using DFS channels (52-140) if you have the Wireless channels configured to "Auto".  This would prevent connection on the 5ghz band.  If you have a cable ISP (AT&T, Xfinity/Comcast, Cox), then should verify that your 2.4ghz is configured to use b/g/n as the Wireless Mode/Protocol. (this is preventing some Roku devices from connecting to these cable-ISP routers on the 2.4ghz due to the router firmware).

        -----

        So, it does look you have two seperate issues going on here.  The remote is likely HDMI, or CEC related.

        Don't really have enough network info to advise on the disconnections yet.  Feel free to post back with your 2.4ghz and 5ghz wireless settings (modes/protocols, channels, bandwidth/channel widths, security sandard ie. WPA2/AES or other).