Solving playback issues

[ajcizmee]

I purchased the Roku premiere in October 2020 for a Christmas gift.  It is showing a insuffiecient power warning on the TV and a red light on the Roku.  I have the provided USB cord plugged into the TV’s USB port and the power cord plugged into a wall outlet.  I changed the USB cord to a different port on the TV, power cord to a different wall outlet, and it’s still showing the error and red light.  What’s the solution that will work?

[atc98092]

@ajcizmee don't use the USB port in the TV at all. Use the power adapter that came with the Premiere and connect it to the wall outlet. Many TVs don't provide enough power with their USB ports. They work for a while but eventually can't keep up.

[ajcizmee]

@atc98092 maybe I’m not understanding what you’re saying but, I have to plug the supplied usb cord into my TV USB port in order for my TV to recognize the Roku. I also plug the power cord that has the usb end that plugs into a power adapter into the wall outlet as well. Both at the same time.  However the TV continues to display “Insufficient power”.

[ixtasis23]

It is my belief that Roku designed their products this way. It's planned obsolescence so that you have to replace the product every so often if you want to keep using it.  Many companies do that these days. Very few items are made to last in this take the cash for your trash economy. I'm so sick of it. It destroys the environment and traps people in useless, dead end jobs. When will we manage our technology humanely? When will society catch up? 

[atc98092]

@ajcizmee Yes, there's a confusion here. The cable you are connecting to the TV is an HDMI cable, not USB. The USB cable is much smaller and is only used to power the Roku. You are connecting the USB cable to the provided wall power adapter, so that is good. 

Sometimes the USB cable becomes damaged, even though you can't see anything wrong with it. You could try a replacement cable, which is simply a cable with a mini-USB connection on each end. It's also possible the wall adapter is failing. Those too can often be found fairly inexpensively. 

However, depending on the age of your Roku it might still be under warranty. If so, Roku should replace it. Send a private message to @RokuDanny-R with your Roku serial number and your email address. Don't post that information here in the open forum. 

[atc98092]

@ixtasis23 I have Roku players that are many years old and still work. However, the oldest ones are lacking the power required to run the latest channels/apps. Some might call that planned obsolescence, but others will say it's simply because electronic devices continue to improve with time and the channel/app developers are simply designing their channels/apps for the latest hardware.

And that's because the customer continues to want more and better stuff. You can't blame the companies for continuing to provide what consumers ask for. I have some old Sony media players that still work as well, likely over 10 years old now. But they don't support the latest codecs, and can't even keep up with an uncompressed Blu Ray stream. Time marches on, and we have to pay to play. 

[ixtasis23]

This is specifically in relation to this "insufficient power warning" that both of my Roku devices experience and that many others, with varying Roku devices, have also experienced. It's a Roku issue having nothing to do with technological advances keeping up with the times.

You sound like you don't understand the meaning of planned obsolescence and tried to Google it and respond to that without any context as to the issue at hand (see topic field).

[surferscott]

FYI, I thought I would update my last post from almost 9 months ago. I don't know what changed, but I stopped receiving insufficient power warnings about a month or two after the initial warnings. Since then, my Roku device has worked perfectly. Go figure.

[PaulWilliams]

We only used ours as a display sign at work, so we weren't even adding Apps or watching channels.   Tried new usb chords and plugs, and no go - we threw it away.  Avoid this product and company!  

[ashnmcdougall]

Never had a problem with my roku until today I was watching Netflix and then boom the insufficient power message came up. I am using the cable and plug that came with me roku. I tried a new cable and plug error popped up again. I tried plugging the roku into the tv with both original cable and new cable same error. 8 tried a different TV same error. I tried a master reset same error.