Wi-Fi & connectivity

[Neverenderday]

I have a 40" TCL Roku TV Model 40S325. I have two issues, one thats more urgent to fix: 1. All of a sudden, I've lost the ability to connect to my 5ghz network on it at 2am this morning and 2. I've been having issues with the TV running extremely slow and crashing/rebooting randomly for months. In specific order:

I've been in IT for 20 years, so when I lost my 5ghz wifi connection at 2am randomly, I did everything possible to get it back.

1. I was out of town for 4 days, got home last night and noticed that both my TCL Roku TV and Roku Express connected to another TV had apparently received an update because now there's a ton more (useless) menu items on both. It's on version 12.5.5 build 4174-58.

At 2am, my router restarted and I lost the ability to connect to my 5ghz network on the Roku TV. Note: My Roku Express and all other dozen devices that use my 5ghz reconnected just fine. My 2.4ghz bqnd is also running everything find. It's JUST this TV.

Of course, I did everything possible to try to resolve this. Restarted the router and TV multiple timss (even though no issues with any other devices on either bands), I reset the network connection on the TV, I tried changing the wifi channels manually to those in the recommended ranges by Roku - no dice. It Will connect to my 2.4ghz just fine in an instant. I can see my 5ghz network but when I try to connect, it'll spin for 20 seconds then fail to the default error 014.

Now, common sense would be just one device not connecting would mean a possible wifi channel issue but I verified this by manually setting to different ones and also on auto, including checking DFS. It can see the 5 network but can't connect but can on the 2.4. I can't have steaming on my 2.4 network as I have that isolated to run specific equipment and don't need anything else bogging down the speed on that band.

The ONLY thing I have not tried yet is a factory reset. I'm about to get desperate enough to do so.

2. I've had progressively worsening issues with lag, slowness and crashing for quite a long time where itll just randomly reboot. I've skimmed the Roku forums about this issue months ago and read Roku support asking the same questions over and over again to everyone who has very commonly reported this issue and have not found an answer. I've noticed this gets worse with EVERY update Roku pushes out and it only seems to impact TV's that have Roku OS built in; not the seperate plug in devices because I have absolutely no issue with my Express doing this. I'm assuming it's the same situation where, such as in the case of any computer, over the years the hardware begins to become absolete to keep up with the amount of bulk updates/junk/software that keeps getting added to the OS. I believe this is a 2019 model, so I wouldn't be surprised if this is what's happening. I also wouldn't be surprised that whatever update hit while I was out of town and doing a hard restart after my router rebooted suddenly caused a glitch in the OS on the TV for me not to be able to connect to my 5ghz. At least, someone from Roku should at least acknowledge this as a strong possibility of this commonly reported issue with crashing for any TV's with the OS built in.

Ive listed model and software version, the troubleshooting I've done and have already read through the forums but nothing recommended has helped in this case. Other than a factory reset, what else could possibly be tried here that.i haven't already done? It's not the channel, it's not the wifi, it's the TV. I've narrowed it down to that. Any other ideas would be appreciated but I can't think of anything else.

Thanks.

[RokuJohnB]

Hi @Neverenderday,

Greetings from the Roku Community, and thanks for raising this concern directly with us!

We want to further investigate this issue that you had with the Roku TV since, after the update, it will not connect to the 5GHz connection. Can you please provide the following information below?

• Do you have a Macbook that allows you to collect wireless packet capture?
• Did we recently make any changes to your network or network provider?
• Who is your internet service provider?

We look forward to hearing from you soon.

Thanks,
John

[Neverenderday]

Hi @RokuJohnB 

I do not own any Apple products and refuse to. I only deal with them at work when I have to. There's plenty of other ways to check packet loss, however.

I ran a consistent ping with all the dozen devices I run on the 5 band AND without them connected and there's zero packet loss in either case. I do not have any speed issues, either. I'm running consistently at 500mbps over wifi, much higher on the devices connected via cat5e.

My ISP is Cox. I use their gateway directly (shouldve gotten my own router but ive never had an issue with theirs and still dont) I wasted an hour of my life on the phone with Tier 2 and we all came to the conclusion it is NOT a router issue. There were absolutely no configuration changes made to anything. All my settings are the same exact as they have been for years.

All dozen of my security cameras/IoT devices that run on the 2.4 band (and now the TV) are working fine and so are all my other devices that use 5.

The only thing that refuses to connect to 5ghz is the TCL Roku TV. I can see the network, I can try to connect but it fails. It worked perfectly fine until the reboot of both the TV and the router.

Ive already thoroughly covered and made sure this wasn't a channel issue. Again, my Roku Express is working perfectly fine as well. No other devices were impacted.

 I've covered everything I possibly can to fix it except for a factory reset, which might help with the frequent crashing as well unless again the TV is getting too old to handle the updates Roku keeps pushing.

I swear I saw someone ask for the device ID which is JAA8D2552520.

I'm at a loss other than the TV is on the fritz. It  can't be anything else because I run a lot of devices and none are having a problem except the TV. Even with all the devices disconnected, it doesn't want to but will work fine on 2.4. Something had to have happened after I restarted the TV after whatever update with through but it's not impacting my Roku Express device...but I've never had an issue with that device, just this TV that has been progressively degrading over time.

Thanks.

[AvsGunnar]

@Neverenderday 

Try changing the password for the 5ghz at router.  Then perform another Network Reset. (Settings/System/Advanced System Settings/Network Connection Reset/Reset Connection).  Try using a simple password for testing (no special characters, just some numbers or letters).  If no-go, try removing the 5ghz password altogether (create open network for testing).

Another test.  Try connecting to a mobile hotspot using the 5ghz band. (just make sure you are not selecting the 2.4ghz on the hotspot or have it disabled on newer Android versions).  This will help determine if an authentication issue between the RokuTV and your router.

Perform a hardware test on the RokuTV [Press Home at least 5 times (5x) followed by Up, Down, Up, Down, Up). Look at your 2 antennas and see if they are both in the green.

----

It has been my experience with my RokuTV that it definitely slowed to the point of sluggishness with each new Roku OS.  Some users just add a Roku device to their RokuTV in order to boost/upgrade the performance. (abandon the integrated RokuTV OS altogether).  Generally, if one goes this route, just factory reset the RokuTV and set it up in "dumb mode". (then it will only be responsible for OTA channels) and the attached Roku device will take care of the streaming needs.

I have only purchased one RokuTV and am unlikely to purchase another as I have discovered my preferred setup is a simple dumb TV (no smart OS) and an attached HDMI streaming device.

[Neverenderday]

Hi @AvsGunnar 

First of all. I want to say I appreciate the way you approached the issue heads on with common sense no BS unlike the actual Roku moderators/employees who ask really redundant/unhelpful questions on just about every forum here when someone reports an issue; including the guy above who somehow assumes a Mac is the only way to test packet loss and who my ISP is. Neither of these questions mattered because I hsd already stated I elimated network issues snd narrowed it down to the TV. Your direct approach to the problem is highly appreciated by getting straight down to other possible issues I may have missed.

‐---

So I forgot to mention I had tried the password changing and also no password in my initial troubleshooting while trying everything else and it didn't work (neteorking 101 when dealing with possible authentication issues with the key)..Bravo for hitting on this as it's useful for those who might not be aware this can be a problem when troubleshooting wifi authentication.

Thanks for providing the code so I could check the antennas as i didnt know it. They both showed green so I decided to try once more connecting back to my 5ghz and it worked!

The only thing I did was leavie the TV unplugged all week since I gave up on it and have been too busy with work all week to mess with it. I plugged it back in just now, checked the antennas to make sure they were being detected and then tried ince more to connect again and it worked. Perhaps just leaving it unplugged for a few days somehow got it to sort out it's issues. Far from the first and will be tar from the last time I've seen issues with devices suddenly decide to start working again for no apparent reason (such as when a user reports a problem but my sheer presence makes it xisaopssr and we never know why) BUT it's solved for now - until the next update, I suppose. In this case, I'll give credit that your presence/post somehow fixed it through osmosis. 😁

----

I do agree there is a major issue with TV's that have the Roku OS built in and Roku needs to admit it. Every forum I've read supports this "theory" and my own experience of degrading performance on my TCL over the years with each update. This is the reason I did exactly as you had mentioned you did yourself and bought an Express for my second TV and set it that way to also run OTA. Never had a single issue with that one. Unfortunate that this is the only way to get around problems if you want the Roku interface without the headache.

Roku support/employees/mods on this site need to approach their support better. The dozens of posts I've read on this site about the performance issues in the past when mine began getting worse had no resolution and all of them had Roku emloyees/mods asking the same questions over and over (model, software version, ISP, etc.) the user's had already answered then they provided nothing helpful in terms of a resolution. There clearly isn't one. I saw one post at the end after like 10 pages of asking for help that the user finally gave up and shot his TV out of sheer frustration due to the lack of support provided by Roku. This is how I came to the conclusion that I'm going to eventually wind up doing the same to my TCL. This last update came close to pushing me to that point but it's connected now. Eventually another update will make it unusable and I'll never buy another.

Roku needs to bring you on and pay you for your support on these forums because it's top notch.

This can me closed though the resolution itself is unknown other than "unplug, leave alone for 5 days, make a sacrificial alter/pray to the IT gods and try again."

Hopefully no Roku mods feelings were hurt in fhe making of this post.

[Neverenderday]

Apologies for the typos. The site won't let me edit the post. Can you fix that next. Roko? 🤣

[RokuJechealR]

Hi @Neverenderday,

Thanks for keeping us posted!

Please note that we have passed your concerns and details to the appropriate Roku team for further investigation. In the meantime, we appreciate your patience and understanding regarding this matter.

Let us know if there's anything else we can further assist you with aside from this.

All the best,
Chel