SC48 reboot during show

[[email protected]]

We purchased a used SC48 over the winter. It's not too old and is in great shape. It's running 2.8.x software. Had it in the shop and ran many tests, did burn-ins and all was well! No problems at all and it had probably several hours of uptime on it just in the shop.

Did our first show of the season last night and the SC48 rebooted twice during the first band. Lost all audio for 30 seconds as desk reloaded. Both times I was not doing anything on the console. It was a cold reload, as XP actually rebooted. I did get the "this console was not shut down properly" messages as well when it came back up.

Once I get it back out of the truck, I'll post on specific hardware/software details, but is this common? We've been a yamaha shop for years and were quite excited about this digi board, but now I'm a bit terrified to use it! We've got some festivals coming up that'll be using this board as the system driver and I simply cannot have this happen during one of those or we'll be in big trouble!

I reran the surface and mix engine tests and they were all ok. I tried to see if there were any event logs in XP that I could see, but the XPe is so locked down, I could not find any way to do so? This console did come with a case that has a doghouse cover that doesn't leave much room for the area above the right side (looking from the back) to breathe...it gets pretty warm and we were wondering if a thermal situation could have caused this? We left the doghouse cover off the rest of the night and didn't have any more problems? We did not bring our UPS (which we would normally use), but our furman showed good power off our distros.

Are there any other tests we can do? Can I pull the cover off this console to see if I need to clean any heat sinks or fans? Maybe there's a dead fan, as the right rear seems to get pretty warm? Does this console have a "shop manual" for download anywhere?

Thanks!

[albee1952]

Could it be a power issue? Most sound companies are running digital desks on UPS units. An APC unit like this one might be a good investment.
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/APC+-+15...=UPS&cp=1&lp=6

[[email protected]]

I'd say that it's certainly possible, although we've run other types of digital desks without a UPS with no trouble. I'm certainly hoping that's what the issue was, although the power was from our distro, directly tapped off a 400 amp dedicated house audio power box. Voltage was 126 all night.

We do normally use a SmartUPS unit for our digital desks, though...just didn't have one this night. This night we were running an M7 at monitors and dolby lake dsp (as well as several other dsp's) and neither of those units had any difficulty though...and they were on the same distro.

What puzzles me is we've "burned in" the desk in the shop by leaving it on for 1/2 days while running low volume audio through it. No problems at all. I really hope it was just the power! Aside from the surface tests and the engine test in the venue console software, are there any other tests I can run?? Does anyone know how to pull the windows event logs from WinXPe??

[Sheldon Radford]

Hi terry,

Sorry to hear about this experience. Please contact the support team immediately at 650-731-6111 or venuesupport(at)avid(dot)com so they can follow up further.

The console does keep a log file for diagnostic purposes, and this may give some insight into what happened.

Sheldon

[[email protected]]

Will do Sheldon! Thanks!

[Kenmillerjr]

I've gotten into the habit of using a UPS on every system I use. If/When the power does fluxuate or drop, I do not want to wait for the console/gear to boot back up or improper shutdown for that matter. I think it is a good practice to get into.

[[email protected]]

Just an update.....

We've had our SC48 at a outdoor festival all weekend. Took our UPS this time, and we've had zero problems! Looks like all is good!

Thanks!

[digidesigner]

Originally Posted by [email protected]

Just an update.....

We've had our SC48 at a outdoor festival all weekend. Took our UPS this time, and we've had zero problems! Looks like all is good!

Thanks!

Just an idea... the power button and reset buttons on SC48 are pretty easy to push, if your doghouse was stuffed with cables, you might hit the switches by mistake when board gets pushed...

[[email protected]]

Hmm...interesting idea! Our doghouse is indeed pretty full....I wonder if this was it?? Man....I'll feel pretty stupid if that was it!

[digidesigner]

Originally Posted by [email protected]

Hmm...interesting idea! Our doghouse is indeed pretty full....I wonder if this was it?? Man....I'll feel pretty stupid if that was it!

Hey man, no reason to sweat! I hate the way these buttons are in there... I constantly forget to pull power out first after the show... and then when I already have put my mouse and monitor away and are pulling the cables hit the power button by mistake and board wakes up.. doh!