Persistent Freeze Ups

[Thrashx]

I have a 3 room setup with the following control components:

 

Family Room:

C4 HC-800

C4 HC 250

C4 Wireless Music Bridge

Sony 1800ES Receiver

 

Media Room:

C4 HC-250

Sony 2800 ES Receiver

 

Patio:

C4 HC-250

C4 RAA1-B Speaker Point

 

Over the last 7 months I've experienced 4 system freeze ups.   The first happened the very first time I had guests over and the patio and family room were on.   The system just stopped responding with our C4 SR250 controllers or C4 iPhone app.   The remote themselves did not respond to commands. Left alone, it just stopped functioning for a couple days.   It started working again 3 days later.   This has happened a few more times.   Lately, family room Sony receiver will not turn on with C4 command. I have to manually turn on the receiver.  The C4 system will turn off the the receiver but it won't go on.   Last night again with guests over the controllers locked up and even on a hard reboot (power down) it would not work.  This morning it's working again.   It is very frustrating and I'm wondering if this is a known issue with c4?  I've called our dealer in the past and they seem to hint that its a known issue and a power down reboot should resolve it.    Any help appreciated?

 

[SMHarman]

What nnetwork switch do you have?

[Thrashx]

What nnetwork switch do you have?

They put in Pakedge SW5GW switches at Media and Family room

[SMHarman]

With both SR and app not communicating the first guess is network traffic is not passing as intended.

Second is that there is code that is looping.

Can you describe the rest of the network and what you were doing when it froze (music, source?)

Likely your dealer will need to look at network traffic though you could have multiple DHCP servers misrouting traffic or a bottleneck somewhere.

[Thrashx]

With both SR and app not communicating the first guess is network traffic is not passing as intended.

Second is that there is code that is looping.

Can you describe the rest of the network and what you were doing when it froze (music, source?)

Likely your dealer will need to look at network traffic though you could have multiple DHCP servers misrouting traffic or a bottleneck somewhere.

In the family room we have a Sony BD Player, Apple TV and ATT Uverse.   In media room we have similar setup but also have XBOX.   The patio is only ATT Uverse and we use the music bridge for music.   Separately we also have a 1 speaker Sonos system that is not integrated with C4.

 

The first big freeze up happened after 2 hours of multi-room use (patio and media room).  Yesterday was completely a random event, I was merely adjusting volume in the family room and the remotes stopped accepting commands.   It's like it stopped communicating with it's controller because aside from remote lag, the programmed source list did not display.    RIght now it's working but I notice if I give it a lot of commands (like switching sources or changing channels it starts getting laggy).   If I've noticed a consistent thing over the few times it freezes is that it has tended to do so when I use more than 1 zone. 

[SMHarman]

Ok but the problem is likely in the network plumbing.

So ATT uverse box connecting to DSL.

Then something. Then these two switches.

This grows like a tree.

Seems something in the middle of the network is congested with traffic.

That's a lot of controllers for a 3 room set up. At least one too many IMHO. Family room does not need an 800 and a 250.

[Thrashx]

Ok but the problem is likely in the network plumbing.

So ATT uverse box connecting to DSL.

Then something. Then these two switches.

This grows like a tree.

Seems something in the middle of the network is congested with traffic.

That's a lot of controllers for a 3 room set up. At least one too many IMHO. Family room does not need an 800 and a 250.

My bad, the 250 is for the patio and the family room has the 800.  They are however, located in the same closet.   For the network I have the Uverse modem in a closet with the distribution box where ATT has a few Netgear 5 port switches (maybe 3 I think).   2 of my ATT boxes are wireless and wifi signal is distributed by ATT extender. 

[SMHarman]

Ok so those 3 x5 switches are the likely culprit.

They will struggle to pass data between each other via the uverse or however they ate connected.

You need a robust 24port gigabit switch up to handling control4 traffic.

There are threads here discussing suitable options.

My dealer uses PLANET, buy ask 10 dealers you will get 7 answers.

[Godzilla]

how do you get network to your ATT cable boxes?.....these need to go straight to the att router (or a seperate switch), seperate from the rest of the network, same with the uverse wireless tv

 

you cannot have a network switch mixed with att cable boxes or wireless tv .......with the rest of your network in same switch, 

[Thrashx]

how do you get network to your ATT cable boxes?.....these need to go straight to the att router (or a seperate switch), seperate from the rest of the network, same with the uverse wireless tv

 

you cannot have a network switch mixed with att cable boxes or wireless tv .......with the rest of your network in same switch, 

The ATT cable comes into the house and to ATT Router.   ATT installed the 3 (8port each) Netgear switches that take the CAT 5 lines from all serviced rooms including the media closet.  The two wireless ATT boxes receive their signal from the ATT Wifi Access Point. 

 

Here is where I think it gets funky.  The media closet where the 800 controller is setup has a wireless ATT Router receiving signal from ATT Wifi Access point.  All other network routing from that closet and including the 800 controller is wired to the Pakedge switch and that switch receives network service via CAT5 port that routes back through the Netgear stuff.   ATT installed the Netgear stuff for the network distribution and the C4 dealer installed the Pakedge switches.