Almost non-functionality issue with C2500 (again)...

[armyslowrdr]

C2500 is working but (maybe almost not last night).....

...Are there any power conditioning gurus here? Weird thing with my C2500 yesterday. As in two prior similar instances (but could not resolve on my own and had to have AudioClassics fix)....went to turn on the unit via remote. Nothing. Went to turn on via front panel switch...nothing. Power standby lamp was on. I checked other items plugged into the PS Dectet--such as the EAT turntable and it was working. On a whim I decided to switch off the Dectet by the blue lamped logo button, and then switched it back on. The C2500 powered on... (I cant recall whether it just powered all the way up--or I had to use the remote or front panel switch).

I have no ideas as to what is happening but I'd like to prevent recurrences of the issues I have had in the past where I could just not get the 2500 to function without a tech resetting or reinstalling firmware.
Knock on wood when I come home tonight it powers all the way on.

I remember someone on a forum or FB group saying McIntosh told him NOT to plug the newer C2700 into anything but the wall. Apparently a reason was not given....?

Things plugged into the Dectet: the 2500, two MC75 amps, EAT TT, Eat preamp, TEAC SACD player, Luxman integrated amp.

I don't know--could it be something as simple as the remote batteries might be weak...but then one would think the front panel switch would work...

 

[robmil2690]

C2500 is working but (maybe almost not last night).....

...Are there any power conditioning gurus here? Weird thing with my C2500 yesterday. As in two prior similar instances (but could not resolve on my own and had to have AudioClassics fix)....went to turn on the unit via remote. Nothing. Went to turn on via front panel switch...nothing. Power standby lamp was on. I checked other items plugged into the PS Dectet--such as the EAT turntable and it was working. On a whim I decided to switch off the Dectet by the blue lamped logo button, and then switched it back on. The C2500 powered on... (I cant recall whether it just powered all the way up--or I had to use the remote or front panel switch).

I have no ideas as to what is happening but I'd like to prevent recurrences of the issues I have had in the past where I could just not get the 2500 to function without a tech resetting or reinstalling firmware.
Knock on wood when I come home tonight it powers all the way on.

I remember someone on a forum or FB group saying McIntosh told him NOT to plug the newer C2700 into anything but the wall. Apparently a reason was not given....?

Things plugged into the Dectet: the 2500, two MC75 amps, EAT TT, Eat preamp, TEAC SACD player, Luxman integrated amp.

I don't know--could it be something as simple as the remote batteries might be weak...but then one would think the front panel switch would work...

Did you end up having this issue again? What happened prior with your issues with the firmware? I am having issues with my unit turning off now randomly. I plan on updating firmware tommorow to see if that solves my problem.

 

[armyslowrdr]

Surprisingly no further issues. The first two times I had issues that I could not resolve Audio Classics paid for postage both ways one time, and one way the 2d time. The 3d time like I stated a rest of the Dectec caused it to power fully on and Ive had no further instances....

Did you end up having this issue again? What happened prior with your issues with the firmware? I am having issues with my unit turning off now randomly. I plan on updating firmware tommorow to see if that solves my problem.

 

[robmil2690]

Surprisingly no further issues. The first two times I had issues that I could not resolve Audio Classics paid for postage both ways one time, and one way the 2d time. The 3d time like I stated a rest of the Dectec caused it to power fully on and Ive had no further instances....

Thanks for your response. Great preamp. Sent mine off for repair because of power issues. I heard the 2500 had a few problems but mostly with the firmware than anything else. I will let you know what they find and let you know just in case you have the problem down the road.

-Rob

 

[armyslowrdr]

Well yes one of the problems with the 2500 is the reset routine will not work on some units. I have heard it is because some of the front panel switches do not make solid contact when pressed. Thus why a fix is to pop the case and manually reset the firmware by holding 2 contacts on the inside of the case down while running the routine. Audio Classics did NOT for whatever reason want me to try that and both times had me send it in. Actually after the first time rather than make me wait for shipping they sent an entirely different unit.

 

[robmil2690]

I was running old firmware on my 2500. Chuck from mcintosh suggested I get the unit repaired before updating. The way it sounded was that if the firmware update was happening and the unit shutoff it would be a brick and never work again. Maybe I should just have audioclassics do the update after they repair it.

 

[kevzep]

if the firmware update was happening and the unit shutoff it would be a brick and never work again.

That is incorrect.
There is a way internally to reload the old bootfile to get the unit running again. You will only have this problem if you lose power during a firmware update.

 

[robmil2690]

That is incorrect.
There is a way internally to reload the old bootfile to get the unit running again. You will only have this problem if you lose power during a firmware update.

OK. I am uncertain of how it works

So when would the unit become a brick then? What sequence of events happens during firmware updates that causes some units to just fail? If the power to connected PC and preamp go off? My unit was randomly shutting off very frequently.

I asked audio classics to update my firmware they said they would after the repairs where complete.

 

[kevzep]

So when would the unit become a brick then? What sequence of events happens during firmware updates that causes some units to just fail? If the power to connected PC and preamp go off? My unit was randomly shutting off very frequently.

There's several things going on here.

When the unit is "bricked", you cannot power it up as the firmware has been corrupted or the upload has not completed during an update. In no situation is a bricked unit able to be powered up to a point of being useable at all, hence the term "bricked", as it becomes as useful as a "brick".
What causes a unit to be "bricked"?
Loss of power the the unit being updated during the process of the update, or the computer crashing, that sort of thing.
Loss of connectivity between the computer uploading the new firmware into the the unit being updated. This can be as simple as a dodgy USB cable causing intermittent connection for example.

These symptoms of the unit randomly shutting off, or other system failures is not what I am talking about, those things are not caused by something going wrong during a firmware update as if it were, you would not be able to power the unit on at all.
The faults you are talking about are caused by a different problem which can be in the coding of the the firmware for example, which can cause problems with the system communicating with itself and throwing up these intermittent issues, this is why a manufacturer will release an update to take care of these issues.
This is completely different from a corruption installing new firmware.

Most if not all manufacturers of digital type systems such as the C2500 have a way of rebooting the unit to some previous state where it can in fact boot up and the update can be re-run. It's like a safety mechanism to ensure such an expensive piece of equipment will not be rendered useless should something go wrong during an update.
My C48 had a problem updating the firmware, during the process my partner tripped over the USB cable and it came out of my computer, and there it was the C48 was bricked, it would not power on, the unit was unable to power/boot up.
So I contacted McIntosh and they sent me a document with the "so, you have bricked your C48" procedure. It's very straight forward, and as you would expect from a high end manufacture, there is always a way to resolve these issues.

I work in the pro audio industry, part of my daily life is using digital audio devices such as digital mixing consoles and so forth, I am regularly updating firmware and software in audio devices, so I am very familiar with the ins and outs of all this, I have yet to experience or come across a digital audio device that is rendered useless after an update has gone wrong.

Your C2500 could have some hardware issues unrelated to the digital domain, who knows, and yes, always worth updating the firmware if an update is available.
I updated the C48 with the latest version, which was some years ago now (only so far you can go), and I've never really had any issues with it. Nothing that cannot be solved by power cycling it.