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Innuos Zenith Mk3: Won’t Start Properly!

After over three years of having the Zenith with no issues, today it seemingly randomly decided not to start up fully (I typically leave it on always but had my conditioner’s power switched off for a few hours today). From an off state and unplugged, after reconnecting, the usual white LED turns on, on the front of the unit, but it never goes to the next stage where the LED changes to the user-selected color, after which you can connect to the device.

The server is unreachable from my.innuos.com, from Sense, and when using the link with the model name in it.

The network connection appears to be working. There is a solid orange light to the left of the port and a flashing amber to the right. I believe this is the usual light code indicating that the network connection is working. I also tested the Ethernet connection from the wall with a laptop and there were no issues.

The “startup” white indicator just stays on indefinitely. For this reason I’m guessing that the unit is failing to fully boot up.

I’m running the latest Innuos firmware, 2.2.25 or whatever version it is now - I updated it about two weeks ago and had no issues - until now.

I will send Innuos a support request but it’s the weekend so I thought I’d check here first to see if anyone has had a similar issue. I’m not sure there is much that can be done without Innuos’ help though.

Oh I also tried connecting it in a different room with a different ethernet connection - there was no change.

nyev

Showing 4 responses by nyev

nyev OP
1,026 posts
 

@antigrunge2 , very interesting about the IEC plug issue.  I’ve tried unplugging and re-inserting the Audioquest Hurricane PC a few times and no success.  When I tried it in a different room with a different ethernet port, I also tried using a different, generic power cord.  

First issue I’ve had in 25 years with any component that actually prevented me from playing music, full stop!  I may have to dig out my 20 year old CD player.  

For all intents and purposes my Zenith Mk3 is bricked, at least currently.  Not sure what Innuos can do aside from me sending the unit to Portugal.

While I do think it could be a software issue instead of hardware, chances are it’s not an issue specifically with the latest version of software.

 

nyev OP
1,026 posts
 

@antigrunge2 , @carlsbad , I applied some of my computer repair skills and fixed the issue.

I connected my TV to the HDMI “Service Only” port on the rear.  As I expected the TV showed the POST (power on self test) status.  An error message was showing indicating that I needed to select an appropriate boot device.  Seems like it wasn’t finding the boot disk. 
 

So I connected a USB keyboard to the DAC output and sure enough it worked, allowing me to reset the device and enter the BIOS.  I looked at the boot devices and I wasn’t sure what the boot device should be.  So, I simply selected “reset to defaults”.  After I did that, everything worked just fine!  I’ve had issues in the past with computers seemingly randomly changing its boot devices and getting confused.  Seems like this is what happened.

One small concern I have is that there was also an option to “reset to user default”, as opposed to “factory defaults”.  I’m not sure if the Zenith ships with general factory BIOS settings, or if there is a “user” set of defaults the unit ships with.   I’ll check in with Innuos to clear that up.  But for now everything is working just fine!

 

nyev OP
1,026 posts
 

@jerryg123 I don't normally shut it down, ever.  I've been tweaking my system and have recently added Rel subwoofers and was trying a few things.  I had shut the Torus switch off which had powered off my Innuos devices.

 

nyev OP
1,026 posts
 

@sandpat, sorry it was a while back and I can’t recall how I got in, but it sounds like you managed.  You might try a factory reset / reset to defaults.

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