I think that’s a fairly un-just call. The ONLY reason a couple of us have opened the unit is to unplug the remote dongle from the internal USB port & plug in to the external one.
This is because no solution has been identified to fix failed USB ports, but you are saying that when we take this action, that’s game over? Very harsh IMO. There’s clearly an issue causing these failures, & it seems OSMC are backing away from ownership of the problem.
Hellò all…
I may be late to the party, but I’m not very frequently on these fora and just discovered there’s a thread about this USB & Remote issue.
Actually, a while ago (2nd of August!) I wrote a mail to OSMC’s support about this and this was the text of the email:
====================================================================================
Hi all at OSMC Support…
As per the subject, I just discovered that my Vero V (Invoice at time of purchase attached…) is not responding to its original remote anymore…
I’m not sure how long the issue has been present, as I usually use my TV’s remote & CEC to command the unit, and I resort to the original remote just occasionally, when something is behaving weird with the TV’s remote.
Currently, TV’s remote & CEC still working fine…
I’m on the latest OSMC Version…
Tried new batteries in the OSMC Remote, to no avail… Tried to re-pair the remote, but no joy.
I took the USB Dongle from inside the unit and connected on the side USB and, voilà, everything working perfectly!
Tried again the dongle inside the unit: no sign of life, when pushing OSMC remote’s buttons…
Seems that the internal USB is fried?
What are my options to have a fully functional unit again?
Thank you very much!
====================================================================================
Got a quick reply from Sam (He’s always very responsive, no doubt!):
====================================================================================
Dear Pippo,
Thanks for your email.Can you upload a log via My OSMC so I can check the state of the receiver and if it is being detected?
Please don’t open the device or make any modifications to it.
Kind Regards
====================================================================================
I’m sorry to report that, at that point, other things got in-between and I never managed to send Sam my logs… Sorry!
The issue was already solved by moving the USB Receiver to one of the external ports on Vero V and, as I stated, I rarely use the original remote as most of the time CEC is enough.
Also, Yes! Sam suggested not to open the unit but, as you can read in my original message, I had already done that while I was troubleshooting the issue and, like others, did that only to check the IR Dongle and had already found that the IR Receiver was working fine in the external side USB Port.
Almost forgot about the issue, to tell you the truth… ‘til a few days ago when, having the need to resort again to the original remote, I discovered that it was non-functioning, AGAIN!
Do I have another fried USB Port?
Didn’t have time to test more, but I suspect that, again, the culprit is between USB Port and the IR Receiver.
Out of curiosity, I came here tonight and found this thread with several users reporting very similar failures.
Sorry, Sam, that doesn’t sound casual to me: there must be a common reason for these USB faults…
Very curious to see how things develop.
Regards all!
Joe
Hi Joe
I’m sorry you’ve experienced a problem.
But I don’t know why the go to is opening things up instead of replying to me. If you had replied to me then I would have had a better solution for you.
There isn’t.
But I appreciate your honesty in that you admit you have sent a support request, received a prompt response by your admission; then decided to open the hardware and make changes to it, then post here.
This puts me in a difficult situation.
I really just want people to stop opening things unless instructed.
I didn’t hear from you for months, so assumed there was no further issue. Instead of responding to the ticket, you’ve opened up your device and posted here.
Not sure what to say Joe
Sam
Hi Joe,
Very similar to my story - only for me I didn’t open the unit to move the dongle until after I reported the issue, raised a support request, & had several email exchanges with Sam for suggestions to try, none of which worked. It was only then, after searching the forum that I decided to try the move, as my unit was outside warranty.
Hellò, Sam…
Thank you for your comments… you’re always very attentive to what is posted here.
But I appreciate your honesty in that you admit you have sent a support request, received a prompt response by your admission;
Sam, I can recognize attentive and dedicated support when I see it, and you undoubtedly do a great effort to keep up with customers’ requests and issues… so, why should I negate that and tell different stories? I have no interest in telling things differently from the truth.
… then decided to open the hardware and make changes to it, then post here.
No, Sam… not the correct sequence!
As I already wrote both here and in my original message to you back in August, it’s not that I ignored your suggestion not to open the unit. Actually I ALREADY HAD OPENED THE UNIT and moved the USB Receiver from the internal USB port to the external USB Port and had seen it coming back to life, when I wrote you!
I did that (Yes, I confirm: before reaching to you…) because I had checked my purchase invoice and had seen that my warranty was over already, so I judged that I didn’t have much to lose from getting inside the unit and at least try to unplug and replug the Dongle.
I open (Much more complicated…) stuff and repair it for a living, so I didn’t see much of a risk in doing so and went on.
This puts me in a difficult situation.
I really just want people to stop opening things unless instructed.
And I can understand that, especially if units are under warranty… but in my case, I was just reaching for help and not claiming for warranty coverage…
Also, Sam, I (Vaguely, I admit…) recalled that, at the very beginning of the Vero V’s life, some customers complained about the Remote being non-functional straight on delivery or shortly after, and you either instructed them to move the dongle from the original position to another USB port or you even sent them a replacement for the dongle. Writing from my memory… I may be wrong but that’s what I recall.
I didn’t hear from you for months, so assumed there was no further issue.
That’s because job and life commitments got in-between, my spare time was limited and, having “solved” my issue by moving the Dongle to the external port, I decided to call it a day. I just assumed it was my bad luck and had stumbled on an half-lemon unit with a prematurely dead USB port, as at that time there were no other posts here about similar issues. Everything was back in working order (Apart of the internal USB port, of course…) so I let it be!
I also thought that, if it was a SW problem, maybe it would got fixed in a next SW Release, while if it was HW, well, I was not entitled to warranty repairs/replacement anyway, so I had nothing to gain or lose.
But, yes… As I didn’t follow-up with the ticket, you were well entitled to assume that my issues were solved. I would have assumed the same, in your shoes!
Instead of responding to the ticket, you’ve opened up your device and posted here.
I already made clear that that is not the correct sequence of the events… nothing to add here.
And, most probably, I would have never mentioned my issue again if, when prompted by my remote not working again, I didn’t come here to see if there was any mention of a similar fault, and hadn’t found this thread describing issues that sounded so familiar.
That’s why I wrote:
…
And, yet, I see several complaints from users with very similar issues to the one I experienced.
Not sure what to say Joe
Oh… me neither, Sam…
At least in my case, I can’t claim anything because:
BTW, my instinct (From some 40+ years experience…) says there is something wrong going on, as me and a few other users are having very similar problems with early failing of USB Ports, but have to admit I don’t have the knowledge to further troubleshoot the problem.
There are hints, at the very least, that there may be a common cause, but have no way to prove it.
I’d say that if it were SW-Related, by now you would have squashed the bug already.
HW-Related, then? That could be very troublesome, as multiple units failing in 18-24 months could tell a story of an engineering issue.
Not directly your fault, of course, as you are not producing the HW yourself, but still…
I’ll keep an eye on this thread, just in case some solution is found, and I will just update again after I have more time to test again the Remote functionality with the Dongle on the other (The last one!) USB Port.
Sorry for the long post and thanks for attention…
Joe
That’s a great post Joe, & I agree with what you’re stating, especially your comments re your instinct, & also the mentioning the possibility of an engineering issue. Modern tech should not be failing so soon after manufacture unless there’s an underlying fault / QC issue affecting multiple units.
@Sam - we know it’s not a major issue as you have many units operating fine for years, but there should be enough identical failures now for you to realise that not all is well, & maybe these customers should be offered some type of replacement program, even if it’s just a dicsount on a new unit.
Thanks for clarifying. Apologies for the misunderstanding there,
Thanks for recognising it’s not wide spread. I already have been working with the few customers that were affected to resolve things in the best way possible for them.
I will post in more detail here about what we have done and continue to do in a few days. We haven’t been passive and since the very first report have been investigating things.
I was travelling and now have a bit of work I need to catch up on. Once I have, I’ll get back to you here.
Sam
Hellò all…
Quick update after I did some more tests.
I confirm I have now lost the USB3 Port on the side of the unit.
The dongle is now on the USB2 (Black) port… as it seems, it’s the only working port left and the remote is working again.
Never used these 3.0 Ports before.
Still thinking that something weird is going on there, at least on a few of the units.
My regards, folks…
Joe
Hi Joe - thanks for the update - yes, the commonality for us with the “issue” is the loss of the internal USB & external USB3 ports, leaving only the external USB2 as active.
Well, I vaguely recognise the high level symptoms ; I have 2x Vero Vs and both lost their remotes around the time of the last set of updates. One regained access after a short period, but the other one is still refusing to respond to the remote.
I’ve not opened either device up to test internal USB ports. I can ssh in. There’s no “lsusb” tool, and there’s no hardware differences, but one has a handful of kernel modules loaded that the other doesn’t seem to be using. Loading them didn’t change anything. They’re both at the same kernel release and both are using wired networking.
Ok so there’s a clear difference in the USB device lists between the two. The one that works includes:
root@verov:~# cat /sys/bus/usb/devices/1-1.2/manufacturer
OSMC Remote Controller
.. whereas the non-working device has only two USB buses defined and no connected devices.
The above “remote” device certainly appears to be on a USB 2.0 bus. The non-working verov shows no devices on the USB 2.0 bus.
The non-working device is newer than the working one (though as I stated - both seemed to show the problem at one point), and the non-working device has the newer “better” remote receiver dongle as it was shipped after those issues were discovered and worked through. The “working” verov is still using the older dongle.
Neither VeroV has any external USB devices connected.
@dmdmmatt, thanks.
This is exactly what I meant when I said that I lack the knowledge to troubleshoot more deeply this issue.
I understood very little of what you wrote, as I’m not proficient at all in Linux, but surely hope you are onto something and our issue isn’t HW related…
Keeping fingers crossed…
Joe
Just hoping Sam can provide us with some Christmas cheer 
Hi all again…
Been reasoning on this issue(s) we’re having, and want to say (write) here a couple more things… please bear with me if it’s going to be long and a bit of a rant!
Apart of this very thread, I browsed the forum a bit more, and found that there are quite a few other threads/posts with users reporting some sort of troubles or failures with USB connected devices…
Some realize they have a problem because they discover they can’t use the original remote anymore, some have seen their USB disks/sticks/whatever disappear, some have lost external USB tuners’ functionality, etc. etc.
While some of these failures may be related to different root causes, it seems to me that quite a few are somehow connected to the loss of the USB3 Ports, both internal and/or external.
Now, if we put together users reporting in this thread AND users in the other threads complaining about USB3 related troubles, the list of affected units (Whatever the problem is…) gets a bit longer than what initially seemed to be.
Don’t have enough time on my hands to put down a list, but don’t think I need to do so… just browse around the Forum and see/note.
I have no idea about how many Vero V units have been sold, so I cannot say if the issue is widespread or not in absolute terms, but all these USB3 failure reports reinforce my feeling that something is indeed wrong on this specific section of an otherwise excellent product.
And, probably, there are yet more users that have the same USB3 problem but are unaware of it, because either they use CEC or use an IR third party remote instead of the original RF one, or maybe they don’t use external USB devices at all or even if they use some, they have them connected to the USB2 port.
Also, on some threads/posts seems that the OP issue has been addressed by directing him to OSMC Support for a Dongle replacement, that is usually shipped to the user.
As we came to know that Sam (Read OSMC) doesn’t want units open by users around the world, I doubt that these replacement dongles have been installed INSIDE the units and they most probably ended-up on the external USB2 Port which, we know this by now, most of the times works fine!
I’m just assuming here, but if that’s what’s indeed happening, all these units still have a problem on USB3 Ports, but the original issue has been mitigated/circumvented by putting a new dongle on External USB2 Port.
In other words, these are still faulty units (Sorry, Sam… had to finally say that!) and they may be quite more in number than what’s been acknowledged so far.
As others have already stated, nowadays it’s not so usual nor right to see pieces of electronics failing in the mid-term (18-24 Months) period and that could very well tell something about a somewhat critical engineering, at least in these USB parts.
Again, just assuming/speculating here but, could it be that, because of a troublesome dongle, some of them just fail badly and take down with them some component on the USB3 Circuitry?
Maybe the 5V Supply path?
Or is there a critical part on USB3 circuitry that fails under the load of the RF dongle?
We know that, by design, that probably shouldn’t happen, but what if something is out of specs for some reason or the other and fails?
And let me also say this: should that be the case, users opening the units or not has no influence on the root reason of the failures, as it is something inherent with the dongles or with the USB3 Parts on the board.
Yes… I see that is a somewhat delicate argument to deal with as it could potentially yeld expensive countermeasures, but I am confident that OSMC wants only happy customers telling good stories about their products and services and, hence, will find a way to help.
Thank you for having the patience to read so far… waiting for comments.
Of course, ready to be flamed out now, and I immediately run to don my fireproof suite.
Regards
Joe
I’d suggest waiting time until I can post an update.
It’s a very busy period here in the UK (Christmas).
Your speculation isn’t correct. For starters, the internal port isn’t USB3 and isn’t connected to the USB3 port..
Well, it’s clear to me that the remote dongle is supposed to connect to the internal USB2 bus known as “usb1” to the kernel, but the dongle isn’t being detected right now (on one of my devices!), for whatever reason. In fact the entire USB2 hub which hangs off the chipset, is missing from the device list.
Ok, Sam… I may be wrong on some details, but it’s the general picture that matters…
But, no problem… no point in keeping guessing and speculating… I believe that facts are on the table and the ones in the knowing will do their best to help.
Plus, it’s Holiday Season almost everywhere and I understand this is one of the busiest times of the year.
Will wait until you post updates… meanwhile I wish everybody a Merry Christmas and all the best for the new year.
Joe
Please let me outline the full picture.
I figure I might as well reply now while I have a couple of minutes, but it will be brief.
In November 2024, we had some users report that their remote controller had stopped working after an update. Initially, I suspected that this must be caused by a software issue and did some serious investigation in to this. But I couldn’t find a realistic cause that could be explained by software.
As a result of this, I contacted some customers and asked for their hardware back and promised them new devices in return. We then performed analysis on this hardware. This took a couple of months.
After analysis by us, the manufacturer and engineers from the USB IC supplier it was found that:
For some time now, to improve AFR value and ensure it is within target range, we now use CH334R MTT mode USB IC. We’ve been using this for some time now. We should expect to see positive results in the future (i.e. few to none reports). But this isn’t a problem that immediately presents.
According to the analysis and verification of the problem, in order to ensure that the customer’s AFR value is within the target range. Our R&D team will use CH334R MTT mode USB IC for subsequent orders.
The reason I have been suggesting customers to contact support@osmc.tv is because we can come up with a solution that works for them:
We have worked with the manufacturer to ensure that we can reduce the likelihood of such an issue occurring and address outstanding issues. They are happy to do this provided devices have not been opened. If they have been opened, then a repair is not possible.
I think.. I have covered everything.
We have been working hard behind the scenes to identify the issue and resolve it for orders past, present and future.
Sam
I can’t remember the warranty period but though I’m sure it makes sense to you when you have all the data, I find it odd that it’s my newer device, which shipped with the “updated” internal USB dongle, which has the issue. My older device, still using the “original” usb dongle (which still occasionally suffers from hangs/pauses fairly often - the old repeated-keypress-doesn’t-work-till-you-press-a-different-key - thing) seems to have healed itself with no further ado.
The issue has nothing to do with the USB dongle, hence why in cases where this issue has occurred it can be relocated and is functional.
If you get in touch with your order numbers I can take a look
Sam