Vero 4K + crashes more and more and doesn’t boot for some time

Help and Support Vero 4K / Vero 4K +
1

Hello,

I’m a little worried about my Vero 4k + and some regular crashes.

The screen goes suddenly blank (the colour changes, sometimes it’s blackish, sometimes dark blue, green… but always one colour full screen). Often while I’m watching a media but it sometimes happens in the menus as well (I often shut down the Vero when I’m not using it). When it happens, I can’t do anything, I do not have ssh access either. I have to unplug it and plug it again.

It started with a crash every other week. In January, I’ve started writing down when it happens: 30th january, 8th february, 28th february, 10th march, 27th march, 4th april, 5th april… Sometimes I have two or more crashes successively (up to 5 or 6 times in an hour). Sometimes just after a restart…

More worrying, after a while, the Vero does not reboot.

  • In April, this happened : crash once on the 4th of April, but four times the 5th, and then again every 15 to 20 minutes the 8th. Once it took a good 10 minutes of tries before it restarted again (nothing happened when unplugging and plugging it again, no light, nothing on the screen, not showing in the local network). Then it started again (I had given up then I noticed the red light after a while). And after another crash about 15 minutes later, I couldn’t start it again for at last an hour. I left it unplugged for the night. Then in the morning I plugged it: nothing, no red light or anything. I left it there and a few hours later, I noticed that it had started (must have booted up at some time).

  • Then, up till July, again, regular crashes : 18th, 25th April 4th, 16th, 26th May, 19th, 29th June, 6th, 13th July… Then again, crashes every few minutes. Sometimes, after I unplug it and plug it in again, the red light stays on, but no image and no ssh access. Nothing happens (I’ve tried leaving it for a few hours when the red light is on, but nothing change). If I unplug it and plug it again, it starts. Until it doesn’t (no light at all). Now it has been more than 24 hours that it doesn’t start.

It’s a bit similar to the weird behaviour that happened last summer: Vero 4K + not booting (quick red flash only)
None of my settings have changed (same TV, soundbar, outlets…).
I think the crash were less frequent at the time and during a few months after. But I can’t be really sure.

I’ve waited for a long time before posting this because I’ve tried a lot of things and had to wait that the crashes happened (and to have some time to look closer at it).

I’ve tried to look at the logs. I’d enabled debugging. The paste.osmc.tv links have expired, I’ve saved some of these logs (I can re-upload the full logs if needed). But the logs stop some minutes before the crash, nothing seems to happen when it crashes.

Crash at 10:17:

mai 04 10:02:03 OSMC ntpd[1086]: 176.31.114.57 local addr 192.168.178.25 -> <null>
mai 04 10:02:09 OSMC ntpd[1086]: 193.252.223.86 local addr 192.168.178.25 -> <null>
mai 04 10:02:23 OSMC ntpd[1086]: 193.109.84.119 local addr 192.168.178.25 -> <null>
mai 04 10:02:35 OSMC ntpd[1086]: 202.118.1.130 local addr 192.168.178.25 -> <null>
mai 04 10:02:37 OSMC ntpd[1086]: 91.194.60.128 local addr 192.168.178.25 -> <null>
mai 04 10:03:39 OSMC ntpd[1086]: 95.81.173.74 local addr 192.168.178.25 -> <null>
mai 04 10:03:43 OSMC ntpd[1086]: 129.250.35.251 local addr 192.168.178.25 -> <null>
mai 04 10:04:11 OSMC ntpd[1086]: 151.80.211.8 local addr 192.168.178.25 -> <null>
mai 04 10:04:42 OSMC ntpd[1086]: 178.249.167.0 local addr 192.168.178.25 -> <null>
mai 04 10:05:00 OSMC wpa_supplicant[263]: wlan0: WPA: Group rekeying completed with e8:df:70:78:fe:99 [GTK=CCMP]
mai 04 10:07:25 OSMC systemd[1]: Starting Cleanup of Temporary Directories...
mai 04 10:07:25 OSMC systemd-tmpfiles[1345]: [/usr/lib/tmpfiles.d/vsftpd.conf:1] Line references path below legacy directory /var/run/, updating /var/run/vsftpd/empty → /run/vsftpd/empty; please update the tmpfiles.d/ drop-in file accordingly.
mai 04 10:07:25 OSMC systemd[1]: systemd-tmpfiles-clean.service: Succeeded.
mai 04 10:07:25 OSMC systemd[1]: Started Cleanup of Temporary Directories.
mai 04 10:15:01 OSMC wpa_supplicant[263]: wlan0: WPA: Group rekeying completed with e8:df:70:78:fe:99 [GTK=CCMP]

Crash at 9:51:

mai 04 09:34:42 OSMC kernel: codec:VsyncDisableVideoLayer2
mai 04 09:34:42 OSMC kernel: codec:VsyncEnableVideoLayer
mai 04 09:34:42 OSMC kernel: codec:finished correct frame dur
mai 04 09:34:42 OSMC kernel: codec: new=1919,old_duration=1920,cnt=25
mai 04 09:34:43 OSMC kernel: codec:fix_frame_rate mode play
mai 04 09:35:00 OSMC wpa_supplicant[290]: wlan0: WPA: Group rekeying completed with e8:df:70:78:fe:99 [GTK=CCMP]
mai 04 09:45:00 OSMC wpa_supplicant[290]: wlan0: WPA: Group rekeying completed with e8:df:70:78:fe:99 [GTK=CCMP]

I’ve enabled a persistent system journal (with sudo mkdir /var/log/journal & sudo systemctl restart systemd-journald). But I haven’t seen anything relevant when it crashed (no errors, no warnings and no lines that matches the time of the crash).

Here’s an example, in journalctl log, for a crash at ~13:00:

mar 10 12:58:36 OSMC systemd[1]: Starting Report anonymous OSMC install statistics...
mar 10 12:58:37 OSMC systemd[1]: osmc-report-stats.service: Succeeded.
mar 10 12:58:37 OSMC systemd[1]: Started Report anonymous OSMC install statistics.
-- Reboot --
mar 10 13:02:32 OSMC http-time[373]: Updated time from Tue Mar  9 00:28:20 UTC 2021 to Wed Mar 10 12:02:32 UTC 2021 using HTTP query to www.
mar 10 13:02:32 OSMC systemd[1]: http-time.service: Succeeded.
mar 10 13:02:32 OSMC systemd[1]: Started Set Time using HTTP query.
mar 10 13:02:32 OSMC systemd[1]: Starting Network Time Service...

And another, for a crash at 01:49:

fév 28 01:16:34 OSMC kernel: codec: new=4005,old_duration=4004,cnt=25
fév 28 01:16:48 OSMC kernel: codec:fix_frame_rate mode play
fév 28 01:25:16 OSMC wpa_supplicant[270]: wlan0: WPA: Group rekeying completed with e8:df:70:78:fe:99 [GTK=CCMP]
fév 28 01:35:16 OSMC wpa_supplicant[270]: wlan0: WPA: Group rekeying completed with e8:df:70:78:fe:99 [GTK=CCMP]
fév 28 01:45:16 OSMC wpa_supplicant[270]: wlan0: WPA: Group rekeying completed with e8:df:70:78:fe:99 [GTK=CCMP]
-- Reboot --
fév 28 01:49:55 OSMC http-time[380]: Updated time from Sat Feb 27 14:30:19 UTC 2021 to Sun Feb 28 00:49:55 UTC 2021 using HTTP query to www.
fév 28 01:49:55 OSMC systemd[1]: http-time.service: Succeeded.
fév 28 01:49:55 OSMC systemd[1]: Started Set Time using HTTP query.
fév 28 01:49:55 OSMC systemd[1]: Starting Network Time Service...

I’ve tried following dmesq -Tw and journalctl -f in ssh in case of parts of the logs could be missing because of the crashes, but nothing useful appeared at the time of crash.

I’ve watched the temperature with watch cat /sys/class/thermal/thermal_zone0/temp, but it was only at 52000 before the last crash.

I haven’t any USB A male-male cable, nor another 5V 2A power supply. Should I find/buy some? Could it be related to the power supply?

1 Like
2

Provide full and complete logs.

3

It’s certainly possible. What peripherals are connected?

Have you tried reinstalling the system at all?

Sam

4

Here’s a debug log from may: https://paste.osmc.tv/velixekuco.coffee

5

Two self-powered hard drives (3,5") through an USB hub. The HDMI cable goes to a soundbar which is connected to the TV.
The little USB remote receiver dongle is connected too.

6

No. I had tried some month ago. When it’s crashed (like now), I can’t do anything.
Maybe I could try again this weekend, just to be sure.

7

I’d try removing those drives for a while and see if that improves things.
The USB receiver uses very little power, so I wouldn’t worry about that.

8

For now, the Vero is directly connected to an outlet in the wall with nothing connected to it and it does not boot.

(Thanks for your replies!)

9

I would try another power supply as the first step.

The bootloader will delay booting if the device is too hot. So it would be interesting to know if it starts working again soon.

10

That would explain why sometimes it has rebooted after I left it plugged for a while (but watch cat /sys/class/thermal/thermal_zone0/temp didn’t seem too hot).

I’ve asked around and I can have a 5V 1.2A (Output power: 6W max) or a 5V 2.5A power supply. Is one of those safe?

Otherwise I think I’ll buy an USB A/A cable…

11

That would be fine if the plug and polarization fits.

12

Thanks.

I’ve tried with this power supply but the Vero still does not boot.

I’ve noticed that it is slightly hotter when plugged in (like about 32°C plugged in when it’s at room temperature when unplugged). But I’ve nothing on screen and it does not show up on the local network.

13

Would it make a difference if I try powering it up with an USB cable? (I can buy one next week.) Or would it be the same?

14

Yes that would be different as it goes via a different path.

Just as another topic how does the color of the LED change when you plug in the power?

15

I have no light at all. Sometimes I can see the red light flash very quickly, but it’s more like a spark.

16

I have tried reinstalling OSMC following this: Reinstalling OSMC - Vero 4K - OSMC

But nothing happens (I’ve tried with a USB stick and a microSD card).

(Wasn’t there a “toothpick method”?)

17

Toothpick method shouldn’t be necessary - it’s usually a last resort.

Can you show a screenshot of the contents of the SD/USB?

Sam

18

Here it is:
image

19

SUggest to try USB-A - A Cable

20

Someone is bringing me one. :slight_smile:

Should I plug it in with a phone charger (I have a 5V-2A)? or from a computer?