Really hoping for some help! I’ve been through the guides regarding freezing of the display when in standalone mode, which seems to be a common problem. I’ve updated the firmware, freshly formatted the USB stick on FAT32 and downloaded the latest Engine software. I’ve tried different USB sticks too.
Deck 1 is always OK, it’s just Deck 2 which freezes, and can only be fixed via a reboot. I have a video of the issue as below. Really grateful for any advice.
I had the same issue but on deck 1. That was also happened in pc mode(serato). I resolved it now but I can’t sure that it can help you.
I hope it can help you!
Sadly, its the same problem as I am having. Mine is always on the right hand deck & happens whether using serato or stand-alone. I haven’t found a solution yet. Happens randomly. Been discussing this via email with a Denon staff member, 
Gonna try lowering the display brightness & see if that works (holds thumbs)
It sounds unlikely, but worth a shot… thanks!
Yes I’ll give it a try too, however unlikely it sounds… I really need this fixed or it will need to be returned under warranty
DjTama - I hope I’m not speaking too soon, but since I reduced the display brightness to 90%… I haven’t had a single screen freeze! You’re a genius man! Thanks for the great tip, so far so good… touch wood. I’ll report back on Monday, I’m playing the whole weekend so it will get a good test. Cheers!
Could we perhaps hear some thoughts from a Denon representative in this case. It appears a lot of people have problems with display’s freezing. It might not be able to cure by firmware updates but rather hardware bulletines etc
Have you tried running the displays at a custom setting eg: brightness = 80%
Some people have said that this seems to have help them.
Moreover, there are plenty of people who haven’t had any issues with performance or stability at all.
I don’t have an issue myself but it’s a pity a lot of people have that, without getting any feedback from Denon. I would be good to recieve a statement what’s wrong and why it eventually helps reducing the brightness. It’s strange why the firmware updates is not frequent for such a new unit.
Everybody wants to feel confidence in their piece of equipment
That hasn’t been the case at all, however, with so much user discussion about the Prime releases, it would be easy to have missed that the previous case-by-case requests for assistance on any unit, not just the 8000 , was well and truly crowned a few weeks ago by an enormous multi page multi document link to many many bonafide hints and tips on best usage including (but not limited to) the big nightmare of laptop optimisation.
If you’ve got any particular issues then by all means start a new thread here about that specific issue, rather than trying to encompass something for everyone in a single thread, which isn’t logistically realistic.
I think the most important point is that these units are not cheap, and the freezing is a fundamental flaw. Reliability is paramount, and no professional DJ should be working with equipment which is prone to freezing. It’s embarrassing and downright unprofessional.
How would you feel if it was your first dance for your wedding, and the music cut… you’re going to go after the DJ, aren’t you? It’s the DJ’s responsibility to ensure everything goes smoothly. That’s why professional DJs pay good money for professional equipment.
I respect the fact that most of these units work OK without any freezing, but that doesn’t really help me, does it? I wouldn’t expect to buy a car, have problems starting the engine, and then the dealer saying “well, most of them work”.
Feedback - Turning down the brightness to 90% has solved my issues regarding the display freeze. It’s almost 2 weeks since I tried this & I haven’t had a single screen freeze since. DJ_Boothe - what is your take on this?
I’m glad that you’ve found both solice and apparent solution for your particular setup, and indeed, I’ve mentioned to another user that they try it too. I know that DenonDJ_Nick has been going through your MCX8000 usage with you, and that this suggestion has come up.
In terms of location/environmental usage, have you found it awkward running the screen at 90% brightness - eg: Daytime or outdoors - or had no visibility issues at all?
No issues with visibility so far. I’m normally working in a darker environment so no problems there. I do forsee it being a bit of an issue if used outdoors, but having the screen frozen is much worse of a problem. So overall this is a positive workaround. I does make you wonder though, how many people haven’t experienced this problem coz they set the brightness lower to prolong the life of their displays. This points directly to a hardware issue.
20 or even 10 years ago, I’d have possibly jumped to that same conclusion too. However, we’re all aware that the screen brightness isn’t simply a big old rotary control marked “Brightness” … not like the old TV sets of yesteryear.
The brightness of the displays is governed by the user selecting their preference of brightness by choosing a number from the On-screen menu. So, how much brightness is delivered to the displays would, on that logic, be Software/firmware based. If it’s firmware based, it may potentially be firmware adjusted.
I recall that I used to be able to make an old PC ATI “all-in-wonder” graphics card make two different display monitors go crazy if I selected too high-a brightness, contrast and gamma levels in the graphics control panel. ATI issued different drivers (just Software again) and hey presto! The issue could no longer be replicated.
Just to clarify, DJTama is the one who suggested this workaround. I was trying all sorts of things suggested by Nick to no avail, so when this suggestion worked I informed Nick of my findings via email.
I’m glad that he’s offered you so many suggestions.
I’ll do somersaults if this issue can be corrected via a firmware update!! Nick has been very helpful indeed, his assistance is greatly appreciated.
If this is corrected via firmware then it’s likely they will just make the 100% what the 90% is now. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing as they should have a brightness range that doesn’t cause issues and if the range needs to be lower to be more stable then it should have been there from the start.
I have set my brightness to 90% as well and have not experienced a freeze yet. I believe this is a power issue. I have had several things cause freezes (poor power, driving the outputs hard, using external drives or multiple USB sticks, and probably a few others). It may be as simple as they spec’d too weak of a power brick. The frustrating part is that I never never thought it was working your laptop too hard, the type of files you are playing, heat, hard drive, unicorns , etc. Denon needs to actually research this issue and stop making it our problem. I have not heard one single case that has been made better by running less on their laptop or a more powerful laptop.
If I hear one more person say that the controller is stressinng the laptop I’m going to lose it. It’s the year 2017 and laptops can run 10 of those controllers. It’s a sound card and a midi interface. Amazing.
Ever since computers played music files, these have ALL been issues to varying degrees. The U in USB, whilst known to supposedly stand for universal, is seen by some to mean “unstoppable”.
The computer industry shot themselves in the foot with USB 2.0 hard drives… which they then found out needed more current than a USB 2.0 port offered, so their industry then brought out USB Y-splitter cables which allowed the drive to pull current from 2 USB ports simultaneously so it could get the power to spin up…
Many don’t think of hot latency when they power up their lappy and immediately try 1ms latency and assume that if it works at 1ms at that time, it’ll work at 1ms even when it’s four hours into a gig at a venue with 300 sweaty bodies and no air conditioning… yet Intel themselves confirm that their processors forcthe last few years all have a safety feature of “throttling back” (performing slower) when they get hot, to prevent core damage… and the number of posts we all see on this forum and others which advise “everything was going fine for a couple of hours but then suddenly …”
Next… Most of us are aware of the loudspeaker industry having its little anomalies when it comes to speaker output ratings, you know, things like a speaker being rated at 1000watts, but then the small print says that’s at 2ohms, rather than the 8ohms which we may have been expecting. Not forgetting the wonderful PMPO wattages ratings that some speakers use as a rating… the computer industry has its own “small print” or at least “look past the big print” situation also… that of data traffic speeds… Some truely wonderful data transfer speeds are associated with USB eg, USB 2 @ 480 megabits per second (that’s about 60 megabytes per second) And USB 3 at 640 mega bits per second … but those are measurements of short BURSTS of data (like a businessman saving his word processing document or spreadsheet… taking 5 seconds)… In our DJ world, BURST isn’t what we do, we’re asking our music data to transfer almost continuously for hours at an event or gig. We, as humans can nearly all do a sprint for the bus over a short distance, but if that bus is a mile away… we’re gonna be stumbling into some trash cans a couple of hundred yards/metres down the road.
It’s well worth having a read on burst data speeds versus continuous expectations - have a google- it’s not just aDJ thing, it’s a real computer issue and it’s a real eye-opener and halo-buster.
It can logistically explain why the more and more we expect a computer (and yes, all of a computers internal support components) to be able to offer us, the more difficult all those extra DJ software whistles and bells, and hardware nicities may be to sustain - eg: multi channel sound cards, multiple screens, more encoders and feedback LEDs, higher resolution platter detection, DVS routing etc.