Technical support - freezing, no waveform, locked deck

kboogie · July 2, 2018, 1:20pm

technical support suggests installing latest firmware but seems to have missed the part of the ticket i logged stating I have done so repeatedly;

Hi Khy,

Thank you for reaching out to us. I appreciate the opportunity to assist you!

I have included some information below that I think will be helpful:

The latest firmware update for the MCX8000 can be found under the Downloads section on the MCX8000 product page:

Please be sure to follow the included instructions very carefully. Before updating, be sure to:

Unzip/extract the folder before removing the .bin file (Windows users)
Connect the thumb drive directly to a USB port on the computer (avoid USB hubs for best results)
Connect MCX800 to secure power source

If the Firmware Update option displays “Up to Date” then you already have the latest firmware installed and further updating is not necessary.

If you have additional questions or concerns, or if the information we provided today does not help completely resolve your inquiry, please let me know!

For additional assistance, or to re-open your case, just respond to this email with your case number 1430828 in the subject line. I’ll be glad to help!

Best Regards,

www.denondj.com/support

Date: 6/28/2018 10:18:44 AM From:
Subject: Denon DJ MCX8000 support

used weekly last 1.5 years. unit often lags or becomes unresponsive in standalone mode. Screens and or waveforms do not move/respond. Right deck will lock up. Have reinstalled firmware multiple times. Only solution is restart which cannot be done during corporate hotel gig.

I live in the Cayman Islands so warranty repair/replacement is an issue. This should easily be fixed with better, working, firmware. Almost 2 years is way too long to wait.

I work in I.T. and have many dj software and hardware products and am familiar with testing and troubleshooting.

need access to latest firmware asap.

DenonDJCorey · July 3, 2018, 4:53pm

Hi,

Reading your email and then the response suggests that you asked for the “latest firmware” and he sent instructions to find it or determine that your firmware has been updated successfully.

That said, I agree that this suggestion does not resolve what you are experiencing, though no current firmware update will correct this, including the current Beta.

I’ve been looking at a few of your posts, but I’m struggling to find pertinent information that would help me recommend anything specific. I see that you purchased a new USB drive, but it’s unclear to me if the freezing/lag was happening before this new drive or only afterwards.

As @DjChachi correctly mentions in that thread, USB drives and how you use them are a big part of any freezing and lag with the MCX8000, especially if the problem only occurs in standalone. In fact, standalone only freezing almost guarantees that it’s a problem with your drive or data management. Even with a new USB drive, we’ll need to ensure that it’s formatted correctly and not bogged down with too much content that may slow it down.

Now, I’m sure I’m missing information about your particular situation. If you can start from the beginning and fill us in with the details, we can dig into the weeds a bit more and hopefully find you a solution that doesn’t involve sending the controller back to the US for warranty service. Here’s what we need:

When did this start and how often does it occur?
Can you recreate this consistently? If so, how?
Is this behavior specific to Engine?
How many USB drives have this behavior occurred with? How are they formatted and were they formatted recently?
How big is your database file? How much space is left on your USB drive?

In the end, I understand that you are still working with Jahmar on this, and if so, feel free to work with him directly if you don’t want to repeat yourself here. If it does turn out that service is required, you’ll need to work with him to determine a viable solution. We cannot guarantee that all grey market purchases can be supported with warranty service, but we like to try and meet in the middle despite the voided warranty.

kboogie · July 3, 2018, 5:53pm

first noticed issue over a year ago
happens sporadically, cannot recreate consistently
has happened both in standalone engine mode and with serato connected and when in serato and switching to engine
as a result I now start the device standalone, without laptop connected and make sure engine mode is working, it sometimes is not, resulting me in power cycling the device until it is definitely working. then i connect laptop.
has happened with any subs connected, older 8gb usb 2.0 or sony and san disk brands and new 64gb crucial usb 3.0
formatted exFat on win 10 before engine database creation
created with engine version a year ago 1.5 and most recent build
files and folders copied to new playlists in engine and analyzed, then playlists dragged to usb
left running until all file show as processed on usb
can confirm database file size later, has been with both full and half full 8gb and 64gb

spoke with Jahmar and he suggested a warranty return from the states. will wait to see how long the new firmware takes and use this as a least resort.

I think the new firmware is important to all ow the use of engine prime considering engine was released over 2 years ago in march 2016 with no update since and all the criticisms of it at release still being issues.

Crazeed · July 4, 2018, 3:35am

Hi, just following your thread and noticed in your details that you are formatting your sticks in exFAT. Have you tried formatting in FAT32? I’m under the impression that the mcx will be much happier with sticks and drives formatted in FAT32 only. I’m sure someone at Denon can confirm this. Best of luck to you.

kboogie · July 5, 2018, 12:12pm

Sorry typo, meant Fat32. I noticed one was exFAT that prompted me to reformat it as I was following this guide http://denondj.com/kb/article/2019

DenonDJCorey · July 9, 2018, 1:57pm

If it happens that sporadically, it doesn’t sound like a hardware failure or anything a firmware update would resolve, at least not directly. In our experience, it’s either hardware or user error that causes freezing. If you’d like to work with Jahmar, I think that’s a great idea even just to eliminate the possibility of hardware failure, though I don’t see the point in waiting for a firmware update first.

I’m still interested in knowing more about your database. When was the last time you created a new DB? Have you tested for freezing with a small, dedicated DB and batch of songs? Are your USB drives normally packed full when the freezing occurs?

kboogie · July 10, 2018, 1:23am

i’m not sure what you mean by user error, unless the hardware does not like to be turned on? PEBACK?

USB’s are inserted prior to power on, nothing else plugged in. sometimes it happens, sometimes it does not.

mix of full and half full usb’s.

reentry reformatted and created new databases when I logged the ticket and made this forum post.