Power Failure: Enter Setup Key

[IownFIVEechos]

For us Echo owners we get more Hiccups than the rest, that is what the OP is about. Once you learn the quirks you adjust accordingly and have a fairly decent experience. My gripe is in the way the company treated us. I love the small form factor, it is gorgeous in the rooms.

The small form factor isn't worth the headaches. If you want stability and a "clean" look, hide an XBox behind a piece of furniture (but don't block any air vents), and use an IR repeater.

Or, use a Linksys DMA-2100, which isn't much bigger than the Echo.

I just sold my DMA-2200, and I'll be listing a DMA-2100 and an HP X280N on e-bay this weekend. After that, I only have two more HP X280N's that need to go. I'm replacing them all with XBox360-S and XBox360-E.

Yikes, turn the AC to High

[barnabas1969]

Yikes, turn the AC to High

I avoided the XBox for years because of all the complaints about noise, heat, and power consumption. So far, they're quiet enough that I can't hear them from the viewing position. They do get warm, but not enough to warm the room. They do use about 65 watts when they're turned on, but that doesn't amount to much money each month unless you leave them turned on 24x7.

EDIT: And they startup directly into Media Center much faster than all the other extenders, and they work really well.

[IownFIVEechos]

Yikes, turn the AC to High

I avoided the XBox for years because of all the complaints about noise, heat, and power consumption. So far, they're quiet enough that I can't hear them from the viewing position. They do get warm, but not enough to warm the room. They do use about 65 watts when they're turned on, but that doesn't amount to much money each month unless you leave them turned on 24x7.

EDIT: And they startup directly into Media Center much faster than all the other extenders, and they work really well.

We went in the direct opposite directions. I went from 5 Xbox's etc. I must have over sensitive hearing because I hated the buzzing and the heat they produced and the bulkiness. But to each their own. As long as the end user is happy, that's all that matters.

[barnabas1969]

Yikes, turn the AC to High

I avoided the XBox for years because of all the complaints about noise, heat, and power consumption. So far, they're quiet enough that I can't hear them from the viewing position. They do get warm, but not enough to warm the room. They do use about 65 watts when they're turned on, but that doesn't amount to much money each month unless you leave them turned on 24x7.

EDIT: And they startup directly into Media Center much faster than all the other extenders, and they work really well.

We went in the direct opposite directions. I went from 5 Xbox's etc. I must have over sensitive hearing because I hated the buzzing and the heat they produced and the bulkiness. But to each their own. As long as the end user is happy, that's all that matters.

Which version of the XBox did you have?

[IownFIVEechos]

I owned the XBOX-S so the E maybe better. I actually bought one when they were cheap last year, never opened it. Someone will be getting a gift.

[barnabas1969]

Huh. So far, I have both the S and the E. The power brick doesn't make any noise on either of them. I can hear the CPU cooling fan when I'm close enough to the XBox, but it's not bothersome at all. I've heard that as the power brick gets dusty inside, that they start to make more noise. I'm planning to try keeping them blown out, and I could replace the little fan in them if needed. Also, I've been thinking about taking one apart and figuring out a fanless alternative.

[IownFIVEechos]

Huh. So far, I have both the S and the E. The power brick doesn't make any noise on either of them. I can hear the CPU cooling fan when I'm close enough to the XBox, but it's not bothersome at all. I've heard that as the power brick gets dusty inside, that they start to make more noise. I'm planning to try keeping them blown out, and I could replace the little fan in them if needed. Also, I've been thinking about taking one apart and figuring out a fanless alternative.

It feels like these conversations have been going on about this 10x over (and I am less than a year here). I am trying to focus now on the new kids on the block, that being Roku,Plex and Media Browser. They have been getting my money as of late. Hoping they are more dedicated to the project, which seems to be the case. I dislike the Roku 3 in that I can not power it down. I bought three of them last year. I will need to do the power strip magic I guess.

[barnabas1969]

The Roku 3 uses only like 5 watts, so who cares if you can't turn it off?

[IownFIVEechos]

The Roku 3 uses only like 5 watts, so who cares if you can't turn it off?

I'm weird like that. So imagine how I felt with the XBOX's

[barnabas1969]

The Roku 3 uses only like 5 watts, so who cares if you can't turn it off?

I'm weird like that. So imagine how I felt with the XBOX's

Do you turn off your router, network switch(es), and other stuff like that? They all pull 5 watts or more too. Heck, the stuff in my wiring closet adds up to almost 40 watts.

[ajhieb]

Just a quick follow up.

After returning from a work trip I finally got a chance to sit down and try to get the Echo back up and running again. When I turned it on it had reverted to a firmware revision from December of 2012. (2012.1219.1030) Pretty awesome. I love it when devices auto-downgrade firmware for no reason. Of course I'm sure some folks on here will probably tell me that is actually a *feature* or tell me that it's my fault for leaving it plugged in, or not having it on a UPS or something.

Anyway, the Echo refuses to pair with the WMC machine now. I've entered the setup key, and I get an error. I've removed the Echo from device manager, and entered the setup key, which resulted in the same error.

I'm going to try and upgrade the firmware through the web interface and see if that will make a difference.

[Crash2009]

Just a quick follow up. After returning from a work trip I finally got a chance to sit down and try to get the Echo back up and running again. When I turned it on it had reverted to a firmware revision from December of 2012. (2012.1219.1030) Pretty awesome. I love it when devices auto-downgrade firmware for no reason. Of course I'm sure some folks on here will probably tell me that is actually a *feature* or tell me that it's my fault for leaving it plugged in, or not having it on a UPS or something.

I just knew there would come a day that I could agree with you on something. Reverting to a 2012 firmware version (without your authorization) is just downright wrong. If I would have known, I would have reverted both of mine.

On the upside (if there is one) 1219.1030 was the last update prior to Xmas 2012, and it was pretty good for me. They started messing with the audio and trying to make more video files work in Jan-Feb 2013. I always wanted to go back to 1219.1030. Once you find the firmware that works best for you, you can shut off updates in the web interface.

Type 2012.1219.1030 up in the search box. There have been a couple others that the same thing happen to them in the last few days. I think one guy got an email from Ceton blaming server problems.

[ajhieb]

Well, I was able to update back to the .304 firmware and get the Echo to re-pair again. Still some weird things going on. Error log showed some events that coincided with my failed attempts to re-pair the Echo. They were related to permissions issues which I thought was weird. I also found some references to scheduled tasks that failed to run. When I looked at scheduled tasks, I would immediately get errors about the credentials supplied not existing, and it wouldn't display said tasks, so I couldn't delete them. I tried repairing/reinstalling/uninstalling/rereinstalling the Echo app, to no avail, so I eventually just ended up deleting the tasks from the registry.

At any rate, I eventually got the Echo re-paired and the login scripts ironed out so now I'm finally back to a vaguely functional extender setup in the kitchen.

And thanks again to all those offering suggestions and advice to help remedy the problem.