topic Update 3.885 problems in Android TV

Update 3.885 problems

lgcebr — Fri, 14 Jul 2017 17:39:52 GMT

I have a Sony KD-55XD9305 TV which has worked fine until this week. I held off the above update but applied it last week and now have three problems:

1). I can no longer play video files from an attached USB stick. These same files on the same device played perfectly before the update. Now the TV states no device and no files.

2). Random error message flash up on the screen saying various features have stopped. These can be dismissed by pressing OK but did not happen before, are annoying and clearly not right.

3). Often when starting up from standby the TV goes into the Amdroid logo animation screen.

I have c facets Tech Support who emailed me instructions but these state that it is possible that the TV might stop working and not start up. It seems to me to be risky to follow these iinstructions if my TV might end up bricked.

has anyone else come across these problems introduced by the 3.885 update?

Thanks

Betreff: Update 3.885 problems

Kuschelmonschter — Fri, 14 Jul 2017 18:17:00 GMT

I have had all of these issues too. They are pretty common:

- USB issues

- reboot issues

- crashing services

That's today's Sony TV quality. Hardly any issue ever gets fixed. Every major Android update suffers from even more stability issues as Sony/MediaTek fail to properly adapt to it.

Re: Update 3.885 problems

lgcebr — Sat, 15 Jul 2017 07:09:57 GMT

It gets worse! More post-update errors include:

*. "Signal not supported" = not showing Sky even though it's worked for over a year. Eventually restarting brought it back.

*. "TV speakers active due to communication failure" with ARC Sony receiver which has worked for over a year.

Oh and the Tech Support agent who said they would ring back the following day to see if I had made progress .... no call back.

Everything is closed this weekend but I think Mr de Paul and Kazuo Hirai need to realise how bad their updates are. Will contact their offices on Monday and update progress on here.

Re: Update 3.885 problems

Jecht_Sin — Sat, 15 Jul 2017 07:47:55 GMT

lgcebr wrote:

I have c facets Tech Support who emailed me instructions but these state that it is possible that the TV might stop working and not start up. It seems to me to be risky to follow these iinstructions if my TV might end up bricked.

The same happened to me. I had the tv's WiFi heavily loosing bandwidth and the best the support has been able to come up with has been to send me two emails spamming with instructions to follow (seriously. A couple of pages of tests to do), basically to check if the problem was on my side (my router, etc.). It had to be on my side!

Too bad that after an (unwanted but needed for other reasons. Like yours) reset to factory settings the issue seems to have disappeared for good.

For comparison, when I had a WiFi issue with my MacBook Pro, Apple sent me the instructions about how to collect the WiFi logs, and guess what? They were able to indentify, from the logs, that the issue in that case really was with my router and its awful custom firmware made by the ISP.

But to give credit where credit is due, I must also say that with the Xperia phones the Sony devs ask to enable the developer settings and set the log buffer to 4MB. Then they ask to collect (and the send to Sony) the logs when the issue is reproduced.

It's like dealing with two different companies. Quite bad because Bravia could make great use of the internal Xperia's expertise!

Re: Update 3.885 problems

Anonymous — Sat, 15 Jul 2017 19:46:06 GMT

I have to agree with @lgcebr on point 3 in the original post

Problem:

Upon switching the TV on from standby, the TV will be either in the process of restarting (I.e. the display of the Android logo) or display a picture for a couple of seconds and then reboot. I have also witnessed the TV reboot itself multiple times until it becomes stable. This seems to happen when the TV was in ‘deep sleep mode’. Issue seems to be since 3.885

I have email Sony to find out if they have indeed seen this issue.

Re: Update 3.885 problems

lgcebr — Sat, 15 Jul 2017 20:04:15 GMT

Thanks Quinnicus! I have to say this latest update has tried my patience with Sony as a quality product. I originally bought a Sony 2015 4K television and stuck with Sony through their 9 months of delays and buggy updates. Then eventually they refunded me and I bought a 2016 Sony 4K TV assuming that the bugs would have been ironed out. That TV died completely after less than 6 months! Its replacement has been fantastic, stable and error free for 15 months...... until this update which has really messed things up.

I just don't see how Sony can claim to produce updates with the "reasonable level of care and skill" expected by UK Consumer legislation (Consumer Eights Act 2015). After all if it messes up a perfectly working TV with its update it is just incompetent!

Re: Update 3.885 problems

Anonymous — Mon, 17 Jul 2017 18:14:51 GMT

Hello All (and @lgcebr )

Sony would like to investigate your problem with your TV unexpectedly rebooting. Are you able to provide more information (see below for questions).

Thank you

--- --- --- --- ---

Unexpected_Reboot :

(Questions)

Q1 – What is your TV Model Number?

Q2 – Since when did you experience the random reboot issue?

Since TV Purchase?
Since Software update? (Please state exact software/firmware version)
Not Sure?

Q3 – How often does the random reboot issue occur (i.e. once a day, twice a day, once a week etc.?)

Q4 – Are you able to consistently reproduce this issue?

No, the problem is totally random
Yes – Please describe the step-by-step procedure

Q5 – How does your TV receive its broadcast signal?

Digital TV by terrestrial antenna
Digital TV by satellite dish (state satellite system)
Digital TV by cable (state cable provider name)
Analog TV
Other (please describe)

Q6 – Is a CAM card necessary to reproduce the reboot problem?

Q7 – What other devices are connected to the TV?

Q8 – Does disabling Interactive Applications help avoid the reboot problem? (Instructions: HERE)

Q9 – Does turning OFF “Update Guide in Standby” help avoid the reboot problem?

(HOME > Settings > Channel setup > Digital Setup > Guide set-up > Update Guide in standby > OFF)

Q10 – Any other additional information to add?

Re: Update 3.885 problems

Anonymous — Mon, 17 Jul 2017 18:12:14 GMT

Unexpected_Reboot :

(Questions)

Q1 – What is your TV Model Number?

KD-55XD8577

Q2 – Since when did you experience the random reboot issue?

Since TV Purchase?
Since Software update? (Please state exact software/firmware version)
Not Sure?

Mainly since the last firmware update version 3.885.

Q3 – How often does the random reboot issue occur (i.e. once a day, twice a day, once a week etc.?)

This question is difficult to answer, as it is random. Mainly every day, but sometimes it will skip a day

Q4 – Are you able to consistently reproduce this issue?

No, the problem is totally random
Yes – Please describe the step-by-step procedure

No, Problem is totally random

Q5 – How does your TV receive its broadcast signal?

Digital TV by terrestrial antenna
Digital TV by satellite dish (state satellite system)
Digital TV by cable (state cable provider name)
Analog TV
Other (please describe)

Digital TV by terrestrial antenna

Q6 – Is a CAM card necessary to reproduce the reboot problem?

Q7 – What other devices are connected to the TV?

- AV Receiver - STR-DH820 (HDMI 4)

- PS4 (HDMI 3)

- PS3 (to AV Receiver)

- Xbox 360 (to AV Receiver)

- Network Media Player - Mede8er MED1000X3D (to AV Receiver)

Q8 – Does disabling Interactive Applications help avoid the reboot problem? (Instructions: HERE)

No such option to disable/enable exists (as far as I believe)

Q9 – Does turning OFF “Update Guide in Standby” help avoid the reboot problem?

(HOME > Settings > Channel setup > Digital Setup > Guide set-up > Update Guide in standby > OFF)

Testing this currently.

Q10 – Any other additional information to add?

This issue for me seems to occur mainly upon powering up from standby - seems to be from deep sleep mode. Sometimes it will startup and reboot itself 2 or 3 times until it becomes stable. No error messages on the TV are displayed.

Re: Update 3.885 problems

lgcebr — Tue, 18 Jul 2017 12:14:29 GMT

Hi and thanks Quinnicus! Before answering your questions the current situation after one week is that the problems caused by the update seem to be intermittent and unpredictable.

1). The continual "........ (name) .. service has stopped" onscreen messages stopped after about 3 days - possibly after everything that needed to say it had stopped had sent its message. I still don't understand what the so-called services were but I have already sent screenshots to Sony.

2). The unexpected reboots also appear to have stopped after several days but now occasionally the TV does not come in properly when the power button isn't pressed in the remote. This is intermittent too and usually works after several attempts. After pressing the power button o n the remote the small light shows at the bottom of the screen. It the screen remains blank.

3). Now it's impossible to play anything from an attached USB stick. This worked perfectly before the update and the files are in the right format and still play on another device such as a computer. None of the USB sockets on the TV seem able to see the device / file since the update.

The update can reasonably be stated as the cause of these problems as the TV worked perfectly before.

now for the questions:

Q1: Model number KD-55XD9305

Q2: Problems only occurring since software update v3.885

Q3: See above. For first few days after update every time TV was switched on and occasionally during programs. Now it appears to have stopped but the blank screen problem occasionally happens now.

Q4: It was random as is the blank screen issue

Q5: Digital via dish and Sky Q box

Q6: I don't understand this question. We have no extra cards in the TV.

Q7: Sony receiver with ARC. Sky Q box. Sony UHD BluRay player. Sony HDD tuner/recorder.

Q8: we don't use interactive applications - just pre-installed Netflix and Amazon Prime apps. Will test this tomorrow though following your instructions. Presumably though now that rebooting ihas been replaced by not turning on properly intermittently Sony needs to look at General instability caused by the update.

Q9: Will do the same.

Q10. After a terrible time with the 2015 Sony 4K tv we got the 9305 but it died after just six. Inthe exactly as many people report on 14 pages in another post on here. Luckily our retailer saw this was unreasonable and replaced it with a new replacement 9305. This third Sony TV has worked like a dream with no errors at all for 15 months. The problems all started last week immediately after the software update. Ther can be little doubt that the update has introduced the USB playback failure and instability.

Thanks again Quinnicus. We all owe you a debt of gratitude for your help.

Added by Quinnicus - Unexpected_Reboot

Re: Update 3.885 problems

MiCal1967 — Mon, 17 Jul 2017 21:31:26 GMT

I can also confirm reboots.

Occasionally during Power On from "simple" STBY (TV goes full Android startup).
Once by simply pressing the Home button on remote control.

Unable to consistenly reproduce issue. Just random, same way with random unresponsiveness which behaves as if there is no free memory or there is no processor or graphics processor power.

No other device is connected via HDMI or USB

Re: Update 3.885 problems

lgcebr — Tue, 18 Jul 2017 18:45:26 GMT

OK progress report about problems one week on after the v3.885 update. First thanks to Quinnicus for being so helpful!

*. Various error messages along the lines "<Service name> has stopped". Have started to reappear.

For example "Programme guide has stopped" even though programme guide works fine.

These messages are intermittent but annoying and didn't happen before the update.

*. No progress playing video files from USB stick. The TV can see the stick as it shows up in Settings.

However it says "no device" and "no video" when I try to get play compatible files via Video pre-installed app.

Before the update this worked perfectly.

*. Random re-starts have stopped at the moment but may return like the error messages have.

Sony Tech Support unable to help. Sony Customer Support (Amsterdam) looking into it.

In short, after the update, my TV is worse than it was before! Thanks Sony!

Re: Update 3.885 problems

Anonymous — Tue, 18 Jul 2017 22:39:13 GMT

@MiCal1967 wrote:

Hi

I can also confirm reboots.

Occasionally during Power On from "simple" STBY (TV goes full Android startup).

Once by simply pressing the Home button on remote control.

Unable to consistenly reproduce issue. Just random, same way with random unresponsiveness which behaves as if there is no free memory or there is no processor or graphics processor power.

No other device is connected via HDMI or USB

Hi @MiCal1967

Are you able to fill out the 10 questions in the format that either I did above or that Igcebr did? As what you wrote above confirms that you experience the same issue occasionally, but doesnt answer the questions that Sony have specified.

Cheers

Re: Update 3.885 problems

Anonymous — Tue, 18 Jul 2017 22:46:05 GMT

Hi @lgcebr

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you.

Q1 - XX Service has stopped Errors.

Unfortunately this is not the first time I've heard to this. There are a few that are suffering from this. Have a look at this thread and the YouTube vids - sounds like your issue? Since the firmware update - have you factory reset your TV? This is the first step.

https://community.sony.co.uk/t5/android-tv/all-apps-failing-after-update/m-p/2353014

By the way - Sony are aware of this (even if Sony Support arnt!)

Q2 - USB Drive Issues:

Are you able to test using a different USB drive - just to rule out that your current one is failing/failed?

Cheers

Re: Update 3.885 problems

lgcebr — Wed, 19 Jul 2017 05:30:44 GMT

Thanks again Quinnicus. The USB drive issue is getting weirder.

Yes this video shows exactly what's happening

1) I originally had a Sandisk USB stick attached to this TV for 15+ months The USB stick has home movies of holidays on it in the accepted formats and always played perfectly until the update. Now nothing plays. The TV settings (storage and reset) show it can see the Sandisk USB but the Video app on the home screen says no device attached.

2) Since the update I have checked by using the other USB ports on the TV - nothing. I have played the USB drive on my and a friends computer. The files are intact and not corrupted. Everything plays fine on devices other than the TV.

3) I have done the factory reset - no change.

4) I have removed the ocntent form the USB stick and loaded a smaller selection of videos back on to it. No chage.

5) I must have tried 20+ times. Then a friend put his USB drive into the TV and it showed his video and photos perfectly. I thought something might have changed but no it won't see any of my Sandisk drives.

6) Now the weird part. My friend removed his USB and I tried mine again. The video app from the Home screen menu shows an index of his ocntent even though his USB stick is removed. Of course nothing plays because his stick is not present.

7) So we tun off the TV and turn it back on. Even though his USB is no longer present the TV still shows his video index in the app.

😎 Try mine again with just a single file on it - check it plays on computers / is correct format as per spec.. Nothing!

"Storage and reset" now shows my Sandisk brand USB attached but is showing the video index in the video app of a different branded, absent USB stick!

I have been very patient with Sony ever since the 2015 TV mess but I just can't see that they are operaitng their updates with the level of care and skill customers can reasonably expect. One of the reasons we got the TV was to be able to show 4K home movies but now that advertised feature is removed by an "update". It's more like a downgrade!

Rant over - thanks to you as always Quinnicus!

Re: Update 3.885 problems

Kuschelmonschter — Wed, 19 Jul 2017 05:36:58 GMT

To 2:

I found out that Marshmallow has become quite picky about the partition table. Lots of storage devices are not properly initialized anymore. Formatting did not help. So I rewrote the partition table to GPT. Afterwards this storage device worked again. I first thought it was a problem with MBR, but rewriting the partition table again to MBR also worked. So something was probably wrong about the MBR initially.

In order to rewrite the partition table, one has to low-level format the storage. You can for example do that under Windows with the preinstalled DiskPart utility, see here.

Re: Update 3.885 problems

lgcebr — Wed, 19 Jul 2017 16:58:01 GMT

Thanks - this sounds helpful. I use Apple OS so I will try and find a way of doing this in their Disk Utility program. I appreciate the advice.

Re: Update 3.885 problems

lgcebr — Wed, 19 Jul 2017 17:12:11 GMT

I went to John Lewis TV department today to see if they had any knowledge of or advice on the problems. Interestingly some of their Sony TVs were showing the "<service name> has stopped" error messages. Hardly a good advertisement for Sony but it shows the problem is fairly widespread,

Sony Customer Support has contacted me to say that they are aware the v3.885 has caused problems for some owners using USB sticks to,play video on the TV. They offered a replacement TV but can't guarantee it won't have the same issue. So they offered a full refund which I have accepted.

It's a shame because I've been a Sony customer for 40+ years and their TV panels are really impressive. However I have concluded that their software updates over th least three years are too often unfit for purpose with bugs and errors which immediately become apparent. How on earth do they do their pre-release testing and not see these errors?

Sony needs to learn that excellent 4K panels + bad updates = a disappointing product which drives customers away.

Thanks to Quinnicus for helping so many people on this forum!

Re: Update 3.885 problems

Anonymous — Wed, 19 Jul 2017 18:38:37 GMT

@lgcebr - You're Welcome

Its such a pity that you and many others have to seek a refund for your TVs, which as a consumer you are in your right to. Its also such a pity that things have got to this stage too - I too am frustrated by the lack of progress in fixing all the issues/bugs. Even when they are fixed, another FW update and its back to square one again.

At the end of the day, a company exists to make sales and therefore a profit, the more people who return the TVs for a refund - maybe just maybe Sony might listen to its customers and dedicate more resources to its TV division.

Take care

Re: Update 3.885 problems

Kuschelmonschter — Thu, 20 Jul 2017 07:21:47 GMT

Good decision @lgcebr. Would have done that too. And Sony better should have taken mine back too .

Re: Update 3.885 problems

Anonymous — Thu, 20 Jul 2017 10:40:40 GMT

HI @lgcebr

One last question - which JL store did you visit that you saw all those errors on the TVs?

Cheers