Vivaldi Stack Spontaneous Shut Down

Support
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#1

This evening, my entire Vivaldi stack (DAC, Upsampler, and Clock) shut itself down for no apparent reason. There was no power loss in the house, and nothing else in my system shut down. There was no event recorded on the Torus power conditioner. Everything else remained operational. But all three units shut themselves down at the same time. Their power sockets on the Torus remain fully operational.

When I restarted using front panel controls, all three briefly started but shut down as soon as the main screen became visible. I turned off all three units for 1m using the rear power switch. After restarting them, the DAC and Upsampler appear to be operating normally, and each is controllable in Mosaic. The DAC, however, does seem to go into a “standby” or sleep” mode; it can be awakened by pressing the Menu button when it does; but it has also shut itself off several times. When it does this, the Upsampler keeps playing. However, the Clock simply will not stay operational. This behavior occurs whether the Clock is connected to the SRS reference clock or not. All three units are cool to the touch. All IC. BNC, and power cables are firmly seated.

Suggestions appreciated.

#2

Greg, I’m sure the dCS folks will recommend some action.

My initial thought would be that for all 3 units to misbehave at the same time would suggest something funky going on with the 3-way RS-232 serial cable and/or port configurations. You might want to check that, and/or disconnect that cable for the time being till you’ve got a handle on the issue? :+1:t3:

#3

Anup, thanks for responding. I thought about the RS-232 cable, but dismissed the possibility because it’s not plugged into the Clock. That was probably mistaken. I will disconnect it tomorrow to see if any behavior changes.

#4

Hello Greg, sorry to hear that. At home the only way the stack is shutting down (except the clock) is through the Roon sleep mode. But as you mentioned the clock is not linked to the stack with the rs232 the only reason that would make sense is the power coming from the Taurus but you already checked everything.

Hope dCS guys will be able to help you soon

#5

That’s annoying.
To locate an error disconnect everything from each other and only use the DAC with preferably a different source. If that goes well, connect the clock first and then the upsampler last. etc. NO RS-232 cable, which connect last.

#6

Greg, I am going to suggest something that would have caused your problem but is pretty dumb.

Is you IR remote somewhere where an object has accidentally been placed or fallen on it so as to press constantly on the power button?That will have switched off the stack and have made it turn off again as soon as you rebooted it. Yes this has happened to me though not with the dCS stack but with other remotes/equipment.

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#7

Were you playing Swiss Yodle ? The DAC might switch in protect mode in such a case :laughing:

It can be a micro power shutdown, the cause is potentially to be found in your power block, unless one dCS piece has the control on all the other…dCS shall investigate I guess…

#8

It is possible that it has fallen in the hands of his wife…

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#9

:laughing: :laughing:

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#10

I appreciate all the replies, both the serious and the light-hearted! I disconnected everything overnight, and turned all power off, and rear switches off. Today, I will remove the dCS components to a different room, connected to a different power circuit, and see if I can power up the units and keep them powered on. Depending on that test, I will also see if I can get them reset to factory settings. I have an email into my very responsive dealer, and I’ll wait and see if dCS have any suggestions. In the meantime, I will install either the DirectStream or Lumin into the speaker system so I have music.

#11

Pete, you are a genius. Yesterday, I reorganized the small plastic box that slides under our ottoman/coffee table and contains all the remotes. And, I added two items to the box, enough apparently to put pressure on the dCS remote. I would have completely forgotten this—out of sight, out of mind—were it not for your common sense. Thank you. [I had missed your post initially as I quickly skimmed the replies; my regrets.]

The Clock has remained powered up for 10 minutes. The DAC and Upsampler have stayed powered up for 5 minutes, fully visible in Mosaic.

You are a life-saver my friend. :grinning:

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#12

As long as I don’t have to pay more income tax :laughing:.

I am glad it was a simple answer.

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#13

Pete’s suggestion reminded of something that once happened to me with my Puccini (this is another remote control story). The player was connected directly to my power amp at the time, so I was using the Puccini’s digital volume control. I was sitting happily listening to music one evening, when suddenly I noticed the sound seeming to get louder. I watched the Puccini ‘step ladder’ volume display climbing up and up, for no apparent reason. I grabbed the remote control and pressed the button to reduce volume but there was no response. In fact I couldn’t get the volume below 0.0 dB (where it now was) even by pressing the buttons on the Puccini front panel.

What was the cause? Apparently the batteries in the remote control were very low and, perhaps as a consequence, it started emitting a continuous ‘increase volume’ signal. I was still scratching my head on the second day, and the Puccini still not shifting from 0.0 dB, because all the while the remote control was sitting on the couch, pointing at the equipment stack. I thought it was just sitting doing nothing, while all the time it was telling the Puccini to get louder. It was my dealer that suggested the remote control was the problem. A change of batteries solved it. And, fortunately, the CD I was playing on that day was not cut at a high level. So there was no speaker damage. Phew!

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