From out of no where my 3000 completly locked up.. That is, it would not connect to PC nor would it work as a remote. Push main button or any button nothing! I tried different USP plug on PC no help.With nothing else to do, I unpluged the battery. Ya! that fixed everything. I thought someone might find this helpful at some future time. I did not find any reference to that problem during a search.
Darrell

you can also press the little silver button next to the battery connection.

Lee

This is would be my recommended method of resetting the remote. Due to the small size of the wires attached to the battery, it would be best to handle those as infrequently as possible. Soldering them back on is no fun ;).

-3B

Thanks guys, thats good to know
Darrell

I seem to have this problem with about 50% of the mX-3000's I sell. It's jusy about gotten to the point where I'm looking at a replcement touchscreen. I dropped the Pronto's due to lack of reliability, so it looks like i'm looking at RTI or Xantech next!

Do your remote lockups seem to be consistent by screen, button or task or do the lockups occur randomly? I have discovered a bug in the 3000's software and can now cause a lockup with 100% accuracy. Luckily I've also discovered a way around it. I have posted about it before but apparently few other people run in to the problem, so I let it drop.

It has to do with changing variable values via aliased macros while the currently displayed screen includes a button who's state is dependant upon the variable that was changed. If the aliased variable based macro has a state (ie 0 or 1) who's macro contains no command ( as variable state power macros always do) then the remote will lockup every time. Put a .1 pause in the empty state of any (or all) macro where you now have no commands and your problems will be solved.

There are a few of us now that have tried to work this our with URC and they still don't understand the cause. I'm sure our status as end users causes most of the folks there to assume that are problems are based upon our own stupidity. In fact a few of the people that I have helped out with this problem have been told just that. O well.

Check it out and see if you are using variable based macros that change variables in this way. The macro will work and cause no problem as long as the screen being displayed at the time of execution has no buttons who's state is dependant upon the variable being change by the macro.

ok..i'm glad i found this thread. i just got a call today by my fourth client in about a month and a half about the MX3000 "locking up." i feel ya, fish..we've dropped pronto due to realiability and programming ease, but now i feel that my relationship with the MX3000 is slowly going the way of the buffalo (as it were a hundred years ago i mean)! i would say that about 60% of my MXs are having this issue. ljckbailey, i don't use any of the variable commands so i don't know what the issue is other than just faulty hardware. moving foward, i will document and notify URC upon all service call that i recieve on this issue. Also, we have run into this same issue on a couple of the Crestron version MT1000s....
I just talked to tech support and they tell me it's the altitude because we're in denver..which is the standard excuse we hear when something is broken and can't be fixed or figured out.. please let me know if anyone else who is having this issue is in elevation above 5k..
thanks!

Haa..what a joke. If you live in the mile high city you cant use Mx-3000's?....the tech support couldnt even explain to you why the altitude was the problem. What the the tech failed to tell you is that URC thinks that static discharge is the culprit. Which is popular in Dry parts of the country.

IMHO your Mx-3000 locks up becuase of a few reasons.

1. Device uses a Microsoft product to run the remote
2. URC has less than stellar QC...as this problem has existed for over a year with no offical release on why it continues to happen and what will be done to fix it
3. Device uses a Microsoft product to run the remote

My MX3000 also does this for no apparent reason. I have never been able to find a rhyme or reason.

I just want to apologize to Adam for his experience with technical support. There is no reason why MX-3000's should lock up in Denver!
We have had some static discharge issues with early versions of the MX-950, but this has been resolved. The MX-3000 is not particularly sensitive to static discharge and Denver is certainly not the only place in the country with static discharges. Last week in our NY office, I almost electrocuted myself taking off a sweater...

I'm sorry that one of our tech support people sunk to that kind of response. I'm distributing and discussing this entire thread with all of them tomorrow.

We have two problems at URC with the "lock up" issue.

1) Often, when someon complains over the phone of a lock up, they mean the remote isn't operating their equipment. However, the remote responds and pages change, etc. In the majority of these cases, the "lock up" is caused by emitter issues, RF interference etc. The remote really isn't "locked up" in my opinion.

2) When the complaint is that the MX-3000 is frozen, with either a blank screen or one screen that you cannot change, that equates to the "lock up" described here. We are enormously concerned about this. The problem we have is that we can't verify the MX-3000 problem consistently with any more than a handful of remotes we've received for exchange.

When a customer has a remote that locks up once a month, it is very difficult to replicate and solve the issue. Over the past two years, many thousands of lines of code and several hardware improvements have been made as we've identified possible causes. In some of your cases, we may be able to eliminate the problem by exchanging your remotes.

What I hope for, and I hope some of you can help me with, is any way to replicate the problem. I also urge any of you to call me if you have had a bad experience with technical support on this issue.

I don't think this is a QC issue, and I do think we have stellar QC. I think this is a complex product with complex software, and we can't QC a problem we don't understand the root cause for.

As for blaming Microsoft, it's easy. But we all depend on Microsoft in one way or another every day.

Please don't hesitate to call me on this issue.

Best Regards,

-Eric

For what it's worth, I've experienced the lock up about three times in the last 12 months. The screen is completely frozen and all of the buttons are dead. I'm not using any variables and was just scrolling through the pages when the lock up occured. The fix each time was to remove and reinstall the battery.

I will have to disagree on this....
about 9 months ago we had a similar issue, called tech support on the remote randomly locking up in a non powered state...would die and seem to lose power and not able to power back up unless battery was removed and unit reset upon battery being reinstalled...all was ok as tech support gave us information to return the unit for replacement( we track all returns with lots of info, dates, problems, serial numbers, supplied accessories, and such) any how about 10 days later we received a replacement unit..well we thought we did...it was not a replacement at all...was the same remote and was still freaking broken...WTF!!...called tech support back and was told there was no issues with it...ok then why is it still broke and why was it not replaced as I was told it would be??

we had to buy another to get the system working for the client and beg to have the bad one replaced and still took a month to get replacement remote

Must not have been a QC issue there, it must have been an interoffice communication error...what did they do?? open the box and see it light up and say its working, pull out our paperwork...rebox it and ship it back...then get back to their doughnuts and chocolate milk???

Why on Earth would someone purchase such an elaborate remote without ever programming a macro or variable? Hmmmmm.

I had the lock up issue and was told by URC initially that it was a malfunctioning remote issue. I even went so far as to get a RMA and package it up for return. I was finally able to duplicate the problem in the emulator(No remote at all!). I proved it was an error in the software. But was told it was a programming issue. I asked what part of the programming was wrong they said I could attend a class to learn more. I stumbled on the fix by calling ljckbailey and put a .10 second delay in all the inactive command lines for my variables. Now it works flawlessly. I told URC about it and they could have cared less!

I showed them how I duplicated the problem with the emulator. I sent my .rcc file to URC and they also could reproduce the lock up in their emulator. I was promptly redirected to call only one senior tech and he would only explain that URC can not help with programming issues. ERrrrrrrrrrrrrr. This is a software issue that is a URC problem.

I was happy to get a work around from ljckbailey. But it seems that URC could care less. Their programming manual is barely adequate but will get you going to start with.

I still think this remote rocks. The best remote out there for the pro and the diy user IMHO!

Ken

Mine is now locking up alot, and the Wireless RF receiver, IR blaster won't transmit out of ports 2-6 (port 1 works though). It's totally random - no changes to configuration and it just stops working.

Eventually - it fixes itself.

I'm a home user - so I'm dumping this unit for a Harmony 890.

My 2 cents...I love this remote.

That said...I hate this remote when it locks up on me (which it does every other month or so). I have programmed the remote myself and as a novice home user I may have just enough knowledge to be my own worst enemy. Be that as it may, I beleive it is in URC's best interest to find a solution soon and make it known before users like myself turn to other products.

It is far more cost effective and better for business to keep an existing client, then to have to go out and find new ones.