The following comes from a December post of mine describing problems I had encountered with the NG remotes. Daniel, thanks for the great search engine. I also remember describing this whole genre as "puts the F back into NG."



"As a result, about six months ago (before December 2004) I declared, for myself at least, that these remotes are not ready for prime time. In other words, since I cannot guarantee that I can program one of these remotes completely, there is no way I can tell one of my clients that I can program it for him or her AT ALL. I presently have one TSU3000 out there that is missing a few working codes for Sony DVD player, and a Marantz RC5400 sitting on my desk aging. Like cheese. It was worse than the TSU3000, and the 3000's almost complete program is what saved the sale."


This thread makes me wonder when my client will have this same problem. While I hate the problem, I LOVE THIS SITE and all of you who contribute to it! I will at least have an answer for the guy when it happens!

Do these problems relate only to the 3.6.7 firmware..?

No, this started a year ago for me and has gotten progressively worse.

Like many other people I have been having trouble with my TSU3000’s touch screen all of a sudden not responding. By reading through this thread I have tried many of the suggestions but none have worked. One time while reloading the firmware I got a message saying that it lost communication with the remote and it stopped loading the firmware. I tried reloading the firmware but now it could not determine the current firmware version. The update program would pop up a window telling me to press the reset button on the remote. When I press the reset button it looks like it is loading the firmware but then the update program crashes. Now I get no response from my remote at all. Has my TSU3000 just become an expensive paper weight or is there anything else I can do to reload any version of the firmware.

Thanks in advance.

Tyler

Dear Pronto NG users,

Please be aware that we follow this thread daily and are working diligently to try to find a solution.

As some of you are aware we have been working since mid June to try to find the cause of the non-responsive touch screen that some of you are experiencing. Understanding that it is extremely frustrating, currently only a small group out of the total Pronto NG community is experiencing this problem, which increases the difficulty analyzing the issue.

To try to find the issue we first focused on feedback from you based on purchase date and the firmware you were using when the problem occurred. This showed us that the units where very far apart from manufacturing date and the issue has arisen with users running several different firmware versions.

We then decided to try to get several units back to the development group here in Leuven to try to put them on the test bench and see if we can pinpoint the cause.

Mr. Grayson you were one of those people and we have been analyzing your unit. We would also like to ask if you could use the batteries for a few more days until Mr. Gybels returns from his holiday, which his out of office message should be indicating. We hope he activated it. As soon as he is back he will get to your mails and send your battery pack.

Unfortunately getting the several units back has not yet resulted in us being able to identify the issue and we will contact several more of you over the next couple of days to try to get your unit back to Leuven, Belgium to have a larger sample group to try to find the cause.

Again we are working hard on this issue and are trying to resolve it in the quickest time possible.

Regards
The Pronto Team

Pronto Team, thanks for the reply. I wasn't aware that you guys were working on this, and I am somewhat relieved to hear that you are. From a user's perspective, it would have been nice to hear from you earlier rather than beating our heads against the wall dealing with the general customer service folks. Please know that your presence on this forum is greatly appreciated.

By the way, if you want my remote for testing, you are welcome to it. The only thing it does now is control volume with the hard buttons, so I really wouldn't miss it.

Well I am confused on what to do now. My pronto had the touchscreen problem. I tried everything, flashing firmware, leaving batteries out for a week, nothing worked. I must have put in over 40 hours of playing around trying to get the screen to work, and absolutely nothing. At first I couldn't calibrate, then the entire screen would not respond.

So I threw the Pronto in the box, and forgot about it for a couple of months. Well, then today I get an e-mail seeing if I could send mine back. So I dig it out, and just put some batteries in to make sure it powers on. The calibration screen came up, and just out of boredom, I tried it (really quick and sloppy with a pen). Wouldn't you know it, the thing calibrates. So I reflash it with 3.67 and try again, and it calibrated fine again.

Right now the unit is working like nothing was ever wrong with it. So now I'm not sure if I should send it back, or keep it. Anyone have this happen, how soon will it die again? I am going to play around with it for the next couple of days and I'll let you know how I make out.

For those experiencing this problem, try taking the batteries out, leaving it for at least a month and trying it again. Like I said, I tried taking the batteries out of mine for a couple days and then a week, and it didn't make a difference. Technically, I don't understand this, since you wouldn't think it would take more then a couple hours (or minutes??) to drain the capacitor.

I don't know, this problem is very strange. How could the Pronto work fine for a year, then suddenly stop responding, then you put it on the shelf for a couple of months and it works again?

If anyone has any input into this or has experienced this, please post!! I feel like I'm losing my mind!!

Thank you!

JoeCentral,
For over a month, I've been pulling the battery out of my remote every time it loses its calibration. Usually it is recoverable after 48 hours with no battery. It works fine afterwards, seemingly perfect, and then suddenly loses calibration again. I've been taking notes on timing; it takes 4 to 7 days to go bad again.

I'm certainly sending mine back!
---Mike

I also emailed Mr Zeven and within 2 days received a call from his Presidential Escalations Dept (Veronica) . They are replaceing both my TSU3000 units FREE! I also received an email from the Pronto Team in Belgium (Koen Bruyninckx ). They said they are trying to work the touchscreen problem, but can't seem to figure it out because they don't have enough units to test. They told me to mail my units in FREE, and use their DHL account number which they gave me. Now I have a call into Veronica, to see which way she would like me to go. I think I mentioned that I recently had purchased a new NG TSU3000, so when it goes belly up, I would like this problem to be solved. It least Philips has finally admitted there is a problem!

I also got a call from Veronica and email from Pronto Team and will be sending mine back for research. I only hope a cure can be found.

I had left a message with Veronica as to whether I should mail my units to the address she gave me or to Belgium, but haven't received her reply yet. I think I will email the guy in Belgium. I would assume he will then mail me NEW Prontos.

Sent mine today. It was a bit of a hassle, but finally figured out you have to fill out a commercial invoice and include 2 copies of that along with the international waybill.

Now the decision is, do I start over from scratch, or load my existing PCF on the new remote...

I uploaded my exact same program onto my new Pronto and it is fine. I don't think the firmware (software) is the problem. I think its the hardware itself....don't you?

By the way, did you take yours to a DHL location or a mailboxes etc type place?

I would guess it is hardware related, but it is very difficult to say at this point. I don't think it is related to the firmware as I saw the problem start a year ago, but lots of others didn't see it until very recently. I wouldn't think that something in a PCF could do this, but who knows?

As for shipping, I just filled out the waybill and included two copies of the commercial invoice (both signed as originals) and left it at a mailboxes etc type place.