RT-AC68U randomly losing connection with Onkyo receiver

[flupke01]

Hi, for over a year I've been trying to solve this problem with my Onkyo receiver losing the connection with the router. I'll try to explain the problem, please bear in mind that English is not my native language and that I am quite noobish as well...

The receiver is connected by cable with the router. When I use any network-related receiver function (can be netradio like tune-in or spotify or DLNA) the receiver loses the connection randomly. Can happen within half an hour, but it also happens all is working well for days without any issues. Lately it happens quite a lot. The app I use to control the receiver is unable to find the receiver at such times. Using the remote control is useless as well; nothing happens. Only thing I can do is unplug the power, and restart the receiver. Then the receiver initializes the connection and all is well for the time being...

At first I believed the problem to be with the receiver itself (an Onkyo TX-8050), as there was a globally spread problem with a network related chip. The receiver has been repaired by Onkyo, but that did not help.After a lot of hassle I've got another (and newer) receiver from Onkyo (an Onkyo TX-8150), which sadly appears to have the exact same problem.

It could be that I am extremely unlucky getting 2 receivers with identical problems or that Onkyo just really sucks at making them, but I wanna be sure the router isn't the problem... I tried out a static IP instead of DHCP, which did not help. Using wifi (which is the receiver capable of) did not make a difference, as expected. I resetted both receiver and router, and flashed the latest firmware (380.61). All to no avail.

I should mention that fiddling with settings like trying static IP, or QoS seemed to work in the past, but that never lasted. At a certain point the problem came back, sometimes right away, sometimes after days without issues. Don't even know if there was really any change at all, as this problem occurs randomly... Oh, and a helpdesk guy from Onkyo mentioned something about assigning a port for the receiver, which I tried. But I do not really know whether I did this the proper way, so that could be a thing to look into. Though I do not understand how it could work, as the connection is working proper a great deal of the time without assigning a port.

Anyway, long story, I do hope someone has a clue and can help me out here?

 

[john9527]

It actually sounds like more of a problem with the receiver firmware since it happens on both wired and wireless connections. One thing you might try is assigning a static ip right on the receiver (I couldn't tell for sure if when you tried a static ip, you meant the router or the receiver). Most receivers have this option (my Yamaha does, never used an Onkyo)

 

[dlandiss]

It actually sounds like more of a problem with the receiver firmware since it happens on both wired and wireless connections. One thing you might try is assigning a static ip right on the receiver (I couldn't tell for sure if when you tried a static ip, you meant the router or the receiver). Most receivers have this option (my Yamaha does, never used an Onkyo)

Firmware, or even the network chip set. We have had the same issue with several Denon/Marantz receivers. I think they are all built in the same factory in Shenzhen, China.

Our work-around is to assign the AVR a fixed IP Address in the router, outside of its DHCP pool. The same defect that causes the connection to be flaky appears to cause the AVR's Ethernet connection to fail when a fixed address is set in the AVR itself.

 

[flupke01]

Thanks for replying. But if that would actually be the case, those receivers all coming from one factory with faulty hardware, or maybe having problems with the firmware, I'd figure there would be a lot of complaints about this problem to be found online. And the case is, I can hardly find anyone with the same problem. I know not everyone would complain online, or maybe I've been searching in the wrong places, that's possible off course. But it does not seem logical to me, but maybe Onkyo is not selling this receiver as much as I thought

Anyway, I did try using an static IP. But maybe I'm doing it wrong? What I did is turning off DHCP in the receiver settings, and assigning an IP address in the receiver menu itself. But I also manually assigned (the same) IP around the DHCP list (I used 192.168.1.100, starting the DHCP pool at .101). I assumed that was the proper way to do it... (well, really proper would have been using an IP after the IP pool range instead of before, but I had some weird trouble with the menu options in the receiver, so I sticked with this address).

But should I have chosen for only fixing the address at the receiver, of only in the router, instead of assigning on both? Would that make any difference?

 

[dlandiss]

Thanks for replying. But if that would actually be the case, those receivers all coming from one factory with faulty hardware, or maybe having problems with the firmware, I'd figure there would be a lot of complaints about this problem to be found online.

You will find the complaints more in forums devoted to AVR receivers than here. Not all of the models of a given product are affected. We have about 25 Denon AVRs in service around St. Louis, and maybe 5 have similar symptoms--mostly 2014 models.

Also not that many people need the static address. Net Radio and firmware updates will work just fine without. Since most customers use IR control they never know the difference.

But should I have chosen for only fixing the address at the receiver, of only in the router, instead of assigning on both? Would that make any difference?

That is what we had to do--leave DHCP on in the AVR, but configure the router to assign a fixed address.

 

[flupke01]

You will find the complaints more in forums devoted to AVR receivers than here. Not all of the models of a given product are affected. We have about 25 Denon AVRs in service around St. Louis, and maybe 5 have similar symptoms--mostly 2014 models.

Also not that many people need the static address. Net Radio and firmware updates will work just fine without. Since most customers use IR control they never know the difference.

I did not know that, but then again, I never searched in forums concerning AVR receivers as I assumed my receiver is not an AVR, but more like a regular receiver with network functionality. But I guess that is not that relevant for my problem.

I did experience connection problems with netradio as well, but it looks like using Spotify (connect) is giving more trouble overall...

That is what we had to do--leave DHCP on in the AVR, but configure the router to assign a fixed address.

So if I leave DHCP on in the receiver, it will get an fixed address from the router, if I understand correctly. I will try that, sees if that works better... Thanks for the info!

 

[dlandiss]

Although your receiver might not be an AVR, the video stages are not the subject so the same circuits will still be in play.

What we had the best success with was to leave DHCP on in the receiver, but use the static IP Address setting feature of the router to ensure that the address being assigned by the router to the receiver would be stable so our remote controls could always find it. BTW, that also ensures that the router is treated as the gateway to the Internet without needing to be manually set in the receiver.

 

[flupke01]

Although your receiver might not be an AVR, the video stages are not the subject so the same circuits will still be in play.

What we had the best success with was to leave DHCP on in the receiver, but use the static IP Address setting feature of the router to ensure that the address being assigned by the router to the receiver would be stable so our remote controls could always find it. BTW, that also ensures that the router is treated as the gateway to the Internet without needing to be manually set in the receiver.

Do I understand correctly that the IP in the receiver would not (necessarily) be the same as the one fixed in the router then? Because that's the situation now in with this setup...

 

[dlandiss]

Do I understand correctly that the IP in the receiver would not (necessarily) be the same as the one fixed in the router then? Because that's the situation now in with this setup...

You may have to reboot everything to see the change. If DHCP is turned on in the receiver, it is bound to take the address the router (gateway) sends, at least after the lease expires.

 

[TonyH]

You may have to reboot everything to see the change. If DHCP is turned on in the receiver, it is bound to take the address the router (gateway) sends, at least after the lease expires.

Just run ipscan then OP will know what ip address the AVR(audio/video receiver) is on. Tried different LAN port? Even different cable? No f/w update for the receiver? My experience with Onkyo was not good. Their power supply is bit skimpy causing over-heating problem. I liked Denon then moved up to Anthem now.

 

[Blinkyz]

There is a lots of FW upgrades for this model

Latest Firmware Version: 1051-1500-0000-0000

http://www.onkyo.ca/Products/model.php?m=TX-8050&class=Receiver

 

[flupke01]

Just run ipscan then OP will know what ip address the AVR(audio/video receiver) is on. Tried different LAN port? Even different cable? No f/w update for the receiver? My experience with Onkyo was not good. Their power supply is bit skimpy causing over-heating problem. I liked Denon then moved up to Anthem now.

I know the IP already, thanks. And indeed, after repeatingly rebooting both machines it finally worked out fine. I will know have to see if it will last. It's working flawless for the moment, but I've seen that happening before. If the problem does return, I will look into changing cables and/or ports...

 

[flupke01]

There is a lots of FW upgrades for this model

Latest Firmware Version: 1051-1500-0000-0000

http://www.onkyo.ca/Products/model.php?m=TX-8050&class=Receiver

That model is the predecessor of the TX8150, which I'm using now. Did have that one too at first though, same problem, as I described... Anyway, I'm using the latest firmware for this model at the moment.

 

[flupke01]

All you guys, thanks for helping out. I'll give it a try, see what happens...

 

[Mathieu]

Thanks flupke01 for raising that issue.
It took me almost a year to step on it, after at least a couple more experimenting the very same symptoms.
Did try the fixes suggested by john9527 (assigning fixed IP) and dandies (leaving DHCP on on the Receiver), to no avail.
My Onkyo machine is NR838, and the FW appears to be updated, although the manufacturer does not make it easy finding latest updates.
I found that for some reason the wifi card of the router (with a MAC address that is distinct from the cat-wired one) was also requesting IP, which led to some confusion on my client list.
I'll blame the hardware then...
By the way seems to be working fine right now with 'Chet Baker in Tokyo' streaming real nice. Blisssss...
Thank you guys.

 

[bschellva]

Thanks flupke01 for raising that issue.
It took me almost a year to step on it, after at least a couple more experimenting the very same symptoms.
Did try the fixes suggested by john9527 (assigning fixed IP) and dandies (leaving DHCP on on the Receiver), to no avail.
My Onkyo machine is NR838, and the FW appears to be updated, although the manufacturer does not make it easy finding latest updates.
I found that for some reason the wifi card of the router (with a MAC address that is distinct from the cat-wired one) was also requesting IP, which led to some confusion on my client list.
I'll blame the hardware then...
By the way seems to be working fine right now with 'Chet Baker in Tokyo' streaming real nice. Blisssss...
Thank you guys.

Any luck finding a solution to this problem? I also have an NR838 with the same issue. Network connectivity will work for a few days and then die. I have to unplug the receiver to get it working again. It's very frustrating.

 

[florid]

Perhaps I have a similar issue with Marantz.
The receiver NIC is 100M. And I can tell the network chip is very weak.
What I did,
1. check the cable
2. force to set the interface speed to 100M on switch if possible
3. use fixed static IP address instead of DHCP
4. check the network setting on the receiver, Marantz has a feature called network always on which means even you put receiver in sleep mode but the network is still accessible to wake on lan. This will save the time and resource to start up network service every time. And this setting solved my problem that cannot find the receiver.
Hope it helps.

 

[Mathieu]

Checking your client list, you may notice (as was the case for my Onkyo) that there are two pieces of hardware for the receiver: the wifi card and the 'hard plugged' one. I have assigned a distinct fixed IP address to either one, based on their respective MAC addresses.
In the Onkyo receiver's network settings, I made sure the IP was fixed (no DHCP), selected 'wired' connection (*), and gave it the IP I had previously assigned to the wired connection (from within the router).
This seems to have solved the IP confusion and I have not experienced dropped connections since.
Good luck

(*) That's because I prefer plugged connection to the receiver, but presumably if your preference is for wifi, the converse should work (chose wifi in the receiver's network setting, and assigned the fixed IP you gave to the receiver's wifi card in the router).

 

[bschellva]

Thanks for thor the suggestions. Im only connected via wifi so I don't see two entries for the receiver. I thought the static address was working. I think I went over a week without a problem, but then it vanished from the network again. I may just have a bum unit. It's over a year out of warranty, so I may just be stuck with the problem.

Thanks again for the help!