DS9800 becomes unavailable for airplay time after time

[DavePriceRoberts]

It fails to go any further than this stage. Flashing red light on back of speaker.

[Philips - QK]

Dear DavePriceRoberts,

We are currently looking into this with our backend support team. Will update you as soon as I heard back from them.

Thanks & regards,
Philips Moderation Team

[artesan]

I'm a US user, my routers are D-Link DIR-655 (now) and basic Netgear (used before D-Link).
All the same problems. Whenever speakers are idle for a while they become unavailable although green light indicator remains on. This definitely not a general router problem because my other devices (Zeppelin and printer) never drop the connection.

I wonder if UK firmware is any better.


And btw, this problem is a real stone in the shoe. The speakers have such great sound and look but fail in quite basic (from a consumer perspective) element of connectivity.

[zoyss]

@davepricerobert: i had exactly the same problem. Despite the instructions coming with the firmware you have to go to the tab "Firmware Update" and push the Button "ok". The first 3-4 times the speakers rebooted (assumed) and the page wasn't able to reload. After a day waiting i tried it again and it worked. Speakers rebooted and page reloaded fine. I was able to upload the file and update the firmware. That's not actually a fix but give it some tries.

For the new Firmware the stability of the connection is still not sufficient and the speakers lose their name from time to time (Bridge XXX) or lose the connection to iTunes, very disappointing. Restarting iTunes does help but i guess that's not what Apple meant.
I recommend to assign a fixed IP to the speakers in any case, DHCP proofed to be even worse.

@Philips Support: Please do a deep dive into this. You brought such a high-end product to market and i appreciate the craftsmanship and astonishing sound every day but Airplay connectivity really su... well you know.

Thanks

[DavePriceRoberts]

Thanks for this Zoyss - how long did you give it before restarting speakers once the red light appeared after clicking the update firmware button? Thanks, Dave

[zoyss]

@davepricerobert: you do not need to reset the speakers manually, the process is accomplished by itself. Push "ok" you will hear a white noise from the speakers and after 5-10 seconds the bonjour page will reload and allow you to upload the file.

Just fyi: I did the update from a Macbook.

[DavePriceRoberts]

@zoyss: thanks for your help but I'm afraid even after repeating the process 10 times in row it still won't work.

@Philips Support: what can I do to fix this situation? I'm stuck with this version of the firmware, which is not acceptable. No matter what I do the process fails. I click on ok on the firmware update page, it comes up and tells me the device is preparing to update the firmware. After about 10 seconds the page trys to refresh and then times out. The speakers have a flashing red light and no longer is discoverable.

I do work in IT so I feel fairly competent in my approach to this problem. I've tried applying firmware using both windows 7 pc and also using bonjour via an iMac. I've tried doing it connected via the home router and also doing it using the Philips air play network. Nothing works! What else can I try?

[DavePriceRoberts]

******PROBLEM FIXED*******

You need to ensure that before you do the firmware upgrade that the light on the back of the speaker is a solid green. If it's flashing green, then hold the off button on the back of the speaker for 5 seconds before running through the set-up process again. Once the light is a solid green, go to the 192.168.1.1 webpage and run the firmware update again.

I have tried so many different things before discovering this! Sounds simple and it is but if you're not looking for it then I guess it's not that obvious. I hope it helps others who might be suffering similar issues.

Thanks,
Dave

[DavePriceRoberts]

Okay - so I managed to get the firmware update to apply but like everyone else the update has not fixed the root cause problem of AirPlay dropping out.

Come on Philips there must be a way to get this fixed!

[Dubbick]

Some additional information for people experiencing problems with the firmware upgrade:
I tried in vain for may hours to update the firmware of my DS9800 speakers and even entering the IP address mentioned in the “Firmware Upgrade DS9800W” page did not help. The speakers kept on blinking in red and entering the IP address led to a time out because the IP address could not be found.
Finally I found the solution for the update by comparing the IP adress of the Fidelio speaker with the one shown on my WIFI router listing. The IP adress which was shown on the Fidelio update page did not correspond to the one of the router listing. After entering the IP Address shown in the router listing I could finish the firmware update process without any problems. The new firmware 3.8.88.1000 now allows a quicker connect to the WIFI router when powering up the speakers. Before it used to take up to 2 minutes and now the connection is established almost immediately after the quickly blinking LED switches to the slower blinking.
I hope this will help other users who had problems updating the firmware. I also should mention here that the German Philips support I contacted over the phone did not have a clue as to the solution of this problem.

[notthedoctor]

Like others my airplay is unreliable yet a have a full strength airport express two feet from the speaker! sometimes it runs for an hour then stops, then might even come back on. When it goes off sometimes the fidelio option on my iPhone - or iPod is missing, sometimes it is there in all its glory but no sound, then sometimes it just comes back on as if by magic. Similar problems from my iMac. I have latest 5.1 sw. This is a very expensive piece of kit. It should not be this difficult to get it to work.

I saw the mention of the new firmware. My speakers are only a month old and accessing the fidelio internal firmware page shows the firmware as 3.8.88.1000 (the latest?) BUT with a firmware date of 2011-10-17. Not a March 2012 date as implied in earlier posts from Philips.

Should I still update the firmware? are folks that had the problems earlier still having them?

Thanks
Denis

[Lubidu]

Dear Philips Support, i'm from Switzerland and have exactly the same Problem! - It's not possible to listen Music for hours, the Speakers stop playing and often i had to shutdown and reboot them. Since i was trying to install the newest firmware, i can't connect any more to my Speakers. The LED is fast blinking green then it blinks red and then it power off?!

It's so sad and frustrating, when one buy a high-end product and then have so much trouble !!
Have you got any suggestion to fix my problems?

[zoyss]

I saw the mention of the new firmware. My speakers are only a month old and accessing the fidelio internal firmware page shows the firmware as 3.8.88.1000 (the latest?)

Should I still update the firmware? are folks that had the problems earlier still having them?
s

yes 3.8.88.1000 is the latest firmware

The problems were even worse with the earlier firmware

[backhandguga]

Good point. I'm just happy that something has been done on this issue. As long as there's a progress, I'm pretty happy with it.

[limit]

I've had no Airplay dropout issues with continuous play for several hours. They're only a week old so maybe the latest firmware has resolved some of the issues. I must say I was a trifle concerned after reading all the above hassles but I can't fault them and the sound quality is superlative