Frequency Scan And Remote Lock Up : Causes, Prevention And Fix

[ColonelDan]

In an earlier post I addressed the issue of my remote control locking up but I thought I’d expand on it and provide a video link that talks about this frustrating event.

Causes: There have now been multiple reports of the remotes locking up after at least one of two actions were taken which caused the malfunction. 1) Taking the remote beyond the range of the coil and then doing a frequency scan (noise cancel). 2) Pressing one of the buttons on the remote while the unit is actually in the scanning process.

There may be other actions that cause this lock up situation but those two in particular have been directly linked to this malfunction.

Prevention: Do not take your remote beyond coil range and try to do a frequency scan. However, I have taken a remote beyond coil range and conducted other actions without any adverse effects such as adjusting settings or creating a custom program. Secondly, DO NOT press any other button on the remote while the unit is actively engaged in the scanning process. This button pushing action seems to disrupt or “confuse” the software.

Fix: In the event you experience a lock up you won’t be able to shut the unit down or activate any action at all. Your remote will be totally frozen. Since I always prefer the simplest fix, just allow the unit to completely run down the battery until it shuts itself off--mine took around 20 hours to shut down. After it shuts down, plug it into the charger and it will return to normal operation...at least mine did. Now I’ve read about another approach wherein the user took it upon himself to remove the back of the remote, disconnect and then reconnect the battery. He reported that this also served to return the unit to normal operation.  However, following Dirty Harry’s sage advice, “A man has to know his limitations” I never considered doing this myself because I’m fully aware of my technical limitations!

A Word of Caution: I've heard that disconnecting and then reconnecting the battery may cause or did cause the loss of custom programs.    I didn't lose anything by just letting the battery run down on its own then connecting it back to the charger.

Now the ultimate fix is for XP to address this in a future update.  I have reported this to the right folks at XP and I’m sure they’ll analyze it and take the appropriate action.

[CPT_GhostLight]

Thank you for the detailed information, ColonelDan! Hopefully this will prevent problems for D2 users until XP can get this fixed.

[ByTheLake]

I experienced the remote lock-up when doing the frequency scan, but the coil and remote were no more than 2 feet apart.  This was not an issue with the coil being out of range of the remote.

I was in close proximity of two laptops (maybe 2-3 feet), so perhaps EMF interference from the WiFi communication?  No idea - anything would be a guess.  Also, the WS-6 pinpointer was powered up (and paired earlier).  My home has both WiFi and Z-wave frequencies in operation, so maybe EMF was a factor?

Has not happened since, although I avoid doing frequency scans indoors.

[ColonelDan]

ByTheLake,  did you press any button while the RC was in the process of doing the scan?  If not, we now have yet another cause of the lock up.  

I’ve done frequency scans indoors without incident.  
XP has a challenge on its hands… diagnosis and software update…soon.  I’m sure their engineers can and will find the fix.