MEP Locks Up

Hello... is anyone there?

Sadly there are many things that can be wrong... :-/

In the begining my MEP did this about an hour into the set, and after a restart it ran fine for the remaning 3 hours.

Are you using a flashdrive or a harddrive?

If harddrive... are you using an external powersource for the drive?

What size is it?

Have you double-formated it? (don't ask why... no one knows... but many users on the forum have found that a double-format works some vodoo on the drives, and they work after that.)

Are you running in Library mode or in Browser mode?

I have a 1TB harddrive and in my case the double-format didn't change anything...

I found that if I rebuilt the library, and defragmented the drive EVERY time I added something to it, I could run the entire set, with no problem.

That solution however takes alot of time :-/

Later I found that if I reformated the drive with 16kb sectors instead of the 32kb default, I didn't need to do the rebuild and defrag :)

This happened to me last night.  I figured after all the hype about this player i'd try it out, so i bought it.

It worked fine previous weeks and now it plays an MP3 (that I have played in the past, same flash drive too) and then seems to be about a minute left in the song, STOPS AND DEAD AIR! I WAS SO ... you don't want to know.... So luckily it was early evening and i co¨ld get away with a quick power cycle, later on I tried again, STOPS! and this time it's 1AM with a packed dance floor...

PLAYER COMPLETELY FREEZES, HAVE TO SHUT IT OFF!

Luckily I had my S3700 players there as backup, plugged em in and NO PROBLEM reading the MP3's

So this seriously needs some sort of firmware update to correct the issues, it's going to be returned.  I should have known better than to buy a discontinued and forgotten product.  

Without more information it's hard to diagnose the problem.  Did the drive become corrupt?  Was the file damaged?  Were there power issues at the venue?  etc.

Certainly it's understandable for you to want to look for outside causes but from what I've both experienced and repeatedly read about, the issue is fairly widespread. Leads me to believe there is an inherent flaw IN the MEP that causes this. In my case it has happens when playing from an iPod 160. No power outage, happens on various mp3s (Not ALL corrupt I trust), iPod works fine otherwise. Playing tracks loaded from computer via Serato is no problem.

If I am to understand that a damaged or corrupted file could cause the MEP to lock up completely and need rebooting, that is a serious design problem IMO. A little hard to explain to a dance floor full of disappointed guests.

Please understand that I'm not blaming you guys for the problems -- I'm trying to gather information that would assist the engineers in diagnosing / replicating the problem.  If you have one particular track you know is able to lock the MEP, that would be a great help in figuring it out.  Random occurrences are quite difficult to pinpoint where the problem lies.

Does the problem happen on the front and back port?  Maybe the physical USB port is getting worn and has become unreliable.

Again, MEP locks up on various, random songs. Here's someone who has also experienced this-

http://www.amazon.com/review/RSR1PSALM6DDQ/ref=cm_cr_dp_cmt?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B001DUYF5C&nodeID=11091801&tag=&linkCode=#wasThisHelpful:

"The only con with this unit (which is common for all cdj's and media players) sometimes even rarely it could be locked during the load of a mp3, and could be needed to be restarted."

THe drive seems to be ok, it's a Sony MicroVault 32GB.  I use it all the time - and was the second or third time I have used it with this unit, previous times have had no issues.

The MP3's were not damaged as they played fine in my S3700.  And I had played the same songs the previous week with no issues.  

It was a different track the second time it froze as well.

The unit has the latest firmware.

No power outages, or issues, that I am aware of.  CD's played fine all night.

I formatted the stick like you suggested (twice) and we shall see what happens.

Actually now that I remember, it started when it wouldn't load a track, it just kept flashing like it does when you hit th A/B load button, it froze the whole player I had to reboot.  

I usually use the back port since it's tucked away and safe.

Let me know if you need anything else.

is there a way to get out of a lockup with e a key combo press instead of powering off/on?

guys, just about had enough with this product and pioneer, my mep is approaching 18months and has been sitting in the spare room for nearly a year. freezing with hd, and mp3 cds, pioneer had the unit returned, hung on to it for 2months (until warranty ran out) and returned it still with same problems! may i also add that pioneer also had my hd, which was returned as being perfectly fine, and now nothing!! no response from pioneer, from dealer, nothing!! absoulutly shocking!!!!! on the verge of getting legal with this, im not the only person with these problems and pioneer are doing nothing!

@deejaydeedee > If you gave Pioneer your hard drive and hasn't returned it, I would pursue that issue separately. Unfortunately, these forums are not the best avenue to try and have it returned and I'd suggest following up with the location you sent the unit.

As for the MEP freezing, it seems you only had the problem with MP3s which leads me to believe there's a possibility it was either bad files or a problem with your hard drive.  Were you running the latest firmware?

I'll use my MEP for now to play CDs and from the computer. I'm a bit wary about using the front usb anymore. In time, I'll get a non-Pioneer replacement and this thing will make a good boat anchor! Don't know what would motivate them to create a fix at this point. Hasn't even been a firmware upgrade since I took the training wheels off my bike.

@pulse, I think you picked me up wrong, pioneer had my hard drive and returned it saying it was faultless! I used the same hd and mp3 CDs on a another mep which worked fine! ( and is still working fine) iv tried all things suggested, formatting twice, validating mp3s, I even deleted all files from hd and added 1 album that I downloaded from iTunes, 13 songs and it still froze!! I did however notice, that a high percentage of times when it froze I was creating a playlist on the fly, but not everytime!
My music, whether it be hd or mp3 doesn't have this effect with any other machine pioneer or otherwise. Worthless, useless piece of kit as it stands! The official pioneer dealer from which I bought it even told me to flog it on eBay to recoup some of my money!! I was also meant to receive a full report of the tests/work carried out when pioneer had the mep, but I never got it!

I found out that the reason my MEP was freezing up was because of a corrupt MP3 file, after I fixed the corrupt MP3 file, haven't had a problem since. And even times where I found other corrupt tracks, replacing/ripping a new track fixed the problem. I've had the unit going on 2 years and have been extremely happy with it ever since, I was just as frustrated as all of you, but when I narrowed the problem, it's been easy sailing.  Just remember that if you add and update your HDD, always run the library database app from Pioneer and starts as a "new database" and not an update. FAT32 format is also essential.

@fusionsounddj > Thanks for your input - and a large chunk of the time it is a bad file causing the errors.

@deejaydeedee > Sorry, I read it as Pioneer still had your hard drive.  If you used the same device with only a handful of fresh songs, I'd say the problem is your drive, not the MEP.

@Brad > We're still pushing hard for another firmware update, as noted in this thread.

@pulse, it can't be my drive as I'm using it and all my audio files on another mep which is working fine!! Never missed a beat!! Believe me when I say I have tried everything!! The moment my mep freezes I switch to another one, no problem, iv tried the CDs which freeze on my mep on the 2nd mep and not a problem! This is with several different drives all formatted twice!
:(

@deejaydeedee > Is the unit is freezing up with an MP3 CD or audio CD?

@pulse, it happened once with audio cd, 3times with mp3 cd, after this I packed it up!

With all due respect to Pulse (who is trying to be helpful), blaming this on poorly encoded MP3s or inaccurately formatted hard drives is probably the company line for which he is encouraged (mandated?) to use in his reply. Yes, bad files or formatting can cause the MEP to hang or lock up, but as many of us know, these the same files and hardware work perfectly on the vast majority of other products made by Pioneer or other manufacturers of pro-DJ equipment. In other words, the same MP3 or hard drive that might intermittently crash the MEP wouldn't crash any other hardware (or software) products.

As a multi-op, with many MEP-7000s in use every weekend, we have found only one implementation of the MEP where it never crashes: AIF files on flash media. We do not use hard drives (bus powered or not) for storage, we do not use MP3s or WAVs or AACs for playback, and we try to limit our use of playing standard audio CDs. All of these variations have crashed multiple MEP units multiple times. So, instead, we purchase (very) expensive 128GB flash media, format it with the HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool, and we take all original music data files (MP3, AAC, etc.) and export them out of QuickTime 7 to create clean AIF audio files. We then use a database with all of our ID3 tags, and encode the AIFs with the song file information. And we only use the back USB port on the MEP.

Now, you might say, "What?! That's crazy! Using only flash media is too expensive and size limiting, especially using uncompressed files!" Yeah, I agree. And going through these hoops is crazy. But the MEP is otherwise a very good controller, our DJs seem to like to use it, and it's very good for mobile implementations. Sure, we wish the BPM counter went at least one place past the decimal, master tempo could be smoother, and the GUI for the center console could have greater utility without the utterly extraneous "album" field. But we haven't found a competing 19" rackmount controller out there that can do what the MEP does as simply and efficiently.

We refuse to use a controller that crashes randomly mid-gig, just like the rest of you. And with literally hundreds of hours of testing, and thousands of hours of actual DJ'ing, the above implementation (flash media, AIF files) is the only one that has NEVER hung the unit.

This is utter speculation, but I think Pioneer has given up on the MEP, and that's sad for all of us (MEP users, potential customers, and Pioneer Pro DJ fans). Paying an engineer to work on a software revision to fix the stability issue (even if this didn't involve additional features) would be good for Pioneer from BOTH a financial and credibility perspective. Personally, we like Pioneer products a lot, and we've spent many thousands of dollars on MEP controllers alone (!) to standardize our business. Maybe Pioneer looks at the total sales of the MEP and says, "Enh… let's devote our resources to better selling products," but that does a disservice to their existing customer base. As much as I prefer Pioneer over Denon or Numark (to name just a few examples), if Pioneer elects not to stand by their products, they may simply force our hand when we make future purchases.

We know how critical OUR reputation is in our business. Pioneer should consider the long term effect on THEIR reputation of alienating their most ardent users, customers, and supporters.

Woodster

F**kin Bravo, Woodster and thank you! My sentiments exactly.

Guys, I sympathize, I really do - as I've mentioned before, I too am a working DJ and I know that feeling on the back of your neck when you're not sure if the system's going to keep playing at the most critical of moments (usually for me it's during the first dance).

Comments like these are important for me to be able to pass along to the engineers to say "See?  There are users who are waiting for that last critical update to address some issues / complaints!"

But the troubleshooting questions I ask are just to try and eliminate the potential problems (many of the ones I've mentioned HAVE INDEED been the reason for problems), not to try and defer it away from it being a problem with the player.  Due diligence.