Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Streaming MC200 - white light of death....

Hello fellow Sooloos users,

I'm probably revisiting old ground here - but...

My MC200 has worked away faultlessly for ages, years actually - always on and ready to deliver music. Once again however the system has gone into the blinking white light mode where the core cannot be reached. I'm sure it has happened before but I was sure it seemed to self rectify eventually. This time the unit is non-responsive.

From what I recall there are a couple of causes/fixes:
1. CMOS battery - tested mine and still outputting 2.7v so am not sure if that is the issue but I will replace this just in case
2. Disk Failure - mine is running a 1TB Sandisk SSD so it's unlikely the disk has failed. I have the original HGST HDD as backup and the result is the same when I connect that drive - suggests the problem is not the disk?

Before I finally condemn the unit to the tech bin I was hoping someone could offer a reprieve and suggest any other fixes for this. Would be a sad day indeed if the unit was not recoverable.

Any suggestions/advice from users more technically capable than me would be gratefully received!

Hi,

Presumably you've checked the power supply?

Brian

Is the MC200 showing up on your network?

A silly question but did you try the switch on the back?

Hi Brian,

On a voltmeter I get 10.3v. I'm not sure if that is good?

Scott.

Hi Rick,
Do you mean the rocker switch? Yes - the unit is booting up but just not coming online - which is what I think the blinking LED is signifying.

Scott

Do you mean on the Meridian app, or are you asking if there is any presence on the network in general?

Hi,

From the voltage you mention on the output of the PSU, I think your PSU is on its way out. The PSU should be 12V, so 10.3V is a little low.
Without the 12V, the drive (even the SSD) probably won't initialise correctly, so the unit won't boot - hence the flashing white light...

If you have the unit open, it is always sensible to change the CMOS battery - CR2032.

I would find another 12V PSU - I think the original spec is 36 watts, but anything with the same or greater wattage will work fine.

Good luck,

Steve

Whilst it is likely the PSU as per other posts, I found that when I changed the CMOS battery my MC200 similarly would not boot.

The solution was to boot the MC200 without the battery in place and then, very carefully, insert the new battery while the MC200 was still powered.

After this the MC200 worked normally and booted from cold just fine.

Worth a try.

Update:

1. Tried new CMOS battery - unit wont power up with new battery in place - white led blinks 3 times then cuts out.
2. Powered up without the CMOS batter and get back to the blinking light issue again. Can then insert the battery then the unit will power down and up on the rocker switch - but only to the same pulsing light status.
3. Got a new 36w 12v adapter from Amazon (weirdly also reads 10.3 on the voltmeter) and made no difference. Dont think the issue is the PSU.

Sounding like the unit is for the recycling now as I cannot think of any other solutions - have even tried with the original HDD and it spins up just fine but the system will not come back online.

Thanks for the suggestions and ideas - now need to find a new storage solution sadly!

If you're able to extract the motherboard from the unit, you can get to the monitor port and plug in a computer screen. From that, you should be able to see what the unit is doing...

It may be that there is a configuration setting preventing the unit from booting. Certainly worth a quick try before consigning to the scrap pile!

Good luck,

Steve

As I have the lid off I can see what looks like an old VGA connector facing straight into the back panel - assume that's what you are referring to? TBH I hadn't really noticed there seems to be a few connectors all facing off the back of the board - but then I guess the guts of the units is a PC running Linux.

I'm no tech expert but willing to try most things - I can easily detach the motherboard from the chassis - whether I have a vga cable is another question entirely :-)

Would it be obvious what the issue would be given (i assume) the start up script would replicate on the screen? And without any input devices would it be possible to correct it?

Oh and would there be a reason the config settings would suddenly change to stop the unit powering up?

Thanks,
Scott