I certainly hope so.

What I find most frustrating is the fact that the remote used to work perfectly. I don't understand why they simply can't undo whatever it is they did to screw it up?

Probably because of what you just said.

It works fine at first, so any fixes also work fine at first then are sent to beta where they get funky. I wonder if its architectual with something physically moving after a while or if it has to do with the electonics.

Anyone know?

I doubt it's a physical issue. I deal with computers and their peripherals every day. Keyboards which have very similar electronics don't exhibit such randon behavior. If a key goes bad on a keyboard it stays bad. At best, you might be able to get a bad key to work once in a great while if you push it very hard. But a normal press will fail 99.9% of the time if the key is bad. Sometimes they get stuck in the contact position and you have to pry the key up in order to get it to stop sending a signal.

Another example is my telephone keypad. The number "2" key works but I have to press it very hard every time in order to get it to register. The MX-900 won't work when it fails no matter how hard you press it. But release it and press it again and it will work 100% of the time.

In very simplistic terms the keys have a rubber type membrane material with a small metal contact which when pressed makes contact with a metal contact area on a circuit board. The button making contact with the circuit board completes the circuit and sends the appropriate signal.

If it were a physical issue I would suspect that the button presses would fail all most all the time instead of ocassionally. Anything's possible but I don't think it's a physical issue.

In addition, I would think that the beta testers would be using remotes that exhibited the problem before they installed the new beta software to make sure that the problem was resolved on the end users exhisting remotes.

I would certainly hope the engineers are doing tests on remotes that had the problem before as well as brand new out of the box remotes.

Let's certainly hope it's not a physical problem. What a nightmare that would be for us and URC. Having to RMA all these defective remotes would really suck! :(

Its amazing that the engineers would send the remote out with the same problem outstanding. Its incredibly easy to test - on my MX-900 the "Info" button fails reliably within about 20 repeated presses. Alternating pressing the Left and Right rocker buttons also fails within about 20 presses. The Vol+/- buttons fail, but only very occasionally. I can't get Mute to fail.

That sounds more like an RF issue. My clients remote fails volume every other time reliably.


What the heck are you doing pressing "info" 20 times anyways? ;-)

Nope. I don't think it's an RF issue. I don't use RF in my system and my remote is set to use IR only. I also have the ocassional failed volume press. Turn off RF on your remote and test it. I bet you will see the same problem after about 20 button presses on almost any button.

I'm not using RF.

Pressing Info is just a way of testing the remote.

I'm surprised to hear that the Volume is working so badly on your client's remote. Are other people reading this having this level of problem, or is it more like with my remote, once every 10-20 commands?

WPWoodJr,

I think we posted at the same time. In answer to your question... No. I don't see that frequency of failure on the volume buttons.

I feel sheepish..... I guess my problem is not what has been stated here. But it does happen in IR.

I have the problem once every 10-20 commands as well.
I use FF and Play frequently on my DVR and it is very frustrating when pressing Play does not respond while in FF.

Yep! That really bugs the snot out of me when that happens. I'm fast forwarding and I hit play and nothing happens. By the time play works I wind up having to rewind to get where I want to be.

If this problem is so wide-spread why haven't dealers pulled the MX-900 until it's fixed?

I guess the real question is what percentage of 900's out there exhibit this problem. If every single one is acting like this, I would imagine that URC has been deluged with complaints.

Often people just put up with weirdness and live with it, and maybe it's only effecting people who've bothered to upgrade, but it doesn't sound hit or miss from the comments on this forum.