Dead UnitiServes Society

I'd like to sign up to the dead Unitiserve Society, but at least my tale of woe has a happy ending.

About three years ago my US died from the dreaded blinking logo disease. After switching off (in the correct manner) then switching on you get the usual blinking logo but it continues to blink - for ever and never stops, a bit like the last twitches of a favourite pet before it goes to meet its maker. Anyway it was under warranty from memory and the good doctors at Naim brought my faithful US back to life.

About 18 months ago my trusty(?) US died again - if it is possible to die twice. Off it went to the Naim specialist who, after some careful diagnosis, furnished the appropriate treatment and it came back full of beans. This time however no free NHS treatment, there followed a not unreasonable bill. All was well for 5 months then the wretched US died yet again, yes three deaths. Back to the Naim specialist, yet another cure administered and all was well again. My eventual contentment was however shattered when my dealer said he had received another bill from Naim for this further bout of private treatment. Before I blew a fuse, the dealer informed me that he had advised Naim that charging twice for a cure that should last a little more than 5 months might not be ethical. Thankfully Naim agreed and we all lived happily ever after.

My faithful old US has since behaved impeccably and I was informed that Naim had ironed out a couple of hardware issues in the course of treatment. So I am happy to stick with the US so long as it doesn't catch some other dreadful disease and become poorly again.

I was beginning to think that the US was a bit of a hypercondriac, but it appears to have gained a new lease of life. (Bugger, I shouldn't have said that, tempting fate and all!).

Nigel - it will be a true honour to have you as a member of our Society. If I may, I'd like to assign to you an additional post - a Chief Scribe.

Now - you'd better be off to make that backup 

I can only marvel at the good humour and understanding shown by members of this wonderful society. (Great title Adam). 

It's a testament to Naim and their values over many years. 

For me it shows the dangers of straying too far away from one's area of expertise. 

For me it also highlights the necessity for Naim to become Roon compatible with their next iteration of streamers but that's another story.......

SJB

Sloop John B posted:

I can only marvel at the good humour and understanding shown by members of this wonderful society. (Great title Adam). 

It's a testament to Naim and their values over many years. 

For me it shows the dangers of straying too far away from one's area of expertise. 

For me it also highlights the necessity for Naim to become Roon compatible with their next iteration of streamers but that's another story.......

 

 

SJB

You are in, whether you like it to or not! we need someone with a critical point of view to balance ours.

Adam Zielinski posted:

Nigel - it will be a true honour to have you as a member of our Society. If I may, I'd like to assign to you an additional post - a Chief Scribe.

Now - you'd better be off to make that backup 

It would be a privilege to be the Society's Chief Scribe.

I know, I know, I must get a NAS and backup.

By the way, what is a Chief Scribe expected to do exactly?

nigelb posted:

Adam Zielinski posted:

Nigel - it will be a true honour to have you as a member of our Society. If I may, I'd like to assign to you an additional post - a Chief Scribe.

Now - you'd better be off to make that backup 

It would be a privilege to be the Society's Chief Scribe.

I know, I know, I must get a NAS and backup.

By the way, what is a Chief Scribe expected to do exactly?

You can always make a backup to an external 2TB drive, plugged into one of the rear USB ports. You'd need to then set it via laptop's n-Serve app as a back-up location.

Chief Scribe: ensures a minimum level of eloquence in written posts of the Society.

My US has not completely died, but it had a habit of going into suspended animation and just disconnecting itself from the world. Naim wanted to try and diagnose it remotely, but alas no MShite computer in this house. So it has gone back to Naim HQ to have 'something done' to it; I am not going to ask what as the inner workings of computers are, to me, less interesting than the the most boring thing in the whole universe.

Does this qualify me as a member?

I have a full back-up on a NAS and that is backed up onto a separate SSD, so even if the worst happens I can restore the machine.  

Nick - of course you are qualified. A full, unlimited membership. 

Nick from Suffolk posted:

My US has not completely died, but it had a habit of going into suspended animation and just disconnecting itself from the world. Naim wanted to try and diagnose it remotely, but alas no MShite computer in this house.

My US was dealt with remotely by Naim from Salisbury a couple of times, and I only use Mac.

nigelb posted:

Adam Zielinski posted:

Nigel - it will be a true honour to have you as a member of our Society. If I may, I'd like to assign to you an additional post - a Chief Scribe.

Now - you'd better be off to make that backup 

It would be a privilege to be the Society's Chief Scribe.

I know, I know, I must get a NAS and backup.

By the way, what is a Chief Scribe expected to do exactly?

Can't speak for this particular society, but I believe in the Freemasons the chief scribe is responsible for making the tea 

...(but I might be wrong).

Roger

rjstaines posted:

nigelb posted:

Adam Zielinski posted:

Nigel - it will be a true honour to have you as a member of our Society. If I may, I'd like to assign to you an additional post - a Chief Scribe.

Now - you'd better be off to make that backup 

It would be a privilege to be the Society's Chief Scribe.

I know, I know, I must get a NAS and backup.

By the way, what is a Chief Scribe expected to do exactly?

Can't speak for this particular society, but I believe in the Freemasons the chief scribe is responsible for making the tea 

...(but I might be wrong).

Roger

Tea is very important

I'm on my third US.

The first was a 2TB model which would just go offline suddenly.  Sent it in for repair and replaced the hard drive with a SSD.  The problem came back a few months later.   Sent it in again and was given a new one and only charged a modest amount.  That unit also failed a few months later - go offline, unable to rip, unable to shut down, unable to boot up.  That was replaced with a new one.  

With all of the documented problems with this model, isn't there something that can be done to improve it - hardware and software?  This must be Naim's most unreliable product.

Adam Zielinski posted:

rjstaines posted:

nigelb posted:

Adam Zielinski posted:

Nigel - it will be a true honour to have you as a member of our Society. If I may, I'd like to assign to you an additional post - a Chief Scribe.

Now - you'd better be off to make that backup 

It would be a privilege to be the Society's Chief Scribe.

I know, I know, I must get a NAS and backup.

By the way, what is a Chief Scribe expected to do exactly?

Can't speak for this particular society, but I believe in the Freemasons the chief scribe is responsible for making the tea 

...(but I might be wrong).

Roger

Tea is very important

I am no good at tea, but I can do great coffee. You may have to show me the weird handshake though.

Nigel - So modest.... I think you are qualified at serving any libation.... 

TN posted:

I'm on my third US.

The first was a 2TB model which would just go offline suddenly.  Sent it in for repair and replaced the hard drive with a SSD.  The problem came back a few months later.   Sent it in again and was given a new one and only charged a modest amount.  That unit also failed a few months later - go offline, unable to rip, unable to shut down, unable to boot up.  That was replaced with a new one.  

With all of the documented problems with this model, isn't there something that can be done to improve it - hardware and software?  This must be Naim's most unreliable product.

Second US. Same problem with both machines - going offline. The response from Naim and my dealer was, in effect, this is a completely new issue. However I'm beginning to suspect it is a problem with my router etc setup, so perhaps I don't qualify.

However I do have a question. I've never been able to connect to the US via the MAC name, just the host address, although the desktop n-serve shows connection via the MAC name. Significant?

Adam Zielinski posted:

nigelb posted:

Adam Zielinski posted:

Nigel - it will be a true honour to have you as a member of our Society. If I may, I'd like to assign to you an additional post - a Chief Scribe.

Now - you'd better be off to make that backup 

It would be a privilege to be the Society's Chief Scribe.

I know, I know, I must get a NAS and backup.

By the way, what is a Chief Scribe expected to do exactly?

You can always make a backup to an external 2TB drive, plugged into one of the rear USB ports. You'd need to then set it via laptop's n-Serve app as a back-up location.

Chief Scribe: ensures a minimum level of eloquence in written posts of the Society.

News to me that you can back up with an external drive. Would this need external power?

Richard Morris posted:

TN posted:

I'm on my third US.

The first was a 2TB model which would just go offline suddenly.  Sent it in for repair and replaced the hard drive with a SSD.  The problem came back a few months later.   Sent it in again and was given a new one and only charged a modest amount.  That unit also failed a few months later - go offline, unable to rip, unable to shut down, unable to boot up.  That was replaced with a new one.  

With all of the documented problems with this model, isn't there something that can be done to improve it - hardware and software?  This must be Naim's most unreliable product.

Second US. Same problem with both machines - going offline. The response from Naim and my dealer was, in effect, this is a completely new issue. However I'm beginning to suspect it is a problem with my router etc setup, so perhaps I don't qualify.

However I do have a question. I've never been able to connect to the US via the MAC name, just the host address, although the desktop n-serve shows connection via the MAC name. Significant?

Richard - if you mean via a web browser, than a connection is via the IP address, assigned by the network.

Richard Morris posted:

Adam Zielinski posted:

nigelb posted:

Adam Zielinski posted:

Nigel - it will be a true honour to have you as a member of our Society. If I may, I'd like to assign to you an additional post - a Chief Scribe.

Now - you'd better be off to make that backup 

It would be a privilege to be the Society's Chief Scribe.

I know, I know, I must get a NAS and backup.

By the way, what is a Chief Scribe expected to do exactly?

You can always make a backup to an external 2TB drive, plugged into one of the rear USB ports. You'd need to then set it via laptop's n-Serve app as a back-up location.

Chief Scribe: ensures a minimum level of eloquence in written posts of the Society.

News to me that you can back up with an external drive. Would this need external power?

As far as I undertand - no. Just a regular drive.

Thanks for both replies Adam. Regarding connection the manual says:

I use the naim showw just before the ip address in the desktop client.

http:\\NS018B7A

ns01 is the server model, so the Userve must have some letters describing that.

Claus  

Richard - true, the manual says that. But....

If you have a means of checking the IP address assigned by your network to the UnitiServe, that would be the easiest way to log in. Typically you'd type something along the lines: 10.0.1.24 into you browser's address field and that would log you to the US 'touch screen display'. 

That is how I log into mine.

If you have an iPad get yourself an app called 'Net Analyzer' - make sure you get a paid version so all the functionality is there. It came in handy many times.

When you perform a network scan, the Net Analyzer will display all connected devices with their IP addresses. 

I use an app called Fing, which is free and works very well. 

Bart posted:

Nick from Suffolk posted:

My US has not completely died, but it had a habit of going into suspended animation and just disconnecting itself from the world. Naim wanted to try and diagnose it remotely, but alas no MShite computer in this house.

My US was dealt with remotely by Naim from Salisbury a couple of times, and I only use Mac.

All I can say is that I was specifically told by Phil (? at Naim) that without an MShite machine as an interface with the world nothing could be done remotely. As I said I care little, and choose not to find out, about anything that happens inside or around a computer so could not gainsay the advice! 

My Second Amendment :

To ensure trouble free longevity of use - only use an Apple i Device such as the iPad to log into it from the Naim apps.

Thanks for all the replies. I'm giving Fing a try to see what it reports next time the US goes offline. I've reserved an address for the US but that hasn't made any difference.