IMB/IMS server boot up issues for those power cycling nightly

[Steve Guttag]

For those of you that power cycle your equipment nightly (turn the projector/server off at night, turn them on the next day), how many of you are experiencing issues on boot up that may impact your first show of the day?

Back in the box-server days (Dolby DSS, GDC SX2000/2001, Doremi DCP2000/2K4 and even the ShowVault), the servers ran 24/7. However, our projectors have always turned off nightly to avoid blowing any more dirt into the optical path, plus wear and tear on the fans.

I'm noticing a disturbing trend on the IMS3000 where it can wake up in a bad state and unable to run the first show for one reason or another. We're not talking about anywhere approaching even 1% but it isn't 0% either and some units may be more prone than others. I don't think I've seen the issue on NEC projectors that leave the server powered but in a sleep state...just when the projector fully powers down the server.

Anyone else notice this?

[Marcel Birgelen]

I haven't really noticed a trend, but you probably manage way more of those IMS3000 in the field than I do. One particular incident comes to mind: We replaced the IMB in our screening room machine with an IMS3000 late last year. It's a Barco DP4K-23B, for which we're looking for a replacement, but that's another discussion. I've had one case where the IMS would seemingly hang on boot and I needed to power-cycle the projector in order to get it to boot properly. Maybe it's some kind of race condition combined with the boot-up of the projector and depending on the make/model of the projector, the situation can occur more often with one make/model than the other?

Those servers back then were based on common PC server hardware, which was built to run 24/7... This integrated stuff really makes me feel increasingly helpless in case of any failure, as there is so little you can do other than just swap the whole thing if something non-obvious breaks on those boards...

[Steve Guttag]

The SSD cards are also a user-swappable part as is the ability to make a USB boot drive.

[Marcel Birgelen]

So, yeah, the thing is as serviceable as a modern car.

On the Barco ICMP, at least the RAID controller itself is still a replaceable daughterboard.

[Steve Guttag]

Does everyone really just leave their projectors run 24/7...blowing dirt through them and wasting electricity? I swear, I can't get through a month without a report of an IMS3000 waking up in a bad state. It doesn't matter which projector it is in (through S4 projectors are the worst offenders).

[Marcel Birgelen]

I shut down our screening room machine, but I only had this misfire once. Not a representative sample. I know that quite a few chains leave their equipment running 24/7, simply because they've had too many bad experiences with stuff that wouldn't boot. Even though leaving this stuff running costs a dime, missing shows and having to send techs around the country in order to push some buttons is apparently more expensive.. or, nobody probably never has dared to do the math...

[Jack Ondracek]

Does everyone really just leave their projectors run 24/7...blowing dirt through them and wasting electricity?

I've turned my equipment off at the end of the night ever since we converted. I know there's been past controversy among the group on this; the commenters comparing this habit to cycling tubes and light bulbs.

After shutting down the servers (Doremi), I kill power to them and their projectors by shutting down the UPSs. Then, the supply breakers go off. The pedestals are completely cold, except during business hours and when I'm ingesting & setting up cue macros.

I boot the servers up after turning the UPSs and then the breakers on. The power supplies in the Doremi servers don't much like the switch between UPS and utility power... at least not while booting. Don't know why, but I stopped having problems with them after waiting to turn the server on until after the UPSs make their switch.

I don't ever turn the Barcos off at their power switch. They make an arcing sound when you do that & I suspect I'd be replacing the switches from time to time. Maybe just being cautious on that point.

Anyhow, that's my formula here. Being a drive-in, I can't see running these things all day for the hours I actually use them. So far, no problems, after adjusting for the power supply issue. I run them for a couple hours on New Years, to keep the batteries charged. When I bought them, the Barco crates had labels on the outside, warning against leaving them off more than 6 months. I don't recall seeing that specific time frame mentioned around here, but that's the reference I've gone by.

A few years back, I did see a drive-in in Colorado that left their booth running 24/7, even during their off-season. They said an equipment supplier told them it would be better for the gear, and they never questioned it.

One year, I visited a large Regal multiplex in Florida, that had full shutdowns and cold starts as part of their facility automation. I think that place turned their auditoriums on, including booth, lights and HVAC, something like 10 or 15 minutes before first-show.

While we're on this general subject: I do recall a past comment that suggested you'd get better life out of a xenon bulb by shutting it down for a minimum of 10 minutes between shows. Now that the primary projector is also used for most pre-show content, does anyone believe that bulb life is negatively affected by leaving them on the entire day?

[Rick Cohen]

Does everyone really just leave their projectors run 24/7...blowing dirt through them and wasting electricity? I swear, I can't get through a month without a report of an IMS3000 waking up in a bad state. It doesn't matter which projector it is in (through S4 projectors are the worst offenders).

It definitely helps if you put the Barco SP4K into ECO mode, instead of the total shutdown.

[Steve Guttag]

The Barco S4, in ECO mode powers off the IMS card slot. You'll get random wake up issues on the IMS3000.

Jack, I wasn't speaking to the traditional box servers like the DCP2000/2K4/Showvault-IMB or even the IMS2000. Just the IMS3000. It seems like it can have issues coming up from a cold start. We're not in the 1% category...less than that but when you are talking about a lot of systems over a lot of days, even small percentages have noticeable effects. Oddly, I have an IMS3000 in a drive in and it has been problem-free. They do NOT run their system 24/7 and I have the automation system set up to run it an hour a day to ensure that the IMS3000 keeps its super-cap charged. Yes, systems with SDI cables could not withstand more than a 6 month down time (from a FULL charge) as the Enigma module would lose its charge and then lose its certificate.

FWIW, I'm seeing BIOS (CMOS) batteries in the box servers are dying. Not doubt, sped up from the C19 shutdowns but also these servers are in the 10-year and up age. Most servers use the CR-2032 battery and, if you change it, you may need to reset some BIOS settings (like the clock, what to do when the AC disappears and even how to recognize a CRU drive...it varies by server. I can tell you a DSS (Dolby legacy) server will start doing strange things on boot up (or not boot up at all) if its BIOS battery goes flat! I'm pretty much changing all BIOS batteries in box servers, at this point.

[Carsten Kurz]

Any logs that tell you something, at least about the state of the server?

[Steve Guttag]

Other than "temporary FIPS lock," it can vary. I'm just finding it to be tempermental on cold boots and, again, it seems more noticeable on S4 projectors. I've had it be fussy on an S2 where a board reseat calmed it down. One thing is for sure, it does not go out of its way to recognize it is in a bad state and initiate a self-reboot to see if it can clear its own problem. Instead, the 1st show of the day gets to suffer.

[Sascha Roll]

So far no problem here with shutting down both the ICMP-X (via UPS) and SP4K-20 every night. But I guess it's more of an IMS3000 Problem anyway.

[Barry Floyd]

We pretty much do exactly like Jack does. Being a seasonal drive-in, we're typically open 180-190 nights a year. Doesn't really make sense to leave the system up and running 24/7 if we're not there. We power ours all the way down to the breaker every night. We're closed for 12 weeks during the winter months and I'll go down and power up the systems and let them run for 48 hours once every two weeks just to keep the batteries charged up. We're running Barco DP2K-23B's with GDC-SR1000's.

[Juan Jose Garcia Calvo]

Hello.
We power-off all the nights our projector, and of course, power off during the week days (as we only have shows on weekends).
We experienced boot issues in our QUBE XPD too. The QUBE is (as you know) a windows based server, that's, a kind of specialized windows embeded machine.
The issue we experience is that sometimes it start with no aparent problem, and you can see the wallpaper, the start button (and it works) and you can open the folder explorer or even the control panel, but when you try to open the internet explorer (as this Qube is controlled with a web based user interface), nothing happens. Anydesk don't work and you can't access to the server in other remote ways.
Many times we need to re-start the QUBE several times until it works. It's like some windows services don't start in these cases...

In warm weather it starts OK everytime

We are used to this issue.