DoReMi SM Missing Issue

[Andrew Freeman]

Hey gang,

Was shutting down my DoReMi DCP-2K4 last night, when I saw an error citing the SM Version was missing. After some reboots and talks with Dolby, we came to the conclusion that the issue was the Dolphin Board. Came into work this morning with plans on attempting a reseat of the board, but booted up the projector and server first, only to see that the DoReMi is now working just fine, and content is playable, and the SM is present.

Any thoughts on what could cause this? Could it be heat? Is the board going? What should be my next step from here?

Thanks so much!

[Leo Enticknap]

I once had this happen as well, immediately after upgrading the Dolphin board firmware / SM. It wouldn't come back up after the reboot, and I thought I'd bricked it. However, power cycling the Dolphin board got it back up again. I guess that it must have just hung during the reboot process.

Cleaning the contacts and reseating the board can't hurt. If a new battery is close to being due you might want to do that, though the battery swapout procedure always carries an element of risk.

[Jim Cassedy]

I sort of 2nd what Leo sez. I've had this happen once or twice over a several year period with a DoReMi at one screening room where the server wasn't in daily use. Both times, shutting down & re-booting solved the problem. After the 2nd time, I took the digitalcinemaserverthingy outta the rack and re-sat all the boards & connections & and as long as I had it on the bench, I did the necessary fan & filter cleaning/maintenance. That was two years ago, and I haven't had the problem since. (Although I guess the 2nd year doesn't really count, since they were shut down for 15months due to the Coronapocalypse. )

[Emmanuel Nwokafor]

I've experienced that mostly on a dolphin card after upgrading the SM/DM with a reboot all error was cleared. In my own case error occurred in the middle of playback

[Dave Macaulay]

Reseating the board and memory sticks is part of my normal annual service on Dolphin servers.
The board is somewhat fragile, the black FIPS encapsulation will wipe the certificates if it takes much damage at all, but just lifting and reinserting the PCI connector is safe - hold it by the front bracket and rear connectors to be super safe. While the front Dolphin screw is out, the plastic duct can be lifted up to swap the motherboard battery. If you do this with power plugged in but system off, you don't have to reset any BIOS stuff afterward as the settings are maintained by the standby power. The rear fans right by the battery are hard on knuckles so I don't try this with the server running.
I have been replacing the Dolphin battery with the server running since I lost a couple while swapping it. I put a piece of paper towel directly under the battery in case I drop one, preventing it from falling onto the PCB and shorting something. The CPU fan will bite you if you're not careful... but it's not likely to cause blood leakage and is not so close to the battery holder.

[Andrew Freeman]

So update on this joint: Let it rest overnight, booted it up, is now fully operating as of this moment. Prepared for the possibility it will go out again. Any thoughts?