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Apple TV Crashing / Resetting Itself

My Apple TV (2nd Generation) has started to reset itself after a few minutes of either a program or movie. The first crash happens usually after about 15 mins of viewing, but then subsequent ones occur after around 5 mins.

I'm running up to date software version 4.1.1 and my itunes is the current version of 10.1.1 (4)

I've tried resetting all settings but its made no difference. Any ideas on what to try next?

James

MacBookPro 15inch 3.06GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, Mac OS X (10.6.5)

Posted on Dec 28, 2010 2:46 PM

Reply
94 replies

May 31, 2012 2:56 AM in response to chirpie

If cable runs are not possible, why not try the powerline solution I used?


E.g. http://www.amazon.com/TP-Link-Powerline-TL-PA211-STARTER-KIT/dp/B0055XKBW4/ref=s r_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1338457986&sr=8-2


should do the trick. (You'll need three units if you have to ATVs). I use a Comtrend equivalent.


I agree it is frustrating that this issue with wifi connected ATVs has not been resolved.

Jun 1, 2012 9:31 AM in response to chirpie

Well crap. That didn't work. Here's the breakdown.


Wired ethernet cable from Airport extreme (firmware 7.6.1) to Apple TV (Firmware 5.01)


I double checked to make sure it was using the wired connection (go to wireless and it says can't use until you unplug the ethernet cable, so it was using the right connection.)


Watching netflix, not 15 minutes into watching the same movie we tried watching the night before, it drops and restarts again. Gah! Apple, what the heck guys?


Since the wired ethernet cable didn't work, I'll assume neither will the powerline.


I think that's the last idea to try, right? Anything else?

Jun 1, 2012 9:42 AM in response to intake66

Nope, no other issues. Stream to PS3, stream to Xbox 360, works. We even have a cheap little chinese television device for the mother-in-law that's basically Apple TV for Chinese people but it actually works 100% of the time (italkbb tv). lol.


I thought there was a chance those devices could be interfering somehow, but, alas, the last couple crashes were when everything else was shut down. Even if they were interfering, I'd expect choppy playback, not a crash/reset.


What all do I need to bring something to an Apple store? I've never had an issue with an Apple product like this before, so I'm a bit green on proceedure.

Jan 1, 2013 2:17 PM in response to Jayykayy

I Have been having the same problem and found out that my Apple tv had somehow gone into Demo mode stopping me changing my network settings and stopping me changing other settings. After a bit of research i found out how to kick it out of Demo mode

To get out of demo mode you need to go to settings scroll down to legal don't click on it just highlight it then on your remote press Right, Right ,Left then center your Apple tv should then reset itself and come out of demo mode This worked for me i had been pulling my hair out trying to make anything play for longer than 5 mins

hope this helps someone

Good luck😀

Jan 1, 2013 3:11 PM in response to Jayykayy

So, I discovered something over Christmas. I was experimenting with a wireless packet analyzer (wireshark) and discovered that my router was dropping out about every ten minutes or so. It would come back immediately, though. None of my other equipment seemed to care or even register that there was a problem, but my Apple TV would crash each time it happened while I was streaming a movie. In short, it looks like this is something that is common enough that every other vendor has learned to just recover from it (including my iPhone) but the Apple TV doesn't. It doesn't seem to matter that the Apple TV had more than enough buffered content to keep playing until the router came back. This is why people that connect using wired Ethernet don't have the problem. This is also why many other access points don't have the problem.


In short, I swapped out my NetGear router for a Linksys and haven't seen a reboot once since. It kind of stinks, though, because the Linksys was a far better device, except for the occasional dropouts. I suppose the next step would be to see if the problem was reproducible by resetting the router mid way through streaming some content. Now that everything works, I a, less interested in figuring it out though. :-/

Apple TV Crashing / Resetting Itself

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