Dead spots on CR200

There goes number three!!! I barely use the thing so am baffled as to what causes it. I wonder if a CR300 is due any time soon?

There goes number three!!! I barely use the thing so am baffled as to what causes it. I wonder if a CR300 is due any time soon?

Not of merchantable quality! Sold my third one as soon as it arrived.

Buy an Fourth Generation Ipod Touch - much more useful for the money.

My CR200 has also started playing up in the last week or so. The bottom zone of the screen, particularly the right hand side, is not responding to touch control. This is really annoying as that is where the most important controls are.

I wasn't aware of the problem before, but then I discovered this thread and find that it seems to have been going on for a while, even though it is repeatedly said that it only effects a "small" number of controllers.

Worryingly, I've read that Sonos emailed all customers whose serial numbers fall in the effected range, but I did not get the message. Maybe the problem is even more widespread that Sonos realise?

The CR200 came in a BU250 bundle I bought from Audio-T less than a year ago, so I've reported the problem to them and am waiting for a reply. I had hoped that they would replace it themselves but, reading this thread, I guess that I'll have to deal directly with Sonos themselves. Hopefully that won't be too arduous.

I've been really happy with my Sonos kit; I hope this isn't the thin end of the wedge for long-term reliability.

The CR200 came in a BU250 bundle I bought from Audio-T less than a year ago, so I've reported the problem to them and am waiting for a reply. I had hoped that they would replace it themselves but, reading this thread, I guess that I'll have to deal directly with Sonos themselves. Hopefully that won't be too arduous.
Contact Sonos Support directly. It would help if you sent a system diagnostic first, with the CR200 awake. That way they will have your customer details and the CR200 serial number. Note the diag reference and quote it in the support ticket.

The replacement process should in no way be arduous. Their support activities are generally smooth and friendly.

Thanks Ratty. I've done that.

I am really curious as to what percentage of the CR200's which have developed the dead spots happened to purchasers located in the UK? Another poster earlier in this multi page thread asked the exact same thing.

Perhaps we should start a poll on this?

I ordered my CR200 in December from Amazon and I am in the US. Has anyone else who ordered from Amazon experienced this issue?

NYC Guy,

Manufacturers are loath to share reliability data with anyone. This thread is much like a hospital -- after the tour one is certain that "everyone" is sick. Unfortunately, one cannot know much about the general population simply by walking through the hospital wards. Also, we could point to a particular social function, restaurant, building, or block where almost everyone is afflicted with a common illness, but this still does not say much about the general population. This particular issue seems to be a characteristic of a particular batch of units, but we don't know what percentage of this batch is at risk.

Little and big glitches can happen to any manufacturer. Most of us are probably aware of a recent issue with a certain cellphone. Millions of units are affected and continue to be affected. Was the manufacturer's response reasonable? It is an interesting case because millions of units continue to be sold to willing customers who are aware of the issue prior purchase.

A manufacturer shows its true mettle by the way it handles problems such as this.

A manufacturer shows its true mettle by the way it handles problems such as this.

I totally agree with what you have stated. That being said and after reading all of the posts made in this thread it just seemed that the majority of the complaints concerning the defective screens on the CR200's were from users in the UK.

Therefore curious minds would like to know how prevalent the issue is for CR200's sold in the US.

I have to agree with Buzz. I've just received my fourth unit, with no hassle whatsoever. I guess I could be very annoyed at having three units fail on me but I'm actually very impressed with how well Sonos have handled things.

Remember that Sonos will have sold thousands of these controllers but that people having no problems don't tend to resort to the forums so this thread only represents a small proportion of customers.

It is a bit odd that all my failed screens have been a row up from the bottom right though.

It is possible that many or most of the affected units were shipped to the EU or the Britts are a whiney bunch that expect things to work!

Each model tends to have a characteristic failure mode(s) that could change over time. For someone very familiar with model 'x', all a customer needs do do is mention the model number and the service staff already knows what is wrong -- without hearing the symptoms. This does not mean that all of model 'x' will break, but those that do, have the same issue.

I don't know exactly what the root cause of the CR200 failure is. Since it requires some time to develop, this could be due to some sort of surface contamination issue. At a certain production step, the raw screen, a PC board, or connector could go through some sort of cleaning or surface preparation process that was not working uniformly and a contamination film is left behind -- in a characteristic spot that affects the lower areas of the screen. Initially the screen or whatever is not affected, but after a while it takes on some moisture and things go down hill.

I've seen liquid spills behave this way. A sugary drink enters a unit and seems to dry and the unit works fine -- for a while. Over time the sugar takes on some water from the atmosphere and acids form. The acids are erratically conductive and they can eventually consume metal parts. A single drop can bring a unit down months after the spill has been forgotten.