Play:3 Hardware Failure - Workarounds?

  • 5 November 2022
  • 3 replies
  • 178 views
kieronasaurus
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Purchased a “NIB” Play:3 via Ebay and attempted to connect to my existing system of five (working) Play:1s. Out of the box, the Play:3’s LED flashes white and the mute button flashes green.

My mobile device is a Pixel 4XL running an up to date S2 controller app. The app will find the Play:3 and can identify the unit’s serial number, but pressing/holding the mute button does not connect the Play:3 to the existing system. I went through the normal troubleshooting steps (cabled to the router, device w/in 3’ of speaker and router), and never got a green LED.

Per the Sonos guides, I performed a reboot, and a factory reset. While holding the mute button during the reset, the LED flashed white 5x, a longer 6th flash, another 4x white flashes, orange 16x, then back to white flashes.

Started a chat session with Sonos support, went through the same troubleshooting steps with the agent (reboot, factory reset 3x with the same LED behavior as above), and their determination is a hardware failure. The agent researched the unit’s serial number, it was made in 2012 (out of warranty) and has not been connected or registered.

I’d prefer to not go through the rigmarole of the Ebay return process, especially having to ship the unit cross-country. Does anyone have any tips or workarounds for this type of failure? Thanks!

Beats, Bikes, Blades, Bhakti

3 replies

Sotiris C.
Userlevel 7
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Hey @kieronasaurus,

Although from what’s been said, everything points to hardware failure, one thing you can try, just for the extra mile:

  • Download the "Sonos S1 Controller App" on your phone, you can find that here.
  • Remove all S2 Sonos products from power (temporarily), connect your Play:3 directly to your router via an Ethernet cable and finally plug in the power cable and leave it for a minute.
  • Open the Sonos S1 Controller App →  Set up a new system (you can use your current details for that) → Try setting up the Play:3.

It’s a long shot, but it will prove the case of hardware failure and it will be one more thing you tried.

I hope that helped.

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kieronasaurus
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Thanks for the response Sotiris, but it’s unfortunately a couple days too late. The Play:3 is already boxed and en route back to the eBay seller.

Beats, Bikes, Blades, Bhakti
J

Does NIB stand for “New In Box”?  As the P:3 was discontinued from sale 4 years ago, it would be stretching the definition of “new”,  Who knows under what conditions it has been stored?

For anyone else thinking of buying “new” Sonos on eBay, you should know that the seller is extremely unlikely to be an authorised Sonos retailer and therefore any Sonos guarantees would be invalidated.

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