Samsung HW-53C Soundbar Dropouts

[chdiamo1]

Hello, my new Samsung HW-53C Soundbar has intermittment dropouts. It can go days, even a week, working absolutely fine. Then suddenly, every so many minutes or seconds, there will be no sound through the soundbar. But there will be sound through the tv, if I turn up the volume on the tv. So, I know sound is coming through the Ignite signal to the tv. Samsung tells me to bring the soundbar in for service. But since the problem is intermittent, it's very likely to work perfectly when it's in one of their the service centres, even for up to a week. I have tried Samsung's solution of unplugging the power cord and plugging it back in, but that doesn't work. Then I bought a $100CDN premium Toslink cable and a $200CDN super premium HDMI2.1 cable both made by DH Silversonic Labs in Florida, thinking it was a case of the soundbar not getting sufficient signal strength. Nope. That didn't fix the problem. My tv is so ancient that even Samsung technicians don't know what I'm talking about. My tv is the 15 year old SyncMaster T240 Monitor/1080p TV that has two HDMI ports, neither of which are arc or e or HDMI1 or 1.2 or 2.1. One Samsung technician told me the HDMI port on the side of the tv should work, but it doesn't, which another technician told me was an HDMI input not output. Any ideas are welcome. THANK YOU in advance for your help.

***Edited Labels***

[RogersJermaine]

Hi @chdiamo1,

Thank you for your detailed post and all the information you have provided regarding the issue you are experiencing with your entertainment setup.

Intermittent problems are something that can be difficult to pinpoint and identify where the actual issue is, but we can certainly try to provide you with some steps in hopes of finding a resolution.

First thing, have you tried unpairing the soundbar and re-pairing it back? 
You can also check to ensure the soundbar is up to date on the latest firmware? 
Also just to test, have you tried this setup with another TV/Monitor?

Looking forward to your reply

RogersJermaine

[chdiamo1]

Hello RogersJermaine. Thank you for yor rapid reply. My SyncMaster T240 does not have Bluetooth. So, it cannot be paired with the Bluetooth on the soundbar. The only way to connect the tv with the soundbar is with a toslink op[tical cable. I did download the firmware update to a USSB stick, but when I inserted it into the soundbar's usb port, the message on the soundbar screen was "No Data". So, I have no idea how to update the firmware.

[jjjjy7]

@chdiamo1     I had the same issue until I went into the settings in my TV and disabled the sound output on the TV.

[chdiamo1]

Thanks for your suggestion. I also tried that. Unfortunately it didn't work for me. But I will retry it. Perhaps disabling and re-enabling the tv's speaker repeatedly will finally fix the problem.

[AV_Fan]

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@chdiamo1 wrote:

Hello RogersJermaine. Thank you for yor rapid reply. My SyncMaster T240 does not have Bluetooth. So, it cannot be paired with the Bluetooth on the soundbar. The only way to connect the tv with the soundbar is with a toslink op[tical cable. I did download the firmware update to a USSB stick, but when I inserted it into the soundbar's usb port, the message on the soundbar screen was "No Data". So, I have no idea how to update the firmware.

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Did you put the file in the root directory of the usb? Are you able to see the file(s) via a computer?

Did you format the usb with FAT32?

[chdiamo1]

Yes. I re-formatted the USB stick just in case. But when I returned to the Samsung  "Manuals and Downloads "link, there was no update file to download and the Samsung tech I was chatting with said the soundbar comes with all its own updates preinstalled.  HUH??

[AV_Fan]

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@chdiamo1 wrote:

Yes. I re-formatted the USB stick just in case. But when I returned to the Samsung  "Manuals and Downloads "link, there was no update file to download and the Samsung tech I was chatting with said the soundbar comes with all its own updates preinstalled.  HUH??

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According to the Samsung US site, the latest firmware version for HW-B53C (I can't find HW-53C) is 1010.0.

https://www.samsung.com/us/support/downloads/?model=N0021404&modelCode=HW-B53C/ZA 

You may want to check if this applies to your model.

[chdiamo1]

Thanks AV. Well, I downloaded the zip file, from the Samsung US site that you provided, to a FAT32 formatted USB stick. Following the directions of Samsung, I inserted the USB stick, with the zip file not unzipped, into the USB port on the HW-B53C and selected USB on the soundbar. "No Data" is what appeared on the screen of the soundbar.

[AV_Fan]

Hi chdiamo1, if I’m not mistaken the file needs to be unzipped first.

[chdiamo1]

According to the instructions that Samsung provides on how to update via usb, I am suppose to put the usb into the soundbar without unzipping the file, which is what I did. I am not sure why it’s a zip file anyway as there is only one file that is zipped. After the update failed, I put the usb into my desktop/tower (these types of computers aren’t very common anymore, replaced with laptops), right clicked and saw a kodi file. In any case, using the premium-and expensive-toslink and HDMI2.1 cables from DH Labs in Gainesville, Florida, the problem has greatly subsided, at least for now. My thinking was that the Samsung SyncMasterT240 monitor/tv might not produce enough audio signal or that the Ignite set top box might not produce sufficient audio signal for the Samsung HW-B53C soundbar. The $200 HDMI2.1 cable that runs from the set top box to the tv and the $100 toslink optical cable from the tv to soundbar might be allowing enough audio signal to the soundbar to have fixed the problem. I hope I am not speaking too soon but might be. Time will tell. Thanks again for your suggestions.

[AV_Fan]

Strange, I just checked the Samsung Firmware Upgrade Guide from the link I provided above and unzipping the file is the second step right after the download.

*****

Step1. How to prepare the USB Memory Drive
1. Download the firmware file from Samsung.com into your computer

2. Unzip the downloaded files.

3. Connect an USB Memory Drive to an USB port of your PC. Copy the unzipped file to the USB Memory Drive.
4. Confirm that the file has been added to the top folder of the USB memory drive.

.... (refer to the guide for further instructions)

****

Anyways, hope everything works out for you.

[chdiamo1]

In my ongoing frustration, I might have misread the instructions. I will open the zipped file on the usb and retry. Thanks for bringing this to my attention.

[chdiamo1]

Using a VPN to make Samsung think I was in the U.S.,, I logged into Samsung USA and downloaded the kodi file, opened it and transferred it to the FAT32 formatted usb stick. Then I turned off the soundbar after I had selected the usb input. Then I placed the usb stick into the usb port on the soundbar and turned on the soundbar. The kodi file downloaded to the soundbar and updated the soundbar firmware/software. This time success. Thank you AV_Fan. Now I'll have to wait up to a week to see if the intermittent sound dropouts have finally stopped. If not, then it's back to Samsung Canada support-or better yet, Samsung USA, if I can reach them using Skype or my US cell phone.

[AV_Fan]

Glad to hear that you were able to update the firmware.

At least we've the got the obvious out of the way.

[RogersYasmine]

Hey @chdiamo1 !

I just wanted to follow-up to see if all is well now? If so, please feel free to mark your post as an "Accepted Solution" as it will be super helpful for any other users who are having the same issue! 😁

Cheers!

RogersYasmine