A Tale for Your Bemusement

Does the machine do auto firemware updates?   

Even though it is not supported any longer, perhaps a sony programmer or engineer still uses it, still has rights to modify, and went in a fixed something.

Jerry

Often times unplugging a component for a few minutes can work wonders.  Perhaps that’s what happened in your situation, but in any case glad the old girl seems to be up n running again even if she’s limping a bit. 

Happy to read your sucess story. 

Hey Jim glad you got a feature you liked back. My Auralic Aries can sort files into genres which can be interesting to see what ends up in what genre.

Well, in just under two months you'll be right as rain and none the worse for it. I like it when things work out for someone in unexpected ways. Thanks for sharing.

All the best,
Nonoise

I can't shine any light on your particular problem, but Sony's HAP-Z1ES has been the bedrock of my system for many trouble free years now. Like you, I really enjoy the Sense Me function. I did upgrade the on board HDD to a Samsung 870 EVO SSD two years ago which of course required the excruciatingly long download process. Other than the annoying habit of randomly putting doubles of all the cuts on an album, it has always performed flawlessly. FYI, since retiring, moving, and building a new house, my system has always been on a dedicated line which includes an isolation transformer and a Furman SPR-20i conditioner/surge protector/voltage regulator. We have regular storms in my area and the power has a nasty habit of blinking off and on during the more severe ones. That's probably the worst kind of power problem modern processor controlled audio gear can experience because of the accompanying surge that follows it. The Furman has done it's job and tripped it's protection circuitry several times, saving my system in the process. If you are not already doing so, you may want to look into adding some AC line protection to your system to help mitigate future events.

Great story!

FWIW, there have been many times that software updates to a few of my audio components have seemed to cause problems.  The natural thing to do is reboot.  What's funny is that very often, 2 or 3 reboots are necessary before the problems correct themselves.  Ghost in the machine?

Thanks to all for reading and taking the time to comment.

@carlsbad2, over the time I’ve had the HAP S1 there’ve been two firmware updates, the last one of which was some time ago, at least 5-6 years ago or more.. Until I learned that Sony had stopped support, I hoped that a firmware update would add to the machine’s streaming capability, which now and forever is only Spotify and TuneIn.

@Jond, I need to correct something. The machine doesn’t sort uploaded disks into Genre (“Genre” is a way to select music to play, along with Artist, Album, etc.). In fact, when I ripped the disks using dbpoweramp, I assigned the Genre. Unfortunately, I was often inconsistent, which has diminished the utility of “Genre” has a classification. So I am often amused by my long-ago decisions about that.

@bondmanp, your comment about a ghost in the machine reminded me of tube televisions. When they malfunctioned, sometimes a shaking or a slap to one side would make them work again. I’ve unseriously considered doing that to the Sony when it’s not worked, but I’ll remember your suggestion about multiple rebooting.

Slapping a tube TV might have helped reset a loose tube, but otherwise isn't a very good idea give the fragility of tube filaments.

The modern equivalent of multiple reboots is often required before any upgraded software has reloaded, and in correct order, e.g. a before b, but upgraded c requires d before e functions correctly, and all need to be loaded and communicating before f works at all. 

I unplugged all my equipment from the walls when the bad weather hit this winter in Portland. PGE has a real penchant though for power surges and outages ("maintenance") so I invested in a high-quality surge protector a long time ago and I'm glad i did.

It’s unfortunate but I could have predicted that Sony wasn’t going to give adequate support to a machine of that vintage.  Too bad you wasted your time reloading the music.  Time to buy a server to load the discs that you can back up and then use with streamers of your choice, or else just switch to a streaming service without playing the discs from a hard drive.  All software offers a service similar to what you describe, be it from a streaming service or by organizing your own files.