Powernode Gen1 works fine until power disconnected and then goes dumb, not dead

This issue has already costed me 1 Powernode Gen1 which I sold on eBay as Spares!! But I think there is something else that is going on here that is a wider issue. As a reminder, I have a few Powernode Gen1s around the house. A few months ago, I had to disconnect a couple of perfectly functional Powernodes. When I reconnected them, there was no sound output. Even after several resets, a firmware update and a Bluesound Teamviewer session these 2 Powernodes wouldn't work. They were not dead, the lights would work, the app appears to work, the buttons on the unit update on the app. Everything works, except there is no sound on the speakers, they were dumb not dead. I managed to get one to play by by-passing the relay board and connecting the speaker outputs directly to the DDFA board. But the other one stayed dumb. So I thought I might as well get rid of them. eBay doesn't allow listing of identical products, so one was listed and sold. The other was packed away waiting to be sold. This week, I needed to disconnect a 3rd Powernode Gen1. When I reconnected it, it too went dumb. Surely not! No matter what I did, it wouldn't output any sound. I went through the same reset, update firmware etc but nothing. I then went and pulled out the old one that was waiting to be sold, plugged in the power and then connected the speakers and to my surprise a previously dumb unit started to sing. I was happy and frustrated at the same time. I'd just sold a Powernode as Spares! I disconnected the working unit and moved it to the room I needed it, connected it back and this time again it wouldn't output any sound. This is after it had just been happily playing for over an hour on my desk as a test. Went back to the 3rd Powernode on the desk and that too started playing. So moved that back to it's proper location and nope, it had no sound output. So there is something that happens when the unit is powered off that stops the sound output. When the sound finally starts, the unit appear absolutely fine until you disconnect power again. And then it is a roll of the dice if it will start again. What's going on here? I found reports going back a few years that have exactly these same symptoms. Is the Gen1 hardware slowly dying?

Official comment

Mark T.

Sr. Support Crew Member

May 15, 2025 12:56

Hi Bruce,

I've escalated your feedback to a support request. A member of our support crew will reach out to you soon.

Bruce Miranda

May 23, 2025 07:43

OK it seems like there is a problem with the DDFA (amplifier) boards on all these Gen1 Powernodes that I have. They have all gotten temperamental and will not output sound consistently once they are powered off at mains. They appear not to be able to recover from a hardware reboot.
So if you have a working Gen1 Powernode or Pulse, please do not power it down. It may never play again if you do.
I'm being advised to send these in for repairs, which I know is uneconomical, so these will land up as eWaste. What a pity.

May 24, 2025 11:13

Are you absolutely sure there is no bug in the firmware that is causing this. I've just had a Powernode 2i do exactly the same thing. Meaning, everything appears to work, but there is no sound output on the speakers. A reboot via the app didn't fix the problem. But a power cycle did bring the Powernode back to life.
Now that it is working, I'm now not sure I want to power the Powernode down again to test my theory, least it never comes back to life again.

Maarten v. Sprang

May 25, 2025 08:06

I seem to have the same problem as mentioned by Bruce, except for the fact that a hard reset is not working. When holding the play button after reconnecting the power the LED goes from red to blinking green and back to blue. But no sound is playing even though the app tells me it's connected and playing.

May 25, 2025 17:36

Just try and disconnect the power from the unit and keep trying. At some point, the unit may start working. Do not turn off the power when it does, it may not play again otherwise.

May 25, 2025 18:07

Thanks, yeah I tried it again a few times and then all of a sudden it worked again.

May 25, 2025 19:05

Yup it is super strange and yet Bluesound maintain this is a hardware problem with the DDFA board. I remain unconvinced. Things can't go dead from simply disconnecting power to reconnecting it again.

Powernode Gen1 works fine until power disconnected and then goes dumb, not dead

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