New Scaratings

The Buzztime server at B-52 is intermittently shutting down and rebooting. I first noticed it now three weeks ago playing Brainbuster. It shut down after the first round - nothing but a black screen for about five minutes, then a two minute reboot which put me in Round 3. Last week it shut down after Round 3, and came back in time for Showdown. I missed the final top 20, but since there were only 53 of us playing the quiz, that was no big deal. We all missed the first question of Showdown by not logging back in on our playmakers. This has also been happening at random times during my afternoon Countdown sessions, typically after Round 1, but if it happens after Round 2, it's too late to stub out the game. So the problem is worse than annoying. And there's no way to predict whether or when it'll happen.

Has anyone else seen this? Or can provide any insight? The GM has spoken repeatedly to Carlsbad, but obviously hasn't received an adequate response.

I am presuming that you are referring to the system powering off. I would say that it's the computer. Back in my working days, we had problems similar to that. Replacing the motherboard or power supply was the fix.

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Tuesday B-52's GM unplugged the server for 1-2 minutes, and when power was restored the problem went away. Thursday we were looking at blank screens for ten seconds or longer, but the problem was innocuous: we didn't miss any questions. I'm inclined to agree with GOGETEM, but to get Buzztime to replace the server yet again, may require further documentation of missing content.

Thursday, during a manager's meeting in the dining room, the theatre screen at the bottom level (this is an old Damon's) which shows Buzztime, went blank for half an hour. When the meeting broke up the GM and one of his assistants tried, as the assistant expressed it, "Something else, a little more radical."

I suspect the "something else" may have done the trick. We're now seeing Buzztime advertising that includes actual trivia content. Other sites might have been displaying these ads for weeks, but they were new here on Thursday.

That turned out to be a short-lived success. For a week I didn't see any shut downs, and then they started coming back, and in the last two weeks I've seen as many as two in a single afternoon.

Per GOGETEM's advice, the server was replaced several days ago. The problem persists. I've only very recently learned that the server and the in-house computerized jukebox are somehow wired together, and the jukebox was replaced within the last two months - about the same time the problem first appeared. But its not obvious how the jukebox could possibly interfere with the input on a Buzztime server. Hopefully B-52's electrical contractor can provide an answer.