Is Your Roku Working?

Factual Questions
1

Roku is some sort of TV thing. You plug a USB sort of device into the side of your TV and it gets TV. I am not too educated on how it works.

I am having an odd problem since this morning. No picture. The sound is just fine. Well TV with no picture is sort of lacking, but you would think it would get even worse. I need the picture on to navigate all the complex nested menus to change channels and stuff.

That is the weird part. Turn the TV, picture is fine. Select this option then that one then the other one to get down to a single channel or program, smash the button one last time, the sound plays, but no picture.

The worldwide computer glitch might be related I suppose, or perhaps that is a red herring.

Anyone else having this problem?

2

I’ve had no problem with my Rokus (plural) at all.

Let’s go through the classic troubleshooting.

Turn off the TV, unplug the device, let sit for a period, then try it again.

Did you set up your Roku through your phone? You should be able to control your TV through the phone app.

If that doesn’t work. uninstall the Roku through the phone app and try to reinstall it.

3

I confirm that my Roku continues to seem to work correctly.

4

That problem only affects computers that run Windows. And then, only ones that are running Crowdstrike cybersecurity software. Neither of those are things that would be running on a Roku.

5

Well, that fixed it. I am somewhere between pleased and embarrassed. Thank you all.

6

Nothing to be embarrassed about. I look at it the same way as clearing cookies when my browser screws up.

7

I’ve been in IT for over 30 years. Yesterday, I let our communications group know that my office phone wasn’t working. They had me unplug it and plug it back in. Problem solved.

8

I wonder when turn it off and turn it on again first became a thing. Maybe with the introduction of household electricity.

9

More likely, with the introduction of integrated circuits/computer chips, since that’s usually what’s being reset by this procedure.

10

External HDMI devices, like Rokus, can sometimes have this problem when they are not fully plugged into the HDMI port. Re-seating the HDMI plug may fix it. Restarting the device may also help as well.

11

Sounds like an HDCP failure. On occasion, the HDCP handshake between the Roku and the TV will fail, with the symptom exactly as described: UI works fine, but when playing video there is no picture. Unplug/replug or power cycle normally fixes it.

12

Whew, that was a near one. I was afraid your TV crapped out. Swat a fly, go buy a new TV.
(Yeah that was embarrassing, the second time I did it)

13

I find that my Roku needs rebooting regularly if I want to be able to use the phone app (it’s more convenient to type program names on a phone keyboard than to poke around on a TV screen grid with the remote control).

14

I’ve got an old Roku 3 that’s still going but occasionally just hangs or the screen goes black or the navigation buttons stop functioning. Sometimes it will restart itself when it gets stuck, but in most cases I have to power cycle it. It’s maybe a couple of times per month, but it was a bit more wonky than usual in the last few days so there might be an issue related to Crowdstrike, maybe on a subset of the servers that it talks to.

15

Three colleagues are sharing a car on a road trip. One is a manager, one is an engineer, and one is a programmer.

During the drive, on an isolated road, the car sputters and conks out. The three people discuss how they should deal with the situation.

“Let’s call someone,” says the manager. “They will come and solve the problem for us.”

“No, we’ll sit here and wait a long time,” says the engineer. “Let’s pop the hood and poke around and see if we can figure out what’s wrong.”

“I have an idea,” says the programmer. “Let’s all get out of the car, wait a couple of minutes, and get back in, and see if the car works again.”

16

/Nitpick If the plural of gnu is gnu, wouldn’t the plural of Roku be Roku?

17

I have an old Sanyo Roku tv that kept slowing down and bumping me off Roku. I fixed it by buying a Roku 4K stick for half price on Amazon Prime. I installed it yesterday, and it works better than it ever did. Damnfast loading, no dropping, no freezing.

18

You wanna nitpick? Okay. Roku is a trademark and therefore an adjective. It has no plural. But I’ll be damned if I’m going to type out “my several Roku audio-visual streaming devices” just to tell the OP to unplug it, let it sit, and then plug it back in.

19

That brilliant summary brings tears to my eyes. I may need some Kleenexes Kleenex brand facial tissues.

20

:sweat_smile: I needed that laugh, thanks.