Troubleshooting

Visit the sections below for tips on troubleshooting your Bluefin digital signage.

Common Issues

Screen is black / does not turn on

Check that the outlet you are using is supplying power
Connect the screen to power. If your screen has MENU buttons, check the LED indicator. Is this on and green?
1. If the MENU button LED indicator does not turn on at all, or is red, contact support for warranty assistance.
If your screen has a built-in SoC, check the LED next to the USB port. Is this on?
1. If so, and an HDMI port is present on the screen, proceed to step 4.
2. If an HDMI port is not present, contact support for assistance.
Connect the screen’s HDMI port to a device such as a laptop or media player. Wait ~15 seconds. The screen will automatically detect and switch to the HDMI input.
1. If the screen does turn on from the HDMI connection, your built-in SoC may be missing or damaged.
  Check that an SoC was included with your order. If so, contact support for warranty assistance.
2. If the screen still does not display from HDMI, contact support for warranty assistance.

Touch screen does not work at all

For touch screens no longer working on built-in SoCs, contact support for warranty assistance.

For touch screens connected to an external device, you must use the mini-USB port located on the screen as the dedicated touch-screen connection. Ensure that you have connected your external device (PC / media player) to the mini-USB port on your Bluefin screen. Solely using an HDMI connection, or the USB-A or USB-C port, will not work.

Touch screen partially works / Some areas do not work

For web-based applications and BrightSign presentations, ensure that touch points are mapped correctly in your program. Otherwise, contact support for warranty assistance.

Power over Ethernet is not working / the screen does not turn on, or is reboot looping

Bluefin screens may require either PoE+ (802.3at) or PoE++ (802.3bt) power over ethernet sources. 15W PoE is not supported. Check that your PoE source has enough available power for the units you have connected to it.

Additionally, many PoE++ compatible switches are initially configured only to supply up to 30 or fewer watts per port. Ensure that your ports are configured to send up to 60W on PoE++ screens.

Screens are rated to power from up to 300 feet of Cat5e cable.

Player displays “Insert storage” when powered on with a micro-SD card already inserted

BrightSign players require content files that have been formatted in the free BrightAuthor software suite in order to display. BrightSign cannot display image and video files copied directly to a micro-SD card.

Ensure that your micro-SD card is formatted exFAT
Republish your files. You should note several files and folders including autorun.brs, local-sync, pool, etc…
Insert the card into the screen, then power it on.
If issues persist, try another SD card and repeat the steps above.
Contact support for warranty assistance if this does not resolve the issue.

Player displays a set-up page when powered on with a micro-SD card inserted

BrightSign will display a generic set-up page when a blank SD card is inserted, and the screen is powered on without access to an internet connection. If you are trying to set-up via BSN.cloud, check your internet connection. If you have published files to your card, the files or card may be unreadable. Erase and republish your files, and try another SD card.

Ultrawide display is stretching video incorrectly, or only displays a black backlit screen

Please see our BrightSign manual for setting up BrightSign presentations for ultrawide screens that do not have resolutions listed in BrightAuthor.

Serial Events (Nexmosphere events) are no longer working on new screens

If your Flex-OS screen’s hardware version (HW on our label) is V2.2 or lower, you may need to increment the target serial port in your presentation to restore functionality (i.e. instead of ports 2-4, use ports 3-5)

Check your device label to see if you are impacted. This issue has been resolved as of Flex-OS HW V2.3.

BrightSign Built-In

If serial port events are no longer working on new screens, click here for more information.

Intel Ocean

I need to access the BIOS menu

You can access the BIOS menu by pressing the DELETE key on startup.

My Windows license is not activated

Note that units provided for demo may not include a license activation. If you require activation for demo testing, contact your sales rep for further assistance.

Connect your screen to the internet via ethernet or Wi-Fi and wait 5 minutes. If the issue persists, contact support for further assistance.

Bluetooth is not working

Bluetooth is not currently supported on Reef screens.

Android Reef

Screen displays “Unsupported Audio” at startup

This occurs when a video either includes unsupported audio, or no audio embedded at all. This message will only appear at start-up and can be safely ignored in most cases.

To prevent this message from occurring at all, reformat your videos to include a silent MP3 audio track.

I performed a USB update, but the old content started playing

Make sure a blank file named USB2SD.txt was included in the root of your flash drive.
When the USB flash drive is inserted, it may begin playing the new content without updating it if there is an issue with your USB2SD file. When the update occurs, the screen will display a loading bar. If no loading graphic displays, content is not being updated.

Videos are not playing, or are playing with visual errors

V Series screens only support mp4 videos up to 1920x1080, 30 fps, and with a bitrate up to 11mbps. Videos above these specs will need to be re-encoded.
Please see our V Series manual for recommended video settings.