YVM102

[Den543]

I get errors on my EETV Mini boxes all the time, especially the one in our bedroom.

The main error we seem to get is YVM102, which seems to now be showing every time we turn on the EE Mini Box.  This seems to have gotten worse.  This is what I have found:

• The error happens often.  The box will have been working last time we turned the device off,  and shows when we next turn it on again some hours or days later.
• When the error occurs, If I navigate to the Configure your Wireless Connection screen, my WiFi is not showing as available.(this is EE Broadband WiFI with extensions).
• Even Though the EE TV Mini thinks my WiFi is no longer available I know it is because:  The Samsung TV next to the device is still connected to the WiFi. 
• A Speedtest on my smartphone of the WiFi next to the device shows that it over 300MBit download speed and over 40Mbit upload speed. 
• A test of wifi signals using the Wifi Analyser app shows that it things the router is 1 metre away (there is an extender in the room below).

Rebooting the EE TV Mini fixes it so that it can see my wifi again and use it.  But this smells very strongly of a software issue with the box itself because it can only see a working and very strong wifi signal after a reboot.

My wife has lost all confidence in the box to the point that if these issues do not go away we will be leaving EE when it is time to renew our contract.  We want a TV service that just works every time it is turned on rather than needing a reboot every time.

The box software is up to date.  Previously we had Sky routers/extenders and Sky Q tv boxes - all in identical locations to where the EE kit now is,  and everything used to work perfectly with no such issues.  This again points to the EE box being at fault.  

[Leanne_T · Accepted solution]

Hi there @Den543 

Thank you for coming back to the community and for letting us know what you have tried already to resolve the error code. 

Have you been in touch with our tech guides and reported the error code? If not, please get in touch and they can run troubleshooting to let you know what is needed to get this sorted 🙂

Let me know how you get on. 

Leanne.

[Den543]

Engineer came out.  To be honest he didn't know why these errors were happening because, as I have already said, everything looks fine on my WiFi and the box - the errors just happen.

His recommendation was to get another EE Smart Wifi Extender (even though he could see that my current wifi signal at the mini TV box is already very good) and hard wire the EE Mini Box into the extender.  He says that often fixes connection issues.

After a slightly heated exchange with EE technical services on the phone to get another extender as had already been agreed with the engineer that visited, one is on the way.  I will report back if that fixes the issues I am having.  If it fixes it then it hints at issues with the EE TV boxes WiFi chip for issues to be happening in good wifi coverage areas needing hard wiring.

[Michael_D]

Thanks for coming back to us with an update @Den543.

I can understand your frustration with what is happening. Hopefully, the extender will help, but please do keep us posted with how it goes when it arrives and is set up.

Michael

[Mellman]

Did this resolve your issue? We are on the same merry go round with this 

[Katie_J]

Hi @Mellman. 

Welcome back to the community. 

What was the latest advice provided by our technical care team?

Did you see any improvement when turning off sleep mode?

Katie

[DDenEE]

The solution EE gave me was for me to stop using WiFi for my EE TV boxes (Even though my Wifi was absolutely solid everywhere that i had a TV) and instead they provided me with lots of additional wifi extenders and powerline adaptors so I could plug a network cable into the tv boxes.

That solution improved things a bit but not 100% - I was still getting occasional errors.  The solution that worked for me 100% was to stop using the IP TV option and revert my main EE TV box to using the working aerial socket I still had.  For the mini TV boxes I simply stopped using them altogether and got Google TV dongles instead which worked perfectly over WiFi.

I then left EE when my subscription expired and kept the main TV box which still works fine over aerial without EE (I got a cheap one on ebay to return rather than pay EE the full price) and returned the mini boxes.  I went for the cheapest broadband provider i could find (its all via the same BT Openreach lines) and purchased some cheap Chinese router+wifi extenders (Cudy is the brand) and my WiFi coverage is far better than it ever was with EE even with all the extenders they sent me - With the Cudy I only need one extender rather than then the three I had with EE and my Wi-Fi reaches the bottom of the garden which it never did on EE - that there tells us something about the quality of the EE kit.

Conclusion: leave EE when you can, their Wi-Fi kit and their mini-TV boxes are poor quality, and their main EE TV box only really works reliably over aerial (on aerial it is actually good and a bargain if picked up on ebay).  If you want to keep Now TV you can usually pick up very good offers direct if you are patient - I'm currently on a 6 month offer far cheaper than what EE was charging me for Now TV.

[Mellman]

Hi Katie,

Sorry for the delayed reply. We have now done a huge amount of troubleshooting with EE, including a roughly three-hour call with technical support today, so I can give a much more complete update.

The original problem has been recurring connection issues with both of our EE TV boxes, often resulting in YVM102 and parts of the interface failing to load. Restarting the boxes and router has sometimes restored things temporarily, but the problems have kept coming back.

What made me question whether this was simply a problem with the TV boxes was that we then started seeing other WiFi devices affected at the same time. In particular, my gaming laptop would lose its WiFi connection completely and then refuse to reconnect, even after forgetting the network and entering the password again.

I went into the Smart Hub 7 Pro admin interface while this was happening and noticed something quite interesting. The hub was showing zero devices connected to the 5 GHz band, despite us normally having a number of devices that use or prefer 5 GHz. Devices on 2.4 GHz continued to work.

We did quite a lot of testing around this.

The 5 GHz radio was shown as enabled in the hub settings, but switching just the 5 GHz radio off, waiting, and switching it back on did not restore the connections. The hub was using Smart Channel 100, and using the Rescan option simply selected Channel 100 again. Unfortunately the Smart Hub 7 Pro does not appear to allow me to manually select another 5 GHz channel.

I also tested this using two completely separate Windows computers. My desktop has an Intel WiFi 6E AX210 adapter and was happily connected over 2.4 GHz. I temporarily configured the adapter to use 5 GHz only. At that point it could see the EE network but could not connect to it at all, displaying the same sort of behaviour as the gaming laptop. As soon as I restored dual-band operation it was able to connect again over 2.4 GHz.

We also unplugged the EE WiFi extender entirely to rule that out, but the gaming laptop still could not connect to either the main network or the Compatible WiFi network.

This was why I became doubtful that this was simply poor WiFi reception or a problem with one particular laptop. We had two separate computers unable to associate with the 5 GHz network while 2.4 GHz continued working normally, alongside the EE TV problems.

Today I spent around three hours on the phone with EE technical support. During that call we did the following:

1. Factory reset the Smart Hub 7 Pro.
2. Factory reset the downstairs EE TV box.
3. Set the downstairs EE TV box up again.
4. Connected the downstairs box using powerline adapters rather than WiFi.

Following the factory reset, the 5 GHz network has come back and the gaming laptop has also reconnected. At the moment things are therefore working again, but previous resets have also restored things temporarily, so I do not yet know whether this is a permanent fix.

The technical adviser ultimately said that we had effectively exhausted EE's troubleshooting options. He suggested that the location of our router, which is in a somewhat enclosed space, could be contributing to the problem, and recommended having Ethernet installed around the house so that devices such as the TV boxes can use wired connections.

I am certainly open to improving our home network and having Ethernet installed, but I am still not entirely convinced that WiFi coverage explains everything we have seen. In particular, it does not seem to explain why the entire 5 GHz side of the network appeared to stop accepting connections while 2.4 GHz continued working, or why a factory reset restored it.

I also noticed the reply from DDenEE above because their experience sounds worryingly similar. They were also advised by EE to stop using WiFi for the EE TV boxes and were given extenders and powerline adapters. That improved things but apparently did not completely resolve the errors. They ultimately found that using the aerial for the main EE box and replacing the mini boxes with other streaming devices was more reliable.

So at the moment I am going to leave the downstairs box connected through the powerline adapters and monitor it closely. I am particularly interested to see whether YVM102 returns even though that box is now effectively using a wired network connection.

I will also be watching the Smart Hub to see whether the 5 GHz device count suddenly drops back to zero again. If that happens after today's factory reset, I think it would point much more strongly towards either a Smart Hub firmware or state problem, or a fault with the hub itself, rather than simply WiFi coverage.

Regarding sleep mode, I don't think that explains the wider problem we have been seeing because the failures have coincided with other 5 GHz devices being unable to connect as well. The issue has not appeared to be isolated to the EE TV box waking from sleep.

Is there anything else you would suggest at this stage, particularly given the 5 GHz behaviour described above? I would also be interested to know whether EE are aware of any current Smart Hub 7 Pro or EE TV connectivity issues which could produce this behaviour.

Thanks,
Tom

[Mellman]

Hi all,

I'm hoping some of the more technically minded people here might be able to offer some advice, because we have been going around in circles with EE for quite a while now and I'm honestly getting pretty frustrated with the whole situation.

This is going to be a long post, but I want to explain everything that has happened because I don't think this is simply a case of one TV box having a weak WiFi signal.

OUR SETUP

We have an EE Smart Hub 7 Pro.

We also have two EE TV boxes, one downstairs and one elsewhere in the house, along with the usual collection of laptops, desktop PCs, Firesticks, phones and smart home devices.

We have also been using an EE WiFi extender.

The broadband connection itself generally appears to be fine. Even when these problems occur, some devices continue accessing the internet normally.

THE ORIGINAL EE TV PROBLEM

The problems initially became obvious through the EE TV boxes.

Both boxes have intermittently suffered connection problems, often showing YVM102 or failing to load certain sections of the EE TV interface.

Restarting the TV boxes and/or router has often brought things back temporarily, but the problem eventually returns.

What made me start questioning whether the TV boxes themselves were really the root cause was what happened to other devices at the same time.

THE 5 GHZ PROBLEM

My gaming laptop began randomly losing its WiFi connection.

Once this happened, it often would not reconnect at all.

I could forget the EE network, select it again, enter the correct password and Windows would either keep attempting to connect indefinitely or eventually say that it could not connect to the network.

Meanwhile, other devices connected over 2.4 GHz continued working.

I then checked the Smart Hub admin interface while this was happening and noticed something that seemed very significant.

The hub showed:

2.4 GHz: multiple connected devices
5 GHz: 0 connected devices

This was very unusual because we normally have several modern devices which either use or prefer the 5 GHz band.

The Smart Hub showed the 5 GHz radio as enabled.

It was using Smart Channel 100.

I tried switching only the 5 GHz radio off, saving the settings, waiting, switching it back on and saving again.

That did not fix it.

The hub continued showing zero 5 GHz clients and the gaming laptop still could not reconnect.

I also tried the 5 GHz "Rescan" option in the hub settings.

Unfortunately the Smart Hub does not appear to let me manually select a 5 GHz channel. Rescan simply resulted in it continuing to use Channel 100.

TESTING WITH A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT COMPUTER

This is the part that made me particularly suspicious of the Smart Hub rather than the gaming laptop.

My desktop PC uses an Intel WiFi 6E AX210 160 MHz adapter.

The desktop was working normally, but it had connected itself to 2.4 GHz.

We checked the adapter settings and temporarily configured it so that it could only use the 5 GHz band.

As soon as we did that, the desktop lost its connection.

It could see the EE WiFi network, but it could not connect to it.

Trying manually resulted in Windows saying it could not connect to the network.

This was essentially the same behaviour as the gaming laptop.

When I changed the Intel adapter back to normal dual-band operation, the desktop immediately connected again over 2.4 GHz.

So at this point we had two completely separate computers which:

1. Could see the EE network.
2. Worked over 2.4 GHz.
3. Could not establish a connection when restricted to 5 GHz.

That seemed difficult to reconcile with the idea that this was simply one faulty laptop or poor reception in one room.

We also unplugged the EE WiFi extender completely to rule that out.

The gaming laptop still would not connect.

COMPATIBLE WIFI

I also tried EE's separate Compatible WiFi network, which uses WPA2 rather than the main network's WPA3 configuration.

The gaming laptop could see the Compatible WiFi network but again reported that it could not connect.

I should point out that I could not make this a controlled 5 GHz-only test because the 2.4 GHz side of Compatible WiFi is used by our EV charger/solar equipment and I did not want to disrupt those devices.

THE 5 GHZ SIGNAL WAS ACTUALLY BEING BROADCAST

We also checked the available BSSIDs from the desktop.

Interestingly, the Smart Hub was still physically broadcasting the main EE network on 5 GHz, including a BSSID on Channel 100.

So this did not appear to be a simple case of the 5 GHz radio disappearing completely.

The network was visible, but devices appeared unable to associate with it.

This made me wonder whether the issue was somewhere in the Smart Hub's 5 GHz association, authentication or firmware rather than simply poor WiFi coverage.

TODAY'S EE SUPPORT CALL

Today I spent approximately three hours on the phone with EE technical support.

To be fair to the adviser, he spent a lot of time going through things with us.

During the call we eventually did the following:

1. Factory reset the Smart Hub 7 Pro.
2. Factory reset the downstairs EE TV box.
3. Set the TV box up again from scratch.
4. Connected the downstairs EE TV box using powerline adapters and Ethernet instead of WiFi.

Following the full Smart Hub factory reset, the 5 GHz network came back.

The gaming laptop also reconnected.

So currently everything is working again.

However, resets have restored things before, so at this stage I have no confidence yet that this is a permanent fix.

EE'S CONCLUSION

By the end of the call I was told that we had effectively exhausted EE's troubleshooting.

The adviser also raised the position of our Smart Hub, which is in a somewhat enclosed area, as something that could be affecting WiFi performance.

The recommendation at the end of the call was essentially to have Ethernet installed around the house and connect devices such as the EE TV boxes by cable wherever possible.

The frustrating part is that this is not something we have simply ignored. I have already spent quite a bit of time trying to arrange a proper Ethernet installation in the house.

Ours is a finished modern house with the router/BT entry point under the stairs and devices that I would ideally like to connect upstairs. The walls are dot-and-dab plasterboard over masonry, and I wanted a reasonably neat concealed Cat6 installation with proper wall plates rather than cables simply being run externally around the house.

I have contacted installers about this previously.

One contractor cancelled after seeing photographs and floorplans of what would be involved.

Another data cabling company explained that they generally preferred external cable runs and would not normally lift carpets, floorboards or parts of the staircase to create the internal route I was hoping for, and suggested that I would probably need an electrician instead.

So while I completely understand that Ethernet would be preferable for fixed equipment, "get Ethernet installed" unfortunately isn't quite the simple solution it sounds like.

Retrofitting a concealed wired network into an already finished house can involve a fair amount of disruption, and so far I have struggled to find somebody willing to take the job on in the way I would want it done.

That is partly why I am so frustrated that the apparent endpoint of EE's troubleshooting is effectively to redesign the network infrastructure of the house, particularly when we have also observed behaviour such as the Smart Hub showing zero 5 GHz clients and two completely separate computers being unable to associate with 5 GHz until the hub was factory reset.

I completely accept that Ethernet is preferable to WiFi and I would still like to have it installed if I can find somebody willing to undertake a neat concealed installation.

What I don't understand is why:

1. The hub suddenly showed zero 5 GHz clients.
2. Multiple devices which normally use 5 GHz stopped using it.
3. My gaming laptop could see the network but could not connect.
4. A completely separate desktop with an Intel AX210 behaved exactly the same way when forced onto 5 GHz.
5. 2.4 GHz continued working normally.
6. Switching the 5 GHz radio off and back on did not fix it.
7. Removing the EE extender did not fix it.
8. A complete Smart Hub factory reset did restore it.

That seems to me like there could be something else going on with the Smart Hub.

EE TV / YVM102

There is another thread here discussing YVM102 which I originally posted in.

One contributor has recently explained that EE also advised them to stop using WiFi for their TV boxes and supplied additional extenders and powerline adapters.

They said this improved the situation but did not eliminate the errors completely.

They eventually stopped using the mini boxes and later moved away from EE entirely. Interestingly, they also reported getting substantially better WiFi coverage using inexpensive third-party networking equipment than they ever achieved with EE's own router and extenders.

Obviously that is one person's experience and I am not taking it as proof of anything, but it does make me question whether continuing to add more EE extenders or powerline equipment is really addressing the underlying problem.

WHAT I AM DOING NOW

For the moment I am leaving everything as EE configured it today.

The downstairs EE TV box is connected through the powerline adapters.

The Smart Hub has been factory reset.

5 GHz is currently working again.

The gaming laptop is currently connected again as well.

I am now going to monitor two things very closely.

Firstly, whether the downstairs TV box develops YVM102 again despite now being connected through powerline/Ethernet.

Secondly, whether the Smart Hub's 5 GHz client count suddenly drops back to zero again and the laptops once again become unable to connect.

If either happens, particularly after today's full factory reset, I think we need to reconsider the explanation that this is simply poor WiFi coverage.

THIRD-PARTY ROUTER?

This is also why I am now seriously considering replacing the EE Smart Hub with a good third-party router or WiFi system.

I would be very interested to hear from anyone who has actually done this on a current EE connection.

In particular:

Which routers are people successfully using with EE broadband?

Has anyone replaced a Smart Hub 7 Pro specifically and seen noticeably better reliability or coverage?

Are ASUS routers a good option? I have been looking at some of their higher-end WiFi 6 and WiFi 7 equipment.

Does EE TV, including the live IPTV channels, work correctly through your third-party router?

I understand that EE TV uses multicast/IGMP for some live channels, so I assume simply having an internet connection is not necessarily enough.

If you are using EE TV successfully through ASUS, TP-Link, Cudy, UniFi or anything else, I would really like to know the exact model and whether any special IGMP or multicast settings were required.

Would another sensible option be to leave the EE Smart Hub handling the broadband and any EE-specific services, disable its WiFi completely, and use a proper third-party access point or mesh system for all wireless devices?

As mentioned above, I have already investigated having Ethernet installed properly around the house and would still like to do this if I can find somebody willing to undertake a neat concealed installation. It would obviously be useful regardless of which router we ultimately use.

I would really appreciate opinions from people who understand this stuff better than I do.

At this point I am less interested in another round of "restart the router / restart the TV box" troubleshooting because we have done that repeatedly, along with restarting individual wireless bands, removing the extender, testing two different computers, a full factory reset and several hours of EE support.

What I would really like to understand is:

Does the 5 GHz behaviour described above sound like a Smart Hub fault or firmware issue?

Has anyone else experienced the Smart Hub 7 Pro getting into a state where 2.4 GHz works but devices cannot associate with 5 GHz?

Has anyone continued receiving YVM102 after moving their EE TV box from WiFi to Ethernet or powerline?

Would you push EE for a replacement Smart Hub if the 5 GHz problem returns?

Has anyone found that replacing the EE Smart Hub actually cured similar WiFi or EE TV problems?

And if you decided to ditch the EE router, what equipment would you recommend that still works properly with EE TV?

Sorry for the extremely long post, but after repeated intermittent issues and another three-hour troubleshooting session today, I wanted to put the complete picture in one place.

Any advice or experiences would be massively appreciated.

Thanks.

[JimM11]

@Mellman Have you checked that all your own 5Ghz equipment devices can operate up in the CH100 operation, do not just assume that they can, some do not!

EE Hub firmware versions - The EE Community check your FW has updated, the 5Ghz wifi issue may have been fixed.

From what you have done so far, next logical step is to ask EE to give you a replacement for your EE 7 Pro hub at least, but you maybe better to go the whole hog and switch the Extender out as well. Backhaul on the Hub/Extender is supposed to be using the 6Ghz band so 5Ghz working on an extender may also show the symptoms you express. 100% Asus XT8's and RP-AX58's with a little powerline in the mix, no issues hardware wise, all band's split TRI-Band model's but are only AX comp, if wifi 7 is your thing and MLO in use never mind the TV/DV issues if using, but EE TV is going to be another user for working that way, suggest you look on the TV part of the Forum.