TV connection to Soundbar keeps disconnecting

[SRW]

I have the same problem reported widely across a number of Samsung soundbars where the connection between the TV and the soundbar keeps disconnecting and the TV resorts to outputting sound via its own internal speakers.

Has a solution been found? Has Samsung even acknowledged the fault that so many customers have reported actually exists?

I have a Samsung Q90T TV and a Samsung HW-S60T soundbar.

I had problems when I initially set them up - I remember learning that Samsung soundbars had this defect then - I can't remember the precise details of the workaround the community came up with (If I recall properly, Samsung just denied the problem existed) was to not use Arc - and accept degraded performance.

Anyway, cut to now, and the problem has appeared again.

I thought I might try updating the soundbar software, but that revealed more Samsung defects! I can add the soundbar to SmartThings (and it works fine for checking its status etc) but it won't connect to the TV via WiFi (and in the process, the software then disables the soundbar in SmartThings, stating the soundbar is "offline" - until you remove the soundbar from Smart Things.

This is one of those Samsung problems where you start off wanting do so something simple - just have the Samsung TV play sound through the Samsung soundbar - and then all the Samsung failings take you down a spiral - to get it working you need to update the software - that doesn't work.

To do that you need to connect the soundbar to the Wifi. That doesn't work.

To do that you need to connect the soundbar to the TV using Smart Things. That doesn't work. The software actually disables the functionality there was there before.

Crunchingly frustrating.

[Goshgar Mammadov]

SOLUTION:

on your TV, go to SETTINGS + GENERAL + EXTERNAL DEVICE MANAGER and in that turn off HDMI-CEC (ARC) and wait for 10 seconds and then turn it on again... that's it, your soundbard should be back up & running again with TV.

Hope it helps...

Gosh.

[OfirGan]

I noticed that disabling "Intelligent Mode Settings" fix the problem.

maybe it's not so intelligent :).

while the setting is disabled the "TV + Soundbar"  sticks after reboot.

if this setting enabled, every time i turned on the tv, it got back from "tv + soundbar " to "Tv Sound".

[Ruckus17]

Hey Guys,

I've had the same issue since purchasing a 77in S90C TV and HW-Q900C soundbar (connected directly via eArc HDMI) on black Friday this year.  The TV and soundbar are AWESOME and I was so impressed the first few times I used the new set up.  I have a xbox series x and one of the higher end Panasonic bluray players hooked up too (both HDMI direct to TV). 

Unfortunately, the random soundbar disconnects started soon after and have been very disappointing.  I invited my dad over to watch a 4k bluray star trek movie and had to disconnect + reboot/reset everything.  It ended up working and we had a great movie night, but I shouldn't have to do this with a brand new $4k+ system especially with a new TV/Soundbar from the same manufacturer.  

I'm going to try to solution Goshgar Mammadov posted above next time the issue pops up. 

Also, have we established its definitely an issue rooted with the TV?  Worst case, I'd like to keep the soundbar and if I have to get a new TV from another company so be it.  Unfortunate, because the S90C picture is really impressive.  Idk maybe I'd settle for A80L or LG c3 77in, open to suggestions.

Glad I found this thread, i've talked to samsung tech support (decently helpful) and have been scouring the internet for info on this.  

[Rabbieboy]

I decided to connect the soundbar and tv via hdmi a few weeks ago, which I initially didn’t want to do, to the arc hdmi port on tv and not had any disconnects since!

[Goshgar Mammadov]

Just to let you all know that I’ve been to Samsung website and downloaded the latest firmware by giving the serial number of my TV, prepared USB drive with downloaded file as per instructions and upgraded the firmware, didn’t have any issues since.

[David Diaz]

See Rabbieboy’s suggestion. Worked for me. If Only, at start, soundbar is muted. I need to press soundbar remote’s volume up to activate 

[Fox1216]

After many nights of testing I figured out a solution. 

If you are using eArc and the sound bar works on initial setup and then eventually stops working, but if you unplug the sound bar and TV for 30 secs and the next turn on the TV it works again for a bit and then stops working again this solution should work for you. 

Go into the Samsung Service menu (should be able to find the remote button combinations to press to get it to come up on YouTube), find the setting Instant On and change it to off. Then find the setting for power loss and change it to the option that if you were to lose power while watching tv the tv remains off when the power comes back on. (Note: if you don’t change the power loss setting your sound bar should still work correctly with just changing the instant on setting, but a problem I ran into was my TV would just randomly turn itself back on 10 min or so after I turned it back on after I changed the instant on setting to off. Changing this setting too stopped that from happening)

That’s it. This will basically make the TV do a full boot of the OS every time you turn it on/off. So basically you will see the Tizen splash screen every time you turn on the TV. The actual boot time of the TV difference isn’t really noticable at all. Ever since I made this change I have had zero issues with my eArc connected Samsung sound bar with my Samsung TV.  I was about to return 3 sound bars I got from Black Friday until I just continued to try different configurations till I found one that fixed the problem. 

[Ruckus17]

Awesome, thank you I will implement this settings strategy immediately.  I appreciate your work and sharing this information with me!

LOL I had the girlfriend and her family/my family over for the holidays.  Everyone was excited to watch a 4k movie on my new TV+soundbar.  Needless to say, it was kind of embarrassing having to do a full unplug reboot reset one night.  

Again, I really appreciate you following up on this thread and sharing the info.  

[Hayd3n]

Just replaced UN65NU8000  UN85CU8000. Bose Soundbar worked perfect for  5 years on UN65. Now keeps dropping out each time new TV / panel switches on. Is there a solution or resolution, or should I just return it?

[Goshgar Mammadov]

Unfortunately İ find this particular soundbar from samsung to be not reliable, it's pretty low quality in terms of the softüware management, Samsung should've done better, at least provide a solid solution to this issue, I'm tired of resetting it everytime it goes off. In the end, I had to switch to Optical cable but that's not the same as the HDMI one, had to rearrange devices in order to get it all up & running the way I wanted... anyways, do not waste your time with it, just replace it with something else, LG seems to be a better alternative, so they claim.