ARLO Pro: How Can We Bring A Bad Camera Back To Life?

[MRonson]

We purchased an ARLO Pro Wire-Free 4 camera kit on 2/16/18  - the box says it is model # VMS4430 - and an additional camera on 3/19/18 creating a 5 camera system. The base station hardware is stated as VMB4000r3.

(We also have a separate 4 camera system working in the UK also purchased on 3/19/18. Our UK system is working well - and we feel reasonably experienced using the system now.)

Our US system has mostly working well too. FI the US system base is currently running firmware 1.11.9.0-26520. All US cameras are currently running firmware 1.092.0.19-26228.

One camera in the US system has unfortunately given us a problem since May 2018 - the Serial Number for the "dodgy" camera shows it was part of the 4 camera kit purchased on 2/16/18. All was initially working well.  We returned to the UK in May and armed our US system as we left. After about 2 weeks this camera "died".  When we returned to the US in mid-Sept the other 4 US cameras were still working well and had more than 50% battery charge remaining.  The 'bad' camera had lost all battery charge and also indicated that a firmware update was needed. We fully charged the camera and updated the firmware. Unfortunately the battery again drained very quickly. We took a look on the Arlo community forum for help and saw that plenty of others were having a similar problem!

We were pleased to see the firmware update released on 9/26 and expected all to be resolved. Alas the 'bad' camera - which was fully charged on 9/30 was already down to 68% by 10/3. We decided to swap out the battery in the bad camera - which we did on 10/8.  Following the swap out, the camera now with the 'bad' battery worked entirely normally and the battery held its charge well!  Unfortunately the 'bad' camera now with the 'good' battery inside continued to discharge very rapidly (from 100% to 15% in 7 days).  All other camera batteries - charged at the same time - are still showing 90+% charge remaining. Seems to us the issue isn't caused by the battery and hasn't been solved by the firmware update so is it a problem with the camera itself?

FI we have also restarted our base and re-synch'd the "bad" camera - post the 26/9 firmware update - hoping that would resolve the problem. Sadly nothing has worked. Sorry to be so detailed but wanted to reflect the various things we have already tried - mostly taken from posts to this forum.

We have sadly concluded that we have one bad camera. Does anyone have any other suggestions we should try? (Apart from the camera showing that the battery is draining rapidly all other functionality appears to be working fine.)

If this issue can't be resolved, how do we get Netgear to supply a replacement camera?

[Streak2]

I assume that the dodgy camera is not in a high traffic area with hundreds of recordings a day and that there is no excessive live viewing?

Best would be to contact support below, let them know all the trouble shooting that you have done and request a camera exchange.

[MRonson]

Confirmed - not caused by excessive recordings or live viewing.

Will try to contact Support and request a camera exchange - thanks

[brh]

@MRonson

Support will have you try a lot of things to prove that the camera is indeed defective, so you might as well try them here before contacting Support.

Usually the rapid battery drain is caused by poor signal strength from the base to the camera or interference between the base and the camera. (Sometimes Firmware, LOL, but you have updated yours since the fix).

Try moving the camera to a location a little closer to the base or inside in a room close to your base station. If that doesn't fix it, Leave the camera disabled for a few days and see if the battery drains quickly in the disabled state.

Briaan

[MRonson]

Thanks Briaan.

The affected camera is showing a full signal strength and is the closest camera to the base station. 

Support have agreed to replace both the camera and battery under warranty. I will update when that has occurred and new kit has been tested - hopefully this will resolve the issue.

In the meanwhile thanks for these further suggestions - will bear them in mind going forward.