Have you tried bringing all of the IR remotes your have in the house and trying to see if any button on them with re-create the problem.
Should you be lucky enough to find one that does, I guess your take it back to where ever you normal would use it and see if some strange IR signal can somehow go around corners to find the P20.
No, haven't tried that but that would be relatively easy to try. I did uncover an old Pioneer LD player remote when cleaning up some stuff, so for one thing, I can just clear out some stuff that I no longer use which I suppose could make a difference as well...
Absolutely. If the software has the ability to parse through valid IR codes it should be able to just drop any unrecognized IR codes without hanging the system. However the fact that they have built in logging software and the talent to connect remotely and examine the logs suggests they have the tools and data needed to debug the crash. I still think it's encountering a strange waveform or transient on the AC side and the software locks up trying to handle it. Usually when engineers are stumped they put in more code to log more details next time it happens or happens to other customers. If it is a spurious IR signal they will want to find out why their code locks up because of it and fix that!
Okay, good to know. As for the AC side of things... remember, their initial thoughts were all about it being a large DC spike coming in, and they were tracking those. That had me looking for solutions to stop DC spikes when someone posted a PS Audio video with Paul McGown talking about their regenerators having a DC blocker already built in! It was when I pushed that back to PS Audio support that they reversed course by telling me it might be a spurious IR signal, and how they wanted me to test. Every day that goes by with the IR receiver covered and no lockups, seems to make it more likely that it is an IR issue...
All in in all, it is a tough problem. The question might be, can you move the P20 to somewhere close to the P12 just to see if it stops when moved.by the P12. It is a lot of back breaking lifting but it might fix the problem. Your system will be down for awhile but it might be worth it. If moving it to a semi-secluded spot like you P12 fixes it, then you could plan your wiring etc. for a permanent move to fix it. That is all I can think of. I'd rather have it work correctly with the remote than worry about positioning etc. But then I live in a one bedroom apartment with an ML system that no woman would ever approve of. My wife just grins and bears it....ok, not so much the grinning part!
I suppose I 'could' swap my P12 and P20. Of course I couldn't run part of my main system with the smaller P12, but actually that still would give me some good info. Unfortunately, not only would that be a ton of work, but the bigger problem is while the P12 would fit where my P20 is currently located... the P20 will not fit where the P12 is located. I could jury rig a temporary solution just using a couple of power strips to power all those devices, but it seems like if I was going to go thru this much work I would want to know a) if the P12 locks up when located where the P20 normally sits, and b) if the P20 continues to lock up when moved to where my P12 normally sits.
This is a good suggestion that I will certainly keep in mind, but part of my hesitance is I recently unloaded most of my rack to clean and re-arrange some things (everything came out except the P20 and power amps). I also spent a bunch of time labeling and tying down cables and doing some general cable housekeeping. While I would mostly be unplugging a bunch of cables from the back of my P20, I'm not sure I want to take the chance of screwing something else up. Also, it just isn't a very comfortable space for me to work in and if I would get stuck, I don't really want to find out how fast the fire department can disassemble my system using the jaws of life to rescue me!!!
I do appreciate everyones suggestions!