QC8116 - Excessive Login/Logouts in log and also Rebooting on its own

[Dixit]

Ive asked QSee support for some help on this but wanted to see if anyone else has ideas on this before I escalate this further with QSee support.

Ive had this QC8116 3MP NVR system from Costco for just over 1yr now. But I have these odd issues lately. I have the IPCOffline alarm setup to email me. Lately over the past few weeks I get this alarm daily, last night 4 times within a 1hr period and its just random as far as the camera in question. I have 14 cameras hooked up to this unit (9 are actual QSee cameras that came with the system and the other 5 are Dahua cameras). When I look at the actual log on the WebUI I see that during that exact timeframe, the NVR itself shuts down and boots back up every time. So that is problem 1, why is this NVR rebooting itself when there is no Auto Maintain setting enabled for this? Also in the log since we are talking about this issue, there are 100s if not 1000s of User Login and User Logout events practically every few seconds. When I click on the event, it tells me its 127.0.0.1 and user is Admin, but I can assure you no one is physically logging into this unit or doing it remotely that often. We have tried to completely factory reset this and this is still happening even after the factory reset (both the excessive logins in the log as well as the NVR rebooting around the same time i get the IPCOffline emails.).


The other less issue is that the Camera settings keep changing on its own. I have again 14 cameras. I have them set to just NORMAL on the configuration file option (on top right of when you go to the SETUP then IMAGE option in the Menu). That has the Saturation, Brightness, Contrast, Hue all set to 50. I notice it somehow changes itself to DAY on the configuration file option, HUE goes to 0, and then the image becomes fuzzy. If I change the HUE option back to 50, the image because sharp again and not fuzzy. If I wait about 5-10mins, it seems to self change itself again back to 0 on HUE. This happens on a number of my cameras and I cannot seem to narrow it down to a specific camera or set of cameras, it has happened on any of the 14. This is happening even after my Factory Reset which we did 2weeks ago. This is frustrating as its a 3Megapixel video, but when the Hue goes to 0, the image is very soft/fuzzy. Makes the video not high quality anymore. What I dont get is how Hue afects the sharpness of the video, in Photography Hue is the shade of a color, not sure what Qsee is using it as.

Dixit

 

[tjudson]

Hi Dixit. Wish I had useful advice for you, but I'm afraid I'm in a similar spot. I have same system, from Costco, purchased in January of 2015, and among other issues and irritations with their product, I'm experiencing the same issues you've described. I just found this forum as I'm (once again) looking for answers to this system that over promises in just about every way. It's so painful to deal with their tech/customer support, that I've just limped along barely using basic features. I'm very interested in this Blue Iris software, and at a minimum, hope it's possible to use it with the Q-See hardware (though preferably, I'll box it back up and return it). I suspect most of the issues with this company's systems is in their sub-par software - which also seems to limp along. I've noticed the various products all seem to be written by different developers as they don't even consistently function the same way. The help menus are either restatements of the obvious or don't contain enough explanation to be helpful. When I've called in, after waiting usually 1.5 - 2 hours, I get someone that's very hard to understand who has - on multiple occasions - said just to tell me what i wanted and they'd sign onto my computer and make the adjustments for me. When I said I'd prefer to have them explain what was needed so I'd know in the future, they said the issues were that the software wasn't really working how it should and they basically had to "work around" to get to the end result I wanted. This pertained to camera settings and numerous other settings. Changes I make always seem to go back to their default settings. Time outs are frequent. I still can't read a license plate in broad daylight, despite a HD NVR system with a 3MP zoom. I could go on and on and on.

For anyone reading, if you have suggestions on higher quality brands, please advise. I just can't see spending additional money for more PZT cameras, etc. to add onto a subpar system that was still decently expensive on its own. I'm looking for a long term solution - with HD IP NVR capabilities so I can add numerous camera types to various properties that all tie back into the same NVR(s). I've tried to research this without much success.

 

[fenderman]

Welcome to the forum. Those units are rebranded dahua, which is a solid company. It may be a firmware issue..who knows...
If you want something that just works with TONS of options consider blue iris as your VMS.

 

[Dixit]

Ive been working with a 3rd tier person at Qsee and they have been fairly responsive as well as understanding. They recommended that I completely wipe the unit, and reload it manually (as in not restore a backup). I helped a little, I still get the login/logouts, but they happen at random times and then go away after about 5mins, then randomly come back after some time. Like today there was only about 75-100 of them looking at the log, much less then the 1000s I would see before.



Im still working through them to see if we can get to the bottom of this.

 

[fenderman]

Ive been working with a 3rd tier person at Qsee and they have been fairly responsive as well as understanding. They recommended that I completely wipe the unit, and reload it manually (as in not restore a backup). I helped a little, I still get the login/logouts, but they happen at random times and then go away after about 5mins, then randomly come back after some time. Like today there was only about 75-100 of them looking at the log, much less then the 1000s I would see before.



Im still working through them to see if we can get to the bottom of this.

When you say login/logouts, do you mean there is a remote login? or that the cameras connect/disconnect.

 

[Dixit]

Here is an example of it, just shows up as a local IP, I see a login, logout ever 20secs. This only happened a few times total here in this example, it used to be much worse.

1Time:	2015-12-24 00:00:56
Type:	User logged in
Contents:
IP Address: 127.0.0.1
User: admin




2
Time:	2015-12-24 00:01:16
Type:	User logged out
Contents:
User: admin




3
Time:	2015-12-24 00:04:36
Type:	User logged in
Contents:
IP Address: 127.0.0.1
User: admin




4
Time:	2015-12-24 00:04:56
Type:	User logged out
Contents:
User: admin




5
Time:	2015-12-24 00:06:36
Type:	User logged out
Contents:
User: admin




6
Time:	2015-12-24 00:06:36
Type:	User logged in
Contents:
IP Address: 127.0.0.1
User: admin




7
Time:	2015-12-24 00:13:56
Type:	User logged out
Contents:
User: admin




8
Time:	2015-12-24 00:22:56
Type:	User logged in
Contents:
IP Address: 127.0.0.1
User: admin




9
Time:	2015-12-24 00:25:56
Type:	User logged in
Contents:
IP Address: 127.0.0.1
User: admin




10
Time:	2015-12-24 00:26:16
Type:	User logged out
Contents:
User: admin




11
Time:	2015-12-24 00:26:56
Type:	User logged out
Contents:
User: admin




12
Time:	2015-12-24 00:27:16
Type:	User logged in
Contents:
IP Address: 127.0.0.1
User: admin




13
Time:	2015-12-24 00:36:36
Type:	User logged out
Contents:
User: admin

 

[Gus_19]

Did you figure anything out Dixit? I just noticed I'm getting the same thing, consistent Login/Logouts on the camera log.

 

[Dixit]

Nope. Kept happening and had a new unit shipped out under warranty which solved it. We defaulted it and new firmware never fixed it.

Dixit

 

[msquared]

Dixit, I'm new to the forum but I purchased my first IP camera system a couple years ago, and hopefully learned a lot since then. I don't know if you have found a resolution to your issues, or are still monitoring your OP. The IP address of 127.0.0.1 is your loopback localhost, basically you accessing yourself, not an outside user accessing your system. I also have a Q-See system that I am currently fighting my own issues with, but if the multiple login and logout is what you see in the log of the NVR, I would say that your cameras are set up on motion detect, and those are logs every time motion is detected and the NVR is recording. As far as the camera settings resetting, I would recommend isolating your issue if possible by not having the cameras connected to the POE switch of the NVR. Connect your cameras individually to a standalone POE switch, then add each camera via it's IP address to the NVR, similar to a remote camera. This will allow you to address each camera individually from it's IP address, yet also keep using your NVR for recording. As I am only familiar with my own equipment, I do not know how this would affect your online access setup, but this should work. You can work with each camera settings to see if it's a particular camera that has issues, or the NVR over-riding the settings you want. You can try this with only one camera in your least mission critical area, so you get familiar with accessing the camera directly. A word of caution is that if you set up each camera with it's own IP, you need to disable the built in web server of each camera so they cannot be accessed by outside users, continue to use your (hopefully passworded and not default password) access to the NVR to see your cameras remotely. Also, you may want to consider assigning a static IP address to each camera so you won't loose access if the IP address changes. Assigning a static IP address will give you a constant and you'll always know which camera has which IP address. I felt compelled to post to the forum seeing another Q-See user having issues. I hope this gives you some food for thought. Please note disclaimer that this is what worked for me, and if you have any hesitation, don't do it. I've learned from experience the best time to start messing with things is first thing Saturday morning, never on a Monday 5 minutes before leaving for work.

 

[Gus_19]

I've actually narrowed it down to channel 1 of my NVR. All of my cameras are the same, IPC4300, same firmware, a settings for recording on motion detect with no issues. Totally, I have 9 cameras hooked up and since not connecting a camera to channel 1, I have not had an issue with any camera. Any suggestions with NVR issue? Possibly a firmware bug?

 

[msquared]

All the other ports work fine? The intermittent issues, or issues where everything seems to be a variable, are the hardest to diagnose. And convincing a VAR that there is an issue with their firmware is almost impossible. I don't think firmware would cause an issue on one port only. That sounds like a hardware issue. You could consider contacting tech support, but it's a long road before you'll see that RMA finally approved. IMHO, if you have 9 cams and a 16 port NVR, I'd live with it, unless you're OCD like me, and staying true to the philosophy of if I have a security camera system, it should work, work flawlessly, and work 24/7. You have 9 Dahua OEM cameras with a Q-See branded NVR?

 

[Gus_19]

This NVR DahuaNVR4216 does not have any POE ports as all cameras are connected to my linksys 16 port poe switch. It's something I can live with but prefer to have all 16 running. I've tried contacting Dahua support and as I figured, no response has been received.

 

[msquared]

Apologies, I mis-understood. Your cameras are connected to POE switch, and added to the NVR via IP address? And your issue is with the channel 1 in the NVR, so whichever camera you add to channel one has issues? As in adding the cameras to the NVR in a different order so channel 1 is a different camera.

 

[Gus_19]

Yup, that is correct. Doesn't matter what cameras, as I have tried 3 different ones all with same result. The only thing I could get to be different is if I set the bit rate lower, it appears it would take a little longer before receiving error. Such as in one day with a 8,000kb bit rate and 2 days for a 4,000kb bit rate and 3-4 days for 2,000kb or less.

 

[msquared]

And you have already tried latest firmware and reset to default...so if all of your other equipment is the same, and you've tried putting known working cameras on channel 1, to the best of my experience, I would say firmware issue. Especially if all your cameras are the same, running same FW, same cables, etc, which none of should matter, since your cameras are connected to POE switch, and the NVR should add the Dahua (or any other camera) via its ONVIF protocols. If this were my equipment, this is the conclusion I would be at right now. You have your system set up as I do, so I can relate to the issue. Unfortunately, right now, I don't have a better idea on why your NVR only has issues on channel 1, you would figure it's either all or none. I'll run it thru my head in comparison to my own system and see if I can think of anything different.

 

[msquared]

Gus_19,
I had to wait until my NVR came back from RMA this week to try my last idea of adding the cameras to channel 2 and up, then seeing if you can change the channel back to 1. I can't do this with my NVR, even though it looks like the number can be edited, but I cannot change it, the channel number stays what it was assigned when the camera was added. At this point I can't think of anything else other than firmware or hardware issue. You may also consider rolling back to a previous firmware to see if that helps, at least then you will have narrowed the issue down and have some data to push for a RMA.

 

[c hris527]

(QUOTE)there are 100s if not 1000s of User Login and User Logout events practically every few seconds. When I click on the event, it tells me its 127.0.0.1 and user is Admin,

Those errors are a result of your cameras dropping from your NVR. When a cam powers on it logs into the NVR and shows a log in. I have many dahua NVRs with auto maintain enabled and when the camera (Through the NVR's built in POE) powers up, will show just that. Qsee has a trouble shooting guide for your model and one thing they say is about proper power to the NVR. I looked at your model and I believe it's a 16 channel poe? If this is the case, I would take a good look at your power supply. Are the dahua cameras a little more power hungry than the q-see cams? Are you powering all your cameras through the NVR or do you have a poe switch or injector. Not knowing all the facts here one guess might be your power supply has been compromised and putting you in bad spot. Just for the heck of it I might take a peek and pull the cover on the power supply on your NVR and see if you have any bloated capacitors. If you were running good for a while and the issue JUST showed up recent its likely not a firmware issue and more like a hardware issue. A little trouble shooting 101 can easily be done by disconnecting cameras one at a time and seeing if the problem goes away. Did it start after you added a certain camera? Do you have a multi meter you can test your PS voltage with? You might try to run your cameras off a independant poe supply. They can be had fairly cheaply. If it were me I would take a GOOD look at your power supply first. Just some thoughts..hope it helps and saves you some hair on your head.