Atari Server Problems (VCS Logins/Store etc.)

[Atarick]

3 hours ago, mario64 said:

So sick of this mess. Being able to login to the Store is total hit or miss pot luck for me. Even getting to the dashboard doesn't work half the time. I really regret purchasing the VCS at this point. At least I didn't pay MSRP for it...

So good news: Atari is launching an update and made a huge server purchase a few weeks ago, so I imagine, and hope, this will resolve soon. 

 

But yes, near term, it sucks. All I can say is keep the faith, I've had an awesome time with it and think it is a fantastic system for its price and specs. I do think this is a hiccup as they adjust to more users and volume and hope they can make the adjustments soon. 

 

In the meantime, I wired directly to ethernet and  noticed a little less lag that way. And oddly, I found that logging into the PIN prompt and then letting it reject me, but repeating it twice, on time 3 it worked. I cant explain it and it's totally unscientific, but give it a shot. Best of luck and hope it all works out for you ASAP.

[joeatari1]

1 hour ago, Atarick said:

So good news: Atari is launching an update and made a huge server purchase a few weeks ago, so I imagine, and hope, this will resolve soon. 

So how do you know this?  I haven't read that in any of the discord servers.

[Atarick]

7 hours ago, joeatari1 said:

So how do you know this?  I haven't read that in any of the discord servers.

The update info came from just justclaws I think via a discord or reddit, I believe; the server info was buried in a recent press release from the Atari shareholders meeting when they talked mostly about blockchain, NFTs, and the acquisition of MobyGames. I should heavily caveat that this article was translated from French, I believe, and the announcement of the server was a somewhat inspection aside. If anyone else has cone across it feel free to add your take on that.

[Mockduck]

Whole thing smells like holiday DDoSing to me.

[NISMOPC]

Had the server expired error last night. This morning, everything was fine and was able to download a new game with no delays. Random access at random times is so randomly random. ?

[Atari_JaguarVCS]

No idea if it’s server related but I turned my VCS on this morning only to be greeted with a screen asking me for a 6 digit pin code for my account which is odd as I never use a pin code with my device and upon trying to reset the pin code to try gain access to my account I’m getting an error saying my account has been deactivated and to contact customer support!. There’s definitely something strange going on with Atari at the moment, anyone else had something similar today? I feel it’s server related but won’t know untill my ticket is answered, either that or my account has been hacked, it sux as i own every game available on the VCS I would hate to lose my account permanently. 

[Atarick]

11 minutes ago, Atari_JaguarVCS said:

No idea if it’s server related but I turned my VCS on this morning only to be greeted with a screen asking me for a 6 digit pin code for my account which is odd as I never use a pin code with my device and upon trying to reset the pin code to try gain access to my account I’m getting an error saying my account has been deactivated and to contact customer support!. There’s definitely something strange going on with Atari at the moment, anyone else had something similar today? I feel it’s server related but won’t know untill my ticket is answered, either that or my account has been hacked, it sux as i own every game available on the VCS I would hate to lose my account permanently. 

It feels like they are rolling out server updates and upgrades before/without doing a full system update. Which is kind of dumb. But wouldn't shock me if they roll out a full robust system update within the next day. They better do that, actually, if this thing may be a Christmas gift and be lampooned by server issues on the first boot up. 

[livingonwheels]

Same issue here. Asking for a non existent pin.

[Atari_JaguarVCS]

27 minutes ago, livingonwheels said:

Same issue here. Asking for a non existent pin.

I’m glad it’s not just me then!. I was definitely worried my account might have been hacked but this gives me some hope that it’s just the servers after all!. I really hope they sort this out ASAP it will be nice to have my account and games back but for the time being I’m logged in on a guest account. 

[Atari_JaguarVCS]

So support answered me basically just ignoring everything I said in my message about not being able to log in to my account and not being able to reset the pin lol I also told them I had the pin feature turned off!. I’m guessing I’ll be best just using the VCS as a mini PC at this point I’ve never came across customer support as poor as this in my life  either that or I’ve just reached the wrong person at Atari lol. 

 

Thank you for the question. We are sorry to hear you are having PIN issues. The Pin # is the 6-digit pin you created when first setting up your VCS. You had to create one to first get onto the unit. If you forgot it you can reset by clicking the reset pin on the bottom right of the screen. This will send an email to be able to reset your pin. 

Sincerely, 

Atari Support

[zzip]

15 minutes ago, Atari_JaguarVCS said:

So support answered me basically just ignoring everything I said in my message about not being able to log in to my account and not being able to reset the pin lol I also told them I had the pin feature turned off!. I’m guessing I’ll be best just using the VCS as a mini PC at this point I’ve never came across customer support as poor as this in my life  either that or I’ve just reached the wrong person at Atari lol. 

 

Thank you for the question. We are sorry to hear you are having PIN issues. The Pin # is the 6-digit pin you created when first setting up your VCS. You had to create one to first get onto the unit. If you forgot it you can reset by clicking the reset pin on the bottom right of the screen. This will send an email to be able to reset your pin.

That's a typical front-line support response.   Those people are there in any support organization to catch the most common issue and give a canned answer from their knowledge base.   You have to push back, tell them you've tried all that to get escalated to a more technical support person.

[Atari_JaguarVCS]

Finally got back into my account!. I ended up speaking to a customer support agent via live chat who confirmed its a technical issue with the servers and they have staff working on resolving the issues etc but can’t confirm when it will be fully fixed but for now it’s all good and my account is back and it’s no longer asking for a pin code. I still didn’t get an answer as to why the pin code feature was able to activate itself and lock me out of my account despite it being turned off my end, it’s definitely a bit worrying especially since my credit card details are on the system for store purchases may need to remove those untill a later date just to be on the safe side. 

[Mr.JT]

Latest suggestion from Atari Helpdesk for the original offline issue

 

”In the meantime, boot with a keyboard attached, holding down the ESC key. Go into boot manager. You will see three options. Select EFI Embedded MMC Device 1 (TA2932). The system will reboot”

 

It actually worked?!

 

After the reboot it downloaded some updates and then I could log in. Anyone know what the above actually did? Or was it simply some updates appeared at the same time I tried this?

 

Hopefully it works for others 

 

(I thought it had hung on the second update but wait quite a while and it will get through it)

[mickyjohn]

Hi I stupidly deleted my atari os while installing windows 10 (don't ask) so messaged them got a atari os .. I recovered to bios and flashed the os the hardrive again.. so it loaded the normal atari screen couldn't log in with existing account.. went on to guest nothing was there apart from vault 1 and even that didn't work kept on coming up something went wrong at top .. nothing on store.. thought I'd go on to factory reset couldn't do that either no logging in to existing or creating no account cause it couldn't fetch data.. i did that twice and even tried both programs to flash usb drive ..so am stuck with a shite pc basically am guttered I bought this yeah I stupidly deleted folder but without something else on this atari os it's just not worth £315(off ebay) I even bloody upgraded memory and sata drive.. waste of money .someone get me a time machine so I can slap myself before buying this 

[justclaws]

13 hours ago, Mr.JT said:

After the reboot it downloaded some updates and then I could log in. Anyone know what the above actually did? Or was it simply some updates appeared at the same time I tried this?

 

Yes, I can explain at least what it does. (I understand, because I run Linux servers for work - sadly, not for Atari, ha ha.)

The VCS sets-up the internal flash disk so that it has a current, and previous-good operating system.
The normal upgrade process updates one image, and the other image is a backup image of previous "known-good" AtariOS.
(Normally you don't need to get to the BIOS boot-menu, because it automatically fails-over, if it cannot boot completely...)

If there would be a problem (corruption) with the primary AtariOS, the system will also boot from the secondary volume.
When a system is flashed from USB, (completely overwriting the existing disk) both boot systems are installed - A and B.

This is also how the VCS protects itself, in AtariOS. If the AtariOS would be tampered with, it can fail-over to a good version.

It seems your problem was that the A version booted OK, but then had problems for you. It did not fail-over because the A
version was already booted OK. Using the keyboard, you forced the system to use version B, which resolved things for you.

[Mr.JT]

7 minutes ago, justclaws said:

Yes, I can explain at least what it does. (I understand, because I run Linux servers for work - sadly, not for Atari, ha ha.)

The VCS sets-up the internal flash disk so that it has a current, and previous-good operating system.
The normal upgrade process updates one image, and the other image is a backup image of previous "known-good" AtariOS.
(Normally you don't need to get to the BIOS boot-menu, because it automatically fails-over, if it cannot boot completely...)

If there would be a problem (corruption) with the primary AtariOS, the system will also boot from the secondary volume.
When a system is flashed from USB, (completely overwriting the existing disk) both boot systems are installed - A and B.

This is also how the VCS protects itself, in AtariOS. If the AtariOS would be tampered with, it can fail-over to a good version.

It seems your problem was that the A version booted OK, but then had problems for you. It did not fail-over because the A
version was already booted OK. Using the keyboard, you forced the system to use version B, which resolved things for you.

Thanks for the explanation! Weird though that everything in my system worked fine except connecting to the server… maybe a previous update broke the user account validation only?  Would be interested to know if the suggested fix worked for anyone else or just me?

Edited December 23, 2021 by Mr.JT

[Flyindrew]

Purchased my VCS earlier today and have zero access to the store under my account. The store screen just has blank grey squares. When I log into guest, the store comes up but everything freezes when I try to download content to my account. I keep getting message to check my internet connection, but my Wi-Fi and Ethernet are perfectly fine.

[MarcelM]

I feel really sorry for the users who experience this. Here  in the Netherlands I must say everything works fine. Looks like server capacity issues, they really must do something about it if they want to keep the momentum going. (Well at least I think the VCS is doing not so bad with new content on a regular base). Might be not such a bad idea to try the update around midnight if you are not from Europe.

[Kris1977]

Opened my VCS today and it won't let me create a new user. I started a ticket with Technical Support. Hoping it gets resolved soon.

[Rob Merritt]

Same issue. I either get “something went wrong please try again later” or “failed to fetch data please click retry again.”

 

logging in as VCS guess, there doesn’t seem to be a way to launch into pc mode.

 

Not a big deal. I got the VCS to mess around with it. Guess I’ll go and play my Xbox until they come back and fix it. If it’s still like this later this week, I will try more radical experimentation.  

[stirrell]

26 minutes ago, Rob Merritt said:

logging in as VCS guess, there doesn’t seem to be a way to launch into pc mode.

If you have already created a bootable PC drive for the VCS, if it is plugged in on power up it will boot into PC Mode.

 

I am having issues as well. Opened a ticket with support.

[Mr.JT]

Well, many owners and years later, but good to see Atari still sticking to its traditions and roots and being somewhat useless in execution… ??‍♂️

[Estiemaker]

I received a new VCS for Christmas and have had nothing but trouble trying to get access to the games..I created a new user but it took forever to get that validated thru the Atari website. Finally I got that done and cannot log into the VCS with my new user information. I get to the PIN section and it tells me I have internet connection issues. Well.. No... If I log in as guest, it works fine, but I have no access to download any games...I see where hooking a keyboard up helps some, but is there a real answer to this? I emailed tech support but of course the holidays will mean a delay.. Thanks for the sounding board..

[Atarick]

3 hours ago, Estiemaker said:

I received a new VCS for Christmas and have had nothing but trouble trying to get access to the games..I created a new user but it took forever to get that validated thru the Atari website. Finally I got that done and cannot log into the VCS with my new user information. I get to the PIN section and it tells me I have internet connection issues. Well.. No... If I log in as guest, it works fine, but I have no access to download any games...I see where hooking a keyboard up helps some, but is there a real answer to this? I emailed tech support but of course the holidays will mean a delay.. Thanks for the sounding board..

Answers abound on this forum and the Reddit. TL; DR: keep trying. There is a server issue affecting Atari and other gaming platforms and its just crap luck. It came up for several people after awhile yesterday. 

[Mr.JT]

5 hours ago, Estiemaker said:

I received a new VCS for Christmas and have had nothing but trouble trying to get access to the games..I created a new user but it took forever to get that validated thru the Atari website. Finally I got that done and cannot log into the VCS with my new user information. I get to the PIN section and it tells me I have internet connection issues. Well.. No... If I log in as guest, it works fine, but I have no access to download any games...I see where hooking a keyboard up helps some, but is there a real answer to this? I emailed tech support but of course the holidays will mean a delay.. Thanks for the sounding board..

The keyboard issue should be a one time fix rather than needing to do it each time…