Alesis masterlink ml-9600 pauses during recording

We use this recorder at our church to record sermons, however while its recording the machine will seem like it pauses. The level indicator will stop moving (at zero) and the timer will stop at whatever point it decides stop recording at. Pushing the pause button twice will get it recording again. There is no consistency as far as where it will pause at. Just recently it "paused" after 3 minutes into the sermon but on the same recording it "paused" after about 20 minutes. I have heard that the fix for this is a firmware update, but am not for sure. Please answer as this is very frustrating.