Freaking Out About Installing Firmware 1.2.1

[trayvyz]

I haven't received my Wiz yet but I think it's a good thing to clarify as much as I can before it arrives, so I can start enjoying it right away.

I've been reading around the forum recently and I'm aware there is a new firmware out for the Wiz, 1.2.1 which fixes many bugs along with screen tearing, which sounds quite tempting. The problem is that I read some posts about people bricking their Wiz, or almost bricking it while performing a flawless upgrade operation and that the unbricking procedure is quite tedious, including cable hacking and soldering stuff. I think I could do it my self, should I brick my Wiz, I've done some soldering and circuit bending in the past, problem is, I don't have all that time. All I'd want is to get my Wiz and enjoy it, but I'd love to be able to safely upgrade it as well without bricking it. I just can't draw a conclusion about what you have to avoid in order to upgrade successfully and the user feedback so far seems inconsistent. What is your opinion? Should I attempt it anyway or follow the "if it's working, don't fix it" rule?

I think I should just wait a while, until someone figures out what actually causes bricking in a seemingly "flawless" upgrade procedure...


Thanks a lot


PS: Isn't there a way to prevent the updater erasing the old firmware before it makes sure everything is ok? Sort of an update for the updater... Sounds a bit silly, sorry. Just wondering.

 

[zaephen]

I'd say go for the upgrade. I had many of the same concerns you have when I got mine, see my thread here. I just knew I bricked mine and I hadn't even had it a full day .
I will recommend however that you make sure it's fully charged and that you use a standard SD card not a SDHC card. I don't know for sure that my SDHC card was what caused my problems but when I used a standard card it worked and fixed everything .

 

[trayvyz]

I'd say go for the upgrade. I had many of the same concerns you have when I got mine, see my thread here. I just knew I bricked mine and I hadn't even had it a full day .
I will recommend however that you make sure it's fully charged and that you use a standard SD card not a SDHC card. I don't know for sure that my SDHC card is what caused my problems but when I used a standard card it worked and fixed everything .

I believe you were pretty lucky in that your Wiz was able to enter upgrade mode even after the bricking. I think that most people who bricked theirs were unable to do anything beside staring at a black screen, in which case they had to use a dev board or a modified cable. But thanks, I'll keep the SDHC matter in mind.
I have a 2gb Kingston microSD with an SD adapter (it doesn't say SDHC anywhere, so I guess it's not), I hope that does the trick, although my eye caught something about Kingston cards not being suitable. Guess the Wiz is a bit picky...

 

[u9i]

i think you are overreacting. The thing is, it is running linux. It failing to boot does not mean it is bricked. It only seens that way because you dont see the terminal output. My wiz was stuck at the logo screen, and reflashing didnt work because i had a HC (high capacity) SD card. I bought a 2GB card and it was no problem flashing it. Just make sure you copy all the files from the firmware archive to the root of your sd card and you will be fine.

/Uni

 

[Reo]

I'm almost ready to upgrade to 1.2.1, but I want to know if the higher refresh-rate fucks anything up. Did anyone here have any bad experiences?

 

[trayvyz]

i think you are overreacting. The thing is, it is running linux. It failing to boot does not mean it is bricked. It only seens that way because you dont see the terminal output.

Sure, as if you can input any commands to boot it... As far as I'm concerned, having to construct a DIY cable and fiddle with the right pins to get it back, is considered bricking all right. Besides, I don't think there's really irreversible bricking, unless you burn something out on the board, you can get it back by taking the long way home. So, generally speaking, boot failure=bricking.

 

[zaephen]

I'm almost ready to upgrade to 1.2.1, but I want to know if the higher refresh-rate fucks anything up. Did anyone here have any bad experiences?

Nope. After finally getting it installed everything works great.

 

[Jest]

Curious, I upgraded my firmware using an SDHC and it worked fine. Had no trouble at all, just installed and off it went.

 

[zaephen]

Curious, I upgraded my firmware using an SDHC and it worked fine. Had no trouble at all, just installed and off it went.

I've read that others have used SDHC cards with no problem either Jest. It must have been my particular card or something. The card works fine for running games, emulators, pictures and music. Everything except upgrading the firmware. I tried many times. I tried one time with a different card (standard SD) and it worked flawlessly. Go figure.

 

[u9i]

i think you are overreacting. The thing is, it is running linux. It failing to boot does not mean it is bricked. It only seens that way because you dont see the terminal output.

Sure, as if you can input any commands to boot it... As far as I'm concerned, having to construct a DIY cable and fiddle with the right pins to get it back, is considered bricking all right. Besides, I don't think there's really irreversible bricking, unless you burn something out on the board, you can get it back by taking the long way home. So, generally speaking, boot failure=bricking.

I respectfully disagree.

And why are you talking about a DIY cable. You need an SD card to reflash the firmware, not a DIY cable.

Edit: You don't consider your computer bricked if it fails to boot, do you?

 

[trayvyz]

i think you are overreacting. The thing is, it is running linux. It failing to boot does not mean it is bricked. It only seens that way because you dont see the terminal output.

Sure, as if you can input any commands to boot it... As far as I'm concerned, having to construct a DIY cable and fiddle with the right pins to get it back, is considered bricking all right. Besides, I don't think there's really irreversible bricking, unless you burn something out on the board, you can get it back by taking the long way home. So, generally speaking, boot failure=bricking.

I respectfully disagree.

And why are you talking about a DIY cable. You need an SD card to reflash the firmware, not a DIY cable.

Edit: You don't consider your computer bricked if it fails to boot, do you?

Sure, but then why do you need a dev board to unbrick your wiz and don't just use another card? My computer certainly doesn't need one if it can't boot... Look at glossywhite's post about how he bricked and unbricked his. Why didn't he just use another SD card? And what he did really is bricking, as far as I understand. Maybe I'm confused. Pardon me for playing devil's advocate, I just want to make sure I don't make the same mistakes and if I do, what my options are.

 

[u9i]

The problem is you think brinked=wont boot. I am just saying it is not. There are several cases(3 that i know of) where reflashing has failed somehow, but the unit was not bricked. It just wouldnt boot. For me, using a 2GB card solved the problem, for others redownloading the files to the sd card helped, and so on. What happened to glossywhite is quite scary though. He needed a cable to fix his Wiz. So dont ever hold the right shoulder button down when turning on the wiz I hope they (can/have) fix that.