MP3 player Firmware gone adrift.

[BoeingBoy]

Hi all,

I was bought an iRiver iPF-180TC in October which has run well, however I followed the firms instructions for updating the firmware and now can no longer get any functionality out of it.

The management program can no longer see the player, and the player just say's 'hold' before shutting down if switched on. Windows see's it as a hard drive, although this is subject to errors, and sometimes it says that the device won't start.


iRivers web site forum is full of entries saying that a firmware upgrade has written off the machine, and that their tech support will not respond to emails about the problem.

Any idea's how I can give this thing a firmware 'enema'?

WinXPhome/SP2/McAfee virus and Firewall.

[Naples Air Center, Inc.]

BoeingBoy,

I would call them on the phone, and if that does not work, I would try taking it back to the place you bought it to see if they would exchange it for a new one.

Take Care,

Richard

[BoeingBoy]

Hi Richard,

Sadly iRiver seem to be very careful not to give any phone numbers away on their web site.

The forum contains many complaints about failed firmware updates that have left the owners gashing their product and buying competitor replacements and the link to 'reply' to most of these posts has been disabled!!

Sadly it would appear to be a 'throw em out cheap and forget 'em' type of company. Nowhere on their website is any help given to those who have blown a firmware upgrade.

Those buying an MP3 player may take note!

[Tinstaafl]

I suspect that unless you have access to an EEPROM burner & can remove the chip(s) to place them in said device you're pretty well stuffed.

It **might** be that if it can be seen in your PC as a drive that you can shift some sort of software over that will cause the thing to reload the firmware but I doubt it. You'd have to get a sensible response from iRiver about how their devices are initialised during manufacture.

[BoeingBoy]

Thanks Guy's, it goes back to the shop tomorrow!

[spannersatcx]

not sure that it would still be covered under any warranty, normally there is a disclaimer that you change the firmware at your own risk! Depends on how switched on the shop is I guess!

[Naples Air Center, Inc.]

BoeingBoy,

Let us know how it goes at the store.

Take Care,

Richard

[BoeingBoy]

I'm pleased to say that Dixons, our main high street electrical retailer in the UK happily acceoted it for a straight exchange for a new unit.

I will ignore any idea's about upadating the firmware in future!

So long as it plays music, I'm happy!

Thanks for your help guy's.

[Memetic]

How did you manage that?

At Dixons? WOW!

I'm tryikng to return a Toshiba A30-203 laptop to them as inherantly faulty as it keeps over heating, they keep trying to get me to send it back for another repair.

[Naples Air Center, Inc.]

BoeingBoy,

That is great news!

Take Care,

Richard

P.S. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

[Evo]

I will ignore any idea's about upadating the firmware in future!

That's a mistake most of us make at some point

"If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

Amen to that