Don't Fight A12 Update

[arby]

I updated to A12 and noticed one thing that I believe hasn't been brought up before. When I first tried to update to A12, the process crashed right when it started flashing the ROM. Everything was frozen, and I thought "Great! I just killed my X51V." Fortunately, a hard reset got me back running again. So, being the ever risk taker that I am, I tried it again, with the same result. So, I did another hard reset and was back to square one.

I noticed that I had the USB cable coming from the cradle going to a USB port on the side of my Dell monitor. So I unplugged it from there and connected it directly to the USB port on my computer. I then tried the A12 update and had no problems. I also updated my son's X51V the same way, and had no problems there, either.

Maybe the reason people are having update problems is that they are going through a USB hub rather than directly through the USB port on their computer.

[soulmirror]

Do you think it's some sort of timelag or loss of bandwidth or something that is being misinterpreted as a failure by the updater on the desktop end, leading to a crash? That's really interesting. But also very possible... a number of other kinds of devices will misbehave depending on USB configuration (availability of power and/or directness of the connection?) for a variety of reasons.

I don't have a computer on which this applies personally (and the only USB devices I have are a printer, which, if it were set up, would live on the print server port of my wireless router anyway, and my digital cameras), but I have heard for instance, too, of USB devices working properly when they are plugged into the rear USB ports of a tower desktop and not when plugged into the front USB ports, or perhaps vice versa.

USB is goofy! :p

[The_Penguin]

^^^
Reading through these threads, I've seen more successful upgrades than failed one. And even if the majority had no problems whatsoever, there are still lots of people who failed. And unlike some people who firmly believe that their success is because of their superior ability to follow instructions, I believe claims that many upgrade problems are not even the user's fault. .

There also seems to be a trend that many of the problems are host computer related ( firewalls AV, etc.)

My only concern is the program memory usage. I usually manage to have about 26-28 MB of Prgm memory left before the A12 Update. Now, with the update, I get about 22MB of Prgm mem left. Both with exact same settings and most prgms in the CF card. Should I be concerned?

Curious....why do you install your programs on ur CF Card? You must have 100 MBs of free internal storage?


In terms of the upgrade, I did it the first day...didn't read the instructions...picked it up outta the cradle....soft reset it 4 times....wondering why it didn't erase everything and then I put it back in the cradle after the 4th time to read more instructions and the update continued....

I guess I'm just blessed....

[dvmed]

There also seems to be a trend that many of the problems are host computer related ( firewalls AV, etc.)

There is also a trend wherin some people who didn't have problems with upgrading to A06 are having problems upgrading to A12. There are a lot of people who tried different configurations, turning of AV, firewall, even tried other computers and still failed. You cannot blame them for not being able to make it work specially after trying everything. I bet, if in case they forgot to turn AV/firewall off, they won't make the same mistake the second time around. Give them a little credit. I do believe that the problem is real.

p.s. whe I used the term "You", I don't mean you in particular but people in general.

[daviddd]

All this deters me from upgrading my X51V at all - I still have A01 and after applying all the tweaks listed on this site have no trouble whatsoever. I haven't even had to soft reset for months despite the unit being used daily for all sorts of tasks - GPS, music, games etc. The unit is very responsive too, not at all sluggish in operation. I can't see any reason to threaten that.

[acp]

Wow. I upgraded like a couple of days after the A12 was made public, and had no problems whatsoever. I'm glad I didn't wait or else, after reading this thread, I would have stayed with A06.

Glad it isn't so though, I really enjoy the boosts A12 brings.

Best of luck to all those with difficulties to upgrade.

[player911]

I personally think that if you've gone through 3-4 PDA's... then you are doing something wrong. It might not SEEM wrong, because thats the way you conditioned yourself, like pressing "ENTER" to get past a step or something.

I've updated several x51v's and all were successful, mine being the first one I did the day it came out.

I did mine while chatting with my wife, barely reading the instructions. When it asks to HR, I did it... and if the screen on my PC didn't go to the next step, I'd just keep hardresetting it until it did. I dunno. I'm on A01 HW anyway.

I updated to A12 and noticed one thing that I believe hasn't been brought up before. When I first tried to update to A12, the process crashed right when it started flashing the ROM. Everything was frozen, and I thought "Great! I just killed my X51V." Fortunately, a hard reset got me back running again. So, being the ever risk taker that I am, I tried it again, with the same result. So, I did another hard reset and was back to square one.

I noticed that I had the USB cable coming from the cradle going to a USB port on the side of my Dell monitor. So I unplugged it from there and connected it directly to the USB port on my computer. I then tried the A12 update and had no problems. I also updated my son's X51V the same way, and had no problems there, either.

Maybe the reason people are having update problems is that they are going through a USB hub rather than directly through the USB port on their computer.

Though the usb port MAY play a part in some instances, it is not "the" problem with the A12 update. I have tried three different computers, and 5 different usb ports and nothting worked. For those who believe the problem update is due to the failure to follow instructions, I followed the instructions, step by step, that are posted on this site. As stated before, with my second unit, I pulled it out of the box and called Dell tech support and they walked me through the update. Still, didn't work. If the problem was the usb or failing to follow instructions, why all the problems and why did the Dell tech tell me they are having problems with the A12 update? Bottom Line - The problem is the update itself.

[Bosadabiz]

It could be that the people that say they don't have a problem just haven't noticed it yet. I found that the first day I installed the update, it worked perfectly. The next day, I had every single problem listed so far. Just out of curiosity, I switched the year to 2005 instead of 2006. After doing this, I didn't have any problems. Go figure.

[Marcello]

The problem has nothing to do with the axims or the users. It has to do with the windows setup trying to install the update. Installing from a fresh copy of windows works with no issue.

Marcello

[dvmed]

^^^
Although that might just work, I find that disturbing.
Looking for the installation disks, backing up data to another drive, doing a clean install and starting from scratch is a huge effort. I got about 15 or more 3rd party softwares installed, it would take me over an hour or so to install all of them. Even if we do so, the computer won't be in it's previous state.
Or I can buy Norton Ghost for 30 bucks, create a ghost image, allocate the image to a drive, do a clean os install, install active sync, do rom upgrade, restore computer's previous state from ghost image. That's just too much work.
Third scenario. What if I am a college student sharing a friend's computer. What am I gonna say? Hey buddy can I do a clean install of your computer's OS so I can upgrade my ROM?
I'll be damned to see this addendum to Dell's important notice: "Dell recommends doing a clean install of your host computer's Operating System before proceeding with the ROM Upgrade."

[Bosadabiz]

Yeah man. I'm in the same boat. Dell should make an update that works for everyone and not just a lucky few. This has been making me wish I had bought an HP.

This has been making me wish I had bought an HP.

Yeah, me too. I previously owned a Toshiba and had no problems. This is my first ever Dell product; I am normally an HP guy. Guess I will know better next time...