Panic Time: killed my 1066 with Firmware Upgrade

[Mark_C.]

I followed all the instructions to a tee, everything went as was supposed to (using an old laptop with serial port and Windows 95), and according to the downloading instruction, my 1066 should power up. But it won't. It's dead as a doornail. I have downloaded three times, and each time everything appears kosher, only the unit won't power back up. And yes, I switched the two switches in back. Any suggestions? I'm desperate.

[kneptune]

Mark,

I had the EXACT and I mean the EXACT same problem on my 1066 a couple of months ago. I was using an older laptop with Win95, just as you, and after the update (which appearred to work perfectly), my 1066 would not boot at all.

Several others suggested using a newer laptop using a newer OS. I brought my work laptop home using Windows 2000 and redid the upgrade and the 1066 came back to life and worked perfectly. There is some compatibility issue with the older hyper terminal version on Win95 that just won't work for this Rotel upgrade.

I can almost guarantee you that if you can get a different PC / laptop running Win2000 or XP and redo the procedure, it will fix it. During the Win95 update, the update dots were sporadic; using the newer (and successful Win2000 hyper terminal) the dots sequenced one at a time.

Get a newer PC with a new OS and give that a try and your 1066 will be fixed.

-Kevin

[Mark_C.]

Thanks. I figured it out after running a search here. I'll have to buy a serial port card to run it with my up-to-date laptop with XP. I thought I was getting off cheap since my Rotel dealer loaned me the cable.

[Andrew Pratt]

this has happend to most of us at some point but as the above poster points out while its scary its very likely your PC that's the problem. With XP its going to take a lot longer to complete (like 10-20 minutes) so don't worry about it taking so long its just a different way XP vs 95 (98 & ME)talks to the hardware.

[Mark_C.]

Well, it's still a disaster. I switched laptops to my Sony, which runs XP. I don't have a serial port on the laptop, so I'm using a serial-to-usb input. I get confirmation from the 1066 that it erases, but when I begin dowloading, I only get about 20 periods across the first line before it just stops. I tried this several times with the same result. The last connection I left on for an hour, but still only one-fourth of the way across with periods before it stops. Could the USB connection be causing the problem? I'm not a computer expert by an means.

[Mark_C.]

Well, it took two days, but the upgrade is a success. I gave up using my newer Sony laptop and borrowed my son's Toshiba. For some reason, the Toshiba was able to do what the Sony couldn't.
A word of caution to anyone trying this: think about all the steps before you even begin the download. I assumed the Rotel cable to be a standard. Wrong! My biggest problems had to do with getting adapters that would work with the Rotel cable. Trips to Best Buy, Fry's Electronics etcs. just to get the right adapter. Next moral: NEVER use a computer with Windows 95.
Thanks for all the help, guys.