Naim-Streamer-Update on Windows in a VM?

I should mention, I hate Windows OS more passionately than I love my wife and music.

If Naim can't get their act together with an alternate update method, I am done with their digital products after this.

Agreed. I've updated my Qute now a couple of times using my old windows laptop. Its great how it takes half an hour to install a load of updates because I haven't used it for a couple of weeks.

RaceTripper -

I agree 100% with what you say.  IMHO, all firmware updates should be network-based or, as a fallback, USB stick via download.

How far away is your dealer?  Maybe you could listen to some tunes while they do it for you?

I do empathize.  My NDX was an early one that required a USB-to-RS232 converter in order to update the firmware.   The process went well, but I was not happy having to spend another $29 for this converter.  Apparently later models have micro USB ports.

Hook

One cannot win: My Oppo BDP-95 brushes me aside and makes me wait up to 15 minutes while it automatically takes an update.  The option to postpone should not be the stuff of futurists either.  (No pleasing us, I guess.)

You're running windows within a vmware session, and naim software doesn't run on it, and you're blaming windows for it? You got the error code. Did you do a google search with that error code.

I got the same error on XP, on win 7 it works. So I updated my SuperUniti to 3.13 using my macbook pro running windows 7 in a virtual machine.

Hope there will be an update soon, play queue is needed badly.

Alex

One common source of this error is not having the .NET framework installed or the install could be corrupt. The Naim installer should have checked that it was present. I'm not sure which version you need if you do need it. I checked the DLL dependencies with dependency walker from dependencywalker dot com and it doesn't look like any .NET DLLs are required. You could try using dependency walker to see if any DLLs are missing from your windows XP install.

I'd imagine that updating from a USB stick is not possible due to the architecture Naim have chosen. Once the technology settles down I'd imagine updates would be few and far between so doing the odd update from a Windows based PC isn't that much hassle although for you it obviously is.

I used ILSpy and found out that the upgrader requires .NET 2.0 so you can install the runtime from http://www.microsoft.com/downl...n/details.aspx?id=19. The Naim installer should check for the presence of the runtime during install and either install it automatically or prompt you to do it.

I didn't say I blamed Windows for it. I just said I hate Windows, which is true.

I sent a screen shot of the error dialog to Naim support. I will try the .NET suggestions above.

I ran the dotnetfix installer. Then when I ran the launcher, it still wouldn't run and told me I need a newer version of .NET. Found that and installed. Now the Naim software runs.

Naim software engineering should rewrite their software to do this basic check and inform user, rather than failing ungracefully.

I've just done my Superuniti and had to download .NET 2.0 xxxx (was warned of this by the program when I tried to launch it) AND some strange driver or other for the USB interface. Worked flawlessly after that though (on a Windows XP Netbook) once I'd got the Com port right.

My problem was that I didn't have any .NET framework installed and the Naim app failed ungracefully, providing no useful direct info. Anyway, I have .Net 2 installed now and will try again in a few hours when I get home from work.

I'm also doing this from a Mac, and my ND5 uses a mini-USB, so i won't have to mess with COM ports (thankfully).

I hate to tell you, but you do require a driver for the mini-USB operation.

Naim mini-USB seems to be just a connector for a serial chip inside the streamer. Thus you'll require a driver to be able to communicate with the serial (COM) chip over USB.

I know about the USB bridge driver. I installed it.

Naim does not document dependencies for their updater. It would make life easier if they did.

OK. After getting the missing dependencies problems sorted out, I have successfully installed the update via Win XP Pro running in VMWare Fusion on my MacBook Pro. 

When you connect the mini USB cable to the ND5 you need to tell VMWare to connect to that USB device in Windows. Then a COM3 port selection shows up and the update can start (which takes a while).

Well, I'm no tech expert, but it seems ridiculous to need to do that on a network-connected product. I don't really understand COM ports and, initially, mine only showed COM3 but that didn't work. After it failed I saw that there was then a further choice of COM8. I picked that and it worked. I've no idea what that's about - my computer has 3 USB 2.0 ports and that's as much as I understand.

Just updated my ND5 XS to 3.16 using my MacBook Pro with VMware Fusion.  Got the "failed to initialize" error originally but thanks to this thread I learned that I had to install the .NET framework 2.0

USB showed up as COM 3 and after installing 3.13 (as NAIM recommends) I installed 3.16 without any problems.

Thanks everybody!