HDX problem after the 1.7b upgrade

I have put off upgrading my HDX to 1.7b for fear of the sort of problems you are encountering. It works fine with 1.7a, am listening to it now. My philosophy with all things digital has become 'if it ain't broke don't fix it'.

Hope you get things sorted before the Xmas break.

Peter

Sorry to hear from your problems. If this update will not bring added functionality I'm happy to stay with 1.7a.

Hope Naim is able to fix this before Christmas, keep us informed...

Regards,

Michel

Naim tech support is fantastic, but this time frame is probably unrealistic given that it's 10pm on Dec. 23rd when this was posted.

I usually subscribe to this same philosophy.  However, NAIM use sequential updates, not cumulative updates.  So when a feature does come along that you need or want, you have to go through all of the previous updates.  This would be fine but sometimes an intermediate one may be missing (as in the several 1.6x updates before you could upgrade to 1.7).  Maybe NAIM could reconsider using cumulative updates?

Yeah, you're probably right, I was not aware that it was already the 23rd when I posted this ...

Regards,

Michel

Quick update:

I’m now in contact with Phil from Naim who will try to remotely connect to my HDX and try to resolve that.

It will have to wait till January as I'm leaving for a few days.

Thanks for your concern and support: I’ll keep you updated.

Merry Christmas and happy new year to all of you.

Regards

Nicolas

Bad news here!

Phil tried to resolve my problem remotely but couldn’t achieve that.

Today I just packed my HDX as it will have to spend some time back at it’s native place.

Let’s hope it will be back in top shape!

Cheers to all

Nicolas

Sorry to hear that Nicholas. My HDX went back for a similar reason a while back and it's in fine fettle now. (hence my 'if it ain't broke..... ' philosophy).

Peter

Well, I wouldn't worry at this point - they'll fix it (hopefully it's still under warranty) and it'll be better than before!

I got my HDX back today after one month. It finally didn’t travel to the UK but was fixed by the Swiss distributor.

I’m not sure it was the best solution because the repair costed me almost 1200 Swiss francs (800 pounds), 20% of it’s retail price here!

For the record I had just upgraded my HDX firmware and it was working (it was playing, ripping and I was able to fully control it with my iPad or computer) except for the screen that was always on and showing the Naim disk logo.

According to my dealer, they had to change the board and the SSD.

I know the HDX is a complex device but I don’t understand why changing the SSD could help in resolving a display problem.

All the more since, when Phil Harris tried to solve that by remotely connecting to my HDX, he told me he could see the main unit but not the display which is a separate network device.

I will write to Phil and hope he can explain me what happened because my dealer wasn’t able to do it clearly.

I have to say I’m not sure I will perform future upgrades by myself now if any one could cost me that much.

I’m very happy to have it back and will enjoy it as I was before.

But, thinking of the 80 cd albums or the hi-line cable I could have bought with that money, paying that much for a firmware update is a bit hard to swallow.

Cheers to all
Nicolas

Ouch!  That's not funny!  800 pounds to repair an update that is sanctioned by NAIM should not happen.  I would contact NAIM and explain what happened - if their update process is that flaky, they should warn people NOT to perform it unless there is a know problem that is resolved by the update.  NAIM should step up to the plate and help you out with this one.

Hey, I know Switzerland is an expensive country to live in, but £800 to fix a firmware upgrade... sounds to me like they're  'avin a larf  as they say in Salisbury.

This definitely warrants a call to those nice customer support guys & girls.

Let us know what they say.

PS - for some strange reason the word 'incompetence' keeps going round in my head... can't think why !

Thanks very much for the support. I’ll wait for Phil answer before contacting Naim customer support.

Today I discovered the cherry on top of the cake: the problem was only half solved!

The display is working fine now, doesn’t freezes showing the Naim disk logo and responds to the touch, but it’s still always on.

I have to admit I’m a little upset now

Have you set the display backlight timeout?

And now I feel stupid!

So many years I didn’t change that setting that I had forgotten it could be changed on the HDX and not in the app or browser.

The fix remains expensive but, at least, it worked

Last update:

I was contacted by the swiss distributor who explained they had to change the SSD (and not the board) because the main drive could not access the display anymore.

According to them, the price is high because SSDs are expensive and that particular one includes all the software and licenses.

Not a word from Naim.

I’m still amazed a firmware update could lead to such an expensive repair. I guess I’ll never know what went wrong during the update and how I could have avoided that.

Let’s say it was just bad luck!

The SSD is expensive because it's an SLC drive (not the more common MLC SSD).  But I agree with you that I don't see how a failed firmware update could trash the software on the drive.  Something doesn't sound right.  I'd pursue this with NAIM UK.

It would have been cheaper to travel to Salisbury, and drop it off! Surely the failure of the Board and SSD is covered under the warranty? And, if the fault was as a result of the update, then that's not your fault. 

I sincerely hope you manage to get some kind of refund.

Regards

David

Are the licenses not transferable? Could the ssd not be reformatted and the software reinstalled? from your side of the story, it seems a raw deal. 

best of luck

That’s exactly what I thought Timster: why the SSD had to be replaced since it was apparently a software issue as I was able to use my HDX except for the display.

David, unfortunately my HDX warranty is over.

I just wrote to Naim customer support. I’ll keep you updated.

Cheers

Nicolas

The O/S is a Windows XP variant licensed from Microsoft and other systems in the HDX are also licensed from their respective developers.  However, I'm not sure why we aren't issued licenses as part of the purchase and replacement software installations simply provided on CD/DVD instead of incurring expensive replacement pre-loaded SSDs (or HDDs).  This is how OEM computer manufacturers do it.

Naim first answer was they couldn’t give an opinion as they didn’t check the HDX themselves and they had to rely on the distributor.

I had a second answer explaining that the licensing and service requirements prevent a reformatting and reinstallation on an old disk and that the installation of a complete, tested, formatted and installed SSD was necessary to prevent a similar problem to occur again (in case the SSD was faulty and not the software).

I understand.

I still think that, even if considering that it required a change of SSD, the repair price for a bad happening firmware update was a little insane. I guess the price of labour here in Switzerland and the distributor and dealer’s margins have something to do with that.

I still don’t know what exactly happened during that update and if I could have done anything to prevent that.

I’ll try to forget all that now and start to enjoy that new SSD at work