Firmware 4.3 Problems

Phil, many thanks for resolving my problem. After watching you remotely I can see where I went wrong.

Looking at the PDF guide I immediately focused on NDX which led me to believe the cable was an RS variant, right for early models but not indicated within the guide. Secondly I mistakenly then followed the drivers within that section and I could see you ignored that and elected to choose the NDS, SU et al drivers (not showing NDX unfortunately) which tripped me up. Had NDX been listed I believe I would have downloaded the correct drivers - now I know! 

Thanks again

I have spent a pleasant hour wondering why the update process could not communicate with my ND5XS.  The instructions are not really clear that the COM port could be any one of the ports on your computer.  In my case, I have COM3 to COM8 as available options and I had no clue as to which port was connected to the USB cable.

After numerous failed attempts at guessing by trial and error, I twigged that the port used would be visible in Control Panel / Devices.  Naturally COM8 was the port used, one I had not yet tried.  Once I had that figured out, everything worked fine. 

I have a few similar devices and the ease of the firmware upgrade process from easiest to hardest is as follows:

1. Cambridge Audio NP30 - Upgrades by answering Y to question on boot up
2. Bryston BDP-2 - Upgrades over internet connection via device webpage
3. PS Audio Directstream DAC - Upgrade from SD card inserted into device and reboot
4. Naim ND5XS - You all know how this goes
5. Cyrus Streamline2 - Used to be from device webpage but recent ones have been return to base

Judging by this list, there seems to be an invese relationship between the ease of update and the cost of the device.

Anyway, now sitting down to listen to music from the ND5 with a glass of wine to relax. P.S. Had I not had access to this post, I may still be frigging around.  Thanks for the help.

Regards,

I don't understand why you had an issue over COM ports,  there is nothing to select, its all automatic.  

Plug in the USB cable to any USB port,  run the update from the "Naim vinyl record" icon  & the popup screen sequence leads to the one that selects the COM port number,  in my case over many beta updates, it always & only offers COM3

With my PC it was slightly different, but before I started the upgrade I had only one Com port (Com 3) available and once I had connected the Naim and the PC had loaded the driver and given me a "your new device is working properly" pop up message from the System Tray, I found I now had Com 4 as well which was the port I needed to use. Everything worked fine and I upgraded three streamers one after the other with minimal aggravation.

The instructions for the driver (I don't mean the Naim instructions), if you can find them on the Internet, do actually tell you to use Control Panel/Devices to discover the Com port it uses After loading the driver. the key thing to make this easy is, as Mike says, to connect the Naim device up with the USB lead (and Ethernet too) before you get started.

David

Cerobo, your suggestion of checking control panel for the Com port number is a good one. My main PC has many com ports attached (for connected engineering equipment). Occasionally com ports can shuffle around if not assigned, and so checking via control panel if you have many com ports is sensible and prevents much frustration....

I tend to update via my Mac laptop, and that has only one active com port, and that is the one of my USB to RS232 serial converter... So I only have one option to select in the Naim installer pull down menu..

Simon

@Mike-B. I did use the Naim vinyl record update icon and there were 6 available ports so I had to choose So the update software was not automatic.  Like a lot of things, it is easy when you know how. Probably the biggest issue with the whole process is getting the streamer out of the rack and moving to the computer room and connecting back up to the network, updating and replacing back in the rack (which is a bit fiddly due to access to rear). 

By the the time the next update is available, I will likely have forgotten all this so will be back at square one :-)

cerobo,  OK sorry about that.  I don't understand why it would not be automatic for some & not others,  it must be the OS - maybe Windows or Mac - who knows.  My PC is 6 month old Dell & running Windows 10

My update procedure is very much more simple than yours (thank goodness)  I easily plug the USB into the NDX installed in the rack & also the ethernet into a spare port on the LAN switch located 2m from the NDX,  both plug into my laptop PC temporally located on a footstool. 

Just did the update to 4.3 on my Superuniti today as I have been extremely frustrated with the new Naim Muso app; very difficult connectivity and gaps/stoppages in play quite regularly.

As it turned out, it was relatively easy and straightforward, so I have a lot of empathy for those who found difficulties. Downloaded and installed USB driver; plugged USB/mini in, COM port activated immediately and zippo - run the Updater. Done in about 15 minutes.

Biggest nag: it reset the streamer from its static address to dhcp (it doesn't seem to like running on dhcp on my system, so have it permanently set) and I had to restore that. Once done, it found the network time and my stored stations.

And - at least for the moment - it seems to respond better to my iPhones and iPad. 

I *still* prefer the old n-Serve app though and fortunately it still is on my iPad.

Now I'll listen to some Radio Paradise and see if my streaming stations is better!

mine's been saying its updating for several hours now..........

Peez

Something is wrong then because it takes 15 mins max.  What are you updating? If the streamer is showing updating then you have successfully switched it into updating mode so the USB driver is OK.  What stage is the PC/Mac software reporting?  You do have both your PC and your streamer connected by both the USB/mini-USB lead and both connected to the Internet?  This is a wired connection to the Internet? (Although lots of people find wireless works ok, it's a bit more risky.)

The updating happens in two or three stages depending on your streamer.  The programme you run on your PC uses the USB lead for the first stage and the Ethernet connection between your PC and the streamer for the second and, if there is a third, third stage.  For the Ethernet connection to work, both PC and streamer need an IP address.  So where it got stuck is useful information.

Best.

David

Hi David,

It's finally just restarting - i checked the progress on the naim streamer updater suite and it was showing progress and has thankfully just restarted 0 usb to mini usb and a new macbook air with i7. 

thanks for replying as was starting to worry,,

kind regards,

P

I'm glad to hear it.  Depending on what streamer it is, there can be two restarts (basically on  the SuperUniti, ND5 XS and NDX plus I think one or two others the software also updates the DAC and this is an extra restart).  Good luck.

best

David

Easily my biggest fear was that I'd brick the SU -- I've done it a few times to my iPhone (recovered, as well, phew!). 

That's the worst feeling...when it just "sits there".......glad to hear it's OK!

The parts of the updating that use Ethernet are quite a bit quicker than the first part which uses the USB connection, at least in my experience having updated four streamers to 4.3 . If you are doing the updating wirelessly (and if you are using a new MacBook Air then I suppose that is going to be wirelessly?) then you should at least try to keep the wireless link short, for example by doing the updating with the PC and the streamer near to the wireless router. Also something to think about is that even if you usually use it all wirelessly and can't easily hardware the connection from the MacBook to the router, you presumably could temporarily use an Ethernet cable between the streamer and the router, so that only one leg is wireless.

I believe from what Phil said, earlier in this thread I think, that you can't actually permanently brick a streamer, because it can always start the update off from scratch again as there is an embedded boot routine which isn't changed and which they use when they build the streamer in the factory. But having said that, if it fails to update, you still have to work out why that was so you can make the update work the second time. And even having done it with no problems three times before, I was quite nervous when I came to do it on my just-acquired SU A few days ago!

best

David

I had zero issues updating my Original Qute from 3.13 to 4.3. I had never done it before.

loaded the USB to rs232 driver.  Rebooted computer.  Inserted cable, noticed the com port loaded and ran the Naim installer. 

The most confusing part for me was not having a firmware for North America...  Took me a couple of minutes to figure out to go with Western Europe. 

 I have been waiting for that to get noticed .........  I had a mental bet going that it would be one of our Antipodean cousins that protested first.   

  1st prize goes to ..... ???  not wishing to add further to this faux pas

- is North America according to Brubacca,  Canada or USA ??? 

I'm in the USA and it wasn't a complaint it was a geniune concern,  I do believe that wifi frequencies are different between the two.  Also note that it shouldn't have mattered that we run 60 Hz while I believe western europe is 50 Hz. 

I was merely pointing it out so any friends from USA and Canada would just breeze through it.  

A complaint would have been something like -  why isn't there a NA firmware?  Which i didn't say. ( to be fair about it). 

 ...........   I wasn't being serious Brubacca,   it was intended as a light hearted poke at Naim.   

Yes I know but presumably the USB port (or lightening connector or whatever) on his MacBook Air was already being used for the USB to mini-USB connection?

I have a MacBook Air and it has two USB ports, so not a problem. Having said that, I use a Thunderbolt to Ethernet adapter whenever I want a wired network connection on my MacBook. It's the little white Apple one, overpriced I know but works very well.

All the best,

David

Well yes, I have a hard time seeing that sometimes. I have a tendency to be a bit serious about things. Sorry.

No probs Brubacca, I should have inserted a winkie-icon

Naim just need to make a one word change of text that makes it clear its a language version, not a region. 

I had of course long ago noticed that there is no 'North American' version . . . I assumed it was just language-based and went along with Western Europe.

I'm still waiting for the Brits to point up that they are in the UK, not Europe.  (On my first trip to London, in the early 1990's, I mentioned to the British Barrister I was meeting with that I'd never been to Europe before.  His reply, "You still haven't."    )