Hello emilserjr,
Sorry to hear that you are having this trouble.
The optical input can be sensitive to highly focused cables that narrow the beam down to a very small point.
Have you tried a different cable?
Can you confirm that you have Snowmass 3.04 installed?
Let me know thanks,
Thanks Paul! I’ll call in if I get a chance today.
I don’t have Snowmass installed, otherwise I wouldnt have made this topic. I’m stuck on Redcloud. No matter what I do the DAC just starts up as normal and initializes as normal when the SD cards are loaded in refusing to update.
It’s not the cable. It works on every other digital device I own and also worked on the DS just fine until I did all the power cycling on the DAC trying to get it to update. It’s a Wireworld top end optical cable, the red one, I forget the name. Great cable.
The firmware on my DS is probably blitzed now and it wont recognize the signal. All the other digital inputs work.
On the DS Sr that procedure triggers the screen calibration mechanism. Did it yesterday when the screen flipped.
Didnt get a chance to call PS Audio today but I’ll call you guys tomorrow.
FWIW I just used the generic 1GB SD card I had and put the latest P5 firmware on it. I then inserted it into my P5 and the update worked right away on the first shot. When it turned on the logo light blinked for about a minute or 2 and then booted up after the update.
Yet using the same SD Card with Snowmass on it placed into the DS doesn’t trigger anything.
So it’s not my SD Cards nor my computer which I use to load the files on the SDs.
It’s almost like the SD card slot is defective or something.
I really hope this can be resolved with some special technique or method with support. Would stink having to send out my unit and not have a DAC for weeks.
Fingers crossed a solution can be found tomorrow.
I’ve seen the exact same thing before, where the SD card slot seemed to be defective, just not read the SD card. A force load version of the software eventually worked in that instance.
Try pressing the sd card in a couple times to get a feel for when it’s locked in place. Sometimes I’ve found it not locked in when I thought it was. You can clearly feel the lock/unlock spring action.
Yeah that sounds like just what I need. To force load it somehow. I wonder how that can be done.
I’m very computer savvy, have built all my own pcs for 15+ years. I’m familiar with SD cards.
Yes the card is verified 100% clicked into place. Which is how virtually all SD card readers work.
The force load software is something PS Audio needs to send you.
Wasn’t SM V1 a forceload at least for the first couple of days?
@Brodric @emilsejr: It is my understanding that Snowmass firmware update is a “force load” code by design. Maybe others can confirm.
FYI.
Maybe…it’s easy to know. Just open up the update folder and see if there is a LOADER.CFG.9999 file.
9999 indicates a force load version.
Unless they have changed their file naming system, the current download is not a force load
This is what a force load version looks like (showing a forced CFG and a non-forced CFG there):
That might have been true in the past, but all the Snowmass installers I have used are force loaders AND do not have “9999” after the file type extension.
So every time you power on the device it will load the software from the SD card?
That sounds cumbersome. If PS Audio have diverted from their normal file name scheme…with what amounts to a hidden force load version, would be unusual.
Unless you take that card out and replace it with the blank one for cover art.
Yeah, but my point is…with the current version of SM on a SD, will it run the bootloader every time on device power up, despite not being flagged on the LOADER.CFG that it is a forced version.
And if you accidently put your SM SD in a power plant, you’re gonna brick the power plant, right?
Yes. If you leave the SD card in (I have SM MK I on a card provided by PSA), it reloads every time. FYI.
Only if it is a 9999. A 9998 force load identifies the product and only reloads on that type of unit unit.
Let’s leave this to PS Audio to solve.
Yeah I don’t have the force load version. I simply downloaded the latest one that was available on the PS Audio downloads section a few days ago.
Mine is just a regular LOADER.CFG opening the CFG file shows an ID of “= DSDD9998” so it is a non force load.
At this point I would love the force load version to see if it would trigger the update on my unit. If that would work for me I wouldn’t mind it reloading the firmware everytime I restart the unit. But once I turn it on I rarely turn it off completely, I just leave it off in standby mode with the screen off.
I’m gonna give PS Audio a call now and see if they can help me get this issue sorted out.
As I understand it, what you have is a force load for the DSD (see my post immediately above yours). Snowmass V1 is a force load, but the “forcing” is limited to the DSD and will not harm other units as it will not load. Please do not try this in any event. 
Please let us know what you learn from PS Audio and how the remedy the issue.
Just got off the phone with PS Audio. A few days ago I actually ordered the Snowmass card from the website. They saw my order and will be sending me a special force load version of Snowmass SD card instead of the standard one.
So I won’t know yet how it goes until I get it. It’s going out today according to them. And I’ll keep you guys posted when I get it.
Hopefully this update will “reset” the little gremlins I’m having now with the SD Card reader and Optical input.
I’m also hoping the update will reset things again to allow me to perform updates on my own like I always used to without needing a special force load SD everytime.
Apparently certain units, it is completely random suffer from this issue with updates simply not working at all on them. They are unsure on what the cause is.
I am eternally grateful that unlike other manufacturers like Bricasti, PS Audio allows users to update their DACs at home without having to send them in everytime to update the firmware. This is a priceless feature.
I do suggest for the guys at PS Audio to please consider using the Bridge’s internet connection to the unit to facilitate the ability to also update the DAC’s firmware and not just the bridge’s firmware. I think this would allow for a fool proof method, just as the updating the bridge on the unit over internet is now with a simple click of the touch screen.
Thanks to all for your help and suggestions and to PS Audio. Fingers crossed the special forceload SD does the trick!