Windom: Installation/Technical Problems

Interesting times, I shall stay tuned.

Not sure what to do with this new information. I have a Mac and I’ve never had any technical issues with firmware upgrades, including Windom. Also Windom sounded wonderful from the get go, so not sure I want to mess with trying this newer Mac download. Why did PS Audio come out with a Mac download, are most of the people having issues with a good load Mac users?

There are both new Windows and Mac versions. I’m guessing it has to do with the programs that deal with the .img file being platform specific. That being Etcher on Mac, and whatever does the same on Windows.

I thought I 'd try out this new Etcher way of loading to see if it is better. I couldn’t get the darn thing to work and ended up with the same files as in the original Windom load. I reloaded it anyway and it went through the same process of loading and sounds the same. I wasted my time. I know, it sounded fine with the original load and I shouldn’t mess with it, but I was curious.

I was able to do the Etcher Mac load way without issue. Will be listening in a little while.

From what I see on the Etcher site the app ensures a clean load on an SD Card or USB thumb drive. Makes sense as it clearly eliminates one variable that may be contributing to the firmware update problems noted.
With that I am going to initiate a new thread specifically for the latest Windom update provided by PSA over the weekend. Should Elk or PSA think it unwise they may close it/ Just seems we’ll clutter up this thead with download comments regarding the recent change. It will also provide a clean slate for PSA to comment and monitor successes with the change.

I hadn’t seen Etcher until I loaded ROON ROCK this week to a USB Stick. What Etcher does is a verification sequence of the write to the card to avoid a corrupt load. Good idea!

It recommends disconnecting Ethernet from Bridge as well.

Balena Etcher is a well known SD card ‘burner’, it’s legit. It ensures a good format, copy with verify and proper eject/dismount from OS.

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That’s a new one. I’ll have a look.

Yes, thanks. As I mentioned, of the problems we’ve seen, many are related to the download and subsequent SD card challenges with people’s various computers and operating types. Or forgetting to unzip. Or not noticing the files are still zipped (newer OS seem
to open zip files in the viewer and make them look unzipped when they are actually still zipped). Thanks to the community some of these problems come to light and we’re doing what we can to make it easier.

TJ in customer service requested we split up the downloads into MAC and Windows. That idea helps because MACs place some weird files on zips that don’t always play nice.

The reason the number of loads is so low is that the counter resets when we put up new files.

Thanks for all the help and feedback.

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I wouldn’t. Most loads are working just fine. There may be a few that aren’t. The code is identical. It’s likely that yours went just perfect. We posted separate builds (with identical code) because some folks were unknowingly having some issues getting the
SD cards loaded right. This helps.

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That is correct. Just easier to make sure you get a good load. Same code.

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When checking the “Windows” set of files, I noticed that the LOADER.CFG file appears to be a slightly earlier version (dated about a day earlier than the one in the original release).

Is there any significance to this in terms of ensuring a “good load” when a Windows machine was used to download and set up the SD card?

Not that I suspect I have a “bad load,” but Inquiring minds want to know :grin:

The Mac version when ‘unpacked’ also has a slightly earlier version of the LOADER.CFG file as the original release and 7 minutes later as the (new) Windows version, the byte count of the three versions is the same. The other files have the same ‘timestamp’ as the original versions.

There’s a Windows utility called TeraCopy that does things like checking whether a transfer is an accurate copy. It’s free - read about below:

Nope. Just timing on when it was produced. Same code.

So, why do you produce the same code more then once ?

Ok, i updated my Ds again, this time with a balenaEtcher generated Windom SD card (on a Mac).
Coming from an already brilliant working Windom, the newly updated Windom sounds (as expected) exactly the same as the previous one.
It is very well possible that the balenaEtcher method is more robust in creating a good SD card.
At the other hand it creates FAT32 instead of FAT16.

I think some people are having problems with the update because of the SD file system format, I have not had any issues on any update of any versions, Here is some info on the exFAT vs FAT32 that could be an issue for some.

FAT32 is the most widely compatible file system. It will work on any operating system as well as video game consoles, Android USB expansions, media players, and other devices. In contrast, exFAT will work on 99 percent of the devices you use, but may not work on some media players and Android devices.Jun 14, 2017

Hey Jovo3!

It sounds like you either need a screen calibration, or you may be touching just to the left of the plus, which would activate a normal function of the unit (where you tap the volume you’d like to be at).

Turn off the unit with the rear switch and whilst holding the front logo button, turn the unit on with the rear switch. You’ll see a screen with a 1,2,3,4 in the corners. Follow the onscreen instructions and the unit will initialize.

Thanks!

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