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Samsung Q990D unresponsive after 1020 firmware update

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Re: Samsung Q990D unresponsive after 1020 firmware update

#371

Someone on reddit [0] mentioned that they updated their device via USB and hadn't encountered any issues. If that's true, then it might actually have been the previous firmware update that silently bricked the device. Or maybe Samsung only test in a controlled lab environment without real world signal interference. In any case, it's mind boggling how a multi billion dollar company lacks proper rollout strategies. I h…

My girlfriend had to wear a sleep monitoring device, and the instructions also had stuff to that effect. including putting all phones in airplane mode and unplug any assistant speaker things you might have. I assume the real purpose of this is to make you actually sleep. But they claimed it was to make the data collect properly...

Re: Samsung Q990D unresponsive after 1020 firmware update

#372

Someone on reddit [0] mentioned that they updated their device via USB and hadn't encountered any issues. If that's true, then it might actually have been the previous firmware update that silently bricked the device. Or maybe Samsung only test in a controlled lab environment without real world signal interference. In any case, it's mind boggling how a multi billion dollar company lacks proper rollout strategies. I h…

I also have a pair of XM4s. I installed the app briefly when I first got them so I could turn off the voice notifications on connection/mode change, and then immediately uninstalled it and have never needed it again. Why on earth would I want to update the firmware on my perfectly working headphones?

Re: Samsung Q990D unresponsive after 1020 firmware update

#373

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yup, game consoles are ground zero for this. I hit the button on the PS5 controller only to have the receiver and TV power on, then the PS4 wakes up for some reason and then switches the AVR to its input. My Sony UHD player also seems to want to grab the input sometimes too, so maybe it's Sony that's the source of the problems haha. And again, it's all just so maddening because it feels like it would go away if I cou…

Even better: I have some sort of Useless Machine[1] bug where turning on the TV will power up the PS5, which then puts itself to back to sleep. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Useless_machine

Oh I've definitely had this one too, where the TV powers up to the "I'm going to sleep now lol" screen from the PlayStation.

Re: Samsung Q990D unresponsive after 1020 firmware update

#374
post #205
post #39

My Samsung TV got more and more unusable with every update. Over the years, saved apps, like Youtube, started to disappear every time it woke up. Then it would default to their Samsung TV app, rather than your last app. Samsung TV app happened to be on the Baywatch channel every time my young children started the stupid thing. Finally, after it took 2 minutes to load the youtube app, I factory-reset the device, disco…

I never worked for Samsung, but I built TVs for JVC and LG, among many other brands. I don't work in consumer electronics anymore but a decade ago that was my field. TVs are a wildly unprofitable business. It's astoundingly bad. You get 4-6 months to make any profit on a new model before it gets discounted so heavily by retailers that you're taking a bath on each one sold. So every dollar in the BOM (bill of material…

The problem is getting that jank even when you buy the expensive models, though.

Re: Samsung Q990D unresponsive after 1020 firmware update

#375
post #355

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most companies don't do this because it's not one of their organizational priorities to have reliable updates. The infrastructure is usually custom built and maintained by a couple of folks who have a dozen other responsibilities they're told are more important. Testing is usually limited by hardware availability and release velocity. "One of every board revision we've ever produced" simply isn't available and waitin…

I'm working on embedded systems and I've seen and heard some horror stories just on the device's side. Piles and piles of pre- and post-reboot shell scripts filled with race conditions against the system's services and themselves. When these break, if you're lucky a factory reset is enough to fix the system, if you're unlucky they become field bricks. I'm trying to buck the trend though and on the new embedded system…

add a watchdog timer to reboot automatically on failed upgrade as well.

Re: Samsung Q990D unresponsive after 1020 firmware update

#376
post #356

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Today a tech lead with admin role on GH opened a PR, approved it for himself and merged it, because he could override GH rules. The PR had failing unit tests. It went straight to prod and caused 20 minutes downtime of one functionality. We do test things, sometimes you're just not prepared for all the permutations of the idiocy out there... This is more common than you think. Only a few days HP update bricked their p…

The answer seems to be that things get tested, but the results often get ignored.

Human error, don't worry, we will be getting rid of these pesky humans soon

Re: Samsung Q990D unresponsive after 1020 firmware update

#377
post #357

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And again, it's all just so maddening because it feels like it would go away if I could be like "Hey, AVR should never send power-on messages to its input devices." Yeah, that sounds a weird "feature" in the first place. If I manually turn on the UHD player/Chromecast/PS5/whatever, it makes sense that the TV also turns on and switches to the respective input. I could also sort of imagine that if I switched the TV t…

It's a conventional setup: TV I suspect the issue is largely with the receiver (a VSX-935), as that's seemingly the component sending a turn-on signal to its inputs. If I could, I would have probably run everything to the TV and just done all the audio over eARC, but the TV is on the other end of a 50' HDMI cable, so I definitely need the receiver as an in-rack multiplexer.

Ah, that makes sense.

Re: Samsung Q990D unresponsive after 1020 firmware update

#378

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's why my buddy said it's time to buy shares in bubble wrap

Nah, just be a geezer and wrap it in bin bags and then tape around. It's bricked anyway, innit.

Waste of bin bags. Just write the address on the front in marker pen.

Re: Samsung Q990D unresponsive after 1020 firmware update

#380

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem usually aren't vendors. The problem usually are rightsholders - the movie/TV series industry still didn't get the Spotify memo, and the console game industry... well it's hard to say they don't have a point insisting on serious DRM given how rampant piracy becomes once there's an easy-enough root method available.

The massive success of Steam points otherwise.

Steam is a very convenient and beloved marketplace but that doesn't mean it doesn't have a solid DRM and anti-cheat measures built in.
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