Brand new printer. Right out of the box, it wants me to update the firmware before my first print.
It has forced me to download 5 times (7 minutes each time over wireless to my laptop) now. Each time, it tries to open the file and then complains that it is an invalid file type.
I have uninstalled and reinstalled. Rebooted. I am connected to the printer via USB.
Of course, you can’t just call someone for help. You have to enter a ticket and wait, who knows how long, to get an answer. Email-only is NOT customer service - it is customer Disservice.
If anyone has ideas on how to get it to update, please let me know.
I think there’s a way to download the file manually and then select it from PreForm. There’s a copy of “form2-release-1.7.formware” in my download directory from July when I updated my printer.
It should take a lot less than 7 minutes to download the FW file. It’s only 90MB. I can’t imagine why WiFi would make a difference. But can you connect the laptop to your router with a cable and try it with WiFi off?
Downloading the file is not really the issue. There is no way to load it into PreForm, It always reports that it is an invalid file type.
I actaully never get the dialog that allows you to select a file that has been downloaded. Double-clicking the file tells PreForm to open it. That is where the invalid file type error happens.
So my comment is not about the download time, other that it made me do it a total of 5 times now, It does not allow me the opportunity to manually select the file after it has been downloaded.
You can download the firmware file directly, here.
If I double click the formware file it launches PreForm which then says “invalid file type”. Stupid me, I when I launched PreForm to try this, it asked me to update to 2.6.1 (from 2.6.0) which I did. So I can’t say if it behaves differently with 2.6.0. But the file I double clicked to test this with 2.6.1 was the same file I downloaded and updated the printer with in July so I know there’s nothing wrong with the file.
In PreForm, go to the FILE menu and select Printers… Then click the little right-pointing triangle to the left of your printer’s name. An expanded dialog box should open, and “Update Firmware” should be visible. Click it, select the Formware file you downloaded via the link above, and see what happens…
Before I received your answer (and FormLabs has still not responded to my help ticket), I installed PreForm on another laptop and was able to get through the firmware update just fine. After that, I went back to my original laptop and was able to successfully complete a couple of prints.
I was still concerned about what would happen the next time I needed to update the firmware. Your answer took care of that. I did not know how to get to the “Select File” activity and simply double clicking the file was giving me the error.
Using the info you supplied, I have been able to download and then, in PreForm, select the file and upload it to the printer.
