So THIS is why I was still on 1.9.1 and was not upgrading…
I finally found where the fine tuning settings were hidden (it makes sense to be in ‘Printers…’ now since more than one printer is controllable via Preform, so I get that) and I see the upgrade firmware button. I figure I should try to do that, since it’s been a long time since I upgraded that. It asks for verification, I click ‘yes’. The dialog instantly says No printers found (even though it was just displaying my form1+ seconds earlier). It has an OK button, I don’t click anything. Nothing seems to be happening.
The status area underneath the dialog says:
Please Do Not Disconnect Printer Firmware update in progress… Printer Entering Firmware Update Mode The printer is entering firmware update mode. This process may take a long time on older computers.
I wait 10 minutes.
I think maybe I need to click OK in the dialog saying no printers found. I do. It goes away. Still nothing appears to be happening. My printer’s button light and screen are off.
How long is a ‘long time’ in this context? WTF is it (not) doing? Why is there no progress or status of any kind? Why is the button and screen off on my printer? Did this just BRICK MY PRINTER!!?? I’m panicking and I’m pissed! I HAVE WORK TO DO!
This kind of crap is simply not acceptable in a commercial product!! Anything firmware update related MUST BE TESTED OVER and OVER AGAIN!!! YOU MUST SHOW PROGRESS, AND YOU MUST GIVE FEEDBACK TO THE USER, AND YOU MUST PROVIDE A TIMEOUT AND THERE MUST BE AN AUTOMATED ROLLBACK IF THERE IS A FAILURE!!!
Leaving the user not knowing what is happening or what is required of them for something as non-trivial as a firmware upgrade IS NOT ACCEPTABLE! It’s been over 30 minutes now. I have to leave this like this until tomorrow!! Grrrrrrr.
WHY DO I NEED TO TELL PROFESSIONAL PROGRAMMERS THIS???
How did this pass QA? If the Boss there had a clue and was doing their job, the person who signed off on this upgrade tool would be fired today. Maybe the Boss should be fired along with them for allowing such shoddy workmanship to leave the building.
Somewhere on here I remember seeing something like this:
IF the printer is in DFU ( or something like that) mode (Firmware update mode) and the update is not working, you can turn the printer off and or disconnect it. when you reconnect it (while preform is open) the software will recognize that the printer is waiting for the update.
The update will resume / finish. You will then be all set.
Please take the above with a huge grain of salt. If it makes things worse, I am not responsible for remembering wrong. The above may be just for the F1(+) or F2. The more I think about it, I am not sure.
Let me know if FL lends a hand or you toss caution to the wind and if the above works.
I have to wait to see what Formlabs says, because I need my printer right now, and cannot afford to brick it by doing something it does not expect. I did see something like what you are saying, and it will likely be the thing I’ll have to do, but I need FL to say that. None of this should ever be happening. I can’t understand how this got past reviews, testing and QA. It’s beyond baffling.
I am very sorry this has been a problem. This is a bug we know about and something we are actively trying to reproduce and fix. It happens rarely, unfortunately, so we have a very difficult time reproducing it.
The work-around is to hard reset the printer (pull the plug and plug it back in). At that point if you try the update again it will work. Once this happens, if you could upload diagnostics that would be helpful.
I know this is not a good solution, we are going to fix this.
OK, so unplug… go get a water. Plug in. Button light flashes on for half a second, then off again.
In software, open Printers, my printer shows up again. Fine tuning button is grayed out though, which confuses me. I click Update Firmware. Nothing happens. No ‘Are you sure?’ warning dialog. Nothing. No lights on the printer, and no display. Why am I not getting a warm fuzzy?
Is the printer screen showing any sort of user interface? If it’s completely blank then we have a separate issue we have to address. If it’s showing the UI, then likely it is PreForm that has to be force quit before retrying the update.
I had this exact problem. Last week. Did the update to 1.4 (I think) and it hung. Couldn’t exit PreForm, had to kill it with task manager. Restarted PreForm and had the same issue, it said update in progress and it wouldn’t exit. Killed it again. I think I might have pulled the USB first, which fixed PreForm saying “update…” and not quitting, but it didn’t see the printer. Power cycled the printer and PreForm found it and all worked as desired.
OK, so power off everything, restart everything. I can print, but it’s not clear if the firmware was ever updated/replaced or dealt with at all. Anyway, I’ve decided to never do that again…
PreForm checks the printer’s FW and complains when it’s out of date. If you try to update FW to the same version already installed on the printer, it doesn’t let you. Also, the printer reports FW on one of the startup screens when you power it up (this is the only way I know of to check the revision. PreForm could probably do it, but it doesn’t).
