Topic: Help needed unpdating DR-680 firmware

[groovon]

If you are still unable to update, all I can do is wish you luck as I'm out of ideas.

No problem, I appreciate your help anyway!

Cheers
Dave

[flipp]

Didn't you say this shipped with v1.02? Maybe just check out all the functions using that version then call Tascam Tech support on Tuesday. Basicaly have nothing to lose since you still have plenty of time to decide whether to keep the deck or send it back.

If you do get it to update, please post what you did to get it to take the new firmware.

[groovon]

Didn't you say this shipped with v1.02? Maybe just check out all the functions using that version then call Tascam Tech support on Tuesday. Basicaly have nothing to lose since you still have plenty of time to decide whether to keep the deck or send it back.

If you do get it to update, please post what you did to get it to take the new firmware.

No, it has v1.0 (build 38). I'll happily post the cure when I find it! Yeah, I have plenty of time to evaluate it. I'd just like a few the control updates I've already noticed are lacking. oh well...

[PS - I'll give it a break until I think of something different to try. It's still showing the same error.)   

Thanks for trying to help, I really appreciate it.

Dave

[dgale]

Try downloading the file on a different (non-Vista) machine and then, assuming it does not show up there as a .tgz file, then copy it over to your machine.  The only thing I can think is your Vista machine for some reason is associating the file with some program that in turn is causing the error.  You could also try unzipping it on the other machine first before copying it over.

[groovon]

Thanks for the idea. It might be worth a try. My other laptop has XP, I'll give that a go.

Cheers

[groovon]

BTW, I thought I'd try the download from Tascam/TEAC European division:

http://www.tascam.de/en/

Downloaded file looks different than the other one, like an ordinary .zip file, and is 100MB smaller. Still no go. I get a different error code now, looks like this:

"ERROR
 Product"

Weird. Maybe the fault's in the deck...

[groovon]

Well, I downloaded and tried both DR680 v110 files - the US one, and the one from the Euro site, DR-680 connected to my XP laptop this time. They appeared the same as they do on my Vista machine, and the results were the same, too, each producing it's own error code, as noted before. The US file is a .zip.tgz, the Euro one has just a '.zip' tag. The US file is almost 200KB larger - 783KB vs 573KB. Weird.

The only consistent thing here, no matter which way I try it, is that the machine refuses the update.

Any other ideas?

[flipp]

The tascam.de zip contains only the DR680-110 file while the tascam.com zip contains the same file plus the .pdf installation instructions as well as a MACOSX folder. The DR680-110 file in each is the same size and the extra contents in the tascam.com download would explain the size difference. Perhaps the inability to update the firmware is why the unit was returned originally.

See how this copy of the zip file appears. It\s the download from tascam.com. On my comp it is a .zip file, not a .zip.tgz
< removed link - get the file from Tascam >

[dgale]

Any other ideas?

Call Tascam Tech Support on Tuesday - if they can't help you resolve the issue then return the thing while you still can and buy one new with full warranty.  I haven't gotten around to upgrading the firmware in mine yet, so can't say if this problem is unique to your machine, but I assume a fair % of the numerous decks owned by folks have had it done and I haven't seen anyone else expressing problems, so either there's some weird overlooked issue in how you're going about the upgrade that hopefully Tech Support can resolve or else the machine's got issues.

[earmonger]

For what it's worth, .tgz is a Mac filetype.  While you're waiting for Tascam to come back, do you know anyone with a Mac who could try unzipping it?

http://www.gzip.org/

[groovon]

For what it's worth, .tgz is a Mac filetype.  While you're waiting for Tascam to come back, do you know anyone with a Mac who could try unzipping it?

http://www.gzip.org/

Yeah I do, but I don't think that would solve the problem.

[groovon]

Any other ideas?

Call Tascam Tech Support on Tuesday - if they can't help you resolve the issue then return the thing while you still can and buy one new with full warranty.  I haven't gotten around to upgrading the firmware in mine yet, so can't say if this problem is unique to your machine, but I assume a fair % of the numerous decks owned by folks have had it done and I haven't seen anyone else expressing problems, so either there's some weird overlooked issue in how you're going about the upgrade that hopefully Tech Support can resolve or else the machine's got issues.

Yeah, I intend calling Tascam, find out if it's a faulty deck.
Are you thinking you'll update yours soon? I'm pretty sure you won't have this particular problem (and I hope, none at all).

Cheers

[groovon]

I just talked with a tech at Tascam, and he says you need to uncompress the downloaded file, then extract and transfer just the update file to the recorder. This is just as I thought in the beginning.

My original problem was that I was not getting just a normal .zip file, but a '.zip.tgz' file, and was unable to uncompress it. The Tascam guy thinks thia might have been caused by the browser I'm using (Google Chrome).

He's sending me the update file, which I'll try again to install. Then just for the record I'll change browsers and try the download again.

Whether this works or not, I'll let you know...

Dave

[groovon]

It worked!          

Unzipping the file (as I first thought ...ahem.) seems like all there was to it. Just shows you, you can't take in everyone's advice equally(!) But I appreciate all the help everyone offered. It was truly a learning experience!

You can now 'sort of' select menu items from the front panel. It's still pretty 'unintuitive' to get around (hard to believe), but better than before, and I haven't discover all the changes yet.
Amazingly enough, still no linked gain control for stereo pairs. That's insane. I emailed them a suggestion on that one (no doubt I'm not the only one!)

Out to do some recording with this thing soon..

Dave

[flipp]

Glad you got it to finally take the update.