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Do I have the bitter honor of having the first dead Cinema 800? It begins...


uKER

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Well, all in my life was well until I woke up today and unexpectedly found my Cinema 800 with "UPDATING..." in its display.

I found it quite weird that it had decided to update itself during the night with no intervention from me, but well.

I let it sit there for over an hour and a half, and nothing ever happened, so I tried and the bar was responding to remote control commands.

Probably a glich, I thought. Turned the bar off, but when it came back on, the "UPDATING..." notice came back.

Left it there for a good while and it never went away.

 

I then decided to do some research and ended up here.

https://support.klipsch.com/hc/en-us/articles/4406163207316-Cinema-800-Firmware-Update

 

There I saw my bar actually did not have the latest firmware, so I set out to update it.

Followed the instructions there, and the update appeared to have gone well, coming back to a screen that showed the volume level.

The world came crashing down when I turned the bar off and it never powered back on.

 

I've tried everything. Followed the procedure for the BAR-48 seen here, nothing happened.

Tried multiple flash drives, no cigar.

The flashing procedure for the Cinema 800 begins with the bar turned on, so it's kinda expected.

I've tried the factory reset sequence too, but that one too assumes the bar to be initially on, so that too is a no go.

 

I contacted Klipsch and they seemed not to have any contingency for a failed firmware update whatsoever, going straight to offering a replacement, which is kinda worrying.

 

Unfortunately, I live in South America and now I cannot get the bar into my country without paying a fortune in customs taxes and duties.

 

Not happy at all.

 

So there. Congratulations to me for being the first one I guess.

Suggestions and condolences are welcome.

Edited by uKER
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I have the same problem with a Cinema 800 bar, including the constant "UPDATING" notice.  I must be the second one with this problem.

Contacted Klipsch today and tried to reflash and a do factory reset with the rep.  No HDMI connectivity although bluetooth works fine.  My condolences, but at least you got a replacement offer.  My problem was kicked upstairs to a senior tech rep.

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I spoke to customer service today who was aware of my problem.  They offered to replace the bar as they investigate and attempt to resolve any existing problems with the update process.  Apparently, other users have successfully performed a wifi update with this bar!

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My cinema 800 unit is displaying the same text. It seems to still work though so I haven’t  done any troubleshooting since that appears to risk bricking the sound bar. I did open a support ticket.  

Edited by DanQ
Added sound bar model
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On 9/17/2021 at 11:29 AM, johndt said:

I spoke to customer service today who was aware of my problem.  They offered to replace the bar as they investigate and attempt to resolve any existing problems with the update process.  Apparently, other users have successfully performed a wifi update with this bar!

Wi-Fi update how? 

Can you get me a link to read about it?

I asked support about that possiblity, since my bar is still visible on the network, but got nothing from them.

 

Quote

My 600 bought in April 2021 will not turn on.  And I want to buy another bar only and that doesn't seem to be an option.

Yeah, I also asked that they only shipped a new bar (no subwoofer) to me, but that also seems to be impossible apparently.

Edited by uKER
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On 9/29/2021 at 12:07 PM, johndt said:

Thanks for the suggestion, but yeah, my original post mentions I exhaustively tried flashing using a flash drive.

Apparently there's no way to initiate flashing unless the bar is alive.

Edited by uKER
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This post is a follow-up to my support request. I was able to fix my issue by performing a factory reset followed by a hard power cycle (I unplugged it) with a 10 second delay before plugging it back in. My firmware successfully updated over WiFi before this issue appeared. I did not try a flash drive update. 
 

I have since had two instances where the soundbar stopped playing audio from the TV. A hard power cycle fixed both of these as well. Hopefully this is just a firmware issue that will be updated at some point. 

Edited by DanQ
Grammar
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  • 3 weeks later...
On 9/14/2021 at 3:42 PM, uKER said:

Well, all in my life was well until I woke up today and unexpectedly found my Cinema 800 with "UPDATING..." in its display.

 

I know that feeling...

 

I exchanged my Cinema 600 for a Cinema 800 three days ago. The install went well except for one thing: I couldn't get my HDMI connections to work until I used the HDMI cable that came with the soundbar. Just so others know, an older cable can cause issues.

 

The next day I saw the "UPDATING..." message on the display. It was still updating the following day too.

 

Like you, I decided to do a manual firmware update. Everything proceeded exactly as expected but when I verified that the update was successful, the display showed "DSP 4. 4" (with a space after the decimal point.) I repeated the update a couple of times, double checking everything along the way, but the outcome was always the same.

 

There is another possible issue everyone should be aware of: Item #2 under Upgrade Step 1 - DSP in Cinema 800 - Firmware Update states:

Quote

Unzip the "DSP 4.9" firmware file attached to this article and copy the file titled “ISPBOOOT.BIN” onto the empty flash drive. Make sure this is the only file on the flash drive.

 

If you format the USB Flash Drive from Windows 10, the drive will contain a small hidden directory that cannot be removed using Windows 10. I don't know if that will impact the firmware update but it is something about which everyone should be aware. I was able to delete the directory from a Linux system but was still unable to successfully complete the firmware update.

 

Once again it's time to reach out to Klipsch Product Support. 😞

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On 9/14/2021 at 5:42 PM, uKER said:

 

I contacted Klipsch and they seemed not to have any contingency for a failed firmware update whatsoever, going straight to offering a replacement, which is kinda worrying.

 

Unfortunately, I live in South America and now I cannot get the bar into my country without paying a fortune in customs taxes and duties.

 

Not happy at all.

 

 

you are not happy , but had you not moved to SA , you would be a very happy customer

 

it stands that the warranty applies as far as shipping  in the Country of purchase  and not in SA since this was not the country where you purchased the item , now normally , if the product is a warranty exchange ,free of charge ,,,, Customs in SA could note the importation as a 0$  item and not apply an customs - taxes or duties  as it is a warranty replacement , and if they do not , then complain to your local Government ---that is something that would apply to anyone , in any country of the world  -

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  • 2 weeks later...

After my November 4 post above I notified Klipsch Product support. I have a case I opened two years ago. 😞

 

Ten days later I got a response asking if I tried this and that and could I send a photo of the of the display. They also wanted to know what version of WIFI I was using. This is the relevant info from the display: "MCU V76", "DSP 4. 4" (with the space), "WIFI" (with no version).

 

Yesterday I phoned Klipsch Product Support. The gentleman with whom I spoke was very helpful. He acknowledged that some customers have encountered issues with firmware updates and, while they don't yet have a solution, he suggested there may be an issue with how the USB thumb drive is formatted. 

 

Okay, I'm grasping at straws here. Initially I prepared the USB drive on a Windows 10 system. This time I formatted the drive on a Linux system and again attempted the firmware update. After it completed, the display showed: "MCU V76", "DSP 4. 4" (with the space), "WIFI 1.0.138.0".  While the firmware update did not complete successfully some components did change.

 

Perhaps if we share additional details about our attempted firmware upgrades we can find something in common with all the failed attempts?

 

I have the Surround 3 speakers pared and connected. This is required for part two of the firmware upgrade but apparently not for the first part. Also, my sound bar has HDMI connections to my TV, Apple TV, and cable box. I will attempt another manual firmware upgrade after removing all external connections and see if that helps.

 

More to follow...

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 11/19/2021 at 12:25 PM, KevinB said:

Perhaps if we share additional details about our attempted firmware upgrades we can find something in common with all the failed attempts?

Just a thought...

I help support a little over 400 PCs, about 70 percent are linux. Using usb drives to move some things around has been iffy, but I formatted a usb with rufus (windows only), but let it make it an ms-dos disk/drive. It's worked better than other formats. Originally I tried it to be able to do a bios update on a laptop, actually on a laptop that would initiate the update from the bios itself.

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On 11/19/2021 at 10:25 AM, KevinB said:

Perhaps if we share additional details about our attempted firmware upgrades we can find something in common with all the failed attempts?

 

After a half dozen attempts to complete a manual update the firmware, Klipsch Product Support asked me to try a few more times. 😒  

 

I disconnected all inputs and removed the dongle connecting my Surround 3 speakers just to eliminate any possible issue due to connected devices. It made no difference. The firmware still showed "DSP 4.4" after the upgrade completed. 

 

In a previous post I reported that my display showed "DSP 4. 4" (with the space). Klipsch Product Support asked me to provide a photo then responded that was normal.

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