fed up with firmware 2.1.4 ... its about time for an update

[Bouldergeek]

I do think that 2.1.04 is a step backwards.

Wish I hadn't installed it. I find that my device has been powered off after it has been unused for a day. That didn't happen before.

My app crashing stopped. However, Market installations and updates frequently hang and refuse to complete after all of the data has been downloaded. And I still don't have Maps back. >:-(

[daviator]

Reading tech support forums tends to make everyone believe whatever issue they are reading about or posting about are wide spread.
This is simply not true.

I have updated to every firmware put out.
Outside of the loss of wireless n(which has been fixed), I am not and have not experienced any of the issues you guys are having.

What kills me about fanboys is that just because YOU are not experiencing the problems others are doesn't mean that they aren't wide spread. I have experienced most of the power issues: going into deep sleep and not wanting to wake, rebooting while asleep, poor battery life, etc. Most of the problems cropped up after firmware 2.1.2-4

Mine went back via an RMA because Archos would not answer my emails or phone calls concerning my issues. It took a call to Customer Service (NOT technical support) and a flood of emails to get an RMA. Since they would not tell me that the problem was firmware related and that a fix was coming, I had no choice but to assume that my device was defective.

As for being impatient, I have been visiting this forum since I received my A70 on December 30. I watched the complaints explode after the the latest batch of firmware releases and I have seen some on here become increasingly more angry as Archos continues do nothing publicly.

For the record, an Archos manager finally called me back (after I sent it back) and he confirmed to me that the power issues are wide spread.

[Greg_e]

There must be at least two hardware versions and maybe because I got the second batch of 43's (or third batch) that I might be having fewer problems. Without opening the devices to find the circuit board revision numbers there is probably no way to know if there is a difference.

At 7:00 this morning I had 90 percent battery, I just clicked the power button to wake it up and I'm at 88 percent. It has been sleeping for about 35 hours from a full charge so there is definitely something different about my 43 than some of the other devices which are still seeing massive power drains while sleeping and in use.

[blokey]

i sent back two 43's already. in settings/about you can see the board number.

The first 43 i had came with eclair FW and was v2, and the second was v6 (or 7?) and came with 2.0.71. My current a32 is v3 and came with eclair. I would be surprised if there was much if any difference at all - if anything it might just be to identify the supplier of the board ( though if anyone knows any better i'd be happy to learn something new).

According to sod's law, the next fw should be out tomorrow as i've just re installed 2.0.71.

[naboo the enigma]

In my opinion this thread is very relavent considering all the things that were suppose to be fix in all 3 of the new firmwares but they seem to be getting worse between 2.1.2, 2.1.3, and 2.14. I know that not everyone expriences the samething with every firmware but when i got my 101 and got 2.0.71 i was very happy. But since going to 2.1.2 and 2.1.3 i couldnt download things with browsers and then going to 2.1.4 my HDMI connect doesnt work. I know these arent problems everyone gets but i would like an update that wouldnt screw up some of the funnier things of the tablet. This is all besides the fact that since going to 2.1.4 my 101 is slower and less responsize and battery drains a lot faster. Im down grading till they can get the bugs worked out.

[jkane13]

I am far from a fan boy. I don't find the 2.1.04 is any worse than any previous release. It is not "fantastic". But it is better than every previous version.

[sweetypie]

I am far from a fan boy. I don't find the 2.1.04 is any worse than any previous release. It is not "fantastic". But it is better than every previous version.

Unfortunately, only for some people.

[MarcusMarcus]

I am far from a fan boy. I don't find the 2.1.04 is any worse than any previous release. It is not "fantastic". But it is better than every previous version.

Unfortunately, only for some people.

Isn't that how all the firmwares have been so far? They work well for some people but brings problems for some others.

[sweetypie]

I am far from a fan boy. I don't find the 2.1.04 is any worse than any previous release. It is not "fantastic". But it is better than every previous version.

Unfortunately, only for some people.

Isn't that how all the firmwares have been so far? They work well for some people but brings problems for some others.

It's true. It lends credence, for me at least, to the contention that the devices are being manufactured in more than one location, with different quality control standards. The Firmware releases are common to all devices, so, by a process of elimination ... On the other hand, it might be useful to have a more detailed "techy" description of the revision(s) affecting Wifi and USB, so we can trouble shoot for ourselves.

Having read about these failings, they do seem to fall into two camps. Works / doesn't work. If there were an infinite number of permutations I'd be less sure.

Over the past three days I've installed and uninstalled versions 2.1.04 and 2.1.02, replacing them with 2.0.71. Every time it's like turning a light switch off and back on again, as far as Wifi goes. 2.1.x turns it off, 2.0.71 turns it back on again.

I'm just happy that, fingers crossed, I don't yet have the dead USB issue. That's more of a one-way street.

Hmm ...

[Greg_e]

My a43 is v5 with an unknown boot version (actually is says unknown/0.00.000000)

The only issue that I can see of test is that the wifi signal strength always shows much lower than it should be, sitting at my desk I have four access points that it could be using at any given time, none of them more than 50 feet away. My laptop always says signal is good at this location. I don't have a host cable yet, I also don't have a mini hdmi cable yet.

Is there a terminal command that will dump the processor model or dump any of the other component model numbers? Obviously I don't know much of Linux commands so if someone can come up with a list of commands we can start making a list and finding our which parts work and which parts do not. Might be the only way to get them to fix it.

[xbs]

Does anyone with ext3 rolledback to .71?
If so, what happens when you install a fw that doesn't support the file system?

[blokey]

i rolled back to 2.0.71 with ext and it seemed to work ok. dmesg seemed a bit messy though. I didn't leave it like that for long though because after the last few firmwares im not really in the mood for using an experimental build.

In fact, if you mount the device in linux under 2.0.71 i think it would survive being formatted from vfat to ext3... again i don't really want to try. Support for ext will always be there, its just that in some instances, the 2.0.71 might expect to see vfat and some minor things might be buggy.

I'm happier with 2.0.71 than 2.1.4 - im so used to resetting android now, it took less than 15 minutes to get all my apps and their settings back (not quite as quick as with titanium backup but stil pretty fast). In retrospect i think that 2.0.71 is a much more stable build. Wifi connect is slower, and there is a small speed difference between ext and vfat (basically the same difference as i saw with the A5it). However, whilst i was originally quite happy about the swap in the latest FW, having now gone back to 2.0.71 i think that it's more trouble than it's worth. I really hope there will be the option to disable it in the next update.

I left it in sleep overnight and there was a small but noticable improvement as far as battery drain was concerned. I haven't had any crashes yet either, and its nice to not have to wonder if the device is gonna turn on or not each time i press the power button.

[wdl1908]

Does anyone with ext3 rolledback to .71?
If so, what happens when you install a fw that doesn't support the file system?

Yes I rolled back to 71 and the ext3 sticks but there is another problem. The place that is used for swap in 2.1.02/04 was used for the /cache directory. This means you can't download from the market anymore and probably some other programs can't download. I fixed it manually because I had root but I suspect the Check partition in the recovery will fix it too. Have not tested that.

[4DThinker]

About time for another update. Be sure and start a new "fed up" thread when the new one gets here.

[sweetypie]

Does anyone with ext3 rolledback to .71?
If so, what happens when you install a fw that doesn't support the file system?

Yes I rolled back to 71 and the ext3 sticks but there is another problem. The place that is used for swap in 2.1.02/04 was used for the /cache directory. This means you can't download from the market anymore and probably some other programs can't download. I fixed it manually because I had root but I suspect the Check partition in the recovery will fix it too. Have not tested that.

Hey wdl1908, thanks for that reminder about the cache space, I'd forgotten all about that. With all my messing about with FWs over the past few days, I've had this inexplicably very small limit to the number of apps I've been able to download from the Market, before it just stops downloading things. The down arrow shows then stops very quickly. I got fed up in the end and reformatted the whole device.

That's a real issue with installing 2.0.71 over a later FW.

[wdl1908]

Does anyone with ext3 rolledback to .71?
If so, what happens when you install a fw that doesn't support the file system?

Yes I rolled back to 71 and the ext3 sticks but there is another problem. The place that is used for swap in 2.1.02/04 was used for the /cache directory. This means you can't download from the market anymore and probably some other programs can't download. I fixed it manually because I had root but I suspect the Check partition in the recovery will fix it too. Have not tested that.

Hey wdl1908, thanks for that reminder about the cache space, I'd forgotten all about that. With all my messing about with FWs over the past few days, I've had this inexplicably very small limit to the number of apps I've been able to download from the Market, before it just stops downloading things. The down arrow shows then stops very quickly. I got fed up in the end and reformatted the whole device.

That's a real issue with installing 2.0.71 over a later FW.

yes you have to do it twice because the first time you flash the 2.0.71 over an 2.1.04 it still has the recovery of the 2.1.04 that wants to format the swap the second time the recovery is replaced by the correct one and that should work fine.

The problem I had was that the battery drain was the same as with 2.1.04 so I suspect a full reformat is needed to fix that.

Whats your battery drain with the 2.0.71?

[sweetypie]

It's interesting - people keep asking me about battery life. Sorry, but I never measure battery life. Too many variables. All I an say is, it's not noticeably bad. A politician's answer, I know.

[tinapatra]

I find the update good with no WiFi problems.
My only problem is that the USB doesn't work as it did before I did the upgrade. I don't use it at the moment so not an issue.
Haven't tried the HDMI yet but will do soon.

[fuzzer]

I see all these people saying they don't have wifi problems. Archos says it is not a problem. Is there anyone else that uses thier tablet on wifi HotSpots and not just their home network?

I have proven to myself that .03 & .04 crippled my wifi access on some hotspots. I never had any problems with my home network. Once I reverted back to 2.0.71, the hotspots work again.

first experiment...format, install 2.0.71, OTA to .04....home wifi no problem, hotspot broke
second experiment....format, install 2.0.71....home wifi no problem, hotspot no problem...

I don't like 2.0.71 because of the media being deleted from the SD. I use the .no media, but the media apps don't function 100%...but I'd rather have wifi...

[sweetypie]

Just for the record, MY Wifi problem with FW 2.1.02/3/4 is not that it fails to connect to my router. It connects ok, but doesn't have internet access. With 2.0.71 it connects AND gets internet access.