Best firmware?

[greenskull13]

hi all. I've been looking at getting this tablet's 8gb version for awhile and I think I might get it here soon. I know it doesn't come with flash out of box so I will want to update it when I get it. the Question is which firmware? I saw a lot of people say that the 2.1.8 version was good and that the newer ones have a lot of bugs. any advise?

[julian67]

I bought my A43 in February. It came with a version 1.0* firmware and I have used every firmware since then up to October's 2.4.65. Currently I run 2.1.8 and won't be updating again beyond that unless there are fixes for newer versions of the stock media player, which has real problems with ogg vorbis tags and playback and aac/m4a playback. In my experience 2.1.8 is very stable and reliable with good battery life. There are a few annoyances/issues but no surprises.

If vorbis and aac playback aren't relevant to you then it may be worthwhile using newer firmwares. There are some very useful enhancements and fixes. You can read the changelogs for each firmware at http://update.archos.com/8/gen8/changes ... d_gen8.htm

I don't think I had any other important problems with newer firmwares but I recall that others did. You can search around for that kind of info but it's probably best to only pay attention to people who can describe a problem in such a way that you can check and compare for yourself; there are a plenty of nonsense posts such as "omg everything is so much faster" or "omg x,y, and z are hosed" when nothing relevant has changed.

[tmc]

Archos wase supposed to have made some fw fixes to be able to have more functionality out of the internal camera, with video calling apps such as skype but these seem to have been a total failure as I've never gotten these kinds of apps to work on my A43 regardless of firmware. If you want that function the gen8 tablets are not for you as the .3 - 1.2mp interpolated horrible camera is useless for many functions better camers are used for. Sorry to say that better camera technology was made in 2003 in small electronics.. and miniturized & enhanced further by 2006 in cellphones.

[Nuieve]

Let's put it this way:

THEY"RE ALL THE SAME.

I haven't noticed a SLIGHTEST difference IN ANYTHING over the course of 217 firmware updates I did on my 43. The unit works now exactly the same as it did in February when I bought it.

I hope this makes it clear.

[racky]

freedom of speech, no comment.

But for those who want to know the difference between each versions, make sure to check the log.

http://update.archos.com/8/gen8/changes ... d_gen8.htm

[adrianb]

They are not the same: There was a firmware version which made the A43 to boot in loop. That made it really unusable. That was fixed in 2.3.81. So stay away from that one version before 2.3.81 (not sure if it still on the playground). Otherwise, it is hard to notice any difference. Anyway, per global, comparing original code with last code, now the battery drains in 1-2 days if I don't use it, while at the beginning it easily lasted for one week
(I still suspect that happened when I installed Arctools - I put it in power save mode, with no visible results)

[Greg_e]

They are not the same for me either, once they put in the code to overclock the GPU mine started to have real problems getting bogged down. Also things like media playing changed through out the updates, early it would have a small gap between songs, later it would chop off the end of a song as it transitions to the next. I think I'm going to hack mine and go back to 2.0.71.