As the subject line says, I wonder whether my media player (third gen) got bricked after I tried to downgrade the firmware. I didn’t use this media player often, but nevertheless recently let it uprade to the latest firmware when I saw it was a new one. After I did this, the media player started freezing while playing media files and then typically also informed that it didn’t support the codec for the file that had just worked moments before.
I only used the media player for media through USB. Not streaming, yet I experienced the same bug as many other people have described. Possibly because there are several machines and smart phones on the network of this house.
So after reading that lots of other people had the same problem, I decided downgrading the firmware. From the current version 2.01.86 (or rather it was version 2.02.xx that was the last, according to my media players info and also what I read on the forum)…back to 1.16.13. I transported the three files over to a memory stick (kept it at NTFS) and insterted it to the player and started it. And unlike the instructions I find on WD, it wasn’t all like that. Instead I could see the firmwared by clicking the notification button on the upper right.
So I did. I was asked whether I wanted to upgrade to “3.16.13”. I clicked ok to that, and after a short while the media seemed to restart itself while the light on the memory stick kept blinking for quite a while. I say “restart itself” since the light indicator on the WD media player turned itself on.
But the screen never came on again. I expected the media player to turn itself on after some more while, since I didn’t see any more activity on the memory stick. But after waiting for half an hour I decided to try to turn the media player off and on again. The light indicator goes on, but it never starts up.
It seems bricked. I wonder what happened, as I have done lots of firmware upgrades (also downgrades) with different products before, and it has always worked before.
If I try to insert the memory stick again with the firmware and turn on the media player, the memory stick blinks for perhaps a minute, and then nothing.
So when it fails like it just did, there is no way to fix the media player?
(I am more than a little surprised that an attempt downgrade the firmeware might have bricked my media player. )
I would appreciate your input.
Thank you.