Mine too gone. Waiting to return it in couple of days. WAY TO GO WD!!! 
Mine is gone as well :angry:
Downloaded the update successfully (internet connection), the box rebooted and hung at the WD TV screen. Tried to resett and then powered off the WD box after 25 min, now its stuck on the - insert a usb with firmware screen.
Add me to the list too!
This morning my 7-days old WDTV Live reported that new firmware is available for download. Unfortunately, I pressed OK and left it to update itself from the web. When I came back some 40 minutes later the unit was frozen at the WD logo screen. Did the unplug-plug sequence and found myself facing the black multilingual screen of death!
The previous update to 1.01.11 went smoothly over the internet.
Tried everything posted here and on other boards (FAT, FAT32, 8GB, 4GB, 2GB usb flash drives, usb-in-then-power, power-then-usb-in, firmware downgrade…) without any success. Haven’t tried the reset button without any cables plugged in WDTV Live since I am not at home now…
Posted the question to WD support some 5 hours ago but still no reply from them…
Please, all users that have successfully un-bricked their units - post detail info on the exact procedure…
Thanks!
Figured I better post to say that mine updated correctly. Went from .11 to .12 with no troubles (did take longer than the last update though).
Sorry to hear so many are having issue though. ;-(
Jason
Just bricked mine too - opened it *yesterday*
Couple things I’ve noticed from the various forums. Hard to tell given teh lack of info from most ‘Mine bricked too!’ posts, but those that had no trouble with the upgrade seemed to have USB drives connected. Shot in teh dark, but who knows.
Mine was brand new, network only, HDMI to monitor. v1.0.11 on a USB drive does not work, even if you tweak the version number (not a surprise)
That said, if you still have a week or more in your return window, I’d sit tight for a day or two. The fact that the units are in the bootstrap recovery mode (you get the thing tuirned on AND you get USB drive access of some sort) means unless they blew away the USB support in the bootstrap code, this can be fixed. Calling support right away and having them say ‘Yeah you are screwed’ is not surprising. Let the developers get a look at this today and see what they come up with. WD and their vendors are NOT going to want hundreds of thousands of these things flying back to them in RMA boxes. That’ll happen some anyway, but point is - it’s in their vested interest to find a user end fix to this.
I’m still messing around with combinations and ways to get the units back. It may really be dead and have to be returned. But most bricked units are no power, no function whatsoever. That’s not the case here. It’s been less than 24 hours since this expldoed. WD has to have time to wake up engineers and do some digging. Give it to them.
If they don’t post/share/provide anything workable by Monday, then ship back en masse.
No problems with my update. I blindly updated this morning, not knowing about the problems. I did have a 2GB Kingston USB drive connected at the time. The drive only contained video and photo files.
Sorry to hear about everyone elses’s issues.
Still no word from WD? [text deleted]. They are n for a rude awaikaning…
Updated via 2gb usb stick.Working normal after.
Haven’t gotten mine fixed yet, BUT some possibly good news. The unit seems to recognize a USB drive with actual firmware on it. It just doesn’t want to load the firmware that is there. This is half guess, I’ll admit, but I tried this.
I threw some songs on a 16GB flash drive. Plugged it in first. LED flashes a couple times then that’s it.
I threw the firmware on a 1GB flash and plugged it into the other port. The LED flashes a couple times, pauses, then flashes a couple times more - ie a second access. But it doesn’t actually flash the unit for some reason. The good news is the bootstrap code *seems* to be functioning to a point. When I was messing around with the .ver file (boosting the version number), I’d only get the first access because it knew things were not ‘right’. Again, guessing here. I have a strange feeling recovering from this will require a special download from WD. I’m hopeful because of what I’ve seen the recovery mode do so far.
Next try for me is to try a small HD instead of a flash drive. Both *should* be the same (generic USB mass storage devices) but what the heck.
Follow this thread here > http://wdtvhd.com/index.php?showtopic=9399
Might give some more insight into this situation.
Tried powering off the box, attaching a usb stick with 1.01.11, keeping reset button pressed and powering the box again… nothing happened.
Same procedure with 1.01.12 too… nothing.
Let’s see what WD has to say on this…
Just got off the phone with WD tech support. They are aware of the issue, but say that it will likely be 1-2 days before a resolution. They speculated that the likely resolution will be to put out a new firmware update that should update via the USB key.
Another side note, since I had them on the phone, I thought I would ask a few clarification questions, since everyone last night (including myself) was trying anything and everything to get the box working.
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It should not matter which USB port you plug the drive into for the firmware update
-
Either plugging in the USB drive with the unit powered off and then powering on, or plugging in the USB drive while at the “Please insert a USB drive with firmware to recover” screen should work
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USB drive should be able to be formatted in FAT / FAT32 / NTFS
They actaully recommended that I take the unit back to the store if I was not able to wait the 1-2 days. Not a great answer, but at least they are aware of the issue. I may just have to watch The Office on my PC
Good information TheCheeto, thanks. Thankfully I still have my old WD TV so will swap and use USB (sigh) until they get a fix out.
WD’s office is 1mile from my house in lake forest, so I’ll turn up at their offices if it does’t get resolved quickly!
Thanks for the info TheCheeto. I think I will just wait on calling them for a while and just watch the forums. I have a feeling their phones are getting hammered (although I did email them).
Did you talk to level 2 support. I had callled support with some questions before I purchased it and level 2 seemed to be more knowledgeable.
Well,
I also just got off the phone from my second call to tech support. I called first shortly after they opened and the tech was unaware of any issue, so he gave me a case number and asked me to call back 1 hour later to see if there were any updates. Now on the second call, they still are unaware a problem exists, but was told basically to return the device to the store and not do any updates on the new device until I see they have corrected the problem.
I wasn’t able to get any answers to the questions you asked Cheeto (which are good questions btw) as the tech I spoke to wasn’t sure. I also didn’t know if maybe I should have asked for a more advanced level of support or if there even is such a thing, but the tech you got must have been more advanced in any case.
I am teetering on returning the device, but if I knew a solution was forthcoming in the near future I would hold out.
Hi
I do hope you are right TheCheeto. Mine is dead in the water as well, after attempted internet u pdate.
Even worse… I’m not in the US, but in Europe. It’s probably going to be “hell” if I need to replace the hardware itself…
What a bad luck. I purchased it yesterday. And today is already dead. [text deleted]
Yes, same thing here. I called tech support and the guy didn’t even hesitate to tell me to return to the store. He seemed to have no idea of the problem and could not answer any questions in typical “call center” fashion.
Just as another update, it would appear that they do know about the issue. It looks like they took the 1.01.12 firmware update off of the website. If you go here http://www.wdc.com/wdproducts/updates/?family=wdfwdtv_live and click DOWNLOAD NOW on the right, it goes to a broken link. So at least no one else should see the issue (small consolation)
Abrexus, jlt822 that ■■■■■ you got a less than knowledgeable support rep. I hate it when that happens. And with a device like this, most of us users are pretty tech savy already, which makes it even harder to talk to someone who is “just reading a script”
Same story here. Did the update from internet, freeze for an hour, then the “Insert USB” screen. Already emailed WD support for an answer .
