Firmware update failed (and then it worked)
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I've just received my Spark Mini Pearl, and as per instructions I've been trying to update the firmware from Windows 10 PC. For a while it didn't work, but then it did. So this post started out as a "damn it, epic fail" complaint but ends up with a sort-of happy "yay, success" ending.
I thought rather than bin this post, I'd share what I learned, in case it can help someone else!
For a while I was stuck - the Firmware Updater app didn't look the same as on the phone app.
It turns out searching for Firmware Updater on the main site had given me an old version of the Spark 40 software. So I 'shared' the instruction page from the app through email back to my PC and downloaded the correct version.Here are the instructions, with embedded links...
Instructions from phone appNext I had the problem with Spark not connecting to the PC. Here's where it got frustrating, I kept restarting the firmware updater app, and the Spark, and it just wouldn't connect up. After each press-and-hold of the power+pair buttons I could hear the Windows sound showing a USB device was connecting, but it took a while after each restart, and still the updater wouldn't recognise it.
Eventually it just worked for me. I tried different USB ports on my system and rather counter-intuitively it was one of the 'extension' ports on the front of my case, rather than one of the ones mounted directly on the motherboard that worked. And I also clicked the 'continue' button on the updater app after a delay, so that Windows sound was (by luck?) timed right after I hit the button.
The only thing I know for sure is that you need to follow the instructions exactly in what things to start, when to connect the cable, when to hit the button on the updater app... whether my lucky timing with the connection or my change of USB port affected it, I'm not so sure.
So (in the words of Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush), don't give up (like I nearly did) - keep trying - it may well just suddenly work!
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@ross-brooker It took me about 10 times....I spent 2 hours trying......finally it worked