Update Issues - So what is different with this update?

[alanjpearson]

Having made 5 previous updates work easily, I was laughing at the antics on the Korg Forum with people complaining about update problems and thinking that they were dorks.........until I came to do it myself.

I wasted a whole hour - downloaded the update, extracted the files, added them to a newly FAT32 formatted stick and splat - "software update unsuccessful"

Having used a stick I had only ever previously updated both my SK2 and the Kronos with, I was mystified.
I fully formatted the stick on the PC - same result
I found another stick and did the whole lot again - same result

In exasperation I dug out an old 1G stick, quick formatted it on the PC, transferred the files to it, inserted it in the Kronos and got a message "Found Valid Update Files" and pressed OK.........
the Kronos then locked up!!!!

So then the old question - how long do I wait? - will I have to rebuild the sucker from scratch? - where did I put the backup?
Arrgghhhhh!!!

So I shut it down and hey presto, it started back up.....phew!
And then I FULLY FORMATTED the stick and transferred the files again - this time it worked and updated successfully.

Now sorry, but it shouldn't be this hard.
There is something different this time - don't know what, but I'm sure someone at Korg does, as there are too many instances of this happening where it didn't before.
Why is the Kronos more picky with what it will read from now than before 2:06 OR what is different about the update files?

[JeffB63]

What can I say?

Worked perfectly first time here.

[markn]

.
...And then I FULLY FORMATTED the stick and transferred the files again - this time it worked and updated successfully.

Well, my fellow Genesis tribute collegue,

Kronos is a PC. And this PC is running Linux. Linux is quite picky with foreign filesystems, as is a thumbdrive formatted with FAT.
It was definitely a problem with the thumbdrive, not with Kronos.

BTW, i had a similar issue, and taking and formatting another stick solved the problem...

Best
markn

[Corgy]

.
...And then I FULLY FORMATTED the stick and transferred the files again - this time it worked and updated successfully.

Well, my fellow Genesis tribute collegue,

Kronos is a PC. And this PC is running Linux. Linux is quite picky with foreign filesystems, as is a thumbdrive formatted with FAT.
It was definitely a problem with the thumbdrive, not with Kronos.

BTW, i had a similar issue, and taking and formatting another stick solved the problem...

Best
markn

Same or similar situation here. First didn't check, how the thumbdrive was formatted. There was - simultaneously - UDF and FAT formatting in two "partititions". My PC didn't have any problem, but Kronos acknowlidged the drive but treated it as empty ... ...oops?

Having read some of the reports here, I just took an empty FAT32 drive, copied the update files only and the update worked flawless.

It seems to be a drive-related-issue.

[Francois]

I have an older Toshiba 4Gb USB stick (formerly with U3 on it) that has always worked for me, from the very first update to 2.1.

Suffice it to say that after the first successful update, it was allocated to only one duty, that of updating my Kronos!

Deleting the files on it from the PC is enough, no need to reformat all the time.

So if you find something that works for you, keep it.

Same story with the DVD drive, my LiteOn reads and writes just fine, when many have reported difficulties burning a CD.

[alanjpearson]

Guys

You are simply highlighting my point.

Kronos is a PC. All the sticks I used were formatted for FAT32.
You can't say the problem is with the stick!
Ordinary PC's always recognise those sticks.

The problem is that the Kronos is not recognising the sticks due to some parameter or tolerance, presumably related to the speed of the USB port or the way the data is handled.

My point is that the problem is now worse than it was before V2:06 - so what has changed? We need a Korg person to reply I think............

[geofio]

I had the same issue as i used my pc for downloading the files, tried about 3 times all failed, then i tried using my mac and it worked first time !!!!

[ccmacdon]

No problems here.... I don't think there are very many problems.. remember there's probably hundreds who have updated no problem and don't feel obliged to report that here..

[alanjpearson]

No problems here.... I don't think there are very many problems.. remember there's probably hundreds who have updated no problem and don't feel obliged to report that here..

Thats a bit of a bury your head in the sand approach isn't it Craig?

The fact is there are problems - perhaps there are lots of people who don't report their problems either.
There seems to be three or four threads with the exact same issues.

IMHO I think it is significant enough that someone in Korg should look at it or at least comment.

In real life a memory stick is a memory stick............

[Corgy]

No problems here.... I don't think there are very many problems.. remember there's probably hundreds who have updated no problem and don't feel obliged to report that here..

I think you are right. I have some sticks around here and I can tell:

- they all work on my pc
- some are mounted to the PC faster others take quite a time - so there are differences from stick to stick
- some are refused by the Kronos: either "not plugged in" or "empty"
- some have been corrupted after having been used on the Kronos, because I got error messages using them on the pc again
- after errors a "repair" allways got the issue resoved

To be true, I can't tell the reason for this, but I too believe, that Kronos might be a little picky about sticks - at least in combination with a PC.
So I have a set of sticks "reserved" for the Kronos, because I know that those will do it.

[ccmacdon]

I'm not trying to argue with you Alan, and I don't think that my head is in the sand.. I've spent a career at IBM as a service manager (both HW and SW) and I do have some experience with computers and OS updates and accessories (of varying quality) etc. and I think that there are two trains of thought here.. one being the old rule of thumb that for every person who complains about something, there are 25 who don't.. and then there is the opposite opinion that ONLY those who have problems will come here to seek assistance on a forum like this, so minor problems reported by a few users seem exaggerated.

I think that in the case of a forum like this that is designed for end users to ask questions, share information etc. that most end users (if not all) will report their problems because they want the new functionality, and they are motivated to fully resolve the problem... in this case, the latter of the two trains of thought is more applicable in this case..

People come here to report problems and ask questions.. info sharing is the sole purpose of this forum.. People who do not have problems, simply don't post and unlike myself few will take the time to speak up and say "I had no problem". So there could be hundreds or thousands of end users that have loaded the new OS without any issues whatsoever. You can't tell from this forum what the percentage of failure is. I suspect it's low, but that's my opinion.

I'm not saying that Korg shouldn't take notice of the issues that you have reported, but I don't think that a couple of people reporting this problem (and resolving it either by changing computers or USB sticks) means this is a huge problem that Korg needs to address immediately. Actually off the top of my head it seems like more of an accessory problem ie, USB sticks that are not working within some tolerance that is required by the Kronos.

That's just my opinion.

[Corgy]

@ccmacdon much of what you say is absolutely correct. There is only one thing to be considered.

I don't know how many keyboarder share your experience as an IT professional. If there is an interface issue - and there seems one to be - you or me just get another stick, possibly of a good quality, and try it again - success - end of the story.

But I know some guys that would run crazy if there was some error during their attempt to update. Sweat on the face and horror that everything's lost. Some of them would never touch their keyboard for an update just from the imagination, something could break.

This sayed, if there is some statistical indication, that Kronos might not be working with "every stick from the street", Korg should give this some thought. There might be a solution in the Kronos OS or there might be an official recommendation what quality of sticks are to be used.

When I purchased a digital camera of pro quality some time ago, the quickstart manual recommended special RAM storage quality levels to be used. This at least is much help for the non-pro to prevent him from bad surprises ...

[JPWC]

This update went very smooth.

16-Jun-11 updated 1.04
15-Mar-12 updated 1.5
08-Apr-12 updated 1.6
15-Aug-12 updated 2.0.2
20-Nov-12 updated 2.0.5
14-Oct-13 updated 2.0.6
11-Nov-13 updated 2.1.0 and firmware 6.

Also along the way I added memory, 1 GB and 2nd SSD SATA3, 120 GB

My Kronos has crashed 5 times. Keyboard makes ugly noise and all controls do not respond. (always seem to happen when I am jamming away, playing hard, and the event scares the notes right of me)

I've used the same memory stick the entire time, I use to leave it in (connected to the Kronos) I had a crash about 6 mo. ago and thought I'd better not leave the 4G stick in all the time.

Every update went as expected, with not issues. Except for my excitement, the updates were not very thrilling.

I love my Kronos, but, the software is only 99% reliable, and the hardware is only 85% of where I'd like. I had the thing apart twice, I am not impressed with build quality.

But,

If my Kronos broke today, I'd sell my other keyboards immediately, just to buy another.

[GregC]

I'm not trying to argue with you Alan, and I don't think that my head is in the sand.. I've spent a career at IBM as a service manager (both HW and SW) and I do have some experience with computers and OS updates and accessories (of varying quality) etc. and I think that there are two trains of thought here.. one being the old rule of thumb that for every person who complains about something, there are 25 who don't.. and then there is the opposite opinion that ONLY those who have problems will come here to seek assistance on a forum like this, so minor problems reported by a few users seem exaggerated.

I think that in the case of a forum like this that is designed for end users to ask questions, share information etc. that most end users (if not all) will report their problems because they want the new functionality, and they are motivated to fully resolve the problem... in this case, the latter of the two trains of thought is more applicable in this case..

People come here to report problems and ask questions.. info sharing is the sole purpose of this forum.. People who do not have problems, simply don't post and unlike myself few will take the time to speak up and say "I had no problem". So there could be hundreds or thousands of end users that have loaded the new OS without any issues whatsoever. You can't tell from this forum what the percentage of failure is. I suspect it's low, but that's my opinion.

I'm not saying that Korg shouldn't take notice of the issues that you have reported, but I don't think that a couple of people reporting this problem (and resolving it either by changing computers or USB sticks) means this is a huge problem that Korg needs to address immediately. Actually off the top of my head it seems like more of an accessory problem ie, USB sticks that are not working within some tolerance that is required by the Kronos.

That's just my opinion.

Since owning/running my own business for some years, I think this is 100% correct.

[ccmacdon]

@ccmacdon much of what you say is absolutely correct. There is only one thing to be considered.

I don't know how many keyboarder share your experience as an IT professional. If there is an interface issue - and there seems one to be - you or me just get another stick, possibly of a good quality, and try it again - success - end of the story.

But I know some guys that would run crazy if there was some error during their attempt to update. Sweat on the face and horror that everything's lost. Some of them would never touch their keyboard for an update just from the imagination, something could break.

This sayed, if there is some statistical indication, that Kronos might not be working with "every stick from the street", Korg should give this some thought. There might be a solution in the Kronos OS or there might be an official recommendation what quality of sticks are to be used.

When I purchased a digital camera of pro quality some time ago, the quickstart manual recommended special RAM storage quality levels to be used. This at least is much help for the non-pro to prevent him from bad surprises ...

Corgy, there is no question, in my mind, that there are some very cheap USB sticks floating around that don't meet certain tolerances.. If I recall correctly I just bought 5 8G sticks for $15 (or some such ridiculous price) and these are the ones that I used for my update with no problem (lucky for me).

Like your digital cameral example, Hammond has a problem that it can't handle large USB Sticks, so owners of SK1/2's have to scramble around looking for 2-4G sticks (which are almost impossible to find these days), and that's just the way it is.. I'm not sure if Hammond has actually documented this in its owners manual but it's a well known, and accepted, problem. I seriously doubt that this is anything more than an accessory problem, and if it is I'm sure Korg is aware of it, and dealing with it IF it's deemed to be a significant problem. Maybe the Kronos isn't sensitive to large USB Sticks and maybe there's no pattern to when USB sticks might not work.. if that's the case then there isn't much Korg can do.

For the record, I would not be trying to force the Kronos to "fix" this problem if that means writing the Update to a USB stick that's not within tolerances because that's just a great way to "brick" the Kronos.. At the end of the update, the update looks at the checksum file to validate the update, and if it doesn't match what's expected, who knows what damage might have been done.. My point is that rather than tuning the OS to use unacceptable or marginal USB sticks I would much prefer the Kronos to be as fussy as hell so my Kronos isn't damaged.