When the firmware updates turns your D810 into a brick.......

Yup, did something stupid. In my defense, I didn't KNOW it was going to be stupid......... On 12/21 I installed the new firmware on the D810. FOLLOWED THE INSTRUCTIONS. Loaded it onto the CF card, put it in the camera, told it to update the firmware, LEFT IT SITTING ON THE DESK SO I WOULDN'T HIT ANY BUTTONS, and WAITED......... Green bars came on, moved across the screen, and then.................................................................................. NOTHING.................

No, "I'm done" or "HELP, I've fallen and I can't get up." Nothing. Just sat there like effluvium in a punchbowl. Left it for the night - hoping it would MAGICALLY cure itself at 2 a.m. or something.

So, on 12/22 I called Nikon and we spent a little while going through the things that could be done. Like trying again. Resetting the camera. Other unlikely things that didn't work. Finally, he concluded "It's dead, you're gonna have to send it in."

So, I did. Boxed it, packed it, took it to the "send stuff away" place and paid them an astronomical sum to insure it and get it to Nikon on Monday 12/28.......

It arrived at 06:10 on 12/28, and I received an email on 12/29 telling me they were going to fix it and it was under warranty..... OK...

On 12/31 I called Nikon and got a person who said "Oh, it's been in the shop for THREE DAYS." "Yup, said I, and since it's just to have you fix the firmware, I'm figuring it's about a 20 minute job. So, can you encourage them to get it fixed and out the door?"
"Well, said he, it's almost 1 o'clock and THEY'RE ALL GONE, but SINCE IT'S BEEN HERE SINCE MONDAY, IT'LL SURELY BE DONE AND HEADING BACK BY NEXT TUESDAY. Call back and check then."

SO, I did. In fact, I gave them until TODAY, Thursday, and called back. And was told "It's on parts hold."
"Um, IT'S A FIRMWARE UPDATE THAT FAILED. WHAT PARTS IS IT ON HOLD FOR?"
"I don't know <bored, heavy sigh>. If you want I can "find out"..."
"GREAT, LET'S FIND OUT!"
"Oh, I CAN'T find out today. I'll have to CALL THEM."
"Great, LET'S CALL THEM."
"Oh."
Me:"Is there a manager on duty?"
"Yes, but she won't know either."
"Give me to her."
<pause on hold for several minutes> Got to supervisor.
Turns out SHE has no idea why it's on parts hold either, but (in theory) she will contact them and let me know tomorrow why my D810 that came in for them to fix the firmware update failure is now a very expensive paperweight somewhere in the bowels of Nikon........

I'm sure there's a moral in there somewhere, but the only thing I've come up with is If you NEED the camera to work ANYTIME IN THE SEMI-NEAR FUTURE, DON'T SCREW WITH IT...

Wow, this has been sitting here so quietly... I figured I'd at least get heckled by a bunch of people telling me "Gee, the update went perfectly for me!"

Anyhow, the D810 came back from Nikon today. I'd been told last week that it was on "Parts Hold", then Friday that the part had become available... It went to Quality Control yesterday, got shipped and arrived today.....

Nice!

I have NO idea WHY they needed a part since all it went in for was to have them force the firmware update to work, but it turns out they REPLACED THE SENSOR, and RE-CALIBRATED THE AUTO-FOCUS. Which is good, 'cause with my long lens (Nikon 500/f4) it didn't ALWAYS seem to hit the autofocus perfectly.....

SO, the good news is Nikon did a good job getting it to me. I'll test it tomorrow. And they covered it under warranty, which is also nice...

And the BEST news is that I have the body back in plenty of time for the cat show we'll be photographing in less than 2 weeks.........

GracieAllen said:

Wow, this has been sitting here so quietly... I figured I'd at least get heckled by a bunch of people telling me "Gee, the update went perfectly for me!"

Anyhow, the D810 came back from Nikon today. I'd been told last week that it was on "Parts Hold", then Friday that the part had become available... It went to Quality Control yesterday, got shipped and arrived today.....

Nice!

I have NO idea WHY they needed a part since all it went in for was to have them force the firmware update to work, but it turns out they REPLACED THE SENSOR, and RE-CALIBRATED THE AUTO-FOCUS. Which is good, 'cause with my long lens (Nikon 500/f4) it didn't ALWAYS seem to hit the autofocus perfectly.....

SO, the good news is Nikon did a good job getting it to me. I'll test it tomorrow. And they covered it under warranty, which is also nice...

And the BEST news is that I have the body back in plenty of time for the cat show we'll be photographing in less than 2 weeks.........

Click to expand...

I won't heckle you over the lack of success of the firmware update... But I certainly will over a cat show!!!! :nightmare: :eyetwitch:

Consider yourself heckled!!!

WM

<chuckle>

Hey, cat shows are FUN... And photographing cats is a lot more interesting than photographing dogs! Doing portraits of show dogs is a lot like taking passport photos... Show dogs are VERY well behaved, and each has a handler. You give instructions, and set them, and they stack and pose. shoot.....

With cats, you have to work much harder! They actually run the portrait session, and we figure our job (me, and my wife, who's my cat wrangler) is to capture the cat's personality. It's actually a lot of fun. There don't appear to be a lot of photographers that work with show cats...

BUT, I can definitely see where the idea would be heckle-worthy!

Smartness runs in my family. When I went to school I was so smart my teacher was in my class for five years.
Gracie Allen

GracieAllen said:

And the BEST news is that I have the body back in plenty of time for the cat show we'll be photographing in less than 2 weeks.........

Click to expand...

GracieAllen said:

SO, I did. In fact, I gave them until TODAY, Thursday, and called back. And was told "It's on parts hold."
"Um, IT'S A FIRMWARE UPDATE THAT FAILED. WHAT PARTS IS IT ON HOLD FOR?"
"I don't know <bored, heavy sigh>. If you want I can "find out"..."
"GREAT, LET'S FIND OUT!"
"Oh, I CAN'T find out today. I'll have to CALL THEM."
"Great, LET'S CALL THEM."
"Oh."
Me:"Is there a manager on duty?"
"Yes, but she won't know either."
"Give me to her."
<pause on hold for several minutes> Got to supervisor.
Turns out SHE has no idea why it's on parts hold either, but (in theory) she will contact them and let me know tomorrow why my D810 that came in for them to fix the firmware update failure is now a very expensive paperweight somewhere in the bowels of Nikon........

Click to expand...

It may have had to have it's version of a PC's BIOS chip replaced, I am not sure how similar the two systems are (Nikon internals and PC).

AFAIK: IF the BIOS updates get messed up so bad they replace the chip as that is needed to bootup the system to fix it in the first place, That or thay have a machine to "flash" it again.

HTH

Well, the good news (so far) is it SEEMS to be working fine...

And as for Alf and his recipes:

Unfortunately a lot of people "brick" their computers updating their BIOS - similar scenario - can't always tell what they did wrong, if in fact they did anything wrong. I think most of the time it's an update software issue, feeding the 1's and 0's in one bit at a time, or a power problem is mostly to blame. If something can go wrong it usually will.

Nikon may have gotten smart like a lot of PC motherboard manufactures and make the firmware chip replaceable by putting it in a socket as opposed to soldering it directly to the motherboard, essentially making the MB a cute gadget for your shelf.

Good you got it back. It's nice they fixed that other stuff too. My dealing with Nikon west coast is they were professional and I was pleasantly surprised - except for the $320 cost off warranty work I needed - but that wasn't their fault.

Happy shooting

GracieAllen said:

Wow, this has been sitting here so quietly... I figured I'd at least get heckled by a bunch of people telling me "Gee, the update went perfectly for me!"

Anyhow, the D810 came back from Nikon today. I'd been told last week that it was on "Parts Hold", then Friday that the part had become available... It went to Quality Control yesterday, got shipped and arrived today.....

Nice!

I have NO idea WHY they needed a part since all it went in for was to have them force the firmware update to work, but it turns out they REPLACED THE SENSOR, and RE-CALIBRATED THE AUTO-FOCUS. Which is good, 'cause with my long lens (Nikon 500/f4) it didn't ALWAYS seem to hit the autofocus perfectly.....

SO, the good news is Nikon did a good job getting it to me. I'll test it tomorrow. And they covered it under warranty, which is also nice...

And the BEST news is that I have the body back in plenty of time for the cat show we'll be photographing in less than 2 weeks.........

Click to expand...

OK, lesson learned, and a cautionary tale for others...... Unless you DON'T need your equipment for long enough to send it back to Nikon, wait for them to get it into the repair place, wait for them to "get" the replacement part they'll need, do the repair, and get the camera back to you - AND, OF COURSE, PAY FOR THE SHIPPING AND THE INSURANCE - somewhere between $60 and $250 to get it TO Nikon, DON'T SCREW WITH IT............

GracieAllen said:

OK, lesson learned, and a cautionary tale for others...... Unless you DON'T need your equipment for long enough to send it back to Nikon, wait for them to get it into the repair place, wait for them to "get" the replacement part they'll need, do the repair, and get the camera back to you - AND, OF COURSE, PAY FOR THE SHIPPING AND THE INSURANCE - somewhere between $60 and $250 to get it TO Nikon, DON'T SCREW WITH IT............

Click to expand...

I suppose another step would be to verify the integrity of the update via your archive tool or Checksum.