HDX firmware update killed yet another card

[Hugh-H]

Hello,
With no replacement cards available Avid offered to repair this one for free. The repair took a few days and a few more days of testing. After being down a system for approximately two months we finally have it back.

It remains to be seen whether the next firmware update kills the card again.

It remains to be seen whether the next four cards that need to be updated will survive the process.

I’m glad Avid saw the correct path but this has been quite the challenge.
Hugh

[ejsongs]

oh my gosh...


my and my one card system would have died. that is so scary. I just picked up nuendo but unfornately v12 which doesnt work on Mojave. I will write them tonight just to roll me back. scary what you have been through.


ej

[martthie_08]

Reading all of the above, there is no way I am updating my system without an official statement from AVID regarding these issues. The risk of losing the big investment of a HDX card and having to cancel all work for weeks and being forced to write embarrassing apologies to my clients is not worth the benefit of a couple bugs ironed out, some new bugs introduced back again and some minor new features.

[Hugh-H]

Hello,
Avid did the right thing this time, but that's only 3 of the 7 failures they've covered, the other 4 I had to pay for.
I understand warranties - a pain in the rear but that's what it is. Something fails after the warranty expires I can't expect Avid to pay for it. Of course the hardware warranty should be longer (it's hardware! it should be reliable!) but I have no control over that and the HDX architecture is an archaic system that firmware updates continue to stretch. Which kills some cards.

What's so frustrating with this 7-card-failure-in-11-years process is the firmware update is what kills the card. If the card is sitting in a system and fails, fine, it fails - out of warranty = my problem. If it fails due to the firmware update it should not be my problem, warranty or otherwise. I have no control over the firmware update process - a daw fails, it has to be replaced, clients expect sort of modern PT versions, so the firmware MUST be updated at some point. Then it kills the card. If I didn't have to update I'd still be on v10. I pay for the support plan each year on all our systems, a substantial expense, and that very support plan update process kills the cards.

Anyway, enough complaining. I'm currently playing phone tag with a tech support person about updating the other 4 cards. I have no confidence in the process and our accountant is not amused either. If another card bricks it will be interesting to see her reaction.

Hugh

[martthie_08]

Completely agree that AVID should step in if a card is bricked during firmware updates, which they are doing if I understand correctly! It is clear that the process of updating the firmware has a high risk that was not addressed by AVID‘s software development staff and is not something the customer should be held responsible for, even less so when on an active support plan.

[Sugarnutz]

I was thinking of an HDX card in my near future and this thread has made rethink that idea. RME is a known quantity and after hunting & digging for a GSIF 2.0 compatible driver (v. 4.10 is the last driver with GSIF code written in and was a PITA to find) for an HDSP Hammerfall 9652 card in an old XP machine I may have to look at a Raydat card or two going forward. I’m currently on a HD Native Thunderbolt running 2022.10 Ultimate.

[basehead617]

I’ve never heard of a firmware update bricking an HDX card until this thread.. surprising..

[Hugh-H]

Hello again,
Well disappointing news again. Avid's solution for upgrading our remaining cards without bricking one is to pay $399/year/card for a Hardware Advantage program which will replace the card if Avid's firmware update kills one. On top of the PT support prices we already pay. And if we don't there aren't any cards to replace a bricked unit if that unfortunate event occurs.

Ouch. Many possibilities of commentary on that one, none of them polite.
H

[kosmokrator]

We have 5 HDX cards and luckily never experienced this problem.

@Avid, you realize the PR disaster this thread is, right?

If a card is killed by a firmware upgrade, just replace it asap without cost for the customer.
The downtime is pain enough.

It's not only the right thing to do, but the amount of money lost with potential customers not going to buy HDX because of this information or even existing customers going to abandon HDX in favor of other solutions will offset the price of these replacement cards multiple times over.

[JamesG602]

Originally Posted by kosmokrator

We have 5 HDX cards and luckily never experienced this problem.

@Avid, you realize the PR disaster this thread is, right?

If a card is killed by a firmware upgrade, just replace it asap without cost for the customer.
The downtime is pain enough.

It's not only the right thing to do, but the amount of money lost with potential customers not going to buy HDX because of this information or even existing customers going to abandon HDX in favor of other solutions will offset the price of these replacement cards multiple times over.

yup.... haha this thread has scared the %#&* out of me when it's time to update....