Very poor show; Basestation firmware update can kill it dead

[Kill3rCat]

Allow me to preface this by saying that this is no longer an issue. I solved it myself, without having to RMA, thankfully. What happened, was I updated my basestation firmware through the SteamVR interface. After this process (yes, I waited before the update was complete before unplugging it), one of my basestations was fine, but the other did not turn on no matter what I tried. Also note, I've only had my HTC Vive for a grand total of four days.

 

The solution? Well, I figured I might as well try and update the firmware again on the dead basestation. Fortunately, when I did the process again, Windows opened up the storage on the basestation, and I saw a file; firmware.bin. I had the good sense to delete the firmware on the dead one and copy over the firmware from the working one, now both are working again. Huzzah.

 

Other customers who experience this issue might not be so fortunate as I. It's a really poor show that a customer can potentially kill one of their basestations dead by updating their firmware. I followed all the instructions in the SteamVR software and kept the device powered until the update was complete. I can only assume that somehow, somewhere along the way, either the firmware wasn't installed correctly or the download was somehow corrupted.

 

I have a threefold suggestion:

1) I know it's Valve's software, but they really should have bright red lettering, saying: WARNING: UPDATING YOUR FIRMWARE IS A POTENTIALLY RISKY PROCESS; ONLY PROCEED IF YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING!

2) Include a warning with all future Vives shipped, containing information to that effect.

3) Really needs some kind of backup, akin to Windows System Restore, where even a clueless user can fix this themselves by rolling back their firmware in a simple, easy process.

 

Like I said, I know SteamVR is of course Valve software, but as HTC seems to be in some kind of partnership with Valve, and given that the Vive is HTC's product and they are using Valve as a proxy to deliver firmware updates, this is very much so HTC's responsibility as much as it is Valve's.