We comment on iSeries firmware

[srvctec]

What irks me and what I don't understand is why KM can't keep the same naming format for base vs. special. The GC2-B6 is located in the base F/W tab BUT named like special F/W is. I sure wish they'd get their frickin' act together and name F/W consistently so as not to confuse. If they would do that, then at a glance, one could tell if the F/W is base or special. It used to always be that G00-** was base and anything other than "00" before the "-" was special.

Then there's the other thing that bugs me about this F/W GC2-B6. The pdf says "* The countermeasure of the problems solved on GC1-7B or earlier versions are included in this firmware." and GC1-7B is a special F/W from April of this year, located in the special F/W download section. So WTH would they include all the fixes of a special F/W and then put it in a F/W in the base F/W download section? Makes no sense to me.

My only guess is that they found out the fixes in GC1-7B warranted enough of a resolution to widespread issues that they decided to include those in the base F/W but if that's the case, why name the base like it's special when it isn't?

[Bix]

Hi, I can help you on this. I too was very confused at the beginning but I then did a refresher course recently at Konica Minolta Europe.


There is a lot of confusion about the firmware and this is due to the merger of Konica and Minolta. The two companies had two different thoughts and over the years they have changed the structure to try to meet.


Here's how you need to interpret the firmware.
G00 and G20 are the master firmware, the definitive ones. They need months of testing to be launched.
Konica Minolta has realized that if there is a serious problem, the customer cannot wait 3 months for your final update. The printer has now been sold and I can't wait for your tests.


This is why periodic firmware and bug fixes are now born. These firmwares are experimental, not definitive. To give an example: your cruise ship is at sea, these bug fixes are used to plug the holes of water entering the hull. These holes could keep your ship afloat for a long time or cause it to sink.


Firmware bug fixes are classified as special because they include features requested by paid or high-demand customers, as well as bug fixes. For example, many have suggested the possibility of making the home dynamic. Konica Minolta has finally decided to make this feature in an official firmware.


Now I'll make you a table on the firmware and which one you need to download:
- G00/G20 are official master firmware.
- GC/GQ/GE/GF/GG/GH are bugfix/features firmware that will become master.
- GP/GQ/GR/GS/GT/GU/GW/GX/GY/GZ are custom firmware, exclusive for special customers.

[srvctec]

Hi, I can help you on this. I too was very confused at the beginning but I then did a refresher course recently at Konica Minolta Europe.


There is a lot of confusion about the firmware and this is due to the merger of Konica and Minolta. The two companies had two different thoughts and over the years they have changed the structure to try to meet.


Here's how you need to interpret the firmware.
G00 and G20 are the master firmware, the definitive ones. They need months of testing to be launched.
Konica Minolta has realized that if there is a serious problem, the customer cannot wait 3 months for your final update. The printer has now been sold and I can't wait for your tests.


This is why periodic firmware and bug fixes are now born. These firmwares are experimental, not definitive. To give an example: your cruise ship is at sea, these bug fixes are used to plug the holes of water entering the hull. These holes could keep your ship afloat for a long time or cause it to sink.


Firmware bug fixes are classified as special because they include features requested by paid or high-demand customers, as well as bug fixes. For example, many have suggested the possibility of making the home dynamic. Konica Minolta has finally decided to make this feature in an official firmware.


Now I'll make you a table on the firmware and which one you need to download:
- G00/G20 are official master firmware.
- GC/GQ/GE/GF/GG/GH are bugfix/features firmware that will become master.
- GP/GQ/GR/GS/GT/GU/GW/GX/GY/GZ are custom firmware, exclusive for special customers.

Well, that explains it! Thanks, Bix!

Edit:
I noticed you have GQ listed twice and was wondering which location was correct because I'm putting this info in a file so I can refer to it later (I'm guessing that should be GD instead of GQ in the bugfix/features firmware list). Also GV is missing in the custom firmware; was that intentional (maybe it's not used)?

[Bix]

Well, that explains it! Thanks, Bix!

Edit:
I noticed you have GQ listed twice and was wondering which location was correct because I'm putting this info in a file so I can refer to it later (I'm guessing that should be GD instead of GQ in the bugfix/features firmware list). Also GV is missing in the custom firmware; was that intentional (maybe it's not used)?

Excuse me, I took my notes back. I'm probably cross-eyed hahaha

is in alphabetical order:
so bug fixes/features: GC/GD......../GH
Custom firmware:GP/GQ/........../GZ

[stan780953]

Hi, in your case it could be the weekly timer. You go into the power saving settings and turn it off.




What firmware are you in now? This happened to me in series 4 after a firmware update. I discovered that even loading Movie Data doesn't work anymore (after a while it said NG). I solved it by loading the firmware and movie data using the USB ports near the ethernet port. It seems to have worked!

Thanks for the reply. This was one of the first things we checked as it's normally disabled on PDI along with the power consumption in sleep mode. We have seen the same issue on a C250i and at the time this was on G00-B5, so we performed a full data clear and this hasn't played up since. Regarding the C450i and the B6 firmware this hasn't come in again either. Strange and random and not sure it's over yet!

[robinsonad86]

Another issue me & my team are having on a few of these iseries they simply won’t accept a firmware update?

Hold the button in behind the panel, we get the back dot the USB is in the panel, USB pen has the firmware in the correct FWxxx folder but the machine simply boots up as normal.

Tried various USB pen drives these all work on other models.

When the machine boots up it sees the pen & gives the option to print the contents of the FWxxx folder!

Is it possible that firmware update can be disabled by a SW switch?

Are you writing to the USB stick using Windows 10? I had this where I couldnt get any FW to work using Windows 10. Had to use some DOS commands on Windows 7 to fully wipe the sticks and then write FW using 7, worked fine

[srvctec]

What irks me and what I don't understand is why KM can't keep the same naming format for base vs. special. The GC2-B6 is located in the base F/W tab BUT named like special F/W is. I sure wish they'd get their frickin' act together and name F/W consistently so as not to confuse. If they would do that, then at a glance, one could tell if the F/W is base or special. It used to always be that G00-** was base and anything other than "00" before the "-" was special.

Then there's the other thing that bugs me about this F/W GC2-B6. The pdf says "* The countermeasure of the problems solved on GC1-7B or earlier versions are included in this firmware." and GC1-7B is a special F/W from April of this year, located in the special F/W download section. So WTH would they include all the fixes of a special F/W and then put it in a F/W in the base F/W download section? Makes no sense to me.

My only guess is that they found out the fixes in GC1-7B warranted enough of a resolution to widespread issues that they decided to include those in the base F/W but if that's the case, why name the base like it's special when it isn't?

Well, as I suspected, KM screwed up AGAIN. The GC2-B6 F/W is now where it should have been all along (on ALL i-Series models), in the special F/W tab and G00-B6 is the latest base F/W. I was checking yesterday to make sure we had the latest on a machine going out next week and discovered KM moved F/W around as they should have been from the start. Photos below taken today.

[Bix]

This is no longer a problem. Now the G00-E9 version is out. Another flood of bug fixes and new features.

[srvctec]

This is no longer a problem. Now the G00-E9 version is out. Another flood of bug fixes and new features.

But my point is they put a special F/W in the wrong place, making us techs think it was base F/W.

We don't have G00-E9 yet here in the states because Europe always gets updates before we do, it seems.

[Genotrom]

But my point is they put a special F/W in the wrong place, making us techs think it was base F/W.

We don't have G00-E9 yet here in the states because Europe always gets updates before we do, it seems.

In Europe -france- GC2-B6 is considered a bugfix firmware. In case of problems, it is the first thing that the technical team has proposed to insert.