IMPORTANT: Firmware upgrade for IsatPhone Pro

Hi Sigmund

Thank you very much for bringing this to our attention, and to be honest, I do not usually worry about firmware upgrade - I should know better.

If is a bit daunting when you listen to the clips and when they say if you get it wrong, you could stuff your phone. There are 2 links that I watched before doing the upgrade, both different, but the same end results.

With all the drivers, Firmware Upgrade software and the latest firmware downloaded, I committed to the unknown, would I stuff the phone or would it be sweet going.

The whole process took a little over 10 minutes, I then did as they suggested and went into the menu to make sure that the correct firmware was downloaded correctly....All OK thank goodness.

I then took the phone outside and made the phone call to test the phone, and again all worked great. I will also add a couple of links that I watched first, and the links where to get the drivers, firmware upgrade tool and the latest firmware.

Links for all the Downloads

TC communications video of the "how to Upgrade"

This link has better volumne

Thanks Again



Cheers



Stephen

Yes thanks for that. took me a bit longer than Stephen.
Brian

My upgrade did freeze before any progress showed; the program told me to restart the phone and the process. The phone wouldn't turn off - it was showing the black upgrade screen. I had to remove the battery.

After that all appeared to work as predicted but just testing, the phone it says it can see 8 sats but it doesn't get a fix so no calls are possible.

I'll try again.

Mine froze at 99% but works ok. Thanks very much, I to much check more often for upgrades. I think that as such an important tool for travellers it seems quite easy to overlook the maintenance on it.

Cheers
Merv

Hey Sigmund thanks for the heads up.

Cozzie

It is absolutely mind boggling that you were not contacted regarding this
by "someone "
Anyway I suppose in 6 months we'll be reading posts about Isatphones no longer working and if anyone knows why.
MM

I am also thanking you Sigmund and Stephen for bringing this to my attention. My upgrade was more like an hour as there was some communication problem between the phone and laptop initially. All good now though and it beggars belief that we should not have been advised! I know of two others that have this phone and have emailed them - so I suppose the message is getting out there.

Once again thanks to you both.

Kind regards

Theo

Just in terms of the info trail:

1. Trevor at myswag.org says that retailers would have been notified and it is up to them to notify their customers. (Welll, mine went bust a while ago).

2. The upgrade was announced on the Inmarsat FB page and of course on their website.

On the FB page I posted a query as to why there hadn't been targeted notifications and there's been no reply.

If your dealer has not sent you a email like this it could be time to change dealers.



Inmarsat is also about to release a firmware upgrade for Isatphone. All the Isatphones need to be upgraded to the latest version latest by 30th June, 2013. After this date, you will not be able to use the phone unless the firmware upgrade is performed.
We will contact you again, once the firmware upgrade is released
We will send you instructions on how to perform the upgrade yourself.
If you have any difficulty in performing the upgrade, we can do this for you. The fee for performing the upgrade is $39 (plus postage)



Please call or email us if you have any questions.

Thanks
Shahid Aziz
One Planet Communications
9, Finchley Ct, Endeavour Hills, VIC 3802.
Mobile: 0404 804480
Fax: 03 8738 8994

Important - Latest Notification from Inmarsat UK.

"In recent days, Inmarsat found a problem with units running either firmware version 5.1.0, or 5.2.0 (the latest). Inmarsat has discovered that these two versions of firmware contain an error causing the battery not to charge whilst the phone is switched off. If the battery is allowed to run flat, then it becomes impossible to charge the phone unless a new, pre-charged battery is fitted.

Inmarsat engineers are producing a new version of firmware which will resolve this problem. We anticipate that this will be fully tested and available for release by 8 February 2013.

In the meantime, users should be advised to have the IsatPhone Pro Satellite Phone switched-on during charging and to maintain a full to half charge until their IsatPhone Pro has been upgraded with the new firmware"


If your IsatPhone Pro is running older firmware they will not be affected and you are advised not to perform any upgrades until the new version is released.

The following link is Inmarsat's official website for Firmware downloads,

www.isatphonelive.com

All IsatPhone Pro users should be notified by their service provider when the new version of firmware is available and also how to preform the upgrade. Please insure that your contact details are up to date with your service provider so that you do receive this and future critical notifications. Notifications are usually sent via Email and/or SMS to a mobile phone.

Please feel free to contact me or the MGLSAT team should you have any further questions.



Kind Regards,


Morgan Higgs
Manager - Mining | Construction | Maritime

MGLSAT - Satellite Systems

t. 1300 645 000
e. info@mglsat.com
w. www.mglsat.com
a. Level 13, 200 Queen St, Melbourne VIC 3000
p. PO Box 33246, Melbourne VIC 3004
store. 523 North Road Ormond, VIC 3204

Adventure >> Survival << Professional

Melbourne . Sydney . Brisbane . Adelaide . Perth . London

Hi Sigmund

Need some assistance with Feb 8th V 5.3. upgrade. Followed all procedures to installing the drives and firware upgrade tool. At the point upgrading my IsatPhone, phone is connected to PC, the Start upgrade button doesn't enable and no message to say IsatPhone is connected and ready to upgrade. It seems taht the dcevice driver is not loading. I've reviewed all my steps wanting that final click to say now upgrading but...

Can you offer any direction on this? Much appreciated.

Note that you now have til the end of the year to upgrade to V.5.3.0

And the charging bug in 5.1 and 5.2 only applied to handsets made after Sept 7 2012 acc to the Inmarsat support site briefing note.

Hi Sigmund

I suggest that you contact those who sold you the phone and start jumping up and down at them and not necessarily Inmarsat.

We got the following info. And we were also notified about it back in November. They did my upgrade back then and it just took a minute for them to do it for me.

Its like vehicle recalls. The manufacturer can only contact you if the outlet gives them your info.

Email received in Feb:

Hi Everyone!

As promised, Inmarsat have released the latest firmware that fixes the problems associated with the battery charging. It also includes the same enhancements that relate to a planned network upgrade. Since this issue has been discovered, they have pushed the upgrade deadline from 30th June 2013, to 31st December 2013. Once that date has ticked over, if you have not got the latest firmware, your phone will no longer register on the network.

If you have already done the upgrade (or if I did it on your behalf before the error was announced) it is prudent for you to do it again. The tell-tale sign that you should do the newest upgrade will be if your battery will not charge when the phone is OFF. Only some handsets were affected ... but it is hard to tell which phones were in the affected batches ... so it is prudent to do the latest update.

The latest information from Inmarsat regarding this upgrade is available here in the Inmarsat Briefing Note. Its a good read. You may also discover you do not need to do the upgrade, but please do have a look at the file!

So, this is the process in a nutshell:

End of email.

All personal info, names and addresses have been removed and all the rest of the actual upgrade process detail has been removed. Your supplier should have their own.

Phil

I have to say now that having done 3 firmware upgrades this s/w and process rates as the buggiest I've ever used and that's saying something.

None of the upgrades worked first time or as advertised. Today I was working on V.5.3.0 and it took an hour and a half.

The XP system installed the drivers successfully but when the phone was connected the system said it found new hardware. This was repeated twice despite a complete uninstall and reinstall of drivers and upgrader and registry clean, and one system restore.

Finally the system recognised the device.

Then when the upgrader s/w ran, the system said it had found new hardware (again) and the process hung. Eventually upgrader advised trying again by disconnecting and restarting the phone. But the phone had hung on the firmware upgrade screen and the battery had to be removed and reinstalled to restart it.

Then I had a go using the laptop with Win7. The driver s/w package installed OK then when the phone was connected the system automatically installed drivers offering no option to select them as per instructions. But the firmware upgrader worked.