1. Denon E400 firmware update loop

    My Denon E400 is a nice AVR, but for some reason fails to do firmware updates if plugged in to my Ubiquiti Toughswitch. If I attempt an update it fails to connect to the server for some strange reason and gets stuck in an update loop with an error on the display that looks like

    ConnectionFailed10e

    The fix is to do a Network Card reset, which on this model happens to also be a microprocessor reset. Unfortunately you will be stuck with factory defaults, and this model doesn't seem to let you do a backup/restore of settings.

    sigh

    Anyway, the trick is to power off the device and hold down

    [SOURCE SELECT], [->] and [ZONE2 ON/OFF]

    while powering on until the display starts blinking for a few seconds. For the record, the regular microprocessor reset is holding down both of the SOURCE SELECT buttons while powering on and wait for the display to blink a few times.


    Update, 2/19/15:

    My friend has an AVR X4000 and he needed to do the same after trying to update while plugged into a Ubiquiti. He called Denon and his reset sequence was the following:

    • Hold down the up and down buttons and power button simultaneously
    • Let the screen flash 5 times
    • Release
    • Navigate to the Setup Menu with your remote and then exit
  2. Dell Optiplex 390 keyboard bug

    I have a Dell Optiplex 390 at work and I've had a strange keyboard issue I couldn't explain: my USB keyboard simply refused to work until my OS was up and running. Whether it be Windows, Linux, or FreeBSD -- no keyboard functionality until the kernel had initialized the USB devices.

    My keyboard is an Adesso MKB-135B -- a nice keyboard with Cherry MX Blue switches. My coworker with the same computer has the same issue with his Logitech somethingorother. I'd always have to pull out Dell keyboard if I needed to modify BIOS settings or do something in GRUB / BSD loader. It was quite annoying. I'd tried several BIOS updates with no luck, but recently I was annoyed by this bug again and checked for another BIOS update.

    Good news to anyone googling this: as it turns out the latest BIOS update -- A10 -- actually fixes this issue!

    My theory is that this bug is a power issue -- it wasn't putting out enough power for these keyboards. I never bothered trying to verify it, but maybe someone out there will.

    edit: This did fix the USB-on-boot problem, but I have since had problems where I come into work in the morning and my keyboard won't work. Unplug, replug -- no go. Try different keyboard and it works. Plug my original keyboard to any other computer and it works. Very strange; the only fix is a power cycle. I've updated to BIOS A11 which I hope will fix this issue.

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