VCS System Software Update (December 2023)

[+Neon Wraith]

4 hours ago, cubanismo said:

Well, improved update mechanism my ass. I turned my VCS on for the first time in several months, and got the update screen. Got to 2/4 updates then just sat there for an hour+ before I power cycled it. Now it boots to a looong black screen, followed by this:

 

Ugh.  I think there is a fix for this but you'll have to make contact with @davpa or Ashlee on the VCS Discord.  They will also want you to fill out a support ticket at atari.com and log your concern.  Good luck.

[Aragorn7]

7 hours ago, cubanismo said:

Well, improved update mechanism my ass. I turned my VCS on for the first time in several months, and got the update screen. Got to 2/4 updates then just sat there for an hour+ before I power cycled it. Now it boots to a looong black screen, followed by this:

 

This screen is a possible result of file corruption when powering down. The reason you ended up with this very basic Linux screen is because the Atari OS could not be found. Yes. You will need to contact Atari Support and you may very well have to flash your system via a USB flash drive and then perform any available updates to both the console and your controllers. I own two different VCS-800's and I've had to flash both. It's aggravating, but you can repair it. And the improved update system has to first get successfully installed before you can benefit from it. Time will tell it it really works, but unfortunately you have to get it installed first.

[+cubanismo]

Well, I don't see anywhere to actually file an issue on the Atari website. I sent a message through the contact page, and I went on VCS discord, but only after I'd found this page:

 

 

So I ran through that, and it worked to get the VCS booting again, but it lost ALL my games and save game/game progress data. I had to reinstall everything and start over in all my games, which is super annoying and wasn't made obvious anywhere in the process. I talked about that on the VCS discord, but it doesn't sound like there's a way to recover it.

[Aragorn7]

4 hours ago, cubanismo said:

Well, I don't see anywhere to actually file an issue on the Atari website. I sent a message through the contact page, and I went on VCS discord, but only after I'd found this page:

 

 

So I ran through that, and it worked to get the VCS booting again, but it lost ALL my games and save game/game progress data. I had to reinstall everything and start over in all my games, which is super annoying and wasn't made obvious anywhere in the process. I talked about that on the VCS discord, but it doesn't sound like there's a way to recover it.

The Flash/Fix has been performed almost innumerable times without people losing data; so the process works.  Therefore that means the problem of the missing games lies elsewhere.. Unfortunately, from my experience, it appears that your games were lost to some kind of file corruption prior to your performing the Flash/Fix. I have no idea what caused the file corruption, but data is typically lost through deletion, formatting, erasure, or file corruption. Assuming it was not the first three I listed, file corruption can occur through a power outage while the eMMC drive (unless you also added an SSD) is being written to; a failing eMMC drive or controller; turning off the console while it is being written to (possible based on your previous post), some other form of user error, etc. If it's hardware related, the problem will repeat itself at some point.  I doubt if anyone here will be able to tell you for sure exactly what caused the file corruption. 

Yes, while annoying, you will not be able to recover any of your games. You will need to install them again. I regret having to be the bearer of such bad news. I know this is not what you wanted to hear.

Edited February 16 by Aragorn7

[+cubanismo]

Yes, I suspected as much, and given the original issue was a failed update process during which I powered off the system, the culprit seems likely to be powering off the system while an emmc write was happening (Atari's fault, the update got stuck), or hardware failure (Atari's fault, perhaps by way of their supplier, but I bought the HW from Atari). Either way, I'm pretty angry about the whole experience. These things happen, but judging by comments here, they seem to happen kind of a lot on the VCS compared to normal laptops/computers or other consoles.

 

And note, I'm very pro-Atari, even pro giving "new" Atari their chance and all. I've even bought some shirts recently and have a sweet pair of fuji-logo shoes on pre-order. If you want to turn around a brand image though, building robust products matters quite a bit, especially with your flagship -level products.

[tripled79]

Does anyone know why the controller app disappeared from the Atari OS months ago? Will it ever come back?

[jesusc]

Bought a second console last week when they were ~$200 direct from Atari to keep stock. Turned the $99 Vader version into a Windows machine and disabled the Atari side of it. 

Spent the last hour and half setting it up and I can confirm it's STILL a pain in the peener to get this thing working properly. Having had gone through the update loop nonsense before, at least I knew I'd have to flash the firmware via USB. 

It's all good now, and my free copy of Atari 50 is just about finished downloading. 

Kinda ridiculous that after all this time a person can't just buy the system, set it up, and be using it without hassle but I suppose they're trying since this latest update seems to have worked properly for some people.