Official Slacker Forums

[ImageArt]

I was experiencing some of the problems described on this forum. G1 not updating wirelessly and completely shutting down. Several restarts while updating/charging, etc.
Well, I posted to support and when they got back to me a solution was provided. After I followed the instructions _exactly_ I was rewarded with a G1 that works as good as new. What a relief as I really have come to rely on it as my sole source of tunes while driving.
Thanks Slacker Support!

Bob Thomas
Cameron Park, CA

[Pop1967]

Good to hear ... care to post the solution?

[johnny99]

Reflashing the firmware fixes most non-network problems.

[ImageArt]

Here are the reflash instructions I was emailed from Slacker Support. Pay attention to the item in red - easy to overlook and run the WRONG Slacker Player. Yeah, I had to "follow" the instructions a couple times before I really followed them :)
*******************************************************************************************************
Instructions
In this case, what we'll need to do is perform what is called a "Reflash." This will delete everything on the Slacker Portable: stations, music and the firmware for the player. What we will then do is download a known good version of the latest firmware onto the Portable, install it and then reboot. I've included the instructions for this below.

First, make sure you have downloaded the latest version of the USB Station Refresher from http://www.slacker.com/support/. Also, make sure the player has at least half of a battery charge to stay on without being plugged in via USB. If the Portable battery has run out, please plug the Portable into a USB adapter on the computer and let it charge for at least 30 minutes before attempting the reflash.

1. Run the program C:\Program Files\Slacker\USB Station Refresher\slacker.jukebox.exe Once the Software Player starts up, log into the account associated with the Slacker Portable.

2. Unplug the USB cable from the Slacker Portable.

3. Hold the Power switch in the down position until the Portable's screen turns completely black.

4. Continuing to hold the power switch down, press and hold down the Volume Up ('+') key on the top of the Portable Player.

5. Continuing to hold the Volume Up ('+') key down, slide the power switch to the upmost, or lock, position.

6. You should see the blue "Starting Up" screen with a green bar across the bottom. This indicates that the player is entering flash recovery mode. You can now let go of both buttons, but leave the power switch in the lock position.

7. When you see a screen labeled "Slacker Portable Recovery Program" at the top with instructions to press the Volume Down ('-') key to continue, do not do this yet.

8. Plug the USB cable into the Slacker Portable.

9. Press the Volume Down ('-') key. You should see the Slacker Portable go to another screen indicating that recovery is taking place

10. On your PC, the device should now be recognized as a flash recovery device and a driver should automatically load. (Don't worry if you don't see this, as this can sometimes happen fast and Windows may hide this part.)

11. Once the driver is loaded, you will see a popup window in the Slacker Software Player that a flash recovery device has been plugged in, press OK to continue or Cancel to abort.

12. Press OK.

13. The recovery process takes several minutes, but you should see status updates in the dialog as the process continues.

14. When the recovery process has completed, the Done button in the popup window in the Slacker Software Player should become enabled.

15. Press 'Done' to close the popup window.

16. Your Portable Player should now automatically reboot itself. If it does not, hold the power switch in the down position until the screen goes black again, then let go of the power switch. Rebooting the player should complete the recovery and firmware update process.

[AnitaBath]

Save these instructions. You will need them again...

[johnny99]

I have to reflash my G1 at least once a month. I do not know why Slacker does not put the reflash instructions in the Top FAQ's at the top of this forum.

[Pop1967]

I've never had to reflash my G1. Interesting that different units have different behaviors. That's the case with the G2, too. Some people are haunted by being stuck on the "Signing in" screen, while others aren't. There was a firmware update to fix the problem, and it DID work for some people, but not others. There was a post from a Slacker employee which kind of half-explained, technically, the fix ... I wish I could find it now, as I think I remember that it implied that the fix may not work for everyone.

Not sure why that would be, unless there are hardware differences between one unit versus the next. Maybe a difference between 15/25/40 station models?

[richfei1]

The only time I really experienced issues with wifi or usb refresh was when I initially purchased the G1 and it had the old firmware on there. Once the latest was in place, I only had intermittent issues i.e the WEP key being lost when it couldn't connect. But that was sporadic

[thebugman]

Here are the reflash instructions I was emailed from Slacker Support. Pay attention to the item in red - easy to overlook and run the WRONG Slacker Player. Yeah, I had to "follow" the instructions a couple times before I really followed them :)
*******************************************************************************************************

I followed these directions tonight and so far it has fixed my slacker also. Will post back how long it operates properly before I have to reflash, but this fixed it for now. =)

[lebearun]

I've had my G1 since March of this year, and have only had to reflash once. I've had 1 or 2 quirks, like the song pausing by itself and then restarting, or the unit rebooting itself, but other than that it's worked great so far (knock on wood). I LOVE it in the car, and actually prefer using it with the touch strip on.

[Pop1967]

ImageArt, thanks for posting the recovery process. My G1 had the problem where it would display the "data errors" message on the startup screen. Reinstalling the firmware fixed the problem. I was confused for a while by another post that had the same instructions but mentioned using the Slacker Software Player instead of the Slacker USB Refresher.