jonesm

I have updated to the new firmware and my HAP-S1 also now seems to be behaving itself! Good news after a 4.5 month wait. Looks like we should all have the same success - fingers crossed.

This makes me think I should stop waiting on a firmware update as a possible fix for my out of warranty unit. I guess I ought to send it to Sony UK and get ready to argue the case for a replacement despite my unit being more than 12 months old. At least there's a chance that by now several HAPS1's have now made there way back to Sony and in different countries (assuming there must be others outside of this forum) and Sony could be aware that there is a firmware / manufacturing issue.... Thanks for the update McGill.

I am in the UK and I was given an address by Sony Support to send the unit to for a repair cost estimate. I am reluctant to risk a big bill and also there is a post earlier in this thread that suggests Sony Europe class the HAPS1 as an 'IWX' product - in warranty exchange only - because it is uneconomic to repair. I need to see if a firmware update arrives and fixes things before I go down the sending the unit to Sony route.

I have not checked the thread for a while but it seems like the number of frustrated HAPS1 owners keeps on growing. My unit is still sitting here unused (an 800 UKP paperweight) in the hope that a firmware update will appear and I can try that as a possible fix. I am worried to read that a repair for someone on this thread meant a motherboard replacement as this makes me doubt that new firmware will resolve things for me. My HAPS1 is out of warranty so a motherboard fix is probably not an economic repair. The firmware version that I think has triggered the unit failure is the V16152R version released late November - a '57' version would be great to get hold of! I'll be sure to keep checking the thread more regularly now and await some good news...... Mike

That's crazy. There could now be a group of Sony HAP S1 owners who have units that are pretty much ruined after a firmware update which cannot be repaired at all. There is no way this makes sense for a product slightly more than a year old that costs around £800 new. If there is a no new firmware that will repair the players where do we go fro here?

I am trying to pursue this with Sony in the UK via a helpful person at their repair centre. Hopefully this problem is common enough for Sony to have been contacted by a range of owners. If a firmware fix is possible surely a new version will be available soon? I hope to hear from someone who's player was under warranty and has had it fixed by Sony so maybe we will have information about what was needed to repair the player. Thanks for adding to the thread everyone.

Hi Mazolo23. My unit is out of warranty cover so I am waiting to hear the outcome from GaryC. My player has still got all the faults. I am still hoping for a firmware update seeing as this seems to be affecting the HAP-S1 units owned by several people.

I have not tried to switch the unit on when there is no hard drive installed.

Thanks for sharing that find. I did find a similar reference to that function but it did not solve the problem for me.

Hello Tech I have replied to your message. Basically I cannot figure out a fix and am waiting for a firmware update that might undo what i think was caused by the last update.

Hello Gary I'm glad you found this thread and i'm reassured that someone else is experiencing the same issue - it does make me suspect there is a link with the firmware update somehow. I have not resolved the problem and have also been in touch with Sony who have given me the freepost details for sending in the unit to their central repair HQ <only way to have a hi res unit repaired> but I know the cost of this could be prohibitive in my case because being more than 12 months old it would not be under warranty. I have tried 2 different replacement HDDs and like yourself still get the same error. I can transfer files over the network onto the internal drive <not using the Sony HAP transfer app but via drag and drop> but they are not recognised by the player itself even though it can read that storage space is now filled. An external drive connected to the S1 is not fully recognised and doesn't become visible on the network. Very frustrating. The internet radio function is also not working on my unit either since this issue arose and just reports a server error. Anyway, like yourself I am optimistically waiting for a firmware update in the hope that there is a recognised glitch in the last one. Fingers crossed. If you have any success please let me know. Mike

I have experimented in replacing the 500gb drive in my HAP S1 - in my case I am trying to resolve a problem that occurred a few weeks ago not long after the firmware update. My S1 crashed and stopped reading files off the HDD. When the 'rescan HDD' option is used 'some errors' are detected. This problem is not solved by changing the HDD drive for another - when factory reset the S1 recognises whichever HDD is fitted and reads the size of the drive correctly. If I connect an external drive via the usb port I can format the drive 'successfully' but it then is identified as 'not available' when the HDD status option is used! I can transfer files onto the drive using SyncBackFree and these are stored on the internal drive and visible over the network on my PC. However - the S1 itself does not detect any album / track etc even though it correctly displays how much of the HDD has been filled / is still available. The Sony HAP Transfer software will not transfer anything onto the S1 stating that 'no file extension is selected' even though the app is set up correctly to transfer all file types. The HDD Audio Remote IOS app also will not connect to the S1 even though it is found as a unit in the App Settings. I have run out of ideas for what fix to attempt. There seems to be no means to set the unit back to the earlier firmware to make sure the recent problems are not related to poor installation of the latest firmware. I cannot find anything online to indicate that this problem has happened to another HAP S1 user. Any advice much appreciated.

Thanks for the information. I have also replaced the 500gb drive in my HAP S1 - in my case I am trying to resolve a problem that occurred a few weeks ago not long after the firmware update. My S1 crashed and stopped reading files off the HDD. When the 'rescan HDD' option is used 'some errors' are detected. This problem is not solved by changing the HDD drive for another - when factory reset the S1 recognises whichever HDD is fitted and reads the size of the drive correctly. I can transfer files onto the drive using SyncBackFree and these are stored on the internal drive and visible over the network on my PC. However - the S1 itself does not detect any album / track etc. The Sony HAP Transfer software will not transfer anything onto the S1 stating that 'no file extension is selected' even though the app is set up correctly to transfer all file types. The HDD Audio Remote IOS app also will not connect to the S1 even though it is found as a unit in the App Settings. I have run out of ideas for what fix to attempt. There seems to be no means to set the unit back to the earlier firmware to make sure the recent problems are not related to poor installation of the latest firmware. I cannot find anything online to indicate that this problem has happened to another HAP S1 user. Any advice much appreciated. (The line across the display in the photo below is an unrelated LCD fault which has always been present)