I received the Samsung GT-S8500 when I renewed my contract with T-Mobile. That was about a year ago and I never bothered to connect the phone to the Internet or see if Samsung has released a newer firmware for the device.

That changed today when I decided to find out how to update the phone’s firmware. And since I’m probably not the only one who cannot figure it out in a matter of seconds, I have decided to write a tutorial on how its done.

You need the following equipment to check for and install updates: The Samsung Android phone, the USB cable to connect the phone to the computer, and the Samsung Kies software [here] which handles the updating and other things.

Install Samsung Kies first. This may take a while. The program installs mobile phone drivers and may restart your computer without warning. Next thing that you need to do is to close all open applications on your phone. This is done by holding down the center button on the phone’s front until a new screen pops up with an option to close all running applications.

Use the USB cable to connect your mobile device to the computer and select Samsung Kies as the USB connection method. Start the software, the mobile phone should be recognized immediately.

Samsung Kies will search for updates automatically if the computer it is running on is connected to the Internet.

I’d advise anyone to stop the process at that time to export the phone’s settings and data to the PC first. Firmware updates may alter or remove data on the phone and it is always a good idea to make sure you can restore your data if that is the case.

Click Import/Export in Kies, switch to Export and use the Export buttons to backup the phone’s data to your computer. You can backup contacts, photos, music, videos, schedule, or to-dos.

Go back to the basic information tab in the Samsung Kies software after you have backed up your phone’s data. Click on the Firmware Update button to start the upgrade.

An informational page is displayed next. Samsung offers tips on how to make sure that the firmware update will complete without errors. The company suggests to connect the phone to a power supply, to back up data before the process, to not use the phone during the upgrade and to not connect other devices to the computer in that time.

The process may take up to 30 minutes, but is usually faster. My phone’s firmware upgrade took about five minutes.

If everything went fine you will receive a success message in the end. The device needs to be restarted (happened automatically in my case). You should now check if the data that you have stored on your phone is still available. If it is not, use the import feature of the Samsung Kies software to upload the data again to your phone.

Have you ever updated your smartphone? If so, how would you describe the process?

Apple releases regular firmware updates for their devices, which often add new functionality and improvements like a better performance or battery life. Firmware updates may on the other hand invalidate jailbreaks or tools used to jailbreak devices. In rare circumstances, they remove features from a device.

Firmware downloads are usually offered on Apple’s official support website. The site is a big mess to navigate, and the best option is to filter downloads by product to quickly find out if a new firmware is available.

A better solution is the free program IpswDownloader which is available for Windows and Macintosh computer systems. Ipsw is the file extension that Apple firmwares are provided in. The free tool offers firmware information and downloads for a variety of Apple devices. Supported devices include the iPhone 4G, iPad 1G and 2G or the Apple TV 2G.

Each supported device is selectable from a pulldown list in the application interface. Next to the device pulldown menu is a second menu that lists all available firmwares for the device.
Each Firmware is listed with its version and a code.

The main interface displays additional information about the selected firmware. This includes its total file size, which jailbreak tool is available to jailbreak it and whether it is possible to unlock it. The tools that are mentioned are not linked, which means that users who want to jailbreak their Apple device need to find the program on their own to do so. The device firmwares are large files, usually between 200 and 700 Megabytes in size.

The question that remains is this: Do you really need a tool to download the firmware? It simplifies the process greatly. You only need to run it to download the latest firmware, and provided that the developers maintain a list of available firmwares that is all you need to do.
The jailbreak information are handy for users who jailbreak their devices. Security conscious users on the other hand may prefer to download the files directly from an official Apple website instead.

IpswDownloader is available for Windows and Mac at the developer’s website.

I had to update the firmware of the DVD drive with a altered firmware that would make the DVD drive region free. Here is how I did it. First I wrote down the exact type of my drive. You can find that information by pressing Windows Pause, clicking on Hardware and there on Device Manager.

Locate the DVD / CD-Rom drives entry and expand it. If you look at the picture below mine is called GSA-H10N and was manufactured by LG. (You find the company logo on the drive itself normally).

Now that I had the information needed I went to the Firmware page which is a repository for many altered firmwares for a lot of DVD drives. I searched for my drive and found it on that page. I downloaded the new firmware and executed the file. I was able to change the firmware with the click of a button (the only button available is Update) and the new region free drive was available immediately.

I did check the region of my dvd drive with Drive Region.

The process is similar to applying a new firmware – sometimes also called bios – to the device. I have done this numerous times on my old computer patching my Asus motherboard with official firmwares to increase cpu support for instance. I also changed the firmware of my old NEC 3500A DVD recorder so that it would be region free.

Sometimes it is possible to increase the speed of a graphics card by changing it from a lower speed into a higher speed graphics card or increasing the GPU for instance. It is furthermore possible to speed up DVD recorders, increase support for smart cards with a higher gigabyte count or enable a ftp server in your router.

The first step is to find out if it is possible to update the firmware of your device. If it is indeed possible you should take a look at the changes and device if you really need the increased functionality. There is always a risk in applying firmware updates and the original manufacturer will most likely not repair the device if it breaks during the update.

Make sure you backup your bios first before you start applying the firmwares. Most tools that can patch the firmware also offer a way to backup the original one first.

Below now is a list of websites that offer unofficial firmware updates for a lot of devices. This is the main reason why I’m not listing the devices here at ghacks.

Digital Cameras:

Canon – Firmware updates for Canon Digital Cameras.
Fujufilm – firmwares for Fujifilm cameras.
HP – HP firmwares
Kodak – Kodak firmwares.
Nikon – Nikon firmwares.
Olympius – Olympus firmwares.
Pentax – Firmwares for Pentax cameras.
Sony Cybershot – firmwares for Sony Cybershot cameras.

Graphic Adapters:

Mvktech – A site with many firmwares for all popular graphic cards.
Tech Power UP – lots of firmwares for manufacturers like Abit, Asus, Ati, Nvidia and Saphire.

DVD Recorders:

Codeguys – Samsung and LiteOn firmwares
Liggydee – Offers modified NEC and Optiarc firmwares.
Media Code Speed Edit – Change the write speed of your media and add new media codes.
RPC1 – The number one address for DVD Recorder updates.

Routers:

DDWRT – Another possibility to update a number of firmwares.
OpenDRT – Provides a fully writable filesystem with package management for many routers.
FreeWRT – Firmware for several Asus, Linksys and Netgear routers.

Mainboards:

Rebels Haven Forum – lots of bios updates for Asus, DFI and other manufacturers.

You should start by taking a look at the official website of the manufacturer of your mainboard. They normally list bios updates there.

I tried utilities like speedfan which were compatible with my card but I was not able to alter the fan speed at all. The option was not active. I then found a forum entry from a user who changed the firmware of the card and was able to reduce the fan speed afterwards. I decided to give it a try and it worked like it should. The cards fan is now running at an ultra low level when I´am working and at full speed when I´am playing games. The way it should be.

In computing, firmware is software that is embedded in a hardware device. It is often provided on flash ROMs or as a binary image file that can be uploaded onto existing hardware by a user.

Now, what I want to explain with this little story is that firmware updates might be worth looking at for your hardware. They can make your hardware faster, enable features or get rid of bugs. I decided to create a list of good sites that offer firmware updates for various products like graphic cards, dvd drives, raid systems, motherboards and routers.

Before I start with the list I´d like to remind everyone that firmware flashing is no easy task and could damage your hardware. Make sure you know what you are doing.

DVD Writers:

Dvd writers can benefit in several ways from new firmware versions. Some could get added double layer support, increase their writing speed or disable the regional code.

Flashing a dvd drive is a simple task. You need to know the manufacturer, the model and the firmware version. To find this information do the following: (in windows xp)

Start – All Programs – Accessories – System Tools – System Information

Click on components and select CD-ROM.

Look at the row PNP Device ID. There is a large underline in the middle, after that you see your firmware. Now visit a site like the firmware page and search for your manufacturer. It should show a entry and give you a link to all the firmware versions that are available. If you find one that enables new features download it and follow the guidelines from there on.

General links:

club.cdfreaks.com – A forum with a firmware section.
etnas firmware page
The dangerous brothers
The firmware page

Specific links:

Liteon, Memorex and Pioneer firmwares
Nec firmwares
Nec firmwares 2

Graphic Adapters:

New firmwares speed up your card, enable temperature sensors to work or even change the model of the card into a newer one.

Ati and Nvidea cards need different tools to flash the firmware. I recommend the atitool for ati cards and for nvidea cards a utility like nvflash

Search for your card, download the latest firmware if it adds new features and follow the guidelines of the text file.

General links:

Mvktech
Techpowerup.com

Raid Controller:

I never updated a raid controller. They can be updated to support additional raid and udma modes. A very good site is storage-raid-forum.de which offers downloads for many companies.

You use the same flash utility when flashing your motherboards bios if the controller is an internal one. Take a look at the homepage of your manufacturer to recieve the information on how to flash a motherboard.

Router:

I never flashed a router myself but flashing could enable features or allow you to change parameters. Good sites with lots of information are openwrt.org and sveasoft.com

[tags]firmware, update, bios, flash, rom, ram, dvd, graphic[/tags]