Samsung confirmed: Soundbars paralyzed by firmware update

Samsung has paralyzed several soundbar models with a faulty firmware update. The company has confirmed corresponding reports to The Verge. The models in question are from the year 2024.

Affected devices can be sent in for repair, Samsung told The Verge. This is free of charge for customers, regardless of the warranty status of the soundbars. Affected users should therefore contact Samsung customer service to initiate the repair of their device. Even if this does not involve any costs, the additional step is annoying: faulty software updates can often be solved with a new, later update. This does not seem to be possible with Samsung soundbars.

No information on the cause of the error

Samsung has not provided any further information on the background to the error. Samsung is also not commenting on the affected devices. User reports show that Samsung's Q990D soundbar, among others, was put out of action by the update – the flagship model of the South Korean tech giant.

The error is expressed in the fact that the soundbars no longer play sound and no longer respond to inputs. The firmware update apparently responsible for the error has the version number 1020.7 and was released two weeks ago.

The fact that a firmware update paralyzes functioning devices is not an isolated case. Just a few weeks ago, Google released an update for its second-generation Chromecast devices that put the streaming sticks out of action. Attempts to reset the Chromecasts to factory settings only made the problem worse. Eventually, however, Google managed to fix the problem with further updates without launching a cumbersome repair program for users.

(dahe)