Yes, you can upgrade a Creative Vado HD’s firmware on a Mac, in VMWare Fusion
Here’s the shocking, photographic evidence, which proves what so many have wanted to know for so long: It is possible –nay, simple, to upgrade the firmware of the Creative Vado HD on a mac, using the Windows-only Vado firmware updating application1, running inside an instance of Windows XP in VMWare Fusion. How exciting!
If this upgrade makes it so that my Vado HD stops freezing every-other time I connect it to my computer, that would be fantastic. The reboot process for the Vado involves opening it up and removing the battery2. This is a very annoying process, especially after I’ve spent the effort to slip the thing inside its protective silicon case3, at which point the battery door is inaccessible. I’d bet that’s something they fixed in the first firmware update, or else this thing would have accumulated a greater number of negative reviews by now.
Technorati Tags: Creative Vado HD, filmmaking, Garbanzo Beans, Hack, hot deal, Macintosh, OS X, Vado HD, software, unix, video, virtualization, vmware fusion, Windows XP
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- It’d be nice if, as on the iPhone, one could reboot the Vado HD by holding down an unholy combination of buttons for a few seconds. Requiring users to open up the device and manually power-cycle it is bad design and/or optimism regarding the device’s stability to the point of naïvete. [↩]
- That silicon case is tight during the installation and removal process, I’m worried about tearing it just for a reboot [↩]
May 16th, 2009 at 5:24 am
I can’t even get my VadoHD to show up in my VMWare XP? I tell it to connect and nothing. Even looked in Disk Management.
May 16th, 2009 at 7:29 am
Found my problem! For some reason the USB Controller in the VM had become unrecognized. Device Manager showed this. Simply told it to update the driver and viola!
May 16th, 2009 at 10:17 am
Yeah, it is necessary to set things up so that USB device connects to the VM and not the host OS. Sounds like you nailed it.
For what it’s worth, I’ve had no need to reboot my Vado since the firmware update. It has worked flawlessly. Now all I want for Xmas is a firmware update that will give me some level of control over aperture and gain, not that I expect this to ever come to pass.
June 7th, 2009 at 2:31 pm
I erroneously cancelled a firmware upgrade just seconds after it started up and now my Vado HD video camera won’t boot up. I now only get a message that says “Not allow upgrade” Tried taking out the battery and rebooting but to no avail. Any ideas as to what I might do to resolve this problem?
Many thanks for your assistance.
Keith
June 12th, 2009 at 6:53 pm
Keith, I have no idea… I suppose I risked this same fate when I chose to update my firmware in such a hackneyed manner (from within an OS running inside a VM inside a host OS). I tend to be a little reckless with hardware sometimes, got lucky.
I’d speculate that there must be a way to force the Vado HD into a “recovery mode” and then load firmware onto it, but the knowledge on how to do so might only exist at Creative.
Please post if you find out how to restore your Vado HD to functionality. It may help others, or me if I end up bricking my Vado HD with a future update.
July 14th, 2009 at 8:18 pm
My VADO HD just goes to TIME & DATE then freezes and only has the red light in front. HELP!!!