Anyone who has the Samsung Q850T soundbar in their home theater system may have struggled to get their audio kit working, after a mid-September firmware update appears to have impacted the speakers’ functionality.
A number of Samsung customers have taken to the company’s US forums to complain about issues with the Q850T – a 5.1.2 channel speaker system with Dolby Atmos audio – specifically when connecting the soundbar to rear speakers.
User Roberband posted in September about an update over Wi-Fi that went wrong, with the Samsung SmartThings app failing to fully finish the update:
“Updated last night by Wifi and it's causing massive issues. First off, the update didn't really finish going through using ‘Smart Things.’ It starts for a few seconds and then says there are no updates. So now the soundbar gets stuck in a boot-loop when I try to connect the rear speakers. If I unplug the rear speaker receiver the problem ceases, but this has made the unit unusable.”
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This issue is corroborated by a handful of other users, with others saying that the HW-Q900T (the next model up) suffers from the same issue, and that trying to install over either Wi-Fi or USB is a no-go.
“I am having the exact same issue. Seems to have started after the 9/15/21 firmware update,” one user states.
Roperband adds that “Unfortunately, I can't install either by Wifi or USB. We'll just have to wait for the newer firmware to fix this issue I guess.”
How to fix your Samsung speakers
A new firmware update (1021.0) was released on September 30, seemingly to address the above issues.
Another user claims that they successfully updated the firmware over USB, while others continue to flounder trying to do so over Wi-Fi through the SmartThings app.
One user writes that “Tried to perform an update via the SmartThings app but it indicated there was no update available. As a result I downloaded the firmware Zip file and copied its content to the root of a flashdrive. Connected this flashdrive to the Q850T sound bar service port, with the sound bar on, and after a few seconds the sound bar began flashing UPDATE.
“Once the update completed the sound bar power cycled and came up on eARC and I had sound from the bar, rear speakers and woofer [...] Fingers crossed that this latest firmware has permanently resolved the boot loop issue.”
We can see the 1021.0 version available on Samsung’s support site here, though it seems like using a USB is the way to go to implement the fix. We’re waiting to hear back from Samsung on the continuing issues over Wi-Fi, though, so hope to be able to update this article with more information soon.
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