Can Olympus E-10 firmware still be upgraded?

In article ,
says...

> It occurs to me: what if the new firmware image is corrupted? I
> wonder how much checking the camera does before attempting to install
> the new image. If it *is* bogus, what happens? With bad firmware,
> the camera presumably dies. And without firmware, is there any way to
> get it back? Seems like there's a chance of completely hosing your
> camera.

I don't know what checks the camera makes, but yes, a bad firmware could
damage the camera.
--

Alfred Molon
------------------------------
Olympus 50X0, 7070, 8080, E3X0, E4X0 and E5X0 forum at
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/MyOlympus/
http://myolympus.org/ photo sharing site
 >> Stay informed about: Can Olympus E-10 firmware still be upgraded? 

I've started a thread about this on the Olympus SLR forum at Digital
Photography Review (dpreview.com) as suggested:
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1022&message=24697047

Still looking for the elusive firmware image, which should solve the
problem. Olympus says they have deleted it, noone else seems to have
a copy. Holy Grail, eh? Will report the results back here.

--ian
 >> Stay informed about: Can Olympus E-10 firmware still be upgraded? 

This is my final post to the dpreview.com thread:

I got two replies back from Olympus. First was from a helpful fellow
who has been following this thread (hi Michael). The news is not good,
though:

> Olympus discontinued service for the E-10 in September 2006.
> Firmware upgrades on the E-10 were performed with a specially
> formatted SmartMedia card upon which specific sectors on the
> card were modified. In effect, the SmartMedia cards bearing the
> firmware upgrades were proprietary Olympus "special tools" and
> were used by repair technicians at authorized Olympus repair
> facilities to perform the firmware upgrades. The firmware upgrades
> cannot be performed with an "imaged" CompactFlash card.

This does jibe with firsthand accounts of SM cards being used for the
upgrade, not CF. Perhaps the firmware upgrade instructions for the
5050 batted about online do work for that camera but not the E-10.

The second message was simply product repair instructions, how to
bring/send my camera in for service. It gave contact information for
Oly in NY and CA. I called the CA number (Los Angeles), and was told
that they WOULD do the upgrade, for $20.

The contact information was:

Olympus Imaging America Inc.
400 Rabro Drive
Hauppauge, NY 11788-4258
Attn: Product Repair
(800) 622-6372
Fax: (631) 881-6510
9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. ET

OR

Olympus Imaging America Inc.
10805 Holder Street Suite 170
Cypress, CA 90630-5145
Attn: Product Repair
(714) 503-5700
Fax: (714) 229-1652
5:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. PT

The contact I had tried originally, gotten from olympusamerica.com,
which I tried three different times, talking to three different
people, the last of whom claimed Oly had "deleted" the firmware and
"thrown away" the spare parts, was the PA corporate office at (800)
622-6372. I have a variety of choice body parts which the Pennsylvania
people are invited to BITE, repeatedly. Recommend they start with my
big red Irish ass.

I'll be sending my camera to LA.

--ian
 >> Stay informed about: Can Olympus E-10 firmware still be upgraded?