HyperX Accidentally Bricks HyperX Cloud 3 Wireless Headsets With Firmware Update Day Before Easter Bank Holiday, No Fix Yet

[raiscan]

Summary

Last week on Thursday, HyperX Released an update to their NGENUITY software that prompted both HyperX Cloud 2 Wireless and Cloud 3 Wireless users to update their headset.

 

Upon doing so, the update would fail halfway through, causing a loss of connectivity between the headset and wireless dongle. While a workaround exists for Cloud 2 Wireless users (manual re-pairing), this workaround does not work for Cloud 3 Wireless users, meaning that for a whole week customers with these headsets have a very fancy paperweight.

 

To make things worse:

1. A firmware update (one revision higher) is still being offered as part of NGENUITY, which has the same issue, meaning the impacted users are rising daily.
2. There is no way to rollback the firmware. The headset is no longer detected by NGENUITY when plugged in via USB, either.

 

As of yet, HyperX have only provided comment in two places:

1. The HyperX Sub-reddit: 
2. The HyperX Discord: https://discord.com/channels/766762629615976458/766762701941637181/1225132850601267282

 

HyperX have yet to make a statement on any other social media channels, and the last official update posted on a reddit comment at the time of this thread is 2nd April, 4:00PM PDT. For the past two days they have been soliciting further information from users by way of a google form, available here: https://forms.gle/pP1JnNFF2RmUS4fv5

 

Quotes

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What's Happening?

We've identified a technical issue in the recent software update that is causing problems with certain headsets after a firmware update is installed. This can lead to headsets not working correctly or requiring additional steps to make them functional again.

What We're Doing:

This issue has been escalated and is now our top priority. Both our engineering and software teams are working diligently to identify the cause and develop a fix. In the meantime, we're also exploring the possibility of temporarily disabling specific features added in the last firmware update as a potential stopgap measure until a permanent solution is implemented.

How You Can Help:

To get a clearer picture of the issue and expedite a solution, we need some additional information from affected users. We've created a short online form that will ask you about your specific headset model, along with some system details.

Filling out this form will greatly assist our team in replicating the issue and rolling out a fix as quickly as possible.

 

-- HyperxGaming on reddit (Monday April 1st)

 

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My thoughts

I currently count approximately 50 people reporting the issue over the past week (but this is a very rough estimate as handles might be different across reddit and discord).

 

I think HyperX seriously need to have a 'lessons learned' after this incident.

1. Never release software/firmware on a bank holiday weekend! If something goes wrong and you don't have the support or hyper-care in place then you've basically screwed your customers for the whole incident period.

2. Provide a public announcement as soon as possible to minimize potential impact. As far as I can tell, other than reddit (and now discord), this has STILL not been done, and we're almost a week into the problem! From the outside user, it comes across as an effort to hide the issue and cover their ass rather than minimize impact...

3. Have a mechanism of pulling firmware if there's any issues. DO NOT rely on updating the utility app, as there is a time delay between people getting the latest update, and receiving a firmware update prompt. As an example, I was offered an update to my headset on Monday (4 Days after the initial issue), and as a result my Cloud 3 Wireless headset is now inoperable. It is still possible to brick your headset as of writing this thread.

 

Sources

As of yet this has not been picked up by any news outlets.

HyperX Reddit Thread: 

Update comment:

 

[PowerPCFan]

1 hour ago, raiscan said:

Summary

Last week on Thursday, HyperX Released an update to their NGENUITY software that prompted both HyperX Cloud 2 Wireless and Cloud 3 Wireless users to update their headset.

 

Upon doing so, the update would fail halfway through, causing a loss of connectivity between the headset and wireless dongle. While a workaround exists for Cloud 2 Wireless users (manual re-pairing), this workaround does not work for Cloud 3 Wireless users, meaning that for a whole week customers with these headsets have a very fancy paperweight.

 

To make things worse:

1. A firmware update (one revision higher) is still being offered as part of NGENUITY, which has the same issue, meaning the impacted users are rising daily.
2. There is no way to rollback the firmware. The headset is no longer detected by NGENUITY when plugged in via USB, either.

 

As of yet, HyperX have only provided comment in two places:

1. The HyperX Sub-reddit: 
2. The HyperX Discord: https://discord.com/channels/766762629615976458/766762701941637181/1225132850601267282

 

HyperX have yet to make a statement on any other social media channels, and the last official update posted on a reddit comment at the time of this thread is 2nd April, 4:00PM PDT. For the past two days they have been soliciting further information from users by way of a google form, available here: https://forms.gle/pP1JnNFF2RmUS4fv5

 

Quotes

 

 

 

My thoughts

I currently count approximately 50 people reporting the issue over the past week (but this is a very rough estimate as handles might be different across reddit and discord).

 

I think HyperX seriously need to have a 'lessons learned' after this incident.

1. Never release software/firmware on a bank holiday weekend! If something goes wrong and you don't have the support or hyper-care in place then you've basically screwed your customers for the whole incident period.

2. Provide a public announcement as soon as possible to minimize potential impact. As far as I can tell, other than reddit (and now discord), this has STILL not been done, and we're almost a week into the problem! From the outside user, it comes across as an effort to hide the issue and cover their ass rather than minimize impact...

3. Have a mechanism of pulling firmware if there's any issues. DO NOT rely on updating the utility app, as there is a time delay between people getting the latest update, and receiving a firmware update prompt. As an example, I was offered an update to my headset on Monday (4 Days after the initial issue), and as a result my Cloud 3 Wireless headset is now inoperable. It is still possible to brick your headset as of writing this thread.

 

Sources

As of yet this has not been picked up by any news outlets.

HyperX Reddit Thread: 

Update comment:

 

This happened to my Cloud 2, absolutely unacceptable! 

[raiscan]

Not sure why this was moved from Tech News to Audio by the mods (I'm new here) but I feel like this isn't being covered anywhere and is way bigger than HyperX are letting on.

[TVwazhere]

On 4/4/2024 at 7:50 AM, raiscan said:

Not sure why this was moved from Tech News to Audio by the mods (I'm new here) but I feel like this isn't being covered anywhere and is way bigger than HyperX are letting on.

This does not comply with Tech News Guidelines, namely;

Quote

• Your thread must include a link to at least one reputable source. Most of the time, this should be a respected news site.

 

[Cocococo]

This is pretty embarrassing, definitely gonna be holding off Cloud recc's for a while

[raiscan]

On 4/5/2024 at 1:42 PM, TVwazhere said:

This does not comply with Tech News Guidelines

Apologies; I thought a post from HyperX themselves would be sufficient but I take your point.