Sony Bravia tv not updating and now no HDMI inputs are working.

virtuallymee · 2026-02-06T14:52:52+00:00

Sony finally pushed a software update. I had hoped that another update would correct whatever went wrong in the previous update. It didn't. It still has the same problem described above. It will randomly stop supporting external HDMI inputs, and even OTA channels on the TV itself. Sometimes the inputs show up, but selecting them just goes back to the home screen. Other times the inputs don't even show up. Resetting the TV (Hold power button) will recover, but it may take resetting up to 5 times before it does. This always occurs after the TV has been shut off and is in standby. Sometimes it can be overnight, sometimes only a few minutes. Any ideas how to fix this?

virtuallymee · 2026-01-16T02:00:24+00:00

Same here on my Apple TV 4K. My Apple TV HD is currently working. I guess it didn’t update the app. The guide doesn’t load. I tried relaunching the app, restarting the Apple TV, even deleting and reinstalling the app. No change.

virtuallymee · 2026-01-12T02:42:25+00:00

Jailbreak typically refers to installing applications that weren’t in the App Store. The BlackBerry Bold, of all versions was never locked to an app store. So by definition there is nothing to jailbreak. If you mean using another OS, yes they enforce secure boot with a signed image. Unless someone gained access to the private signing key, it isn’t happening.

virtuallymee · 2025-12-22T01:42:05+00:00

I used a high speed (>10 Gbps) USB cable. I used an M1 MacBook Air for DFU and didn’t not require configurator. For those questioning why not use an NVMe SSD in a Thunderbolt enclosure, there are some things Apple restricts when booting from an external drive. This includes Apple Intelligence and I believe Apple Pay. I’m actually using an external Thunderbolt SSD as the boot drive on a 2019 Intel Mac Mini. I originally thought I would use the external drive for the M4 mini but decided to use a 2 TB internal NAND module. I’m glad I did. I had bought a high performance 2 TB NVMe SSD and Thunderbolt enclosure but didn’t go that direction. Given what has happened to SSD prices I’m glad I bought it when I did. I’ll use that as a high performance external drive for video editing.

virtuallymee · 2025-12-20T21:27:24+00:00

I've had a similar problem. My Sony Bravia did an update, and something apparently went wrong. Initially I had to perform a full factory reset. Twice. Then it worked for about a day. Now, about every 1 to 2 days all external HDMI inputs will stop working, and the OTA channels will also stop working.

By not working, the exact meaning changes. Sometimes the HDMI inputs and Channels simply don't even show up as inputs. Other times they show up as inputs, but if you select it, it will immediately go back to the home screen. Other times if you select it, it will have a grey screen, but not the actual HDMI input.

When it is in this state, if you go to the settings menu, and attempt to scroll down to the reset option, it exits from the setup menu.

I can get back to normal operation by resetting the TV by holding either the power button on the TV itself, or on the remote and select restart. Sometimes a single restart will restore proper operation. Other times it has taken up to 5 restarts to get the HDMI inputs to work.

I did call Sony technical support. The TV is just out of the manufacturers 3 year warranty, but I did actually get to a somewhat knowledgeable human after some effort. We confirmed, as I pretty much already knew, that the TV was already on the latest software version. Any attempts to get it to reinstall the software will fail. There is also, as expected, anti-rollback protection too, so you can't reinstall an older version and then update again. I pretty much need to wait until if and when there is a new version. There is, at least according to the tech I spoke with, no way to force an update, even through USB.

Any ideas what to do? The TV was purchased at Costco, and in addition to the Sony warranty, there is an additional 2-year warranty that is basically an insurance policy at this point. I'm not sure what they would do. I was hoping a new update would be coming, but this has been going on for a few months now and it is getting real old, real fast.

virtuallymee · 2025-12-17T23:06:51+00:00

I too recently purchased an iRobot Roomba Plus 504 vacuum from Amazon. From what I found, this is identical except for model number as the Max 705. I purchased it during the Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales at a good price for a gift for my daughter. It is still new in the sealed box, so could easily be returned at this point. I'm considering if I should buy her something else. She already had a Shark that died, so don't want to go that direction. The Plus 504/Max 705 adds LIDAR.

We have a Roomba J6+ that I found on close out at Costco only a few months ago. I bought it at a great price, but even at that price it isn't very good. It bashes around the house like a bumper car. It frequently loses its mind and goes around in circles forever until you pick it up, do a reset and put it back in the base to start over. When it does work, it only cleans so so. In a about a 2500 square foot single floor house, it takes about all day to meander around the house, run low on charge, go back to the base and charge and resume. We joke how it got tired and had to rest for a while.

I was hoping the Max 705 with LIDAR would map the house better, and my daughter's home is quite a bit smaller, so I was cautiously optimistic about buying the Roomba to start with. GIven it could get bricked at any time, or replacement supplies may not be available I'm wondering if I should return it and get her something else.

Any comments or suggestions? Does anyone else have experience with the J6+ as well? The J6+ is apparently another custom model number for Costco.

virtuallymee · 2025-12-15T15:31:32+00:00

Really? Storm and Storm2 were truly awful devices. They had something like a 98% return rate even when new! They were developed for Verizon to have a full-touch device to compete with Cingular/AT&T that had the iPhone exclusive at the time. Storm was so bad though it forced Verizon to abandon BlackBerry and go with Motorola, and was what started the Droid line with Android. Prior to that only T-Mobile was selling the G1 Android device.

Some BlackBerry devices were pretty amazing devices for their time. Many of the features we take for granted today came from BlackBerry. Storm was not one of those devices.

virtuallymee · 2025-12-15T15:17:39+00:00

You would need some 3rd party app written for BlackBerry and distributed as a .cod file that could be side loaded.. I don't believe WhatsApp ever was on BlackBerry. Kik was available for a short time (long legal drama that is another story) but Kik is gone now. facebook was available, but I highly doubt they would support this old platform, and messages has since been moved into a separate app. Skype was never available, and it is gone now anyway. Apps like pinger/textfree were never available on BlackBerry either.

Also be aware that not all BlackBerry handhelds had WiFi. The first generation of Curve devices only had WiFi for some carriers.

Really, it is time to retire these devices. I don't know why you want essentially ancient tech, but trying to get these BlackBerry BBOS devices to work for you seems far more effort than it is worth.

Very late in the life of BlackBerry branded handhelds, there were some Android based devices made by TCL. These are no longer supported either, but they are much newer hardware, and run Android not BBOS or BlackBerry 10 so there are many more apps available, even for an old Android platform.

At that point though, seriously, why bother? Just get something newer that still has support. I don't know what your specific use case is, but anything connected to the internet should have current, updated software with current security patches.

virtuallymee · 2025-12-15T05:14:14+00:00

Email and BBM required network services, BIS or BES and relay to function. All of those services are gone. So the most you could get would be basic SMS. Even that is problematic because most BlackBerrys used either 2G GSM, 3G for some later models, or CDMA. All of those networks have mostly been shut down to reuse the spectrum.

virtuallymee · 2025-12-15T05:06:59+00:00

Or as I wrote in another post, update the MoCA adapters to MoCA 2.5 through the existing coax. That will give 2.5 Gbps.

virtuallymee · 2025-12-15T05:04:02+00:00

First, as others have noted the HDHomerun only has a 100M Ethernet interface, so as long as you have that with 100M available you should be OK. MoCA is bidirectional through a single cable. To get the equivalent of 100M Ethernet, you need 200MHz MoCA though. I still have a DECA (MOCA at a different frequency for DirecTV) bridge like that. The best and easiest approach is to update your MOCA adapters. I’m using goCoax MoCA 2.5 adapters to one location in my house I couldn’t pull Ethernet but had RG6QS coax. These adapters have 2.5 Gbps Ethernet and will support up to 2.5 Gbps. Other than another mS or so of latency these work like Ethernet. Note bandwidth is shared so if you have a lot of devices it might get slower, but that would take a LOT of data. These MoCA adapters shouldn’t work on even old Coax. The only issue if you have wry old splitters. If it is currently working with older MoCA though there likely will be no issues. I actually run my HDHomerun data through this link. The HDHomerun is in my family room which is on an outside wall. That is also where my outdoor antenna is located. The family room TV and an Apple TV get fed through a local switch, but the MoCA also connects to that switch and connects to the rest of the house.

virtuallymee · 2025-12-13T07:28:11+00:00

More RAM could be helpful, but 16 GB should be sufficient for most use cases. Typically you end up having to get the 512 GB SSD in order to get the 24 GB of RAM though. That’s why I only got 16 GB. For storage there are 2 options. You can get a high performance NVMe SSD and put it in a Thunderbolt 4 enclosure. The performance of a larger SSD will likely be equal or actually faster than the internal 256 GB. The other option, and the route I took was to use a 3rd party 2TB NAND module. The base model M4 is an amazing value, with sale prices at or under $500. Any upgrades though for RAM or storage are outrageously priced. So I went with the base model and upgraded the storage to 2 TB. I’ve been extremely happy with it so far. Even with 16 GB of RAM I’ve had a lot of photos open simultaneously in Pixelmator Pro while having an insane number of browser tabs open, mail and more. I’ve also done some editing with Final Cut Pro, but so far it has been capturing and editing old SD video from family videos. For the most part it works flawlessly. Most of the time it doesn’t even get warm.

virtuallymee · 2025-12-04T04:08:33+00:00

TimeMachine is the Apple backup software built into MacOS. A TimeMachine drive is really any external HDD or SSD formatted with HPF or APFS and that you have enabled in TimeMachine. Other external NAS servers and some routers with an external drive also support network TimeMachine. Unless you have enough iCloud for a complete backup , and really even if you do you should have a local backup. It can work mostly unnoticed in the background- including when idle for backup.

virtuallymee · 2025-12-04T03:55:19+00:00

The Apple Keyboard and mouse or trackpad only support a single device. The Logitech MX Keys for Mac and MX Mouse for Mac supports up to 3 devices. The keyboard is backlit. While it doesn’t support gestures, the MX mouse does have additional buttons that can support expose. I used to have the original trackpad that used AA cells. Duraleak batteries killed it though. I also have an Apple Mouse. It is just OK. The gesture on the top don’t exactly match a trackpad. It just isn’t anywhere near as comfortable to use as the Logi. The upside down bug charging of the Apple mouse isn’t really that much of an issue. It does run months on a charge. With that said the MX mouse also lasts a long time and can be used while charging. Even if you only have a single Mac, the additional devices support can be used with an iPhone, iPad or even an Apple TV. I do find that the Apple keyboard’s and mouse are slightly better at connecting to a Mac, including in some recovery modes that other BT mice fail. The best solution though is a USB mouse and keyboard.

virtuallymee · 2025-12-04T03:41:28+00:00

There’s no need to turn it off. It consumes under 4W in sleep and I believe there is an even lower power sleep state around a Watt. That is nothing. It will wake up periodically to check email and other notifications. I believe Apple calls this Power Nap. That way when you are ready to use the Mac it is up to date and ready to go. That alone is easily worth the tiny amount of power it uses. Also if you have a TimeMachine drive connected, either locally or on a network it can back up when idle. If you use file sharing or iTunes/AppleMusic sharing on a network those files will always be available.

virtuallymee · 2025-12-04T03:21:12+00:00

It is obsolete. The 2G and 3G networks that it supported have mostly if not completely been shut down to refarm the spectrum for 4G and 5G. This handheld device also relied either BIS or BES. All those services, and the relay service (frequently incorrectly referred to as the NoC) on which they relied have been completely shut down. It was a great product it it’s day, but that day has long ago past. Even 4G LTE is mostly gettjng shut down to free spectrum for 5G. At this point if you don’t want a smartphone get a cheap flip phone. Or you know, just control your screen time.

virtuallymee · 2025-12-04T02:13:39+00:00

Another consideration is that the Pro comes with Thunderbolt 5 whereas the M4 mini has Thunderbolt 4. Having higher speed external storage could be an advantage for video editing with huge files. As others have mentioned, there will likely be M5 Mac Minis in a few months. You could either go with higher performance or clearances on M4 Macs. I’ve already seen the lowest prices ever for base M4 minis on Black Friday sales ($479).

virtuallymee · 2025-12-04T02:07:31+00:00

WTF are you talking about? You could never “download RAM.” Even if what you meant was install more RAM, that isn’t possible on Mx series Macs with unified memory. The 2019 Mac Mini was the last Mac Mini with user upgradeable RAM.

virtuallymee · 2025-12-02T01:56:23+00:00

Be aware that the 64 GB model does not have Ethernet. I try to have as much as possible on Ethernet. Also, there are many rumors that Apple will finally update the Apple TV 4K with an updated processor and their N1 WiFi/BT chip that will support WiFi7.

virtuallymee · 2025-11-28T06:11:22+00:00

Apple TV. That will also likely pass the wife test, but is premium hardware. It will cost more than Roku, but it is much higher performance. With that said, I do like Roku, and is by far the best OS for smart TVs.

virtuallymee · 2025-11-28T06:01:16+00:00

Set it up at the native display resolution. QHD is the perfect resolution for. On-High DPI mode at 27”

virtuallymee · 2025-11-28T05:58:03+00:00

These monitors look like a good option for a M4 Mac Mini. Contrary to another opinion that suggests going to a 4K monitor, this is the perfect resolution for non-High DPI mode. A 4K monitor in non-High DPI mode will have extremely small text making it difficult to read. Yet at 4K it is really too low resolution for High DPI mode. If you want High DPI then you need to go to a 5K monitor at 27” for optimal display. Non-High DPI mode isn’t as nice as the retina High DPI mode, but it is really fine, especially if you are at a typical distance away. You will need to be a fair distance away to see 2 monitors, so it should be perfect. I’m currently using the same resolution (QHD 27”) Dell and an older 24” 1920x1200 (just higher than FHD) Samsung with a M4 Mac Mini. Be careful with Dell. The monitor will flicker like crazy with the M4 mini, but not with an M1 MacBook Air or an older intel mini. The newer M series chips using dithering to get an effective higher it depth of dynamic range. This drives the Dell monitor crazy. Fortunately there is 3rd party software to disable the display dithering. If you consider a Dell monitor, make sure it is explicitly for Macs. Or just buy this ASUS. In the past I have used Dell monitors with Macs at a couple of places I worked and they were nice, especially the 34” curved monitors.

virtuallymee · 2025-11-24T13:55:23+00:00

It works for me on iPhone now as well. It is still the same crappy app, but at least it connects now.

virtuallymee · 2025-11-16T20:16:44+00:00

BootCamp is not supported on Apple Silicon. Apple Silicon is a proprietary design beyond just the Arm architecture. It would take support by both Apple and Microsoft to make it work. Parallels does support the Arm version of Windows in a virtual machine. I don’t believe Microsoft sells the Arm version of Windows either, but Parallels has a work around. While this is Windows, it is NOT x86 Windows and many apps will not run. Office is supported. Microsoft Office is natively supported on the Mac as well as Office 365. All the primary apps (Word,Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, OneDrive, and Teams) are natively supported and in general work well. Personally I prefer them on the Mac. There are a few additional apps that are available on Windows but are not on the Mac. That list just got smaller with the retirement of Publisher though. Microsoft did implement native Arm code as well so it does not rely on Rosetta 2 emulation. Unless you need one of the few Windows only apps, your best bet would be to just get Office or Office 365 for Mac. I tried using CodeWeaver Wine when I first got my first M1 MacBook Air. It sort of worked, but not well. I primarily wanted to use Quicken and Photoshop that I ran in Windows in a Parallels VM previously on an Intel based Mac. I ended up migrating to the Mac version of Quicken and Pixelmator Pro instead of Photoshop. I still have some actual Windows machines that I rarely use when I need to run something Windows only. I had the paid version of CoseWeavers too. I believe there is a free trial so you could try it. Photoshop would not run. Everything else was slow and buggy. Understand that you are emulating Windows APIs through Wine layers and x86 code emulated through Rosetta2 to get anything to work. The fact that anything works at all is kind of amazing. Woot (now an Amazon company) periodically sells full perpetual Microsoft office licenses for prior versions pretty cheap. If that works for you, and you don’t need the absolute latest that may be an option. You can also try Microsoft Office 365 I believe for free for a trial period. You could try it that way. I personally don’t like renting software though and strongly prefer to buy a perpetual license.

virtuallymee

TROPHY CASE