Starlink risk of Bricking

[Joe Dutchstar]

You might be interested in this

SpaceX: Update Your Inactive Starlink Dishes Now or They'll Be Bricked

Starlink customers who have canceled or paused service must update their devices in the next few weeks or 'your Starlink will no longer function,' SpaceX says.

www.pcmag.com

 

[Underboss]

Thanks, I am coachless for 4 months so I unpacked the SL and am updating as I type

 

[Jim]

For the most part, I don't think this is a problem at this point. I may be mistaken, but if not, then:

• If you have one in "standby" mode, it will/should update itself.
• If you have one that is "paused" then it probably would have stopped working when the deadline to put them in "standby" mode expired. And if you put it in standby mode, it should have updated by itself.
• The only thing to watch out for is if you have one (or more) that haven't been activated yet. When you pull it out of the box and fire it up, it will update the firmware and when that completes, it will activate itself and you will start being billed. At least, that is what happened to me.

A call to support, and I'm using the term "support" with a great degree of generosity, is usually the last thing you want to do, right after yanking all your teeth out with a pair of pliers. I dredged the thought, but it appears that Elon has finally turned on some AI to handle the support that he was failing to provide in the past. And the bot did a great job of refunding the two months of service that I didn't realize I was paying for.

So watch you don't get caught with the "auto activation" thing!

 

[Joe Dutchstar]

Agreed, Stand by mode has the bandwidth to update if it is powered and access to satellites. The concern is those units that are unplugged and stuffed in a closet.
Or turned off and parked in a metal roofed garage like mine. I try to pull the unit it out once a month and power up the and reboot to get the latest updates. A bit of a PIA but don't want an issue with the roof mounted Starlink.