# Problems doing firmware update on Kenwood DNX890HD



## Bilbo99 (Jan 9, 2009)

Trying to do a firmware update on my Kenwood DNX890HD.

I got the firmware update file from Kenwood's site and have followed their instructions to a T but I cant get the dang thing to update. The update button is grayed out. My files are not in a folder. The instructions say "File" yet when I unpack the download as per instructions, I get 19 files and 9 of them are zip files. Anyone have experience with this firmware update?


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## augerpro (Jun 10, 2011)

Can't help with that, but just curious what you think of this head unit? Does the touch work smoothly? Has it been stable?


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## Bilbo99 (Jan 9, 2009)

The 890HD is a beast (lots of features) but its not something I would go with if you like to mess with things while driving. The UI is funky. The Touch is nice and responsive but I don't find ANY of the screens to laid out intuitively except for the NAV. Its a real pain in the but the jump folders on MP3 CDs and USB fobs with multiple folders. Bottom line is the unit was released way before testing was done. I have only experienced it once but the NAV is known to lock up and Bluetooth with my Samsung S3 is very glitchy. It handles phone calls very well but streaming music is not working at all, Pandora doesn't sink and that is what the firmware update is supposed to handle. I have been working with computers 20 years and this stuff usually comes easy but this unit is just awkward. The remote is a joke. It has 30+ buttons on it and none of them are grouped well enough that you can pick it up and just feel your way around. You HAVE to look at it. Bad when driving. It doesnt help that I am 6'5" and this is in a 2009 Toyota Tundra that's a bit bouncy so trying to reach for the screen is just wrong. If you don't change sources and have your music very organized then you may be ok.


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## augerpro (Jun 10, 2011)

Awesome thanks for the feedback. Was looking to upgrade to something modern but I'm a real stickler for intuitive layouts, ergonomics, and stability.


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## augerpro (Jun 10, 2011)

augerpro said:


> Awesome thanks for the feedback. Was looking to upgrade to something modern but I'm a real stickler for intuitive layouts, ergonomics, and stability.


Anyone have a suggestion that meets that? Need NAV, bluetooth, backup camera ability


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## THEDUKE (Aug 25, 2008)

Format to USB drive to FAT32


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## Coppertone (Oct 4, 2011)

Ok I'm sorry but here is where I chime in lol. I also own this unit and agree with the above posted statement. My nav stopped working less then a week of ownership. Yes my firmware is up to date, and still nothing. My Bluetooth well lets just say with my Galaxy S4 it's more miss then hit sadly. Although on a positive note, I watched a movie on it today and it was very clear. Again as stated if you do your set up before driving, then you are good to go. If not, be prepared cause it's on like popcorn.


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## bonvivant (Aug 2, 2011)

I would love to see the solution for this problem. I have the same issue.


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## Bilbo99 (Jan 9, 2009)

bonvivant said:


> I would love to see the solution for this problem. I have the same issue.


Believe it or not, all I did to get it to work was use a newer USB drive and make sure nothing is playing on the the head unit, hit the standby button and THEN connect the USB with the firmware update.

Now if you are like me and have a Samsung Galaxy phone you are SOL. It seams that rather than fix the Bluetooth issues with the Galaxy phones they just declared them incompatible. I am very pissed. I payed way to much for this unit and its not compatible with one of the most popular phones on the planet. Looks like I will be swapping it out. Any suggestions???


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## bonvivant (Aug 2, 2011)

Bilbo99 said:


> Believe it or not, all I did to get it to work was use a newer USB drive and make sure nothing is playing on the the head unit, hit the standby button and THEN connect the USB with the firmware update.
> 
> Now if you are like me and have a Samsung Galaxy phone you are SOL. It seams that rather than fix the Bluetooth issues with the Galaxy phones they just declared them incompatible. I am very pissed. I payed way to much for this unit and its not compatible with one of the most popular phones on the planet. Looks like I will be swapping it out. Any suggestions???


Really? My s4 works just fine. What are the issues you are having?


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## Bilbo99 (Jan 9, 2009)

bonvivant said:


> Really? My s4 works just fine. What are the issues you are having?


It was my assumption that the s4 was included along with the s3.

I cannot get my AT&T Samsung Galaxy S3 which just got the OTA 4.3 update to pair the 890HD with SPP which handles all of the audio streaming. The "Smartphone Link" section of Bluetooth is greyed out. Pandora, aHa Radio and iHeartRadion say "connect ready" but they will not connect. I have tried every variable possible. I was able to get my Asus Tranformer tablet to connect on all audio as long as I was near WiFi. Phone connects just fine.

I read on Kenwood forums that the S3 is not compatible. If you know the secret I will try it out but like I said, I have tried every variable possible. When pairing the phone, it will hang on "audio" for a few seconds and may ever play Pandora through the system for 2 seconds but it drops and plays through my phone. Wont be able to try anything for 2 days as its in the shop getting tint and and a spot on the hood where the clear coat looks like it burned off fix. If I cannot get the S3 to pair I will be getting different NAV Deck.


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## Sine Swept (Sep 3, 2010)

It may help others, it took me years to finally update the firmware on my DNX series. I found that using a program called Deep Burner to burn the file onto a DVD finally solved my updating issues.


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## Bilbo99 (Jan 9, 2009)

Sine Swept said:


> It may help others, it took me years to finally update the firmware on my DNX series. I found that using a program called Deep Burner to burn the file onto a DVD finally solved my updating issues.


That's interesting since Kenwood's instructions say to only use USB. The problem I was having was doing things out of order. You must 1st put the deck in standby, the navigate to software and THEN plug in the USB drive with the downloaded zip file extracted straight onto the USB drive at root level. As soon as I plugged the USB DRIVE in the update "button" became active.


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## HoustonREF (Mar 30, 2014)

Folks - Sometime reading everyone's input, and synthesizing helps!

1) Turn on the radio. Make sure that the engine is running and that you have AT LEAST 1/2 hour to do this.
2) Hit the "hard" menu button, and choose standby.
3) Click setup, wait, then software. Mine was at 1.6.0. The current upgrade will take you to 1.7.0.
4) Download the software from the Kenwood site (it is a ZIP file), and unzip this to a USB stick. Note: There is a comment here about formatting the USB "drive" or memory stick to FAT32. I used one that was USB. BUT, the first one I tried (1 GB from an "industry show") did not work. After following the next step I got a "bad update, remove USB", and the system re-booted back to software version 1.6.0. I tried the format to FAT32, and had the same result. I then tried a Kingston 0.5 GB drive, with FAT it worked. So, all USB drives are not created equally, and maybe you need more than 1/2 hour... 
5) Connect the USB drive to the USB cable from the 890HD. The "UPDATE" button on the software screen can now be selected.
6) Once pressed, the DNX890HD will find the software on the USB, and then re-boot. The screen will say "Updating. Do NOT remove USB". Bring something to amuse yourself, and DON'T touch the screen.
7) After about 4-5 minutes, the screen will re-boot, and then do a check. This part took about 20+ minutes, and the "slider" update on the screen incrementally moved every 10-20 seconds. Either fascinate yourself with this, or bring something else!
8) Finally the screen re-boots, and upon checking, version 1.7.0 had been installed. Bluetooth pairings, and MOST radio channels and settings had been kept. The first XM channel was missing, but the rest were there.

Hope this helps.


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## Coppertone (Oct 4, 2011)

Good to know, I run a DNX891HD and so far it's been a dream. Now don't even get me started on my older Kenwood lol.


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## yikkle (Dec 7, 2017)

I have the same stereo and tried to update it but it is now stuck in a loop of "update error, remove usb device" and when I do that after a few seconds it says ''please insert usb device" I have tried it several times with different usb devices and two different downloads of firmware from different sites with the same results. Now I have a non-working radio instead of just no maps.


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## Jdmeyers (Jul 16, 2015)

Maybe download the update from kenwoodusa.com using internet explorer


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## csardani87 (Feb 5, 2018)

I have the update error loop, how you can solve? I try to download the firmware in the official page but I don't have luck, do you have any solve?


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## yikkle (Dec 7, 2017)

I ended up mailing mine to a Kenwood authorized repair center but the post office smashed it in delivery and now I have no stereo at all and the post office gave me $50 for it


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## Stephane (Aug 14, 2009)

I have the DNX 692 and I too have issue with bluethooth. I have to manually connect it everytime I get in the car. It does connect but not to every application. For instence, I never managed to get iHeart or Kenwood smartphone app or traffic to work. My phone in an LG G3. And I never managed to get my daughter's iPhone 5S or 6 to connect either. And I thought bluethoot was bluethoot?!?!


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## csardani87 (Feb 5, 2018)

let me tell, how I can solve my problem, after a few days of braking my head, and make questions in differents forums, finally found a solution

I download the update in the oficial page of kenwood 

unzip in a stick kingston 4 gb, and install in my kenwood, after 10 minutes the update finish Ok


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## SilverSubaruTT (Jun 27, 2021)

Okay.. I've been trying to update the firmware on my DNN991hd since 2015.. It will only accept a USB that has been CLEARED with the Windows 10 PowerShell with administration privileges. You need to Clear/Wipe the drive using these instructions: How to “Clean” a Flash Drive, SD Card, or Internal Drive to Fix Partition and Capacity Problems

You might not have to do this if you're using a new out of the box USB drive, as I've been using the same USB drive since 2015, when I look into the Disk Manager app on windows 10, the drive had 3 different partitions on it, even though I had never partitioned it. Doing a regular format to FAT32 in the My Computer area wouldn't get rid of the partitions. The DNN991hd wouldn't see the firmware files that were sitting on the top level of the drive.

I am also NOT able to update the firmware at all, even though I have now set the drive up and the unit does see the firmware. AS SOON as I press the Update button, the deck will power off immediately and reboot itself.

There has always been a message at start up that reads, SD CARD Damaged, even though there is no SD card in it. I have put a blank 16 gig SD card into the slot and the deck will ASK to Format it, and it will complete that task, but after a reboot, the same Damaged SD Card warning comes up. - No idea what the SD card is used for.

The deck works fine, sounds fine, plays everything it supposed to play.. it just won't update the main firmware. I have updated the BlueTooth firmware once back in 2015, just before the firmware update of 2015 came out, and that took with no isuues.

So, the deck is sitting at Firmware 1.2.0 or something like that, and there's been 3 updates for the years. The unit take 1.5 mins to boot up..and I remember the installer laughing at how slow it was.

Oh, and the factory installed Dynamic backgrounds will load, but only stay that way until reboot. Then it's back to the factory background. - Don't mind that really.. the optional backgrounds are not great.

ANYONE had this issue at all??


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