BCM upgrade to 4.0???

[BCMguy123]

Have a BCM 400 , that by KRS says it is 3.6 s/w. When trying to get in it, password was not available & IP address my or may not had been changed. Went ahead and purchased a straight 4.0 drive. Put in ; 30/40 minutes went by and looks like everything went well. We now have the machine at 4.0 but now lies issue of getting keycodes over to it. My question is; what is the right upgrade keycode to use also taking into consideration what ones the cheapest that will get the job done?? By keycode; I hear you can go from 3.6 to 4.0 (certain keycode), or 3.7 to 4.0(different keycode) or they even have a 4.0 migration. These are all different prices. Being machine was 3.6, and we just opted to throw in fresh 4.0 drive; what keycode do we need that will work, but is cheapest?? I understand this keycode to be one that is necessary and must be on KRS in order for me to get back the codes that exist on the KRS now as 3.6. Is that true?? What is the right keycode for me?? What are the Nortel part #'s for each ? Any other useful info is appreciated. Thx BCMguy123

 

[cook1082]

What happens whaen you upgrade to 4.0 it regenerates the keys that you have on the 3.6 and the upgrade code together so when you start the upgrade it asks for the keycode when you enter it the upgrade starts and during the upgrade it applies the codes to the new format. Your problem is the KRS thinks your system is a 3.6. You have the check with Nortel I think your screwed with out having to pay for migration or something like that. Good Luck!

 

[acewarlock]

Nortel knows what your old keycodes are by the SN on the MCS card, so they may charge you the upgrade price to regenerate the Keycodes for the 4.0, otherwise there is no other Keycode that you can use as you are already upgraded to 4.0.




This is a Signature and not part of the answer, it appears on every reply.

This is an Analogy so don't take it personally as some have.

Why change the engine if all you need is to change the spark plugs.

 

[Dasheen]

FYI
Without using the proper upgrade,your USB connections on the front are probably still non functional.

 

[DBrewsky]

Once you got your keycodes figured out, the latest patch (March System Update) has an MSC update, but you may have issues with the Motherboard BIOS as the upgrade takes care of that...

 

[acewarlock]

I noticed that when upgrading BCM 1000's 2.5 and 3.0 by just changing the HD to 3.6, that the modem no longer worked as it didn't load the older Device driver for the BCM. There are alot of things that get changed when doing the upgrade in the proper order, one of them being the BIOS and imbedded NT.




This is a Signature and not part of the answer, it appears on every reply.

This is an Analogy so don't take it personally as some have.

Why change the engine if all you need is to change the spark plugs.

 

[BCMguy123]

I appreciate everyones input. Just thinking out loud here but why do they sell the drives if you just could'nt put in a machine that has proper memory,etc?? When we put drive in it took somewhere around 30/40 minutes to "marry" together, but seems to be running great. All visual light indicators lighting the way they should. Its been running for a few days consistently. Trying to save money but would'nt the NTKC0950 4.0 migration work for sure?? I was just hoping there was a cheaper way. For instance, I don't think it be very cost effective if a user that had a BCM 3.0 do upgrades from 3.0 to 3.5 , then from 3.5 to 3.6 , then 3.6 to 4.0?? I'd think a 4.0 drive & proper auth code sounds like a reasonable solution in that case; so probably would work here too.....just not sure and you guys always have all the right answers. I was told that during the upgrade when I put the 4.0 drive in that the BIOS was re-flashed to work with the new operating system. Just wondering what will happen if I purchase the 3.6 to 4.0 upgrade. Will the machine take the keycode file??? It would be like restoring file after an upgrade or what about a crash even?? If unit crashed and I had to throw in a replacement drive; would'nt it make more sense to throw in a new 4.0 drive rather than going back to a 3.6 drive and doing the upgrades again?? I'm confused, though thank you to those who offered some solutions.

 

[acewarlock]

They sell the drives for all the Rls's and you need to use the correct one.

The 2.5 to 3.6 upgrades keycodes use to be FREE, they may still be if your Vendor isn't trying to get rich off them. I upgraded 50 BCM's to 3.6 for Free.

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Quote: I didn't understand what you meant here.

" When we put drive in it took somewhere around 30/40 minutes to "marry" together"

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The keycodes from 3.7 and lower will not work on a BCM 4.0, you must get them converted from one to the other and there isn't a keycode to do the conversion.




This is a Signature and not part of the answer, it appears on every reply.

This is an Analogy so don't take it personally as some have.

Why change the engine if all you need is to change the spark plugs.

 

[Dasheen]

Like Ace said 3.x keycodes can't be used on a 4.0. This is partly why you need to purchase the upgrade kit which comes w/ an upgrade keycode. If u follow the upgrade procedure, it will allow Nortel to convert your existing keycodes to the new 4.0 format and your system will then be in Nortel's database as a BCM 4.0 instead of a 3.7. The upgrade does other behind the scene stuff like unlock the USB ports.

The reason Nortel sells the indivdual HDs is in case you had a hardware failure. They are field replacement units (FRU).