MR-88 Firmware: Current Version Is Now v1.11
 

McIntosh now has a later release of the MR-88 Firmware (v1.11) that fixes a software bug that I was having with "ghosts" of the tuning indicator being left on the screen as I turned the tuning dial.

I was previously using v1.10 which was necessary for XM reception.

v1.11 seems to now be common with the MR-87 (but with XM and HD support). I'm happy and thankful to McIntosh for fixing my bug....

If you are having unexplained weirdness with your MR-88 (like I did with the linear tuning dial), you might want to apply this v1.11 update...

Please note that the update process works perfectly now on Windows 7 through the latest (1-May) release of Windows 10.

YOU MUST BE RUNNING THE UPDATE PROGRAM ON A COMPUTER WITH A GENUINE INTEL CPU!! YOU WILL "BRICK" YOUR MR-88 IF YOU TRY TO RUN THE UPDATE ON AN AMD BASED COMPUTER!!!!

did this fix your issues on the other thread you have with the 88?

Yep! My MR-88 works perfectly now! Linear dial "ghosting" is fixed. I'd recommend that everyone who is still at 1.00 or 1.10 apply this update....

nice congrats and good fine too! :)

feinstei.......Well, I have no ghosting issues with my log scale indicator or any other issues with my MR88 tuner, so my motto is "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

I am curious if the v:1.11 firmware improved any of the HD or XM tuning capabilities, or only addressed the log scale indicator issue.

I don't know what the HD or XM tuning capabilities could be improved since I don't use XM. From what I've been able to see, the IBOC/HD captures FM and AM stations just the same as it always did. I never realized that there were deficiencies on the MR-88 in terms of XM or HD/IBOC. The HD/IBOC performs as well as my car radio and my Sony HD radio does.

I believe that the major goal of this update was to fix bugs and produce a common firmware platform for the MR-88 and its much-inferior (feature wise) successor, the MR-87. The "log scale indicator" issue that I ran into was one of the bugs that it fixed. I'm sure that Chuck Hinton at McIntosh could enumerate the changes in v1.11. Chuck very kindly E-mail'd me the new firmware...

feinstei.......Glad everything worked out for you.

Wow, great info! Were you the first one to report this or did they already have it ready?

The linear tuning bar problem was known to them. I didn't get the steps to reproduce that bug from Chuck Hinton though. It'd be interesting to see what other bugs v1.11 fixed.

The following is my own editorial opinion and is not to be construed as being an endorsement:

If you aren't running v1.11, I'd call Chuck and ask him for it (or I can E-mail it to you -- just send me a PM), whether you're experiencing problems or not. As long as you have a Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8.x, or Windows 10 PC with a genuine Intel CPU, it's very safe to do and the instructions are very clear on how to do it.

feinstei.......PM sent.