Vernier Tech Info Library TIL #2026

Question

Lab Quest is stuck in the reboot mode after new Lab Quest App installation. Hard reboot does not solve problem

Answer

The LQ is stuck in the reboot state because the thumb drive with the installer was modified. A new dive with the new installer on it will not solve the problem. A hard reboot will not solve the problem. This is because the the "fw_redir" file is not on the drive and is needed to point the updater to the location of the fw folder. The fw_redir file is created by the first phase of the update and needs to be there for the second phase.

Steps to solve the problem are listed below

1. On the Windows computer, unzip the downloaded updater file, LQv1.2-Update.zip on a clean thumb drive

2. You now have a folder named LabQuest-v1.2 which contains:
-- a subfolder named 'fw'
-- a subfolder named 'fw_pre'
-- a file named LQ_1.2_2009-03-04_Update.lqu

3. Using the file browser (what you get when you double click the icon for the thumb drive in My Computer), open the thumb drive and by drag-and-drop move the �fw' subfolder from underneath the LabQuest-v1.2 folder to the top level of the thumb drive so that it is at the same level as the LabQuest-v1.2 folder (and the zip file).

4. Unmount the thumb drive and plug it in to the LQ that is stuck in the reboot loop

5. When the LQ updater reboots again it will find the thumb drive and proceed with the update.

If this does not solve the problem, please contact our technical support team and reference that you have already tried the steps in TIL 2026.

Created by: melvillj on June 17 2009
Last updated by: jhopkins on July 14 2009