Many do not understand what NorW means by doing a "Factory Set" (F-S). Also many call it a Factory RESET thinking that it "resets" the receiver. So they do the F-S FIRST before loading the new Flash and think that it’s ok! Or many just don't do it at all! . . . Not needed they say.

Here’s what it really does. Simply put, it INSTALLS and properly INITIALIZES the flash that was just loaded. What does that mean? It does what it says; it replaces the OLD flash with the flash just loaded and sets it as the operating system.

Many say “you don’t need to do that, it’s a waste of time”. My answer; try this simple experiment for yourself and you will be convinced.

The easiest way to see this for yourself is to do the following on a NEW CS 5k; Load a early version of a NorW flash, say V102 or V103. Do not use any later version than V103 since V104 contained BEV satellites. To do this properly follow these steps.
1) Use Loader 2.4 and load V102 or V103 into CS 5K.
2) When complete, press MENU, select “System Setting”, then Database Reset”, then select “FACTORY SET”. You do NOT have to do a “database reset”, just a F-S.
3) When complete, select “Installation”, then "Dish Setting”. Now look for a BEV satellite such as “Nimig 1,3” or “Nimiq 2”. You will not find any since there are NO BEV sats in V102 or V103 flash. This is the 'setup' part of the test.

So far so good. Now for the ‘proof’!
1) Use Loader2.4 and this time load a current flash. Follow the methods that you did to load the older flash, V102 or V103.
2) Do NOT do a Factory Set after loading the current flash.
3) After the current flash is loaded, select “Installation”, next “Dish Setting”, and look for a BEV satellite such as “Nimiq 1,3” or “Nimiq 2”.

You will not find them but we all know they are contained in that flash! The reason is simple; You have not properly installed this current flash b/c of not doing a “F-S”.

So if you want to see that there are BEV sats in the flash, do a F-S and repeat the DISH Settings. Now they will be there!

So this answers all questions about whether a F-S is REALLY needed. The answer is “yes” if you want the current flash to operate as it was intended. The reason that you "get-away" w/o doing a F-S, is b/c the releases as of now, are not radically different so it's not apparent that a feature here or there is missing or not operating properly.

The downside of doing this is you ALWAYS loose your channel list or scanned channels meaning that you MUST re-scan or re-load your channel list. So if you have a list that you like, make sure you save it first.