Ultra II 960 dead - firmware update involved?

I cloned a win10 OS from a sandisk SSD plus 960 to a brand new Ultra II 960 yesterday. I installed the Ultra II and it booted up and into win10 without problems. To check status of the ultra II, I installed dashboard software, which asked me to update firmware - which I did. I did not immediately restart. 

After turning off last night, this morning I started the computer, and the Ultra II was not recognized at all by BIOS. I put the Ultra II into a usb case, and it would not show up in any of the computers I plugged it into.

I have the sneaking suspicion the firmware update might involved.

Help.

-L