When plugged in the screen shows me what the lens sees. As for the firmware version, I have no clue. As I previously stated it does not respond to any input. No matter what I do to it, nothing changes on the screen, all that happens is I hear an audible beep when a button is pushed. When I installed this in my car I put it in front of my rear view mirror so the camera would not obstruct my view at all, but the camera would still have a clear view. I can't see it when I'm seated in the car because my rear view mirror blocks my view of the camera. It is in the perfect place not to obstruct my view any more than the vehicle manufacturer intended. I figured as long as I heard the power up tones when I turned on the car, the camera was doing what I wanted it to do. After I replaced the GPS module a little over a year ago, it never gave me any reason to believe it wasn't working properly. Since I can't see it the only way I would know it wasn't properly functioning is if it were to make unusual noises, unless my wife is in the car with me. When she is, she looks to see if the "REC" button is red, indicating it is recording, and it has been every time she has been in the car with me. You said not checking files in over a year was a mistake. Why would I check the recordings if there wasn't anything of interest that should have been recorded? I purchased this product because it had very good reviews and was supposed to be the most reliable unit available. Until a couple days ago everything that should have been recorded on the camera was my daily driving events, nothing interesting. Hence, no reason to question what had actually been recorded. I don't perform operational checks on my airbag system either but I expect them to inflate should I ever need them too. The dash cam isn't like the brakes and doesn't have parts that have an expected wear life. It was designed to record of what was previously recorded when the memory card filled up, and that's exactly what I was expecting it to be doing all this time. If the installation instructions stated it was necessary to perform periodic inspections maybe I would have done so. When it powers up and gives me the power up tone isn't that the dash cam telling me it powered up correctly and is now operating normally? If that's not what that means it sure should be. It should be telling me it powered up and passed its BIT (Built in Test) and is recording as it was initially set up, depending on the options I selected during the initial set up of the device. If it's not functioning properly it should be designed to audibly alert me to that fact. I apologize for the length of this post.