TS8 unit clicking (restarting) every 25 seconds after switch to DHCP?

Question

Hi, I went into my Portserver TS8 and switched it to DHCP today, and now it just clicks, flashes some lights for 25 seconds, then clicks again, etc.. Is it in a restart loop of somekind? I tried holding down the button and can't seem to get it out of this loop. Any suggestions?

Pete

Answer 1

Some additional info...

I'm running firmware 820000684_V (or at least that what last appeared before it went into this restart loop).

If I hook up a console cable and hold down the power button when rebooting and hit v, I go into a diagnostic start and it comes back with:

Watchdog test: okday
Serial Control Test: .000000
Serial Transmit Test: .000000
gpio-enet test: Interrupt not detected
Memory test: okay
mbox test: processor 0 okay

Ethernet: Internal Selftest Failed (0xfffffff)
PHY reset failed
RTC test: OK
Rebooting to Correct PCI Issue
(And it just loops here)

If I hold down a key, when all of this is happening, I can get a diagnostic menu to come up for a short while, but it then cuts off and reboots again. The only additional info is that it says:

Boot Revision 82000685_G 02/02/2006 which is interesting, since previously it said 820000684_V the last time I was able to connect to it before the restart)

Even when I bring up the diagnostic menu, I can't get a chance to enter anything, it just starts displaying the menu and the cuts off and reboots.

Pete

Answer 2

Hi Pete,

Are you saying that this issue was not happening before the DHCP change (enabling DHCP) was done?

Answer 3

I had the portserver sitting for a long time (perhaps a year)...and it started up just fine and I was able to get in with the static IP I set last year... I logged into the web interface, enabled DHCP and it wanted a reboot, so I clicked on reboot, and that was all I could get to. It never went far enough in boot to pickup an ip address from dhcp.

I can bring up a diagnostic, but I can't seem to cancel out of the startup to do any of the diagnostic tftp firmware updates that I've seen mentioned for other models. Not sure if the TS8 had that functionality.

A year ago, when I was originally getting started with the digi, I did attempt a firmware update... perhaps this never went in properly and somehow is half installed now? Very strange. Is something stuck in battery backed ram that I can clear out?

Pete

Answer 4

Have you tried performing a factory reset on the unit?

1. Disconnect power.
2. Hold down reset button (and keep held down).
3. Re-connect power.
4. Wait about 30 seconds.
5. Release power.

See if you can then discover the unit using the Digi Device Discovery Utility.

http://ftp1.digi.com/support/utilities/40002256_H.exe

Keep this KB article in mind (if needed):

http://www.digi.com/support/kbase/kbaseresultdetl?id=1035

Answer 5

Have you tried performing a factory reset on the unit?

1. Disconnect power.
2. Hold down reset button (and keep held down).
3. Re-connect power.
4. Wait about 30 seconds.
5. Release *RESET BUTTON* (EDIT)

See if you can then discover the unit using the Digi Device Discovery Utility.

http://ftp1.digi.com/support/utilities/40002256_H.exe

Keep this KB article in mind (if needed):

http://www.digi.com/support/kbase/kbaseresultdetl?id=1035

Comments

Hi Jeremy - I'm sort of past that at the moment...holding down the reset button doesn't reset anything... I've tried holding it down for 60 seconds as I applied power, as another digi kb article mentioned, but it doesn't seem to clear up anything.  The boot process I listed earlier shows it isn't going far enough to acquire a network address, so the discovery utility isn't an option... it's just stuck in a loop with probably the wrong firmware revision loaded.   I'm sort of looking for detail on how the service dept might get it back from this bricked state.  Sort of wish there was some safeguards in there to prevent an improper firmware version from being loaded, but unfortunately not at the moment.

Answer 6

Based on the info you've given me so far, I think the unit somehow got damaged, probably not related to a firmware update, perhaps due to a surge.

Unfortunately, I don't think the unit is recoverable in the field.

If you can provide the serial number of the unit, I can check to see if it's covered under warranty and eligible for a free repair.

Comments

Actually, I'm getting a bit further after letting the device sit a couple day sunplugged.

Right now I can get to a command prompt after it boots, but it doesn't seem to initialize the network properly, so even though I have console root access, I can't assign it an IP that sticks when I reboot it.

Do these versions look appropriate for a 50001208-1 AA model?
boot/post 82000685 release_82000685_g
running eos 82000684 release_82000684_t

show boot
boot revision 82000685_g 02/02/2006
Factory firmware will be used at next boot

Answer 7

What's the result of the "show memstats" command?

Comments

Memory statistics:

Heap size:         12794368 bytes
Heap available:    11979840 bytes
Largest block:     11941824 bytes
Successful allocs:     3254
Failed allocs:            0

Message block usage

In use:        451
Allocated:     452
Maximum:       453
Success:       608
Failure:         0

Data block usage

Size | In use | Allocated | Maximum | Success | Failure
  16 |     42 |        42 |      42 |     163 |       0
  64 |      9 |         9 |       9 |      42 |       0
 128 |      0 |         0 |       0 |       0 |       0
 256 |    408 |       408 |     408 |     408 |       0
 512 |      0 |         0 |       0 |       0 |       0

---

What it seems to do now is reboot a couple times, then go into a mode where only the PWR light is flashing about once a second and provides the login prompt over the console cable.  When hooked up to a switch, I never get a link light that it's trying to make a physical network connection via ethernet

Answer 8

Please see the KB article below, in case you're wondering why I asked you to issue that command.

http://www.digi.com/support/kbase/kbaseresultdetl?id=967

Looks like your unit should be running the 82000684 EOS firmware, which it is, so that's good.

I'm afraid I don't have any other suggestions right now. I still think something's wrong hardware-wise and you should send it in for repair, if it's covered under warranty. If you want to know about the warranty, please provide the serial number of the unit.