M4300 24x24f unresponsive- amber power light

[TechAtAnimal]

Hi! We have an m4300x24f managed switch. It is an RMA replacement so was hooked in three weeks ago. When we plugged it into the power it worked great three weeks ago, was able to log in just to make sure it worked and was going to set it up yesterday however it isn't responding to any type of login method. It was just plugged in and unset up and now it has the Power 1 light on the front that is solid amber, and the fan light that is green. The PSU light on the back is solid green. We've tried resetting it, unplugging it, and all of the login methods for set up. Has anyone seen this or know what could be the problem?

[ElaineP]

Hi TechAtAnimal,

Welcome to NETGEAR community!

Please confirm that M4300-24X24F Power 1 light on the front that is solid amber, Power 2 LED is off? Due to M4300 24X24F support two PSU. Try to plug in Power 2, and check Power 2 works ok?

And connect the console port to PC, check the log record from console port, for example, switch reboot continually and so on.

Look forward your reply. 

Regards,

NETGEAR Employee

[TechAtAnimal]

The Power 1 light is solid amber and we only have the one PSU however, it does the same thing if we switch the PSU to slot number 2 just with the Power 2 light. None of the ports are responding, they don't give any indicator lights to show that they are plugged into the computer with the computer not acknowledging that anything is plugged in and we can't pull up any info from the switch.

Thank you for responding

[TCan]

Have you plugged in a console cable so you can follow the whole boot process and see if any error message is displayed?

[ElaineP]

Hi TechAtAnimal,

It looks like the switch cannot boot up successfully, due to Power1 or power2 is solid amber.

Please check you connect console port accurately, not physical ports, you can find the ports on the left of the front panel, which display ‘console 115200…’ . After connecting the console port, even the switch cannot boot up, when you pull out the power attaching plug, not PSU, after you plug into attaching plug, you can see Boot Logging.

Look forward your reply. 

Regards,

NETGEAR Employee

[TechAtAnimal]

Well, I managed to get a response in the boot logging window however it shows a random pattern of "B"'s for about a minute and then goes onto infinite "0"'s. I've included pictures of how it looks.

Pictures

[TCan]

Random characters are usually because you have connected at the wrong speed.

The default is 115200 but it is possible that somebody has changed it. Supported speeds are 1200 | 2400 | 4800 | 9600 | 19200 | 38400 | 57600 | 115200

Try each one until you find the right one. For each speed, change your software then re-power the switch.

Other settings are 8 data bits, no parity, 1 stop bit. Personally I use no flow control. These should be the settings whatever speed you connect at.

[ElaineP]

Hi TechAtAnimal,

Agree with TCan’s suggestion, it sounds like your console configuration is wrong. I only add two pictures to introduce that how to change it.

Due to I cannot see your pictures clearly, so e.g. if use the ipop.exe to check logging, PC port is COM7, please change configuration as below:

Not pay attention to ip addr.

 

PC change port settings:

 

Regards,

NETGEAR Employee

[TechAtAnimal]

Thank you Tcan and Elaine, I didn't realize Tera Term was resetting itself to a different baud rate every time.

I've gotten actual text now, so I've included a better quality picture of what the error screen I am getting says.

Error Message

[TCan]

Looks like your firmware is corrupt.

I would wait for a Netgear rep to get back to you as to how to recover it, all my experience is with Cisco kit (I can tell you how to do a recovery on a Cisco switch if that will help!)

I have had a search online and found this docuemnt for recovering the software on a Netgear router but I have no idea if it is the same for a switch (it's very similar to a Cisco recovery). https://kb.netgear.com/22688/How-to-upload-firmware-to-a-NETGEAR-router-using-TFTP

As I said, I would wait for the official answer.