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RNDU6000 doesn't boot - Stuck on "ReadyNAS" prompt screen
Dear all,
My ReadyNAS Ultra 6 doesn't boot anymore, both with and without the disks inserted in their slots.
No special soft or hardware update action was going on.
Sometimes things restart after a while but not in my case, Raidar cannot see it and I cannot access the boot menu. Nothing looks broken so I believe something must be corrupted somewhere.
It looks like this issue is common on the community but without explicite solutions, only the one below is marked as solved:
Considering the PSU is working as well as the hard drives, and nothing looks broken or burnt I assume my issue can be electronic only and no repair is possible, neither spare part available on internet. So I will stop investigations here and just replace my NAS.
By the way, as I cannot recover any data, I will migrate to Synology as I'm not an IT guy and the Netgear interface has been a nightmare for me when Synology is famous for the friendly interface.
Thank you for your help, at least I'm now sure I didn't miss anything I could repair before breaking my piggy bank.
Re: RNDU6000 doesn't boot - Stuck on "ReadyNAS" prompt screen
The post you linked to has a different symptom (stuck on "Booting... checking root FS" with disks installed). Are you seeing that, or just "ReadyNAS".
Assuming you are just seeing "ReadyNAS" with and without disks, then most likely your problem is a failed power supply. If the 5 volt output of the supply is working but the 12 volt output has failed, then you will see the "ReadyNAS" prompt, but nothing will work. It is possible to replace the PSU with some effort - @Sandshark often gives helpful advice on that.
Another option is to purchase a new OS-6 NAS (RN300 or better). OS-6 uses a very different file system, so you can't just migrate the disks from an Ultra running OS 4.2. But you can mount the existing disks temporarily, and copy the files to external drives. When that's complete you'd do a new install, and restore the data from the backups. https://kb.netgear.com/29957/ReadyNAS-Migrating-disks-from-RAIDiator-4-2-to-ReadyNAS-OS-6-x86
So right now I will work around the 12V power supply which sounds something I can afford.
It's just one supply, but has both 5v and 12v outputs (generally PC PSUs have both).
I've never owned an ultra-6, so I don't know first hand how it's supply and internals compare with the pro-6 that I do have.
There is a useful guide on getting the PSU out of the pro-6 here: https://community.netgear.com/t5/ReadyNAS-Hardware-Compatibility/ReadyNAS-Pro-6-Power-Supply-FAN-rep... It's not quite on-target, as the poster was actually disassembing the PSU to replace the fan inside it. But it does show the basic steps needed to get the PSU out of the chassis. Note the warning about accidently knocking off one of the heatsinks in step 5. Even with the warning, I did that. If you do also, then don't use the arctic silver repair that the OP suggested. You should use 3M thermal tape instead (I purchased mine here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00MO2XEGE It was easy to apply, and worked great )
Those are still available, and cost about $60. However, you likely will need to modify the cabling some. You'll need three molex outputs (at least you do on the Pro-6), and as you can see from the pictures in my first link, the space for the cabling is tighter than it would be in a normal PC chassis.
I'm not a hardware guy, so hopefully @Sandshark will chime in and correct any mistakes in the above. (And hopefully someone will verify that the RNDU6000 has the same supply and physical layout).
Re: RNDU6000 doesn't boot - Stuck on "ReadyNAS" prompt screen
-The power supply was not that difficult to dismantle. Just needed to remove the main fan first to have space to slide the PSU out.
-The motherboard is still in place and not risk to knock any critical part.
-The power supply is a standard SFX format so any PSU 300W compatible SFX will have the right dimensions.
-I'm in France, the models you identified here are not available close by or at a very different price (€95!!!).
I looked on-line for SFX 300w power supply and found a bunch of then. Most have only 2 molex or different intensity (A) output. I'm not sure if this may make a big difference but I believe a 400W will use more energy and potentially create more heat and noise. A missing molex would not be too difficult to rebuild refurbishing one from the old PSU with basic wiring skills and some patience.
I found that (see picture attached):
FSP/Fortron FSP300-50GHS 85+ 300W SFX
Includes 4 Molex and power output extremely close for a reasonable 49€ including shipping.
+3.3V 21.0A
+5V 20.0A
+12V1 14.0A
+12V2 16.0A
+5Vsb 2.5A
-12V 0.5A
I couldn't find that without your suggestions so thank you so much. I keep this topic open until I receive my PSU and I can see my ReadyNAS booting properly. I will keep you updated for others who may find this discussion useful.
Re: RNDU6000 doesn't boot - Stuck on "ReadyNAS" prompt screen
If you have (or can borrow from a PC) a standard ATX supply, you can connect that externally to the NAS to see if that fixes it before you try and find a suitable internal replacement. Or, you can run it with the external supply to recover any files not already backed up before moving to a new NAS. I don't recommend running the NAS permanently with an external supply, but if you use masking tape to seal up the gaps where the back is open, you can run it for long enough to recover files.
Another forum user has reported success with the Seasonic SSP-300SFB. The fan is a bit offset, but he said it did not seem to be making any difference in the unit temperature compared to the old one. I believe this is a bit more available in Europe.
For others reading this before their power supply dies: This is yet another good reason to consider moving your Ultra or Pro model to OS6. You select the point at which the files need to be backed up and restored for the OS swap. Then, if (likely when, they are getting old) your power supply dies, you can simply swap the drives into a current model OS6 based (preferably also Intel based) ReadyNAS.
Re: RNDU6000 doesn't boot - Stuck on "ReadyNAS" prompt screen
Unfortunately, there are a lot of things that could be wrong, most of them not repairable. You could get a cable to connect a VGA monitor to the header on the motherboard and see if the BIOS gives you any clues. The cable is a pretty standard 16-pin dual inline ribbon cable connector to 15-pin VGA connector.
Re: RNDU6000 doesn't boot - Stuck on "ReadyNAS" prompt screen
This article incoudes the VGA pin-put.https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/csc/people/computingstaff/jaroslaw_zachwieja/readynaspro-jailfix/. But you might want to look a little harder. Do you have a dealer that carries used equipment? The cable often comes on a bracket for mounting in an unused slot location ot the rear of the PC, as they are primarilly used for the second VGA connector on some (mostly older) video cards. eBay is full of them from China, but I don't know cost and time to ship to you.
Yes, dead motherboard meand dead NAS. Netgear has never sold spare NAS parts to users.
Considering the PSU is working as well as the hard drives, and nothing looks broken or burnt I assume my issue can be electronic only and no repair is possible, neither spare part available on internet. So I will stop investigations here and just replace my NAS.
By the way, as I cannot recover any data, I will migrate to Synology as I'm not an IT guy and the Netgear interface has been a nightmare for me when Synology is famous for the friendly interface.
Thank you for your help, at least I'm now sure I didn't miss anything I could repair before breaking my piggy bank.
