ReadyNAS RN628X stuck booting after confirming reboot to install firmware 6.10.0

Hi JohnCM_S at the place with the descirption UART there is a solit black square. It is not someting where I can put a Micro USB cable in. Am I looking at the right place on the chassis? 

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ronaldvr2132 wrote:

Hi JohnCM_S at the place with the descirption UART there is a solid black square. It is not someting where I can put a Micro USB cable in. Am I looking at the right place on the chassis? 

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It is the right place.  You pull off the black square.

I have connected the console cable and installed the Windows 7 driver(s) on my Windows 7 computer and was not able to get any data from the ReadyNAS via Putty or free serial monitor. After this I switched to a Windows 10 computer on which I installed the Windows 10 driver (as there was only one universal driver for Windows 10) and connected the cable. The same as in Windows 7 in device manager you can see the port and everything seems to be working but there is not data coming from the RN628X. In free serial monitor it automatically selects the right com port but it says that it did not receive any bytes. How frustrating this is!

Is there any news with regards to my booting issue?

Hi ronaldvr2132,

Have you tried rebooting the NAS while the serial connection is open? You will need to reboot the NAS so you can get data from the console while the NAS is booting.

Regards,

Hi JohnCM_S yes I did this and it seems that no data is being transmitted by the RN628X. As far as I can tell the connection with the PC is OK.

Hi ronaldvr2132,

What do you see on the console output? Is it just a blank page?

You may also try using a different USB cable.

Can you also provide a screenshot of your device manager (showing the COM port) and your Putty settings as well?

Regards,

Hi JohnCM_S I will give it a try but can you give some more guidance on how this works with Putty? I have put in the correct settings, the device manager shows the com port as being active, in the com port settings and in Putty I have put in the correct settings (115200,8,1,no,no) and when I press open nothings happens. Not sure if this is something I did wrong so therefore the question how should I use Putty and set-up the USB to Serial connection etc. When I connect the USB cable I do get an additonal COM port in device manager which is going away when I disconnect the USB cable so I guess it works, but I don't get anything into Putty nor does the other tool I installed provide any output. This is really annoying as this should not have happened and it has taken me already a lot of time and negative energy!

Hi ronaldvr2132,

You can try these steps:

1. After opening Putty, click the Serial radio button.

2. Type the COM address (e.g. COM1, COM2) to which the NAS is attached to on the Serial Line box.

3. On the Speed box, type the baud rate of 115200.

4. Open the connection then boot up the NAS.

Regards,

Hi JohnCM_S step 4: "Open the connection then boot up the NAS" does not work. When I have the correct settings for the serial communication and have the Com port that shows up in the device manager and press open nothing happens. I guess another screen should pup up or is this not the expected behaviour? Again nothing hapens when I press open in Putty.

ronaldvr2132

We are further checking the issue on your NAS. I will provide you an update once I get feedback from L3.

zeke561

Can you access the boot menu? If you are able to access it, please try doing an OS reinstall and see what happens.

If you are not able to access the boot menu, have you tried doing the USB boot recovery?

Regards,

I have not had time to try these things. I will try to get to it today. RIght now I am trying to make sure I have a backup of my backups.

ronaldvr2132

For the console output, can you confirm if you are using the Silabs driver? 

Yes I do. I have tried two PC's one Windows 7 and tried both Windows 7 drivers (no guidance was given which one to use) and I also installed the Windows 10 drivers on a Windows 10 PC and then connected the RN628X.

Any new on how I can get my RN628X back online after the Netgear firmware upgrade process has putten it into a mode where it can't be used any longer?

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ronaldvr2132 wrote:

Any new on how I can get my RN628X back online after the Netgear firmware upgrade process has putten it into a mode where it can't be used any longer?

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It might go faster if you use paid support (my.netgear.com) - though of course it would cost.

I am not willing to pay for a fault that Netgear has made. A firmware update should not result in a NAS that is not working any longer!  I am a long time customer of Netgear gear and have the last two years experienced more issues caused by firmware updates then in the 10+ years before. I hope Netgear will get back to the quality level I am used to and for this issue I hope we can resolve it quickly!

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ronaldvr2132 wrote:

I am not willing to pay for a fault that Netgear has made. 

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I'm a customer too, and I totally get that.  But depending on the mods here will slow the process down.  So if the situation becomes truly urgent it is something to consider (although annoying).

Another (also painful) path is to do a factory reset and rebuild the NAS.  If you decide to do that, I suggest powering down and inserting a scratch disk.  Make sure you get a clean factory install with 6.10.0.  Then do the real reset with your existing disks.

BTW, what apps do you have installed?  It's possible that an app is getting in the way of the update.

Just to jump in here, I have experienced the same problem, and I have no apps beyond whatever is installed by default.

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zeke561 wrote:

Just to jump in here, I have experienced the same problem, and I have no apps beyond whatever is installed by default.

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Please open your own topic, including the NAS model and the info on the apps.

It's very confusing to keep track of where different people are at when they are sharing a single thread.

Hi StephenB thanks for jumping in. I have no apps installed on my RN628X sot hat can't be a reason for the failure to upgrade and get into an unresponsive mode. My NAS is holding data so a factory reset is the last thing I want to do. And as to the message of zeke561, so far  it seems to me that is is exactly the same issue. I am not sure if you (zeke561) already have tested if you can get into the boot menu (to do an OS reinstall), get into the USB recovery mode or if it is possible to get data out of the NAS when booting via the console cable method (connection a micro USB cable to the NAS and installing Serial to USB drivers) to troubleshoot why the NAS is not booting and sticks to the message Booting.... For me none of the three methods seems to work. My NAS is only showing Booting.... For me all people sharing issues on failures caused with the upgrade to Firmware 10.0.0 are welcomed so that hopefully the root cause can be found sooner and more important can be solved.

ronaldvr2132 I think my experience is the same as yours. Trying to access the boot menu, I get the welcome msg for about 15 seconds, then I get the Booting... msg. I tried the USB recovery tool, and the same thing happens. The only caveat is the article does not actually have my model (524X) or yours listed. There is no backup button so I tried the OK button. I noticed the instructions for the rack-mount models say to press the reset button instead of the backup or ok buttons, so I might try that, but I would be hesitant to do that w/o confirming that w/ support.

BTW I have not tried the console method.

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zeke561 wrote:

The only caveat is the article does not actually have my model (524X) or yours listed.

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Personally I think the hardware manuals are the best guides for the boot menu (and many other topics).  http://www.downloads.netgear.com/files/GDC/READYNAS-100/ReadyNAS_%20OS6_Desktop_HM_EN.pdf

See pages 128-129 (524x) and 146-147 (628x).

ronaldvr2132 wrote:

For me all people sharing issues on failures caused with the upgrade to Firmware 10.0.0 are welcomed so that hopefully the root cause can be found sooner and more important can be solved.

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It's fine to share information.  But for the people trying to help you troubleshoot it quickly gets confusing.  It's really hard to track who's done what, let alone the results each person got.  Also, even if the symptoms are the same, the root causes might not be - so the troubleshooting often goes in different directions.  It's much easier if there are separate topics for each problem.  

StephenB I appreciate your input, as ronaldvr2132 does. And I am aware I am a guest in this thread. But it's my understanding JohnCM_S  was conducting this discussion? I'm certainly willing to open a separate thread if he wishes that. Or stay silent. Honestly, I don't really have anything to add at this point anyway, other than "me too". My experience is identical to ronaldvr2132. So I'm sure I will learn something simply by listening.  :smileyhappy:

I'd like to apologize for my last post. This is a community forum that depends on volunteers who take their time to assist others, and I am grateful for the assistance. I will continue to follow this discussion.