Netgate 4100 circle shows red LED
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What ever happened on this ticket? I, too, have a amber circle that continues to light no matter what I do. Buttons are 'clickable' - removed from power - still flash, then amber circle.
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Open a ticket with Netgate TAC:
https://www.netgate.com/tac-support-request -
@stephenw10 Thank you sir.
I filed a ticket, and it turns out the unit is considered no longer functional.
The troubleshooting confirmation steps were to check with the console for any output on power up. After we determined no output on the serial connection, the unit was considered dead.
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Mmm, unfortunately that may be the case if there's no output at all.
If it's out of warranty I would try opening the case and removing the CMOS battery. And any expansion cards/drives you may have installed. You have nothing to lose by trying it.
Steve
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I have the exact same problem! So weird..
Netgate 4100 Orange/Red light - No ConsoleTo summarize it, I had a local circuit breaker failure which happens to host my Netgate 4100, and my device is stuck in standby mode (orange/redlight) and I have no console output. Followed instructions, 10sec power button push, removing the CMOS battery etc...
I talked to someone who is more knowledgeable on hardware/software programming and he looked at my board and you can see the green mini LED's on the board working and he said that you should at least have console output but the device is stuck in standby mode.
He think the device might be bricked due to a software (bios) issue on the last upgrade.Did you had any luck on getting it working again, or reimbursement from netgate?
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@CrKlom pray you are within the terms your hardware warranty :)
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Add me to the list. Had a 4100 go down due to wear on the eMMC which may have been exacerbated by a well meaning but ill informed tech pulling the power to the board to reset it.
It booted up and showed the console with the USB installer successfully once so I figured it was worth getting some new storage to salvage these 4100's I've got. After locating a B Keyed M.2 NVMe and physcially installing on the board there was no longer a console connection at all during power up. Just the orange circle of death and no activity on the USB.Then I pulled the NVMe out and tried again to no avail.
I also tried pulling the CMOS battery for a few minutes.
Pressing and holding the power button appears to attempt to do something after about ten seconds (it was non responsive with a five second push) according to the eight diagnostic led's changing on the circuit board but still no output on the console, no activity on the USB key and the orange circle of death remains. In this post power button pushed for 12 second state the lit led's on the board are:
FLASH (immediately above RESET)
V3P3AIn its steady state after applying power or after pressing the power button after the above press and hold the following led's on the board are lit:
PWRGD
PWRGD
PWRGD
V3P3A -
A andrew_cb referenced this topic on
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Ultimately the only recourse for this (and subsequently additional) 4100s that died on me was to remove the emmc by desoldering it. Then I was able to boot the installer properly and install to NVMe. While not for the inexperienced, desoldering the eMMC really wasn't to difficult given the designers left plenty of room around it to work.
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@arri THANK YOU! I lack the reputation needed to upvote your comment, but THANK YOU! I never even thought about ripping that chip out.
Here's my story:
Dec 25: router died. (Merry Christmas! At least it didn't harm too many other people.) Serial console worked; diagnosed a bad eMMC w/ help from TAC. Found an M.2 drive that worked, and reinstalled the OS then restored settings from backup.
March 30: Died again! This time the console's dead. Tried "everything".
Found your post mentioning desoldering it. Found a chip labeled "Kingston" and decided that must be it (but looked up part# to confirm). Attacked the face of the chip with a flamethrower, er, butane utility lighter, while mercilessly gouging and stabbing it with a sharp little screwdriver. Continued punishment until it flew screaming off the PCB, carrying PCB traces with it. Regretted not using more flame and less physical force. Scraped off traces still hanging on, ensured that nothing left on the board was touching anything that it shouldn't.Powered it up with fire extinguisher nearby (and video camera running in case it went up in a glorious ball of flame and made my son scream as it tried to do to him what I did to it) and...it booted! Replaced heat sink grease (even dabbed some on the RAM chips that were naked before), wadded up a ball of masking tape and set it on top of the battery to replace the retainer clip that we broke earlier, and screwed everything back together.
Back in operation! No data loss this time -- best outcome possible. Lesson learned: A bad eMMC that was "harmless" before can become "harmful" 3 months later!
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@arri do you have any pictures of the eMMC chip(s) that need to be removed? I need to attempt this and am not experienced with it. Or any tips for identifying them? much appreciated
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@luckman212
Pictures ?
Removing an SMD chip with a knife and a flame thrower, I'd love to see the video
edit : I've a 4100, and not sure if it has an eMMC as my 4100 is the max version. If it has one, it's not using it.
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Seems like you could probably just remove power to it rather than the whole chip. Though I've not tried. And it's hard to recommend anything like that!
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@stephenw10 I understand this isn't "recommended" of course! The 4100 was brand new, but sat in the box for 4 years without ever being touched. It seems dead right out of the gate, is out of warranty and a doorstop otherwise– so I'd like to take a chance. Just want a general idea of what this chip looks like so I don't llop off the CPU by mistake!!
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Urgh, that sucks. Hard to imagine the eMMC would have failed then but I guess it's possible.
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@stephenw10 It appears I grabbed a couple of screenshots from the console while trying to set it up. Wish I grabbed more in hindsight, but these look like mmc problems to me. Things were taking a long time, hanging, timing out etc.
Do you think this is indicative of eMMC failure?
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It could be, yes. Usually you also get some pretty clear errors form the mmc controller in the boot logs.
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@luckman212 I do not have photos, my recollection is it (singular) was easy to identify. Look for a square chip likely made by Kingston with no visible connections as they are in a ball grid array (BGA) under the chip. Cross check the model of the chip to make sure it's the emmc first!
There are lots of YouTube videos to guide you with removal, you'll need a hot air rework station to hit the right temperatures confined to that chip and plenty flux helps too. Just be careful not to "lift" the chip with much force while heating it or you risk lifting traces off the pcb. Also make sure you don't spill enough heat into any surrounding smd components to dislodge them. Once the chip is removed and before you clean up the flux, use a solder wick to remove any remaining solder.
As long as you're comfortable around a pcb and solder temperatures (and have a good magnifier light) it's really not very difficult.
Separately, I find it difficult to believe your emmc failed with non use for that period of time. More likely the device was corrupted by a cmos battery or superconductor drainage. I would try replacing the cmos battery (pretty sure I recall seeing one in there) and doing a full reset and reinstall before desoldering the emmc.
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Thanks @arri
Hmm, I don't have a rework station - and I doubt very much my wife would approve of one sitting in our den. So I will try to see if just installing the SSD (arrives tomorrow) is enough to stabilize this thing.
