Netgate 4100 circle shows red LED
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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.
