Frequent unexplained reboots

S

Sean Phelan

n3wb
Nov 28, 2017
26
6
London
I'm running six Dahua cams in two locations:
- 2x SD22404 running V2.623
- 2x IPC-HDBW2431 running V2.8 (PoE power)
- 1x IPC-HFW1435SP running V2.8
- 1x IPC-HDBW4431 running V2.42 (PoE power)

Only one of these is completely stable: the HDBW4431. The others all reboot several times a day.

It probably isn't a coincidence that the one stable device is on the oldest firmware version (V2.42). And I recognise that I probably would not have this problem if I had followed the advice on this forum ("don't upgrade firmware unless you are fixing a specific problem or you REALLY need a feature"). Too late :(

I don't think it's a power issue: the three devices on 12V power have stable supplies. The reliable camera IS the only one powered by a dedicated PoE switch; the other two PoE devices are powered by the same switch. But they don't reboot at the same time.

Video feeds go to local servers (1920x1080, 10fps, rtsp over UDP). And all the cameras are configured to do simple event detection, which triggers snapshots over ftp.

Are spontaneous reboots a common issue? Or is it just me? :( Does any of this sound familiar?

Any and all suggestions about what to investigate, features to enable or disable, etc. would be very welcome.

Thanks
Sean
 
Hi - cabling is all new; less than two years old.

Two of the five problem cameras are on the same PoE switch - a Tenda TEF1105P. I'm going to try swapping that for a smart switch with power mngt, etc.

The other cameras all have completely different 12V feeds.
 
Less than 2 years of plenty of time for water to get in so unless swapping out the switch resolves the issue you might have to check.

Are you also saying that there was no issue prior to updating the firmware, if that is the case then can you not revert back to the old firmware?
 
Well.... I take the point about water and cables. But... two of these cameras are in Greece; the remainder are in the UK. There is no commonality among the cabling. And of course dodgy ethernet cables could be expected to cause frame errors and discards, which would be logged by the switches.

Did these issues occur before the firmware upgrades? Hm... well, I thought I was doing OK keeping log files for ~3 months.... I do have log archives going back a year but.... I don't think I have a log of when cameras were upgraded :(

I'm going to put in a smart PoE switch, then maybe try downgrading a camera or two (much as it offends the engineering purist in me).

Thanks again
Sean
 
In no specific order of relevance or importance these are the most common reasons for self rebooting:

  • Power (Over loaded port / PSU) power supply about to go.
  • Termination (RJ45 to wire)
  • Corrosion (RJ45)
  • Cable (open / short) on the line
  • Micro SD card
  • Settings: Values defined exceed the cameras ability.
  • Firmware: Bug in software
  • Camera: Defective or damaged by moisture / water / surge.

Power a single problem camera and observe if it self boots. If it doesn’t it’s a power issue. If the camera still reboots wire it to a new test cable. If it doesn’t reboot it’s the cable.

If it still reboots hard reset the camera to factory default. If that corrects the problem it’s a out of band setting. If the camera still reboots down grade the firmware and see. If it doesn’t reboot it’s bad software.

If it still reboots and all of the above is in place and done - it’s the camera!

The Micro SD card obviously needs to be removed if in place as this can cause a loop. If none was present obviously skip this step!

Good luck . . .
 
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