Help upgrading DS-2CD2032-I

[markb]

Hello,
I'm new here but was hoping i could get some help.
I purchased 2 of the above camera's from aliexpress 3 months ago. They are working fine with BlueIris but i noticed they lose signal a few times per day. Whether this is BI or the cameras themselves or something else i dont know but i decided to try an upgrade. I had done no prior research i just presumed it would be easy but how wrong i was! I basically went to the hikvision US site and downloaded my latest firmware, unzipped it and loaded up the camera web GUI where i proceeded with the upgrade process. I watched it go to 100% and was told it was sucessfull but after 20 minutes i had no reboot or it had rebooted and was now stuck there. So here started the recovery process, i downloaded auto tftpd updater and tried a few firmware images all sucessfully installed but still no access to the camera. Eventually i came accross 5.2.5 on this forum and it went out of "mini" mode where i was able to gain access again. This all elapsed over a few hours and i regret starting it now but atleast i have it working again.
So i'm now sat here with my cameras back to normal wondering why the upgrade failed? Did i do something wrong or is this just typical for these cameras? I see a lot of sticky posts on the forum but to be honest i dont really understand what they are, should i be following one of those posts for my particular cameras?
Thanks

 

[corkangel76]

I had the same problem, only mine was the result of bad cable crimps... Id check your wiring as well.

 

[markb]

I couldnt find much info on the web or the forum to be honest, is there a topic i can read over for more info? I got the cameras from aliexpress but the gui is all in english so i'm not sure if they are chinese or usa. The manual it came with is in Chinese but i'm pretty sure thats standard for them.

Any help welcome and thanks i'll check over my cables...its solid copper cat6 so they were a pain to crimp down.

 

[MrFixit]

I couldnt find much info on the web or the forum to be honest, is there a topic i can read over for more info? I got the cameras from aliexpress but the gui is all in english so i'm not sure if they are chinese or usa. The manual it came with is in Chinese but i'm pretty sure thats standard for them.

Any help welcome and thanks i'll check over my cables...its solid copper cat6 so they were a pain to crimp down.

I would say if you got it from AileEpress and only Chinese manual then it probably Chinese, Look as the serial number, If it has the letters CH anywhere in it then its Chinese with hacked English firmware. If that's the case you don't want to try and update that firmware with US firmware because you will brick the camera, If you want to update the camera then reach out to the seller and see if they have newer firmware for your camera hacked in English. As corkangel76 said check your cable and one other good piece of advice is check your "I Frame Interval" setting on the camera, Its probably set to 50 or something, change that value to match your frame rate. This has fixed the dropout problem for many & I for one just mach those setting all the time.

Hope this helps...

 

[MrFixit]

All 8 of mine have come with full English manuals and other leaflets, and English writing on the boxes. No Engrish translations either. In SADP the Device Serial No. includes the letters CCWR to indicate it is legit for here (UK). It probably includes Europe with that code too, not sure...I just know that's the right code for whatever region the UK falls in, Europe probably. Not sure about USA region code, maybe the same. There are posts about it here on the forum from people who know the proper codes.
I can see why people upgrade...because we get a hard-on from it. But really, it's more time economical for me to go to work for a few hours extra and get cameras with the right region code so that I don't have to sit and futz with the command line. I buggered around with Slackware on my desktop and servers for years, so have a reasonable idea of what I am doing. However, these days I'd rather spend time with my family or water the garden.
Whatever turns you on really. I'm off to bother the wife and inspect the inside of my eyelids.

I think I agree with you 100%, After going threw the hole bricking process on two of my Chinese cameras purchased from AlieExpress and taking several hours of googling to find the thread in this forum to unbrick my cams that I will just purchase from US seller, I just don't like the sound of I cant update my firmware so I am stuck with what the camera has on it....No Thanks. From now on I will continue to purchase my camera from the great people over at Nellys Security & no I don't work for Nellys I am just a very happy customer of there's.

 

[whoslooking]

It's very hard to brick a Hikvision camera, it's easy to get it into Min-system which is the recovery platform to which you recover from a bad flash.

First check to see if your problem is related to poor installation, if not then I would be looking at changing the firmware.
people are very quick to scare others off the easy process of changing the firmware they shouldn't.
Chinese or World Region it matters not as currently these are solution's for all released camera's to have Multi-language support, and If your Camera's have a sticker on them before 01/2015 you can even make your Chinese camera World Region.

 

[MrFixit]

It's very hard to brick a Hikvision camera, it's easy to get it into Min-system which is the recovery platform to which you recover from a bad flash.

First check to see if your problem is related to poor installation, if not then I would be looking at changing the firmware.
people are very quick to scare others off the easy process of changing the firmware they shouldn't.
Chinese or World Region it matters not as currently these are solution's for all released camera's to have Multi-language support, and If your Camera's have a sticker on them before 01/2015 you can even make your Chinese camera World Region.

I am sorry I just don't agree with you, Its NOT hard to brick a Hikvision camera. All you have to do is try and install a US firmware on a Chinese camera and ur BRICKED. And I am not sure if your implying that I am trying to scare others but I am not, In fact I am only talking from my personal experience. DONT update Chinese cams with US firmware or you will have a bricked camera. Thats the point.

 

[fenderman]

I am sorry I just don't agree with you, Its NOT hard to brick a Hikvision camera. All you have to do is try and install a US firmware on a Chinese camera and ur BRICKED. And I am not sure if your implying that I am trying to scare others but I am not, In fact I am only talking from my personal experience. DONT update Chinese cams with US firmware or you will have a bricked camera. Thats the point.

what he is say is the its hard to brick the camera..Brick refers to the permanent lockup of the camera and no further recovery is possible. As long as you can recover the camera its not bricked.

 

[whoslooking]

Spot on @fenderman totally, the camera just drops to a low level os the min-system where using the correct firmware by tftp will restore your camera. now a brick is just that and no longer recoverable.

Hey but thats why I took the time to write the guides and firmware releases, so we can all understand and recover our cameras

 

[MrFixit]

what he is say is the its hard to brick the camera..Brick refers to the permanent lockup of the camera and no further recovery is possible. As long as you can recover the camera its not bricked.

I am sorry I disagree, Bricked could mean anything from none recoverable to not working anymore because of a bad flash of firmware. I don't want to get into a pissing match about what BRICKED means I am just saying there are different levels of the meaning BRICKED. I don't understand y people on here want to defend the purchase of Chinese cameras so bad, First of all this is one reason y the US economy is bad & 2nd when you purchase the Chinese stuff such as IP Cameras ur stuck with the firmware that comes on them with little hope of ever being able to upgrade the firmware unless the seller gives you a new firmware that has been HACKED to English & I for one don't want to take that chance anymore. Now my feeling may not be everyone else feeling & yes a savings of 40-50% seems grate at first till you realize that once you receive the product at that grate discount it could already be end of life for that product & I for one don't want that so each there own with there thoughts.