HIK DS-7604NI-SE/P single beep, not loading

[sebvad]

Hi folks - i've got a HIKvision NVR

DS-7604NI-SE/P

that i've had connected via my mac for 5 years that's worked great. In the past few months, it's gone dark - it'll beep once, try to send images to the external monitor i have connected to it - it sends a signal just long enough for the monitor to display "Embedded DVR Net loading" - and then it loses signal again. This cycle repeats on about a 2 minute interval, and i've let it run for a few days like that - but alas, it never loads. It's only ever a single beep.

Thinking the hard drive may have failed, i did replace it with a new drive - but it didn't help.

Given that the OS on the NVR no longer loads, i can't access it directly through the NVR menu, nor via the iVMS4200 app through the computer.

Any thoughts as to what might be going on? I do notice there's a small watch battery embedded into the circuit board of the NVR itself that i have no idea what it does - might that have run out? I'm not finding anything in the manuals about a single beep error w/o an OS loading. I could always just buy a new NVR - but i hate to do that if it's not necessary...

Thanks folks!

 

[alastairstevenson]

If you feel inclined to spend the time and effort -
You could dig deeper as to what's going on by connecting up to the NVR 'serial console'.
This is the low-level Linux and app chat environment, where you can also tell it things to do.

If it's like the many Hikvision devices I've seen, you'll need a couple of items to establish connection.
A serial TTL to USB convertor. A PL2303HX-based one (often 'for Arduino') should work OK.
A wired 4-pin 1.5mm ZH JST connector, usually sold in 10-packs.
Both available from your favourite on-line electronics store, or even eBay.

 

[sebvad]

Thanks alastair - it might just more straightforward for me to replace the unit, if the symptoms above don't flag an 'aha' moment with those of you who know more about this than i do. I appreciate you taking the time!

 

[alastairstevenson]

it might just more straightforward for me to replace the unit

The single beep might just mean that it has progressed passed the stage of the bootup where that normally occurs, but it tells nothing about what happens later.
Hooking up to the serial console is actually pretty straightforward, and should you decide to do so, we could interpret the output for you.