I think my DaHua NVR5216-16P-4KS2 just croaked.

[Xeddog]

Noticed that I was not able to look at my cameras and started trying to find out why. My NVR is not close to a tv so only viewable via IE or Pale Moon browsers. So I launch Pale Moon and enter the IP address of the NVR. It takes several minutes just to get a login screen, and after entering userid/pwd info, nothing happens. Ever.
So I bring the NVR into my living room and connect it to the TV via HDMI so I can at least get logged in. When I looked at "Camera Registration", there is only 1 out of 9 cameras listed and it isn't displaying properly. The screen shows "The login return time is up". Great! This camera IS working properly as I can see it from a different NVR, and also SmartPSS. In other configuration settings, the only thing I can see that is out of order is the "Switch" ip addressing. It is the same subnet as the rest of my network.
To make a long story short, I cannot change ANY settings in the machine. I tried several times to change the ip addressing of the Switch but was not able to. In the System>Default settings I I checked all the boxes and applied them. After a reboot, everything was back to what it was. Same thing for the "Factory Reset", except I have to set the password etc. after rebooting.
Also the same thing for Network settings. I have a static IP address on the 10. net, and DNS server addresses coded, but I cannot change them. If I click "Default", it looks like the ip address changes back to the 192... network, but the DNS server addresses don't change. However, after a reboot, the original static ip address I put in is back.
The last thing I tried was to download the latest firmware (DH_NVR5XXX-4K_Eng_V3.215.0000000.1.R.20170901) and upgrade. I reformatted a 32GB USB drive and extracted the firmware onto it. After placing the USB drive in the machine, there is a prompt to upgrade and the window shows the firmware image on the drive. When I select it to begin the upgrade it starts, but in about two seconds a dialog box opens that simply says "Update failed!"
One last thing that seems to be backwards to me. After rebooting the machine, the four lights on the front of the machine STATUS, HDD, NET, and POWER, are all illuminated. But as soon as I plug in an Ethernet cable, the NET light goes out. That's backwards, isn't it?

Does anyone have any thing else for me to try to get this thing running again before I have to buy another one? I'm sure this one is out of warranty.


Thanks,

Wayne

 

[tangent]

Noticed that I was not able to look at my cameras and started trying to find out why. My NVR is not close to a tv so only viewable via IE or Pale Moon browsers. So I launch Pale Moon and enter the IP address of the NVR. It takes several minutes just to get a login screen, and after entering userid/pwd info, nothing happens. Ever.
So I bring the NVR into my living room and connect it to the TV via HDMI so I can at least get logged in. When I looked at "Camera Registration", there is only 1 out of 9 cameras listed and it isn't displaying properly. The screen shows "The login return time is up". Great! This camera IS working properly as I can see it from a different NVR, and also SmartPSS. In other configuration settings, the only thing I can see that is out of order is the "Switch" ip addressing. It is the same subnet as the rest of my network.
To make a long story short, I cannot change ANY settings in the machine. I tried several times to change the ip addressing of the Switch but was not able to. In the System>Default settings I I checked all the boxes and applied them. After a reboot, everything was back to what it was. Same thing for the "Factory Reset", except I have to set the password etc. after rebooting.
Also the same thing for Network settings. I have a static IP address on the 10. net, and DNS server addresses coded, but I cannot change them. If I click "Default", it looks like the ip address changes back to the 192... network, but the DNS server addresses don't change. However, after a reboot, the original static ip address I put in is back.
The last thing I tried was to download the latest firmware (DH_NVR5XXX-4K_Eng_V3.215.0000000.1.R.20170901) and upgrade. I reformatted a 32GB USB drive and extracted the firmware onto it. After placing the USB drive in the machine, there is a prompt to upgrade and the window shows the firmware image on the drive. When I select it to begin the upgrade it starts, but in about two seconds a dialog box opens that simply says "Update failed!"
One last thing that seems to be backwards to me. After rebooting the machine, the four lights on the front of the machine STATUS, HDD, NET, and POWER, are all illuminated. But as soon as I plug in an Ethernet cable, the NET light goes out. That's backwards, isn't it?

Does anyone have any thing else for me to try to get this thing running again before I have to buy another one? I'm sure this one is out of warranty.


Thanks,

Wayne

Bad cables and bad cameras can do strange things to NVRs. Here's what I'd try:

-unplug everything from the NVR, move it to a convenient location for testing
-open it up look at the internals carefully for any signs of damage, pay attention to the smell of magic smoke if any has escaped it's silicon containment vessel.
-test the power supply voltage
-verify operation of the fan
-connect a monitor or tv directly and mouse, nothing else power it up and see how it behaves
-connect a single known good network cable to your pc see how it behaves
-if it passes these then try connecting cameras 1 at a time to see what happens

Any big thunderstorms lately?

 

[Xeddog]

Bad cables and bad cameras can do strange things to NVRs. Here's what I'd try:

-unplug everything from the NVR, move it to a convenient location for testing
-open it up look at the internals carefully for any signs of damage, pay attention to the smell of magic smoke if any has escaped it's silicon containment vessel.
-test the power supply voltage
-verify operation of the fan
-connect a monitor or tv directly and mouse, nothing else power it up and see how it behaves
-connect a single known good network cable to your pc see how it behaves
-if it passes these then try connecting cameras 1 at a time to see what happens

Any big thunderstorms lately?

- Most of my testing was done with no cameras attached. I disconnected everything and took it into my living room so I could connect it to the TV.
- I did not open it up, but it doesn't smell like any magic smoke escaped.
- Since I didn't open the case I didn't check the voltage. I will do that.
- All of the configuration changes I tried were done connected to a monitor (or TV) with no cameras attached.
- The first thing I did was run a new, known good ethernet cable. No change.
- I didn't try attaching a camera because without being able to access/change the settings, I didn't see the point. I will try it though.

Thanks for the suggestions. I have a couple of things to try, but I'm not getting my hopes up.

Wayne

 

[tangent]

At this point the main thing I'd try is re-flashing the firmware via tftp. Make sure you extract the partitions first and are absolutely sure you have the correct firmware. I'd do a quick visual inspection first.

 

[Xeddog]

At this point the main thing I'd try is re-flashing the firmware via tftp. Make sure you extract the partitions first and are absolutely sure you have the correct firmware. I'd do a quick visual inspection first.

It's worth a try, but I don't think it will work because tftp requires TCP/IP, but it seems like it is the TCP/IP stack that is hosed.

 

[fenderman]

It's worth a try, but I don't think it will work because tftp requires TCP/IP, but it seems like it is the TCP/IP stack that is hosed.

have you tried removing the hard drive?

 

[Xeddog]

have you tried removing the hard drive?

Not yet. That is on todays list.

 

[tangent]

It's worth a try, but I don't think it will work because tftp requires TCP/IP, but it seems like it is the TCP/IP stack that is hosed.

if you did tftp, it would be from the bootloader.

 

[c hris527]

It's worth a try, but I don't think it will work because tftp requires TCP/IP, but it seems like it is the TCP/IP stack that is hosed.

I have had issues flashing updated firmware. I could not get it to work and had the same failure error as you did. I called my reseller and he advised me NOT to use a usb drive but do it over a network, I logged on and was able to successfully do it that way, I had the *.bin file on my laptop. The second time I had a issue doing a update I had to rename the bin file, it seemed for some reason the NVR did not like the long file name. Also make sure you set everything back to default before you do it.

 

[Xeddog]

Thanks guys, but with either tftp or "over the network", an active network connection is a requirement and that I do not have.
Andy was kind enough to hook me up with a technician via phone and even he was stumped. We were on the phone for probably half an hour and what it came down to was him saying he had seen a lot of failures, but nothing like this one (story of my life), and I should return it. Well, it's 1 year and 1 month old so I doubt there is any warranty left. There is just one thing lefty to say, and it involves some brown stuff that REALLY stinks.

Wayne

 

[tangent]

Thanks guys, but with either tftp or "over the network", an active network connection is a requirement and that I do not have.
Andy was kind enough to hook me up with a technician via phone and even he was stumped. We were on the phone for probably half an hour and what it came down to was him saying he had seen a lot of failures, but nothing like this one (story of my life), and I should return it. Well, it's 1 year and 1 month old so I doubt there is any warranty left. There is just one thing lefty to say, and it involves some brown stuff that REALLY stinks.

Wayne

One of two things is going on here:
-You're experiencing some type of hardware failure
-You simply had a bad software upgrade that messed up a lot of stuff

In the case of hardware failure, you don't have much to loose. You should perform a careful visual and olfactory inspection to avoid wasting time if there's an obvious physical problem.
I think the odds are decent that it's just a software issue, in which case it's very likely flashing over TFTP would work.

When you flash it via TFTP, you aren't using the part of the software that's acting up. You're interacting with the bootloader, so as long as you didn't hose the boot loader and don't have an actual electrical failure I think you've got a better then 90% chance of fixing it via TFTP.

Here's a thread on the 'easy' method, but I think you'd probably need a little help to do this successfully. And before you just try to flash it, I'd try to get a little info out of it.
Dahua IPC EASY unbricking / recovery over TFTP

What kind of things did Andy's technician have you try?

I could potentially help you try to TFTP it, but my calendar is pretty full for next couple weeks.

 

[Xeddog]

Well, as the old saying goes . . . "What could go wrong?" I'll give it a shot but it will take some time while I go through and understand what is in your link. One question though. The link you sent is specifically for some of the DaHua cameras. I assume it is the same process for NVR's?????

Wayne

 

[tangent]

Well, as the old saying goes . . . "What could go wrong?" I'll give it a shot but it will take some time while I go through and understand what is in your link. One question though. The link you sent is specifically for some of the DaHua cameras. I assume it is the same process for NVR's?????

Wayne

To start with the only commands I'd put in the commands.txt file would be:
printenv
partition

This should dump some info back to netcat

I don't remember for sure if it's exactly the same as the ip cams. These two commands are safe and won't mess anything up. It's also possible to get a serial console into uBoot on the cams and nvrs, but that's more involved. Make a copy of the commands.txt file in the package in the other thread, put just these two commands in save, run commands.bat, setup your network, run console.bat, run TFTPServer.bat, and reboot the NVR. Post the output

 

[MixManSC]

The process is nearly the same on the Dahua NVR. I just did it on on my Lorex branded one (I cross flashed it via TFTP to the newest Dahua firmware). You need to use a null modem cable on the serial port. Look in my prior posts. I gave some info on doing it. You will download a larger firmware archive and then just use a single update file. Of course you would need the cable, TFTP software, and a console program. It might actually work since the bootloader is controlling the network port with a different IP stack than the main Linux OS uses once it booted up.