Three Dahua Bricks... Is There a Trick to UNBrick?

[MrSurly]

My system is less than two years old. All my cams are Dahua, all bought from Andy.
I've PM'ed Andy to see what to do next as these are all in warranty as far as I know.
But MAYBE they can be revived? I'd much rather get them working than warranted.
These three cams stopped communicating at different times/dates during perfect weather, not during a lightning storm or other destructive event.
ONE of these had stopped a year ago but I just set it aside when I randomly hooked it up two months later, it reset(!) so it went back in the system for ten more months.
I have tried the few things I know; reset button while powered, till the tiny light goes off-on. Tried config tool, IE, BI can't get any communication with these at all, assigned ip or default.
All cables have been tested with another cam, tried different connections at the switch (V7 24port PoE running unmanaged) tried all three directly at the switch.
I'm running a dual NIC setup, no WiFi, 14 cams, 24/7 including in the mailbox. These three are actually mounted on two different buildings and also on a pole across the yard so they didn't share proximity.
I'm hoping you guys have some trick up your collective sleeves to give them a jumpstart.
Note that I am VERY RUSTY at this as I'm gone a lot and I don't interact with BI regularly at all. I just let it run.
It is very likely I have simply missed a rudimentary step.
Anyone?

DHIPCHFW4239TASE (Sep 2020)
IPCHFW1831EP 6mm (July 2020)
IPCT2231TZSVARI (Sep 2020)

 

[Zook]

My system is less than two years old. All my cams are Dahua, all bought from Andy.
I've PM'ed Andy to see what to do next as these are all in warranty as far as I know.
But MAYBE they can be revived? I'd much rather get them working than warranted.
These three cams stopped communicating at different times/dates during perfect weather, not during a lightning storm or other destructive event.
ONE of these had stopped a year ago but I just set it aside when I randomly hooked it up two months later, it reset(!) so it went back in the system for ten more months.
I have tried the few things I know; reset button while powered, till the tiny light goes off-on. Tried config tool, IE, BI can't get any communication with these at all, assigned ip or default.
All cables have been tested with another cam, tried different connections at the switch (V7 24port PoE running unmanaged) tried all three directly at the switch.
I'm running a dual NIC setup, no WiFi, 14 cams, 24/7 including in the mailbox. These three are actually mounted on two different buildings and also on a pole across the yard so they didn't share proximity.
I'm hoping you guys have some trick up your collective sleeves to give them a jumpstart.
Note that I am VERY RUSTY at this as I'm gone a lot and I don't interact with BI regularly at all. I just let it run.
It is very likely I have simply missed a rudimentary step.
Anyone?

DHIPCHFW4239TASE (Sep 2020)
IPCHFW1831EP 6mm (July 2020)
IPCT2231TZSVARI (Sep 2020)

I don't have any of those cams, but the way I factory default my Dahua's is holding the reset button for 30 seconds.
They should reboot after that.
I would do this with the camera plugged into a dumb POE switch, that way when it comes back up, you don't have to worry about it getting an address through DHCP or getting glitched out the same way it did before.
At that point, put your computer on the 192.168.1.x network (subnet mask 255.255.255.0, no DNS needed) with no gateway and plug it into the same dumb POE switch.
Pull up a command prompt and try to ping the camera at 192.168.1.108, or just type

http://192.168.1.108

into Internet Explorer.

These cameras may use a different method to factory default, but you might have to look at their documentation to confirm if holding the reset for 30 seconds doesn't do it.

 

[TVille]

You need one working camera at the switch to eliminate everything else. Plug the working camera in, make sure it is working, then, using the same cable and same port on the switch, plug in the "dead" one on the same port and cable and reset it. Hold the button down until the light goes out, hold it down for a minute, whatever is required. I have found reset buttons sometimes take much longer than claimed, but haven't reset my Dahuas. Make sure the computer is set to the right IP range to match the camera's default IP of 192.168.1.108 address.

 

[MrSurly]

Thanks! You guys have described my entire Wednesday! I had the day off and decided I was going to fix these cams and work on BI motion configurations, reset my stunnel... in the end I failed to complete these tasks!
I did all of the things you both described, many times. I was concerned that I had missed some simple step due to my poor memory.
I have tried all of the reset tricks I can imagine but I have not had any luck.
The 1831 & the 4239 have tiny internal lights that acknowledge the reset. The light in the 4239 cycled off/on after 7 seconds; The one on the board of the 1831 did it at 17 seconds.
The 2231 has no light, but I can hear a tiny click after 7 seconds, which I assume indicates a reset.
In all three cases, I held the reset pressed for a minute-count just to be sure. All three cams had this done at least three times each.
I carried a known-good camera around to each location and verified communication.
All of the cables test good with other cameras; each of these cams has been tested after hooking directly to the main PoE switch. That switch is a 24p V7 smart switch that is run 'dumb' or un-managed.
There is an 8p smart switch daisy chained out in the shop that is also running dumb.
This afternoon I will repeat the reset process once again for all three just in case some magic happened; then I'll box them up sigh and send 'em off to Andy.

 

[Zook]

Thanks! You guys have described my entire Wednesday! I had the day off and decided I was going to fix these cams and work on BI motion configurations, reset my stunnel... in the end I failed to complete these tasks!
I did all of the things you both described, many times. I was concerned that I had missed some simple step due to my poor memory.
I have tried all of the reset tricks I can imagine but I have not had any luck.
The 1831 & the 4239 have tiny internal lights that acknowledge the reset. The light in the 4239 cycled off/on after 7 seconds; The one on the board of the 1831 did it at 17 seconds.
The 2231 has no light, but I can hear a tiny click after 7 seconds, which I assume indicates a reset.
In all three cases, I held the reset pressed for a minute-count just to be sure. All three cams had this done at least three times each.
I carried a known-good camera around to each location and verified communication.
All of the cables test good with other cameras; each of these cams has been tested after hooking directly to the main PoE switch. That switch is a 24p V7 smart switch that is run 'dumb' or un-managed.
There is an 8p smart switch daisy chained out in the shop that is also running dumb.
This afternoon I will repeat the reset process once again for all three just in case some magic happened; then I'll box them up sigh and send 'em off to Andy.

Dang, that's tough. I'm sorry to hear you have luck like me. It can be 1 in a million, and I'll get stuck with it. LOL
There may be some other tools/hacks that guys know of, but unfortunately what I provided is the extent of my current knowledge for doing this.
If I find another trick in the forums here, I will report back.

 

[MrSurly]

Update of a sort: I have spent more hours trying again and again to figure this out. I have reset them all many many times. I have had one huge success in that I managed to get the 2231TZS working!
The other two cams are having the same issue: I can do the physical reset button, holding it for as much as four minutes and these two cameras will reset. I change my adapter settings to the default subnet and I can then (using IE or Firefox) connect to each one via the default .1.108 and initialize them in the web page, setting the username/password/region/timezone, opt out of P2P, opt out of auto updates then SAVE. I then am kicked out and have to log in with the credentials I had just created; I do this and the password works, I am now in the web gui and can see the feed and all the controls and settings. I then go to settings/network/TCP ip/ enter the ip for my cam network (192.168.22.xx) enter the default gateway 192.168.22.1 (or .254 on some?)
At this point I save this and am then kicked out (as should happen). Then I change my adapter settings back to .22.x. Now, I cannot get back to these two cams with the web interface after changing their ips away from default. Blue Iris also can't see them.
It just seems so odd that I can view them using the web gui as long as I leave their ip at default. I CAN see all my other cams on my subnet via the web interface by using their ips, but these two cams won't play.
So very frustrating

 

[Zook]

Update of a sort: I have spent more hours trying again and again to figure this out. I have reset them all many many times. I have had one huge success in that I managed to get the 2231TZS working!
The other two cams are having the same issue: I can do the physical reset button, holding it for as much as four minutes and these two cameras will reset. I change my adapter settings to the default subnet and I can then (using IE or Firefox) connect to each one via the default .1.108 and initialize them in the web page, setting the username/password/region/timezone, opt out of P2P, opt out of auto updates then SAVE. I then am kicked out and have to log in with the credentials I had just created; I do this and the password works, I am now in the web gui and can see the feed and all the controls and settings. I then go to settings/network/TCP ip/ enter the ip for my cam network (192.168.22.xx) enter the default gateway 192.168.22.1 (or .254 on some?)
At this point I save this and am then kicked out (as should happen). Then I change my adapter settings back to .22.x. Now, I cannot get back to these two cams with the web interface after changing their ips away from default. Blue Iris also can't see them.
It just seems so odd that I can view them using the web gui as long as I leave their ip at default. I CAN see all my other cams on my subnet via the web interface by using their ips, but these two cams won't play.
So very frustrating

After updating the IP's on the cameras to your 192.168.22.X network and got kicked out and not able to reconnect on 192.168.22.X, did you try going back to 192.168.1.108 to see if the camera just didn't actually update the IP on it?
I wonder if reloading or updating the firmware manually after the factory reset will fix your problem.

 

[MrSurly]

After updating the IP's on the cameras to your 192.168.22.X network and got kicked out and not able to reconnect on 192.168.22.X, did you try going back to 192.168.1.108 to see if the camera just didn't actually update the IP on it?
I wonder if reloading or updating the firmware manually after the factory reset will fix your problem.

I have tried this, its a no go, even if I try the 1.108 with the new password.
I have messaged Andy, I'm going with his advice whatever that might be. Maybe he's run into this before(?)

 

[MrSurly]

1. I have not tried updating the firmware, but likely my next step.
2. Andy says its not a hardware issue, so, therefore, not warranty. He offered no fix.
You might say I'm a bit disappointed....
3. he may be correct but I'm running out of guesses.

4. I will try the firmware next

 

[Mike A.]

Anything else on your network what would be blocking access to the cams on the new IP?

Sure that the static IPs that you're assigning are not already used somewhere?

Have you tried to find the cams using the Dahua Config tool when you can't see them via the browser?

 

[wittaj]

I always use IE to setup my cameras. I had one camera that was problematic. I tried Pale Moon and all the settings held and now I can use IE again.

Try Pale Moon, and as suggested above, make sure something else isn't blocking that cam or an IP conflict.

Open up a program where you can see everything connected to the network and see if you see it show up when you change the IP.

And finally, triple check the numbers...in many instances it is a simple number out of place that we miss that is the issue.

Maybe take a screenshot showing the IP address of your system and then screenshots of the camera gui as you change them and post here - sometimes we are so close to the forest we don't see the trees. A fresh set of eyes seeing it may see something you miss because you have been at this for so long and the obvious is missed.

 

[Mike A.]

Forgot to ask above...

Can you ping the cam on the new IP after changing it from another device on that same side of your network?

 

[TVille]

You need a network scan tool like Angry IP Scanner or something. It will scan your network and let you know if the cameras is connected. I would run it at every step of changing the IP. One. Step. At. A. Time. Been there doing things I can't figure out k until I stop, backup, and start over.

Sent from my Pixel 4a using Tapatalk

 

[MrSurly]

As is typical for my projects, it just keeps getting deeper.
++++++First, note that although yesterday I upgraded my CPU, that has NOTHING to do with my cam connection issues which were getting more involved before the CPU thing. The chip swap was simple and uneventful. ++++++++

Now, back to my cam issues: As mentioned above I had three working cams out of fourteen just quit communicating with BI over a couple of weeks, but not simultaneously. I fiddled and fretted, reset a thousand times, wasted hours, and ONE of them started working. I have been messing with the other two on the bench. In the last week or so.... MORE cams quit!! I now have SIX 'failed to connect' cams! I think my system has the 'Rona!!!
I have been trying various things to get the first two cams working but have tried to make it a point to NOT disturb the system as a whole; but I did have a problem where I inadvertently caused the BI to shut down due to a license conflict which I resolved but somehow broke other things. I am going to attach a bunch of screen shots here to show some detail.
The first are two system shots of clip storage and the cam connect status in BI.

 

[MrSurly]

Next are five screenshots each of panels from two cams that are working perfectly

 

[wittaj]

With a recent BI update I had a camera go offline after a few days. Redoing the find/inspect brought it back. Whatever it finds for it, go with it. Following your thread, I doubt it will be that easy, but why not LOL.

Try disabling HA for every camera as well.

 

[MrSurly]

And now, the same panels from two cams that just recently stopped communicating. These are NOT the two I was already were dealing with, these just quit a couple of days ago and I have made ZERO changes to them AFAIK

 

[MrSurly]

Note that BI (2nd panel above) SEES the cameras..... but the web interface cannot and Dahua Config cannot. The config list is the other eight working cams.
The ips for the offline cams are
.10
.16
.18
.20
.24
.25

 

[MrSurly]

With a recent BI update I had a camera go offline after a few days. Redoing the find/inspect brought it back. Whatever it finds for it, go with it. Following your thread, I doubt it will be that easy, but why not LOL.

Try disabling HA for every camera as well.

Unfortunately, none of these can be seen by Find/inspect, it just times out.

 

[MrSurly]

I have looked at so many settings and done so much help reading and forum searching.... I Truly hope you guys can see where I went off the rails. I just can't keep this up, it's like studying for a Psych final.