Turret cam DS-IPC-T12-I Password reset: No reset button

[PorboyNZ]

I have a Hikvision NVR model DS-7104N-F1/4P bought in Beijing, so Chinese software. Batch Config was a big help with the setup and it’s been working fine for the last 12 months with 3 x PoE cameras, so I never bothered with conversions to English. My son just returned from Guangzhou with a Chinese software DS-IPC-T12-I PoE camera for me, but I cannot get it working on the spare 4th PoE port. I have swapped ports with one of the known good cameras, the port on the NVR is fine, as is the 48V to 12V PoE splitter. The spare 4th NVR port network address is 192.168.254.5. (The working cameras are using 192.168.254.7, 192.168.254.6 and 192.168.254.4)

The other 3 cameras just worked when I connected them to the NVR, this one plays dead – Status: IP Camera disconnected.

SADP finds the camera when I direct connect it to a laptop with subnet 192.168.1.1/24 and I can reach the camera login page 192.168.1.64 on a browser. The password is not 12345 or 1111aaaa and I can’t reset the password as the camera does not have a reset button (I pulled it apart to check) The password reset tool will not work on this version software – V5.5.53 build 180717

Q1. SADP says the camera Status is “Active” which makes me think it’s been activated and an unknown password set, is this a likely scenario?

Q2. I exported the password reset file from SADP following the Forgot Password instructions, but where do you send the file for the reset key?

Q3. Is there another method of resetting this camera so I can try connecting it to the NVR again?

Thanks for reading.

 

[alastairstevenson]

SADP says the camera Status is “Active” which makes me think it’s been activated and an unknown password set, is this a likely scenario?

That does seem likely.

I exported the password reset file from SADP following the Forgot Password instructions, but where do you send the file for the reset key?

Hikvision Tech Support - presumably China in this case. So probably not a viable option.

Is there another method of resetting this camera so I can try connecting it to the NVR again?

On older model cameras, using the Hikvision tftp updater tool to re-install the same firmware resets to defaults.
But I have no idea if this newer model camera still supports that method. TFTP
Easy enough to test.

I don't suppose the NVR managed to activate the camera but somehow not add successfully? In which case try the NVR password.
Is there a 'forgot password' link on the camera web GUI login page? Though I don't know if that firmware has the 'Security Q&A' feature.

 

[PorboyNZ]

Thanks Alastair, I tried the NVR password to no avail. Next I found a copy of the V5.5.53 build 180717 software and tried tftp as suggested. I waited more than 5 minutes after power cycling the IPCam and got nothing other than the following in the log: [date] TFTP server [192.0.0.128] initialized. There was no log entry for the file transfer starting and completing, so this is a fail. I have the camera directly connected to the PC, do I need to have a switch?
I can get to the login page at 192.168.1.64 and it does have the password reset option but the answers have not been set and stay greyed out.
Plan C is to try HikVision Tech Support in China on WeChat and send them a photo of the Q Code and try for a reset code. Could be interesting.

 

[PorboyNZ]

Update: Its mid winter so a good time to have another go at resetting the password on this Hikvision DS-IPC-T12-I PoE camera. I extracted another xml file via the password feature on SADP and a friend contacted HikVision support in China who sent back an xml file. Of course it did not work, so I updated SADP, turned off anti virus and firewall, tried various network settings, to no avail. I kept getting error message "Failed to Reset Password Other: 2022" My friend made another call to the helpdesk and we realized the file needs to be sent and returned within 24 hours. Sent a fresh xml file, received back a new reset xml file and it worked. Looking into the xml file with notepad, it contained a simple key - c7139754. The expired file had the same format key - ae559ada. I am unsure if I could have used the expired key if I reset the time and date back to the day it was compiled, maybe. Now I can logon to the IPCam via a browser and activate ONVIF and DHCP. Next step is to connect it to the NVR. I reset the password to the same as the NVR but it still will not connect using Hikvision Plug and Play or ONVIF settings, so more research is needed.

 

[alastairstevenson]

A good result!
Time now to set up those security Q&As for a forgotten password reset ...

 

[PorboyNZ]

Yes I did the security Q&A straight away. Puzzled that it will not connect on the NVR though. Tried ONVIF port 80, no go. Tried Hikvision plug and play with same password on the camera as on the NVR, no go. I am considering logging onto the camera via a browser and doing a factory reset, then connecting it to the NVR, but not sure what that will do. (loathe to go through that xml reset process again)

 

[PorboyNZ]

Covid lock down update. Finally I managed to get this Chinese camera working with the Chinese NVR. Factory reset the camera, set an IP address in the same subnet as the NVR and it was a simple plug and play. I now have all 4 ports with active cameras, happy days. (happy apart from the reason I had the time to work on this again.) Now turning my attention to a faulty PTZ camera.