[Help] F4-424 Pro Won't Boot [SOLVED]

[RangerDoc]

I've spent the last several hours searching this forum, downloading files, creating bootable USBs, and I can't seem to make any progress.

Today, in Texas, we've had terrible wind storms and tornadoes. We were good and only lost power this afternoon and I went around the house turning off things, but I forgot about this NAS in our closet. Power eventually came back on and I've been trying to work for the last several hours. I then needed files from the NAS and that's when I discovered it was offline. All the lights are on, it powers off and back on just fine. But it won't show up on my network at all.

I found a thread here on creating a bootable USB, tried that, no luck. Further searching led me to a thread about recreating the internal bootable USB. Tried that, along with plugging in a keyboard and monitor. It seems to go through a boot cycle but it doesn't seem to get an IP address so I can't find it, even with the TNAS PC software.

All the HDD lights are on and I can hear/feel them spinning, and with the "boot" cycle I can see with a monitor plugged in, I've confirmed the entire thing is not fried. I'm at my wits end trying to figure this out. I'm desperate for help please.

Thanks in advance.

[TMroy]

Honestly, I think you're focusing on the wrong angle here. Sudden power outages usually don't break USB boot – the real risk is disk/file system corruption. To test your device:

Remove all drives and start it empty(without any drive inserted).
If the device shows up in searches, it’s working fine.
The issue is likely corrupted file systems or system partitions. You could try reinstalling the OS, but first make absolutely sure your USB boot works properly (since you mentioned recreating it already).

[RangerDoc]

Honestly, I think you're focusing on the wrong angle here. Sudden power outages usually don't break USB boot – the real risk is disk/file system corruption. To test your device:

Remove all drives and start it empty(without any drive inserted).
If the device shows up in searches, it’s working fine.
The issue is likely corrupted file systems or system partitions. You could try reinstalling the OS, but first make absolutely sure your USB boot works properly (since you mentioned recreating it already).

Thanks for the quick response. Sorry, I should have stated that. The post about recreating the internal USB disk did indeed include the troubleshooting of removing all drives. That didn't work. It seems the NAS is not polling the router for an IP address at all. Its booting (or seems to be) but its not on the network.

Thanks again. Any other ideas?

[FredMutter]

I think your hardware has a new ip address therefore you can't see it in your router.
Connect it directly to a laptop for example (with a ethernet cable)
or to a monitor to see what really happens

[RangerDoc]

I think your hardware has a new ip address therefore you can't see it in your router.
Connect it directly to a laptop for example (with a ethernet cable)
or to a monitor to see what really happens

I have booted it with a monitor and keyboard attached, per my original post. It’s assigned a static IP address from port 1’s MAC. It’s like it’s not polling the router at all for an IP address.

Per your advice I plugged it in to a laptop directly. That made no difference. The TNAS app could still not find it.

[RangerDoc]

Well, I'm apparently a complete idiot.

After all this, I forgot the prime rule to check the simple stuff first. A new Ethernet cable solved the issue immediately.

I've never seen a power outage "break" an Ethernet cable, but apparently it did. I guess anything electric can be affected by power surges but this was literally the last thing I would have thought.

And honestly, I didn't really think of this. I just put it back in the closet as I figured there was nothing more I could do to the actual device and rather than use the Ethernet cable that I removed with the device I just plugged it in with an existing cable because getting to the back of the panel can be a pain. When I got back to my desktop, there it was in the TNAS app.

I then verified the cable was indeed dead through my laptop. Ugh. Sorry to bother everyone.

[FredMutter]

A new Ethernet cable solved the issue immediately.

I've never seen a power outage "break" an Ethernet cable, but apparently it did. I guess anything electric can be affected by power surges but this was literally the last thing I would have thought.

Well done!!