F2-221 Boot Failure - Dead?

[Gremlin]

Initially looked like a corrupt disk issue. Unit shut down during night. No apparent errors. On eventual reboot, works a short while then shut down again. Further reboot, completed a full sync ( 2 6 GB drives in Traid) Ran a couple more days then shut down again in early morning. System tried to restart (as if after power restoration as is set) but failed similar to below

Since then I have reset CMOS (or whatever you want to call it these days) by removing battery and short +/-ve as suggeted. Cleaned all connectors and power switch, removed additional memory.

With no drives installed, as soon as insert power plug:
Power light, 2 red HDD lights, wait 5 seconds, BEEP, Lights flash, all lights off.
This is repeatable.
If I connect LAN cable I might see LAN led flash briefly once or twice before other leds and BEEP.
If I leave box alone with power connected it will (randomly) repeat the process. The randomness can vary from almost immediately to 30+ seconds.

When the unit shuts down, the power button has no effect to restore power (long or short pushes). This unit has a reset button but that also appears to have no effect.

With drive re-inserted there is a momentary power up and then it shuts down as (if) power failure.

Boot never seems to get far enough to access BIOS.

Any clues?

[PS - This unit was running TOS6Beta (latest version as of Feb2/3) But that does not seem relevant.]

[Gremlin]

ps. Solid green on power supply and steady 12.13volts

[TMlinda]

{L_BUTTON_AT}Gremlin

Remove all the hard drives from the device, connect it to the monitor, restart it until it shuts down automatically, and finally take a photo of the content on the monitor and provide it to us.

[Gremlin]

[at=Gremlin post_id=33032 time=1707159118 user_id=6052][/at]
Remove all the hard drives from the device, connect it to the monitor, restart it until it shuts down automatically, and finally take a photo of the content on the monitor and provide it to us.

Hard drives were already removed .... self preservation kicks in
I would send you a photo as described but it would only be of a blank monitor. Too be certain I switched to a (known) working power supply and monitor. All that appears on the screen (very briefly) is the TerraMaster splash screen. It goes past so quickly to "power off" state that I cannot get into BIOS.
Just to re-confirm: after the splash sscreen, the monitor is blank.

[Gremlin]

PROGRESS!

1. Replaced CMOS Battery = no improvement, except perhaps (hard to tell) variations in 'beep', sometimes no beep.

2. Removed battery and tried cmos reset again but without shorting +/- terminals. Left for 30+ minutes then replaced = as above

3. As 2, plus removed initboot usb, Replaced battery BUT NOT initboot. Machine did not automatically restart!. Power-on via switch machine booted to CMOS!

Showing CMOS Checksum error ?maybe normal? "Core 5.12 date 12/17/2018"
Reset obvious bios parameters (date for one) but not certain of "required defaults".

4. Shutdown via switch. Restart via switch - boots back into CMOS, settings preserved. Ethernet plugged in and system found by TNAS-PC (uninit). Shutdown.

5. Added 1 drive of raid 1. Startup. BOOTS to TOS login OK [Raid is 'degraded, naturally']

6. Added 2nd raid hdd. Restart. Raid sync in progress.

So far so good. However I have been here before and it didn't last. Any suggestion as to what steps next (if only to preserve my sanity).

Update bios?
Replace initboot usb?

Thanks.

[Gremlin]

BUST AGAIN

Getting boring!. Raid rebuilt and synced. ran overnight without case to be in a position to change anything. Couple of reboot to verify functionality and a shutdown. Returned to case at 15:30 local and at 15:45 it crashed again. Does not appear to be system/cpu/hdd heat related as I was tracking these numbers which at 15:34 were 29/31/38 resp with fan @ 1123rpm.

[ColaChen]

{L_BUTTON_AT}Gremlin

You can refer to this link to update the bios viewtopic.php?f=82&t=4238 , but it is not ruled out that there may be problems with the startup USB drive. You can remake it viewtopic.php?f=76&t=3684 or contact after-sales for replacement

[Gremlin]

{L_BUTTON_AT}Gremlin

You can refer to this link to update the bios viewtopic.php?f=82&t=4238 , but it is not ruled out that there may be problems with the startup USB drive. You can remake it viewtopic.php?f=76&t=3684 or contact after-sales for replacement

But would an issue with the USB drive manifest itself after several hours of operation?

[ColaChen]

{L_BUTTON_AT}Gremlin

It cannot be directly determined. If you update the BIOS but it does not work, you may need to remake the USB boot drive.

[Gremlin]

OK (maybe)

Re Bios:
The linked page does not reference my model (F2-221) as it appears to be for later models. Mine shows
J3355_5.12_v4.9.19 AND a bios date of 12/17/2018

Re Initboot:
I have looked at the pages requiring some form of linux os to prepare. This (as has been pointed out to you by others) seems unduly complicated. Also I cannot see that it mentions the optimal size of usb drive that is needed.. In addition I note (in the suppoort downloads a couple of versions of "common_bootloader" images. Do these serve the same purpose and how are they loaded? Can they be loaded via an available windows machine without VM? Or, as a last resort, some form of CD bootable instance of linux?

ps. the instruction pages do not help when they present code/screenshots with typos ('chomod' for one - which was the easy one to spot.)

Thank you