Contributor III

ZP100 not booting

192 replies
54184 views

Hi,

I've recently acquired a ZP100 however it looks to be stuck in the boot process with a single white light flashing endlessly.

It doesn't appear responsive to holding the mute button on bootup. On powerup all of the network port light flash briefly and the connection lights are solid if wired to bridge via ethernet.

I know this is an old product and I know it is my fault for purchasing it, but is there any other reset tricks or way to update the firmware to get out of this loop?

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K

kivulallo

Lyricist III

hello everyone! thank you for this thread! with your help, i managed to connect my sonos cpu board to my computer through uart and did some inspections.

the history in a nutshell was that my zp100 is a used unit, almost 9 or 10 years old. i've opened it multiple times to clean it or check the power supply... anyway i never had any problem with it.
back in the days it started to freeze randomly, independently of playing music or standby... there was no overheating...
so i decided to unplug and let it rest a few days but now when i wanted to boot it up the white led was blinking infinitely. cleaned it, checked the voltages temperatures no problem. PLUS the ethernet switch works indiviually...

with the uart i got into the bootloader and did some tests. RAM is good, NAND has only one bad block, but it won't boot the kernel...
This is the output for the boot linux from nand:

code:


Rincon boot loader version 0.16-11080(ZP) (32M SDRAM). Press 'h' for help.
    h - help
    m - SDRAM test
    i - print NAND device ID
    n - NAND device scan
    x - NAND device destructive test
    y - NAND device dump first page
    p - Program NAND device
    b - Boot the Linux kernel from NAND device
    d - Boot diagnostics from NAND device
> NAND ID is EC:75
32M NAND flash (Samsung K9F5608U0C) detected
NAND flash block 970 is bad
Section 0 is provisionally good, kernel on partition 1, generation 15
nand_load: bad page magic, page 54688
nand_load: file appears to extend past end of partition
Section 1 is no good
Attempting to boot kernel from partition 1

and there it freezes. i've never seen the linux booting though uart ever...(yet).

can i do something? if the nand is fried or empty... how in the world could it get empty or fried if it was working fine for like 9-10 years...?

thank you very much!

EDIT: i'm using uart without plugging in to mains power... am i doing it right?

EDIT2: when i don't scan my nand before booting, it sees my nand good:

code:


SDRAM test complete
Attempting to autoboot from NAND device
NAND ID is EC:75
32M NAND flash (Samsung K9F5608U0C) detected
NAND flash block 970 is bad
Section 0 is provisionally good, kernel on partition 1, generation 15
Section 1 is provisionally good, kernel on partition 4, generation 14
Attempting to boot kernel from partition 1

but then freezes anyway.
I see something on my usb voltage meter. when it starts to boot, it uses the cpu and draws around 750-800mA. the bootloader freezes, and a few seconds later the current falls back to 500mA... it's like the cpu tried something then froze...
any idea? 😞

P

poshul

Contributor III

hThe linux console is disabled by default in production builds of the ZP100, so not seeing anything is normal. It sounds like the kernel starts to boot and crashes. This could be due to a bunch of different things, but it sounds like the NAND is going (not uncommon on units of this age). I've occasionally had luck doing a factory reset and trying to upgrade the unit if you can get it to boot at all post-reset (I think this allows it to go through and mark any newly bad blocks on the install of the new upgrade, but thats just a guess).

If you are really brave (and have access to the right hardware), you can try replacing the nand chip with an equivalent of the same model. Make sure you dump the data off this one using a flash programmer.

The ethernet switch has its own internal logic, so it will work even if the unit is hosed.

K

kivulallo

Lyricist III

hThe linux console is disabled by default in production builds of the ZP100, so not seeing anything is normal. It sounds like the kernel starts to boot and crashes. This could be due to a bunch of different things, but it sounds like the NAND is going (not uncommon on units of this age). I've occasionally had luck doing a factory reset and trying to upgrade the unit if you can get it to boot at all post-reset (I think this allows it to go through and mark any newly bad blocks on the install of the new upgrade, but thats just a guess).

If you are really brave (and have access to the right hardware), you can try replacing the nand chip with an equivalent of the same model. Make sure you dump the data off this one using a flash programmer.

The ethernet switch has its own internal logic, so it will work even if the unit is hosed.

so you say i should keep trying until it might "accidently" boots up, do a factory reset and see what happens?
no chance for hardware problems (except nand)?
sadly i don't have jtag hardware at all.

but i don't understand... it was working fine for ages... i mean, my unit was given me from a hotel (because the hotel replaced all the audio with crestron) so this thing played music for long ages 24/7 and also it was working fine for 3 years at me. and it just suddenly freezes and dies without a sign before. weird.

P

poshul

Contributor III

so you say i should keep trying until it might "accidently" boots up, do a factory reset and see what happens?

Basically. When new software is installed it gets written around bad blocks on the NAND. Block 970 is part of the JFFS portion of the chip (RW user data), which should get cleared on a factory reset.

no chance for hardware problems (except nand)?

No idea, the things that I have had fail most commonly are NAND, RAM, and occasionally the DSP chip on the amplifier board. If the unit still won't boot after a factory reset, (and the SDRAM test passes), my guess would be that the issue is the amp board. If you have another opened unit somewhere you can try switching the computer board and see if it works then.

Another troubleshooting tool is to hook up a computer running wireshark directly to the unit when it boots and see if it's requesting an IP address. I've had units fail between when the kernel boots (and dhcpd is initialized) and when the webserver (anacapad) is initialized.

but i don't understand... it was working fine for ages... i mean, my unit was given me from a hotel (because the hotel replaced all the audio with crestron) so this thing played music for long ages 24/7 and also it was working fine for 3 years at me. and it just suddenly freezes and dies without a sign before. weird.

The thing is old. 10 years is well outside the expected life expectancy of consumer electronic components. So things eventually start to fail.

K

kivulallo

Lyricist III

Basically. When new software is installed it gets written around bad blocks on the NAND. Block 970 is part of the JFFS portion of the chip (RW user data), which should get cleared on a factory reset.

No idea, the things that I have had fail most commonly are NAND, RAM, and occasionally the DSP chip on the amplifier board. If the unit still won't boot after a factory reset, (and the SDRAM test passes), my guess would be that the issue is the amp board. If you have another opened unit somewhere you can try switching the computer board and see if it works then.

Another troubleshooting tool is to hook up a computer running wireshark directly to the unit when it boots and see if it's requesting an IP address. I've had units fail between when the kernel boots (and dhcpd is initialized) and when the webserver (anacapad) is initialized.

The thing is old. 10 years is well outside the expected life expectancy of consumer electronic components. So things eventually start to fail.

thank you for your help! now i'm trying to boot it up through uart. still the same thing happens.
i could get it to amber-white flash to start the factory reset but it stuck in it. i waited for 10 minutes then interrupted...

the reason why i think that the linux part is defective is it won't even boot disconnected from the amp. or should it boot?...
i will check the amp board and try the wireshark and see what happens.
i don't really want to trash this thing out just one day to the next.

P

poshul

Contributor III

Unfortunately the CPU board won't boot all the way if it's disconnected from the amp. My guess is the kernel panics when it tries to load the DSP module and there is nothing there, or that Anacapad has some hard-coded calls to the amp board. If the unit gets to the point of requesting an IP address, some folks have had luck restarting it into factory reset while constantly pinging it. No idea why that works, but I've been able to replicate that behaviour.

K

kivulallo

Lyricist III

Unfortunately the CPU board won't boot all the way if it's disconnected from the amp. My guess is the kernel panics when it tries to load the DSP module and there is nothing there, or that Anacapad has some hard-coded calls to the amp board. If the unit gets to the point of requesting an IP address, some folks have had luck restarting it into factory reset while constantly pinging it. No idea why that works, but I've been able to replicate that behaviour.

Sorry for being late.
I managed to start my device I don't now how... So thank you poshul!
I plugged everything together, started wireshark... and it booted up... I also started to ping it so maybe the ping or maybe wireshark's listening on ethernet port made it alive.
I performed a factory reset and now it works and did not freeze since a day now.

What I discovered is the led flickering again. It's definitely power related. When the amplifier turns on from stand by, it starts to flicker. If I stop the music it flickers less but continues until the amplifier turns off again.
Anyone had something similar like me? Do you know what is it? Maybe a capacitor? I hope it's not the DSP chip, but I don't think so.

Thank you for your help!

buzz

Grand Maestro

kivulallo,

A bad capacitor is likely. At this point I recommend a very thorough visual inspection. Bad capacitors often give themselves away with physical signs of distress, such as leakage or bulges. Look for discolored areas and bad solder joints. A good visual inspection is worth many hours of troubleshooting.

I don't know the DC power supply voltages for ZP100, but you can probably guess them. If you have an oscilloscope, look at the power supply wave forms. Another technique if you have a digital voltmeter, is to set the meter to measure only the AC component, then check the DC power supplies. A high reading indicates ripple and a likely bad capacitor.

Another technique is to "thump" the boards with a plastic tool the weight of a common pencil. A healthy board will not respond to these "thumps". Quite often one can use lighter thumps and locate a defective component or connection. If you are unlucky the thumps will mechanically cause a temporary repair and the symptoms will go away -- for a while. You'll know that the problem is mechanical, but not exactly where.

K

kivulallo

Lyricist III

thank you for your suggestions buzz!

right now my unit works (with flickering led, power problems)
so i will use it a little while and then check all the boards.

the first reason is with a little usage the faulty part can show some physical signs of death and it can be recognized more easily...

the second reason is that i don't want to disassemble it's a long time and i will have to reassemble... 😃

G

gruv2ths

Trending Lyricist I

So my Zp-100 has the flashing white LED failure.
When I got it from Ebay, i first did a hard reset (plug it in with mute+VolUp heald down) and all was well.
It worked great for a few hours then I could not see it with the Sonos app.
I found that when this happened, if I would just let it cool and start over with the hard reset i could get it working for a short while. Always doing the setup with Ethernet only.
I then did a tear down and re-flowed the logic parts with no luck. (noticed lots of flux on the board, and bloby solder.. Less quality then I expected)
Started measuring the DC voltages and they seemed fine.
Then I started pinging the ZP-100 at the IP that the router would always give the ZP-100. The ping returns would follow the ZP's functionality. If I got a return, the unit was working and vice versa.
I tried some clod spray on the logic board and that made the functionality last a few minutes longer, noticing that the lights on the Ethernet port connected never changed their behavior weather the ZP was working or not.
So I tried the following and had some luck.
I sprayed my last few seconds (bottle just about empty) of cold spray on the Ethernet controller/transformer chip. and quickly did a hard reset and this time (and for the first time) set it up in the way that prepares the ZP for a wifi installation.
What I found was once the setup was done, the ZP shuts off the Ethernet controller (connected Ethernet port goes dark) and switches to wifi. The unit stayed on and connected all night, longest ever.
When I get home I will see if it is still connected and try a reboot.
Will let yall know what happens.

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