Home Center 2 won't start! Bricked?!?

[eug2000 1]

Hi all,

 

Thank-you in advance for help and advice.

My Home Centre 2 has stopped working last night, and I have sooo much z-wave stuff and am dependant on it, I'm desperate to try and get it fixed.

I noticed last night my phone couldn't connect to it, then I couldn't access it via the browser - server not found error.

 

I then went to look at it, and I think the 4 lights on the right were on. I powered it off and then on, but it wouldn't start up. What happens, is when I unplug it and replug it, it starts the flashing lights sequence from right to left for a few seconds, then it stops (i.e. it doesn't complete the boot up). I then press the power button on the back, and it will go through the boot-up sequence till all 10 lights are lit, but then all the LEDs go off, and nothing happens. It is then unresponsive to trying to power it on again. The LAN cable remains lit (green light only)

 

I have tried entering recovery mode too, but it goes through the boot sequence with lights flashing from left to right until they are all lit, and then all the LEDs turn off and it is still unresponsive.

 

I have tried removing the recovery USB and doing it, with the same result. I have removed the LAN cable as well with the same result.

 

I don't have a VGA cable (but will see if I can pick one up) so can't tell you what the BIOS is doing.

 

I was wondering if you guys have any suggestions, or is it truly bricked? I haven't done the full reset yet (i.e. holding the recovery button for 10 seconds as I'm trying not to have to do a full reinstall).

 

Really is a bit of a disaster given all the z-wave stuff I have and are pretty reliant on it. Any advice greatly appreciated!!

 

Thanks again,

 

Eugene.

[D-Vine 65]

1 hour ago, pascal_deschepper said:

When the leds faded out, I unplugged the recovery USB stick, plugged it in again and the Home Center started up! A little miracle, ik you ask me...

 

I still having problems with this, suddenly power of leds go out and recovery needed.

Saw this topic

Please login or register to see this link.

 

 

So I order a new battery and going to replace this one and see if the problem solves

 

[[email protected] 2]

3 hours ago, D-Vine said:

 

I still having problems with this, suddenly power of leds go out and recovery needed.

Saw this topic

Please login or register to see this link.

 

 

So I order a new battery and going to replace this one and see if the problem solves

 

did you try another power supply or adaptor to turn hc2 on ?

[D-Vine 65]

4 minutes ago, [email protected] said:

did you try another power supply or adaptor to turn hc2 on ?

 

For almost a year my HC2 worked with PoE on my Ubiquity 16 ports PoE switch. (I tested if it worked and was happy it did)

Then some weeks ago needed a FW update of switch and with that a power cycle of the ports came along and then the first brick.

recovery power cycle on switch and again problems.

Back to original adapter and everything fine again. 

weeks after that 2 times a power failure in neighborhood, 2 times bricked the HC2 with the good adapter. 

 

Fibaro told myself also to check adapter but to be honest I don't believe a adapter could make this brick. If the adapter is no good I would have more startup problems.

 

Just be clear my HC2 works now, because when I have the brick I go straight into recovery modes. push repair and everything is fine again.

But every-time with suddenly shutdown or a good shutdown (pressing buttun, in VGA screen good shutdown) the Fibaro bricks

[Jamie mccrostie 82]

I had this a couple of weeks ago 4 lights on un response 

Stuck in starting services after reboot.

Took a few attempt but got into recovery eventually and worked back to current cloud back up all ok.

I put it down to power cut but will never know for sure. Ive had this once before a year ago so.

 

[nbschenjie 0]

I have the same problem,is  anyone else Solve the problem？

[D-Vine 65]

Change the battery of your motherboard.

It's a standard motherboard battery but only with connector.

 

this solved my problem.

 

Fibaro doesn't have it in stock, Fibaro won't send one to you that is in my opinion bad service. 

[didira 0]

 

I'm having this problem too. all LEDs light except service which blinks. I already changed the motherboard battery and nothing. Does anyone else have a solution?

[[email protected] 2]

2 hours ago, didira said:

 

I'm having this problem too. all LEDs light except service which blinks. I already changed the motherboard battery and nothing. Does anyone else have a solution?

To Tell you truth,  I sent HC2 to company for the same problem and they said it backs to motherboard and they repaired that

[j-t 0]

I have had this issue as well but I have a solution that works on both of my HC2's.

The loop with flashing lights and then turning of in version 4.5x, and the hanging on final led/leds in 4.1x, is resolved by while the HC2 unit is booting (running leds) pressing the power button until it turns of then after a few seconds turning it back on again.

[EK 1]

Same issue here...

[Snowman28 1]

So after much following and reading around this topic, AND having the same problem again today, I still say that this is clearly a Fibaro update problem and I'm disgusted that Fibaro support continue to stick their heads in the sand.

 

To stop the 'bricked' machine I have opened up the unit, very carefully due to the various connectors, but once inside disconnected the CMOS battery, left for 5 mins and reconnected. Without doing anything else, put the machine back together and reconnected to the network and PSU... and everything is back to normal.... So clearly a CMOS battery fault, low voltage causing a 'hang' in the boot process.

Please login or register to see this link.

 

ordered and will be fitted when delivered..

 

I really hope that this helps you guys out there as its clear that Fibaro Support are unbelievable.

 

Regards

 

[Mike48t 0]

I have had the same problem and the manufacturer seems to think its ok to shut down all your systems whilst they have it back in Main tech center,

seems to me another supplier is the answer ( 

[dknecht 1]

On 4/23/2019 at 1:47 PM, pascal_deschepper said:

When the leds faded out, I unplugged the recovery USB stick, plugged it in again and the Home Center started up! A little miracle, ik you ask me...

 

This worked for me as well!

 

Power on the system and wait for all leds to turn off
Wait 30 seconds to confirm device is not booting normally
Remove the USB stick
Wait 30 seconds
Reseat the USB stick
Wait 2 minutes and confirm that it does not start to boot again (mine rebooted every minute before)
Power down
Power up (won't start at that point)
Manually press power button on the back of HC2
System starts :)

[Freebird 2]

I seem to have the same or similar issue and need help. 

A couple of weeks ago I couldn't connect to the HC2 anymore by app or browser, the "internet" light was not lit (only the two lights on the right side). It didn't appear on the network anymore.

I've read this whole thread and a few others, and tried all the different things proposed, including exchange of the CMOS battery (it was down to 2.1V) and a repair of the USB recovery key (according to the great guide "How to repair a corrupted/broken Fibaro HC2 Recovery USB Key"). 

No matter what, HC2 doesn't even get to the recovery mode anymore (a couple of days ago it did at one instance, and I was able to start the recovery but it never successfully finished - since then I haven't been able to get there anymore). It doesn't matter if I start the HC2 with the "+" pressed or not, it always shows the same lines on the connected monitor (via VGA). Only the direction of the blinking front LEDs changes direction (from left to right after pressing "+"). See attached video. After all front LEDs are lit they all go out and stay out, then after a few minutes the device starts booting again with the same result over and over again.

I'm not familiar with Linux so if someone could help me out here I would be very thankful! 

Could there be a problem with the BIOS? To get into the BIOS I would need a keyboard, right? How do I connect it? Which plug/connector would I use?

 

Thank you very much in advance!

 

PS: The system was almost up to date (I think I didn't do the very latest firmware update and definitely no beta)

 

[[email protected] 2]

22 hours ago, Freebird said:

I seem to have the same or similar issue and need help. 

A couple of weeks ago I couldn't connect to the HC2 anymore by app or browser, the "internet" light was not lit (only the two lights on the right side). It didn't appear on the network anymore.

I've read this whole thread and a few others, and tried all the different things proposed, including exchange of the CMOS battery (it was down to 2.1V) and a repair of the USB recovery key (according to the great guide "How to repair a corrupted/broken Fibaro HC2 Recovery USB Key"). 

No matter what, HC2 doesn't even get to the recovery mode anymore (a couple of days ago it did at one instance, and I was able to start the recovery but it never successfully finished - since then I haven't been able to get there anymore). It doesn't matter if I start the HC2 with the "+" pressed or not, it always shows the same lines on the connected monitor (via VGA). Only the direction of the blinking front LEDs changes direction (from left to right after pressing "+"). See attached video. After all front LEDs are lit they all go out and stay out, then after a few minutes the device starts booting again with the same result over and over again.

I'm not familiar with Linux so if someone could help me out here I would be very thankful! 

Could there be a problem with the BIOS? To get into the BIOS I would need a keyboard, right? How do I connect it? Which plug/connector would I use?

 

Thank you very much in advance!

 

PS: The system was almost up to date (I think I didn't do the very latest firmware update and definitely no beta)

 

Please login or register to see this attachment.

Dear Freebird

If you just cannot connect to internet, it has 2 meanings :

1- your LAN connection on the main board is corrupted.(Also you can change the lan port of adsl modem to test)

2-the firmware has some bugs and it needed to be seen next update.

 

[Freebird 2]

On 11/9/2019 at 9:41 PM, [email protected] said:

Dear Freebird

If you just cannot connect to internet, it has 2 meanings :

1- your LAN connection on the main board is corrupted.(Also you can change the lan port of adsl modem to test)

2-the firmware has some bugs and it needed to be seen next update.

 

Thank you for answering. 

As I tried to describe: the system does not complete the boot process as far as I can see. Thus neither a firmware update nor a LAN trouble shooting is possible. 

Any suggestions?

[dknecht 1]

On 10/22/2019 at 10:32 PM, dknecht said:

 

This worked for me as well!

 

Power on the system and wait for all leds to turn off
Wait 30 seconds to confirm device is not booting normally
Remove the USB stick
Wait 30 seconds
Reseat the USB stick
Wait 2 minutes and confirm that it does not start to boot again (mine rebooted every minute before)
Power down
Power up (won't start at that point)
Manually press power button on the back of HC2
System starts

 

Last week I experienced the same problem. However, my previous workaround was not the solution this time.

This time I needed to use this easy workaround:

- When I plug in power, it immediately starts with the rolling leds. (At that point, nothing is displayed on the console in my case)

- Directly after the lights start blinking, I hold down the power button until all lights are turned off.

- Then I press the power button again, and it normally starts. (At that point, also the progress is visible on the console)

[Jacławiciel 6]

I'm dealing with the same issue since yesterday...

First screenshot is taken when recovery stick is inside. 

Second one with stick removed.

Anyone had this issue? 

Please login or register to see this attachment.

Please login or register to see this attachment.

I

[mickehallgren 0]

Still no solution on this problem?

My problems are quite the same and occured some weeks ago when I updated from 4.600 to 4.620.

After a power failure in our house the HC2 did not just boot up. Like you all described, when the last led is to lit all turns out.

 

I can, however start it again by using the tips in this thread: Pull the power cord and then put it back, directly after this I push and hold the power button to turn it off. After this I can turn it on again with the power button.

 

But it wont boot in the normal way if the power cuts out in the house or so. When power comes back it is stuck...

I don't belive this has anything to do with PSU. But will try replacing the CMOS battery. But i doubt a bit if this will help...

 

No news from Fibaro support?

[Spazpeker 0]

so i had been looking at all these threads, HC2 would not boot, the network lights were not working, cmos battery was 3v, plugged in a vga lead, and wired keyboard (wireless  keyboard did not work.)

I could not see any problems with bois except time and date (probably caused by removing cmos battery to check the voltage)

I was confused with all the GRUB info.

so i took out the USB disk that is glued onto the daughter board and plugged it into a Oracle VM Ubuntu on my PC, (i am sure any Linux would do)

about 7 drives appeared but one of them would not mount /UserData which was /dev/sdb9 

i opened a terminal window and ran the *fsck /dev/sdb9* command, had to say yes to lots of errors but the /UserData wass now mounted.

 

put everything back together and hey presto it was working.

did a recovery just to be safe

 

so might be the cure for others

Edited November 23, 2021 by Spazpeker