N5200 Freezes after a few hours

[YuriNazarov]

After working OK for a month, my new N5200 often crashes.

The logs show a number of "Hard Disk on N5200 has an I/O error". At some point, the shares will stop working and N5200 will not respond to system shut down, unless I press and hold the power button for several seconds.

When frozen, N5200 responds to some web commands. When I try to do a disk or RAID check, it shows no error. All the lights look normal.

After a cold boot, the system will work fine for a few hours, then freeze up again.

Firmware 1.00.08.

5 Hard drives: Western Digital RE2 500 mb (firmware from 3/2007), configured as RAID 5 (no hot spare).

Support team does NOT reply to my emails or phone messages.

What should I do?

Thanks

[DR]

Do you have any data on it yet?

If not - can I suggest removing all drives and trying them in a PC with a simple format to confirm they are all "good"

Then rebuild the array.

[YuriNazarov]

DR, thanks for your reply.

I have lots of data on the system.

When the "Hard Disk on N5200 has an I/O error" problem happens, I can continue to access the Thecus via SMB. But several hours after the power-up, the system consistently hangs, even if I don't access any shares at the time. Also, the "I/o error" happens even if the system is idle.

After a cold-boot, the system goes back to normal, then hangs a few hours later.

[Thecus - Yvon]

Dear Sir,

We guess the DOM is dmaged, thus please provide the conf.bin for us confirm this issue, please send to support@thecus.com and let we know you are from this thread.

Thanks Yvon.

[YuriNazarov]

Yvon,

Thank you, I got a reply to my ticket from Clairtek, got an RMA and will be shipping my system in to Clairtek for repairs.

Thanks for your help.

[YuriNazarov]

Yvon, I sent my system back to Clairtek (without hard drives) a month ago. My NAS sat there for 4 weeks, waiting for a shipment of spare parts, and now they are telling me that they can't reproduce the problem and are going to send the unit back to me, without replacing the DOM or making any other changes. Help!

[Thecus - Yvon]

Dear Sir,

Please provide or mail the ticket number for us, and we will check this with the Clairtek.

Yvon.

[Stefan Huebner]

When the "Hard Disk on N5200 has an I/O error" problem happens,

This means something is wrong with your DOM (Disk on Memory) Module. Let the reseller replace it!

Tell Clairtek to review the log. I/O-error on harddisk always means problems with the DOM. If it wasn't the DOM, there would be a message like "/dev/sda on N5200 has an I/O error". Seems to me that they do not do their work properly!!!

...4 weeks - this is hard. We normally try to keep it much under 2 weeks!!! We also replace DOM or MB if necessary and ship a new Device with the damaged parts back to thecus germany. Just so the customer is pleased...

[weissenh]

I had the same problem shortly ago (FW 1.00.10)!

German Thecus Support gave me the hint:

The Message comes from the DOM, but the reason was not a defect, but a bug in the 1.xx Firmware.
After some time the DOM runs full of varied temp files which are not cleaned up purely. This depends on what you do on the box, the time it is running, installed modules, and so on.

After installing the latest official FW 2.00.01 (look at Thecus-Homepage for download), all problems gone, and my box is now running over 2 weeks fine!

If you have problems to do the update because you have already problems with the box, try it directly after a cold-boot or try to delete the unnecessary HBT-Log on the DOM before (ESC + Down Button at the same time, then Enter).
If with this it is still not possible to do the FW-upgrade via the webinterface, you can try at least the upgrade via an USB-Stick (Plug in on the back side!) with the factory_test.sh script.

Hopefully it works for you too!

[Stefan Huebner]

Thanks a lot for the hint! Good to know how to erase the HBT-Log. And also good to know that the DOM might also be full to emit "I/O error"s.

BTW.: I always insert the update-stick to the front USB - so it seems like it doesn't matter ...

[YuriNazarov]

Yvon, Stafan and all - thank you for your help. Thecus USA (Clairtek) replaced the DOM on my 5200, upgraded to the latest formware and it's now working great. The delay was - they were waiting for a shipment of spare parts from overseas, and that took a few weeks.

In the last 2 months Thecus support has gotten better - before, they would just often ignore your emails. Now, as long as you send in a ticket using their e-helpdesk tool, they track it pretty well (usually get back to you within 1 business day).

Again, thanks for your help

[sysreq]

I just experienced the same problem:
The Thecus N5200B RouStor (still under warranty), under FW 1.00.08, worked fine for some months, until it froze. After a hard reboot, I found many lines of "N5200 : Hard Disk on N5200 has an I/O error." in the log, but the system worked fine. Two days later, the same happened. After the hard reboot, I upgraded the firmware to 2.00.01, which worked without error message.
After the reboot, the system displays:
THECUS N5200
SYS FAN:OK
RAID: None
Link Aggr:
WAN N/A

The system cannot be contacted over the net, the buttons on the front panel do not react!!

Anybody experienced the same? Any solution?

Thank you

[Stefan Huebner]

Hey sysreq!

First questions first: can you read? Since you can write I guess you can read, also - so please do. The solution to your problem is written in this thread.

To make it a bit shorter for you: either your DOM (Disk On Memory - that's where the firmware resides) is broken (having unstable bits would be the best explanation for your problem) or your mainboard. Let the dealer replace the DOM first, mostly this is the problem.

cheers!


P.S.: keep in touch with the firmware updates! A Thecus is not a "works perfectly out of the box"-solution, although in most cases it seems like. It's work in progress...

[sysreq]

Hi Stefan

Thanks for asking:
The system is not visible on the net, so I cannot contact it nor read or write, addtionally, the front buttons do not react, since the FW 2.00.01 has been uploaded.
I got a quick response from the english THECUC Support:
"Typically with I/O error messages, it indicates problematic DOM. In addition, now NAS will not complete boot process, it has to be DOM. Please contact your local reseller for DOM replacement.".
German THECUS-Support told me to exchange the disks...

I think I will follow the English support suggestion and bring it to the dealer for DOM-replacement.

I let you know about the outcome...

[Stefan Huebner]

Hey,

please do not let me know about the outcome - I already know. I'm the service technician of Germanys larges Thecus-reseller.

If the DOM-replacement won't help, MB replacement would be the next step - which rarely occurs.

cheers

[bloodyguitars]

Hi Stefan,

I am stuck at Self Testing and Thecus said that I have to replace the DOM. Unfortunately eAegis said that I am out of warranty and asked me to contact Thecus.

Someone from Thecus support said that the sales people will contact me but I haven't heard from anyone.

Please help.

V