N299 - Is there a common Power Up Fault?

[madmikey]

On the issue of not being able to power down the system, I have read on several other forums that if you are using the later firmware and beta versions that you have to press and hold the power button (much like an ATX PSU).

I have only just ordered my unit and it should be here today, I see this device gets both good and bad reviews, but given the price I thought I'd give it a go, I only run a 100mbit network so the throughput should not be much of an issue.

Hope this helps some of you... Worth a try anyway...

[nutter998]

Changing the battery has worked for me, why Thecus can't see this and advise people to do this first rather than sending them for RMA is beyond me . . .
Overall I'm not very impressed with the N299, have now gone for a Zyxel NSA220. That will stream to a PS3 and do disk spindown.

[mnorth]

The power down fault is exhibited also when you try to shutdown via the browser, and in the state where the battery has run down, holding down the power button makes no difference (though this is required in normal mode of operation with later firmware.)

Overall the N299 is a good simple tool for backups across the network and is portable, but its not industrial strength, makes lots of fan noise and the battery fault is a killer problem, as it creates a load of returns to Thecus which are unnecessary. It also does not offer disc spin-down, a major issue if the unit is on for long periods and inactive.

Actually I use my N299 to back up a N5200, which I have found an excellent device (and quieter than the N299 despite having 5 drives and 2 fans.)

I am hoping we can encourage Thecus to have another look at this issue and perhaps release a firmware update which stops the problem.

[chrisbreame]

Hmmm, I notice that many users of N299 seem to be having the same problem that I am having. I'd guess that it is a motherboard or BIOS issue with the box.....

It look like some of you guys have had success by simply replacing the backup battery with a fresh one.
So far, I have not tried this, but I have found one way around the problem.

First, I'd like to describe the problem itself:
1. Machine is turned off
2. Plug power cable in
3. Hit on button (nothing happens)
4. Play around with power cable (still nothing happens)
5. Play around with power cable some more
6. About 5% of the time, the machine actually WILL turn on!!!! But due to some terrible BIOS problems, it gets itself into a bit of a state. It *looks* like it's booted up correctly, but really it hasn't - and because it's in a dodgy state, you have to pull the power plug to get it to switch off (as the button doesn't work)

OK, so I've been experimenting with a few ideas:
1. Try taking the hard drives out (maybe they are drawing too much voltage?). No effect
2. Try repeatedly unplugging/replugging the unit (might sometimes turn on, but half the time it doesn't boot up correctly)


The best idea that I found was the following:
1. Unplug the device
2. Press and hold the power button
3. Plug the power cable in

This *seems* to work every time (so far anyway)! It's almost as if you plug the power cable in, the motherboard gets some power and decides that it doesn't want to turn on. The fact that the power button is on when you put the power cable in seems to somehow bypass this. Almost as if it doesn't get a chance to decide it doesn't want to turn on - like you sort of catch it before it gets a chance.

I hope that this post makes some sense to some people?

In the meantime, I'm going to purchase a new battery and see if that makes a difference

Thanks
Chris

[mnorth]

Chris, the problem you describe is exactly the same as mine - and I did all the playing you describe. Yes, the routine you suggest I think is a way to reset the device. Pretty sure a battery replacement will solve the problem.

How long did you have the N299 and did it initially work fine?

[chrisbreame]

I've only had it a few weeks. It started fine the first 3 times, but I did notice that the time never stayed set once the device was turned off (that should've been the 1st warning sign!).

Well, I posted the above yesterday and immediately went onto ebay to grab some cheapy batteries. I got some Maxell CR1220s for £2.50 (inc delivery). They arrived this morning (ace!), and I've now got a nice new battery inside the NAS box. Wow! What a difference! It starts up every single time now, perfectly! And the time even stays set :-)

Well, I'm absolutely agreeing with everyone who has posted here. It *IS* the battery.
If anyone has a problem like this, replace the battery and all shall be well. I'm just a little worried how long this one will last. Good thing I got 2 in the packet then!

Thanks one and all for your informative posts!