Hantek DSO5202B Unresponsive After Boot to Scope Grid Display

[dave_n_s]

Title says it all, just about.

Out of warranty Hantek scope that appears to boot nicely, then freezes as soon as grid displayed, with several buttons illuminated in a reasonable way, but completely unresponsive.

I shot Hantek support an email, they asked for a video of it doing and replied back "hardware fault"

I'd have suspected corrupt firmware, but of course it won't recognise a USB stick containing it, on boot.

We're competent EEs, well equipped with other high end scopes but prefer not to dive in without documentation.

Guidance would be most appreciated

Thanks!

[//Matt//]

I think that a software issue is more likely than a hardware fault but you never know.  It's a tricky situation since the USB can't get recognised. It may be helpful if you post the video that you sent to Hantek.

[dave_n_s]

Good idea.

The video is here:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ktgzd4rdkbaz2fu/VID_20190416_173302.mp4?dl=0

[//Matt//]

To me that looks like a software issue. I don't believe that it could be caused by a hardware fault since it does boot. Did you update the firmware or attempt to hack it or something like that. I think that your suspicion of corrupted firmware seems likely.

[dave_n_s]

No, my software days ended with Fortran IV and assembler in the early 80's :-)

It was an ebay purchase that worked properly and then stopped working for no obvious reason.

Didn't try an update and now can't

[Adrian_Arg.]

[dave_n_s]

Well yes, I've seen the failure to boot reports.

The question is whether this is just a variant of that failure to boot - do they all stop at the same point?

Or is this failing to get a response from a piece of hardware once it has completed boot or some other corruption?

I've seen posts from people who've hacked these guys and persuaded them to boot to the Linux OS.

Although my coding days are long behind me, I'm sure I'd be able to follow instructions to force load new firmware.

I'd expect it to check the USB for a bootable file well before populating the screen with anything other than a boot logo and it doesn't.

Thoughts?

[Microcheap]

Have you tried to do a factory reset? It seems to fix a number of issues with Hantek's scopes.

Press the power button to turn on, wait for 2 seconds, then press the power button again to turn off. And press the power button to turn on, it should show the recover page, then select F2 to recover the system.

[NoisyBoy]

I would not rule out a hardware issue.  Unlike a PC, you are not constantly loading and changing the software in it.  If you have not touched the firmware via upgrade or hacking, the only software/firmware related issue is some config parameter was modified in your non-volatile memory, or the firmware was corrupted for some unknown reason.

It can also be hardware issues, if the firmware is not sophisticated enough to do error checking and display an error code, it could easily results in a hang.

If the scope was working one day, you never changed the non-volatile setting, and die the next day, I would lean towards hardware failure.

[dave_n_s]

I found another thread, which put this down to a firmware error following a hardware change.

There's a method in there of recovering control, which involves pressing Default Setup rapidly while booting.

It works every few goes.

I got to the system info page and I have software 2.06.3(111226.1) and hardware 10070x555583e9. Upgrade count is zero.

I have upgrade file dso5kb_func_dso5202b20180226.up in the root of a USB stick. The firmware upgrade utility reports error "no upgrade files detected on USB device."

However the scope recognizes the USB (disk icon displayed) and it saves waveforms to it, which I can open on my laptop.

What next?

[tv84]

https://www.eediscuss.com/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=9313

Loved the reply joke...

Maybe there is an intermediary upgrade that changed the FW password and your current one can't decrypt that specific.

Edit: All 5000B FWs have the "dso5000b" password.

[dave_n_s]

Yes, not the sort of stable that we want.

I actually emailed that person at Hantek a few days ago. They replied that it was a hardware problem. It was not behaving like hardware so I started searching.

Last night I sent them the latest details. I wonder what I will get back :-)

[Microcheap]

There is a way to restore the file system in the Hantek's scopes that eventually get corrupted, did you tried that?

A short video posted on Hantek forum shows how to do that
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1sOPZKpz1KZ9mSdjaSOXTKESuLyr7iQW7 just select F2 then

[dave_n_s]

This scope is not going into recovery mode when pressing power on, off then on again.

I've tried quickly, about a second, two seconds and three seconds.

[dave_n_s]

Hantek responded with an upgrade file that's not the one on the website and with quite a different file name format.

This is the file name: dst1kb_2.06.3_15202b_fact(140924.0).up

It would not update with FAT. It updated with FAT32. 2GB stick both times

Having said that it has powered up with no problem multiple times since I did the Default Setup trick.

[dave_n_s]

Here is the link that Hantek sent me (7 day life):

https://www.filemail.com/d/eblanywjleacylo

I have tucked the file away in case it is of help to others who ask directly. I'm reluctant to post it with a permanent link as I've no information on hardware compatibility.

The scope still wakes up telling me it's a 5202B and that is repeated on the sys info page.

It didn't ask me for a password.

Is that needed to open it in an editor?

[tv84]

Dave,

Do:

gpg --passphrase 0571tekway --output dave.tar.gz -d dst1kb_2.06.3_15202b_fact\(140924.0\).up

and you'll see the contents of the .UP file.

The more recent dso5202b files have a different password. I don't know when that changed and if you can upgrade yours to one of those. I think it should be possible...

[djpat1974]

Hi Dave, I have a DS05202P version of the file and my Hanktek scope won't boot past the logo. Could you please send me the file if it works for me? Thanks and happy new year!