Rigol DS1054Z - Not booting - Red screen

[MichaelPI]

Hello,

I am afraid, my Rigol DS1054Z died this morning. After not having it powered on for a couple of month, I powered it up to do some quick measurements this morning. I updated the firmware to v00.04.05.02.00 without any issues month ago.

At first it has powered-up as always, the only mayor difference was a large offset primarily on CH1, but all other channels were as well affected. AC coupling did not make any difference at all. So I decided to run the self-calibration procedure, which failed at first. After executing it again, it passed the self-calibration and it wanted me to restart it. That's what I did ... but it did not boot properly, I could just see the Rigol logo for several minutes without seeing any progress. Hence I turned the power off and on again. As a result the regular boot-screen is gone, instead I can just see a red screen. The scope still seems to execute at least a part of the boot-sequence, but the red screen does not go away. Some of the leds turn on after a while and it responds to pressed buttons with the usual beep sound at first.

I already tried to flash the firmware again (did not help):
https://rigol.force.com/support/s/article/DS1000Z-Red-Screen-of-Death-Issue
CH1 button led blinks for a couple of seconds, after that all other leds start to blink (the scope is then constantly making "beep" sounds).

In this thread it has been mentioned, that it could be the flash memory - seems reasonable to me, but I could not find any conclusion, if and how it has been fixed.
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/rigol-red-screen-of-death/25/


Warranty is unfortunately long over. I did not really us the scope a lot, I guess less than 200h in total over several years. Not modified in any way, nearly new visual condition.

Regards

[Miti]

Nice red, looks like it got into the Christmas spirit! 
It’s most likely the flash memory that got corrupted. Mine loses the settings sometimes after I don’t power it up for a long time and it starts with Chinese language.
You can try heating or cooling the flash during boot and see if you can make it complete the boot and then try to upgrade again to rewrite the flash. This is the first thing that comes to mind.

Edit: You’ll need to prepare a USB drive with a special service key, then you can reload the same image over and over again, or even downgrade. Otherwise it won’t let you re-load the current or an older image.

[Adrian_Arg.]

try this option https://www.eevblog.com/forum/repair/rigol-ds1054z-stuck-during-boot/

[MichaelPI]

Happy new year!

@Miti: It's a bit too late for Christmas spirit, maybe it will serve as a rather expensive christmas light this year, but I would like to prevent this from happening.
If it got it right, the idea is to heat up or cool down the flash memory (need to check, where it is actually located) while booting and hope the red screen will go away and then try to reflash the memory via USB with a special key. Do you have any information regaring this special key, where can I get it?

@Adrian_Arg.: Unfortunately I have already tried both potential fixes, the factory reset with the 5th button did not work, there is no change, if I repeatedly press it while powering it on. The mentioned reflash option with a USB drive and pressing the HELP did not really work out, the scope is definitely doing something but I can hardly interpret the feedback of the scope. CH1 led starts to blink for a couple of seconds and after that all leds will start to blink as well (including annoying beeping sounds). I assume, all leds blinking indicates a failure state, but I am not so sure about it. I tried it multiple times now.
This is actually as well the option mentioned on the Rigol homepage how to fix the red screen issue.

I noticed that it should be possible to flash the memory via Ethernet, I will try to establish a connection with my scope that way. Actually, I assume that the boot sequence gets actually completed, which means I should be able to communicate with a scope via USB or Ethernet.

Thanks.

Regards

[MichaelPI]

Short update: Neither Ethernet nor the USB connection are operational. I tried to establish a connection via Rigol's UltraSigma tool, the scope could not be detected.

[Miti]

See here reply #436 how to make the magic drive.
Yes you got it right except that you don’t flash it with the special key, the key must only be present on the magic drive and that will allow you to do things that otherwise you can’t do.

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/need-help-hacking-dp832-for-multicolour-option/msg4605523/#msg4605523

This is for a power supply but the magic drive is the same.

[R-1125F]

I recently had this happen to mine.  Mine was under warranty but Rigol said I should try this first (see below).  This didn't work for me and I sent it back to Rigol for repair.  You may have better luck.


1) Download the latest available firmware available at this link:

https://www.rigolna.com/firmware/


2) Install the firmware on the root drive of a USB Drive formatted to FAT32.


3) With your instrument powered off, insert the USB Drive into the front of your instrument.

4) Power on your instrument and continuously press the help button while the instrument boots. *See note below

5) The red screen will appear, wait a couple of minutes and the instrument's CH1 light should appear. Slowly you'll see other backlights engage. Your machine should be beeping at you at startup currently, the way to know the process has started, the machine stops beeping and flashing. 

6) Wait around 5 minutes.  After the 5 minutes has passed, your machine should reset itself. 

*NOTE: If pressing the help key repeatedly at startup does not initiate any kind of sequence Leave the USB Drive inserted, power down your device, restart your instrument, and press the 5th button down on the left side keypad (Pictured Below) repeatedly as the instrument boots.

 

[MichaelPI]

@R-1125FI: Thanks for the additional details about the expected behaviour in case the flash procedure was successful. I was actually a bit confused by the constant beeping sounds and all the blinking LEDs, but it seems normal. Usually I would have expected, that 30 minutes is sufficient for the flash procedure. I will give it another try, just let it make funny noises for an hour or two... let's see. Actually I contacted Rigol exactly regarding this topic, how the scope reacts, if something went wrong, but I did not receive any feedback yet.
If this attempt fails, I will ask how much they charge for a repair - I am still a bit reluctant to open the case and damage the "WARRANTY VOID" sticker. 

Did Rigol mention anything about the cause of this failure? For me it does not really look like a random-hardware failure or "aged" components.

[R-1125F]

Rigol did not give an explanation about the cause of the problem.   They did say that they were able to verify that the scope was hanging on the firmware update.  The next thing they said was that it was fixed and were sending it back to me.   

This appears to be a common problem with these scopes.  Rigol knows about it.  It would be nice to know how it was fixed.  I suspect that they have programming equipment that is not available to mere mortals.

Good luck with the repair.  If I find any other information I will post it here.

I want to add that my scope has software version 00.04.05.SP2 and board version 0.1.4.  Serial number is DS1ZA232...

[R-1125F]

I just got this from a Rigol tech.  He says "used a standard 8gig PNY USB Drive with the latest firmware and pressed the help key.  The trick is if you get the Start button at the top steady and channel 1 stays lit.  Wait 10-15 minutes and let it do it's thing.  If all the keys are flashing and the machine is screaming at you, it doesn't like the USB Drive, try a different Drive."

[MichaelPI]

I tried different FAT32 formatted USB-Sticks (a couple of MB, 2 GB, 4 GB), unfortunately non of them worked. A repair costs as much as a new one in Europe (mainboard replacement). I will keep it for now, until I have more time to dig deeper into the problem or I will sell it as part donator. As I really need a scope, I guess I will spend my money on a small PicoScope. The SW seems to be user friendly and less complexity and lower number of HW components typically means less chance of a premature death.
I am not quiet sure about the overall reliability of the DS series, but I am reasonably unhappy about the way and the age at which the scope decided to cease operation - no big bang of an aged electrolytic capacitors, just a lousy red screen showing its suicidal tendencies. Maybe I have only been lucky with the reliability of other not so well treated electronic devices I own, so the perception could be skewed. 

[R-1125F]

You might want to try again.  Read this thread https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/rigol-ds1074z-not-recognising-usb-flash-drives/

[zivojinn]

Did you solve the issue?
I have the exact same issue on Rigol DS1074.

[zivojinn]

Hey all,

Just for your information:
I tried instructions from Reply #6 more than 30 times with several different usb. In the end I was able to successfully update the fw 

I used usb flash 4GB, and I formatted it in Windows Disk Management as FAT32 and default allocation unit size. After formatting, I just copied .GEL file to the USB and followed the steps from Reply #6.

Good luck!

[R-1125F]

Great news!  Glad it worked out.  I have heard that Rigol equipment can be picky about the flash drive and formatting.