Anritsu MS2721B internal CF card missing

[analogRF]

Ethernet controller getting hot. Now removed but no changes.

no that chip always gets too hot. it's normal

[analogRF]

Assuming that the onboard flash is corrupt ( 2 x (RC28F256P30B85)), would trying to get these ICs from a parts unit be a good strategy? Perhaps the non-corrupt chips could be read and new copies could be programmed?

I can find new ones on eBay: https://www.ebay.com/itm/334463856043?hash=item4ddf996dab:g:gXcAAOSwvrRfvcFu
Plus stencils: https://www.ebay.com/itm/193122926047?var=493309027882

Has anyone been able to read or successfully transfer images from these ICs? I see that there were two versions of firmware stickers on mine. Not sure if it went back to Anritsu at some point and was updated.

Also, my ethernet IC was also 50C + like another person had experienced. I removed it but the unit's behavior has not changed. Nothing else sticks out on thermals.

Remember that this unit was fully operational before the attempted firmware update that killed it. I would hope that if it is as simple as corrupt flash, then salvaging the image from another analyzer and replacing the bad memory could fix it.

I assume you are sure there is (was) no LAN connection and also bootstrap mode didnt work, right?
if that is the case, I can only assume the flash is corrupted. I am sure anritsu has a way of writing them in place
but since we dont know how, copying from a working flash or replacing the flash chips with working ones should work.

My understanding is that the bootloader resides on those flash memories, so if it is not starting, they are corrupted during the update.
unless there is a hardware failur that just happened during the update even though the unit was ok before.
so make sure all voltages on all the chips are present.

IIRC the unit with no CF card will just sit on the Anritsu logo screen
I have one laying around here, I will take out the CF card and see what happens but I am pretty sure it just sits idle on the splash screen

[nexus]

understood, thank you for confirming this

Ethernet controller getting hot. Now removed but no changes.

no that chip always gets too hot. it's normal

[nexus]

I assume you are sure there is (was) no LAN connection and also bootstrap mode didnt work, right?
if that is the case, I can only assume the flash is corrupted. I am sure anritsu has a way of writing them in place
but since we dont know how, copying from a working flash or replacing the flash chips with working ones should work.

My understanding is that the bootloader resides on those flash memories, so if it is not starting, they are corrupted during the update.
unless there is a hardware failur that just happened during the update even though the unit was ok before.
so make sure all voltages on all the chips are present.

IIRC the unit with no CF card will just sit on the Anritsu logo screen
I have one laying around here, I will take out the CF card and see what happens but I am pretty sure it just sits idle on the splash screen

I tried recovery mode with no connections, with LAN, and with USB all separately. No changes in that respect.

I see some parts units on eBay. If they are not missing the flash chips I will try getting one of those for cheap.

Interestingly, once in a while the unit will just sit at the splash screen. No green bar or other text, just "Anritsu" white screen without blinking. This is with no CF.
Maybe once I get a CF reader and can unpack and load FW, perhaps it may be able to keep booting. Would be interested to know what your good unit does with no CF.

I wonder if the "1-3-5" recovery mode should be accessible without CF installed?

[analogRF]

ok I was a little wrong but not by much  . Without CF card in the unit, this is what I get (see the pictures)

The fault red light is always on. After turning on, the boot process is exactly like normal and right after the brief selftest message at the bottom
the unit gets stuck at the image shown here complaining about OS. But up to this point it behaves exactly like normal.

1-3-5 bootstrap mode works exactly as normal. It does not care about CF card at all. It is also able to connect to LAN and I can see it on MST software

[analogRF]

so, except for any other hardware fault (RAM, power rails, etc...), I think most likely your flash memories are corrupted in a "bad" area which prevents the bootloader from running.
Possibly the upgrade was updating the bootloader and something went wrong during that period...

[nexus]

Copy that; thank you! I'm going to see if I can find a cheap parts unit or main board online. Hopefully replacing the flash chips should restore bootloader function.

Let this be a lesson; do not update using the thumb drive application! 

[analogRF]

be very careful about part units on ebay (all of them but particularly those from alltest)
most of these have all of their memory chips (of all kinds even SDRAM) and sometimes even their FPGA and CPU cut off from the board by cutters

[nexus]

Yup, I saw that alltest has a few for sale. The ICs they indicated as removed (well, more like ripped off brutally) were the SDRAM chips on the top side.

I asked them if the two chips of interest are still on the board.

[nexus]

BTW if anyone has a parts unit or a motherboard laying around feel free to PM me

[nexus]

Update

I bought a parts MS2721B from alltest that had the suspect flash ICs with the bootloader on them.

I also bought a Xgecu T48 universal flash programmer with the BGA64 socket.

I removed both BGA flash IC's from the parts unit, popped them into my programmer. Downloaded the contents from the flash and saved them. (I will post the flash contents on my website (neonkev.com), but if you need sooner please PM).

I then removed the flash ICs from the bricked unit. First, I read and compared the contents to the "good" parts unit. Indeed they were different.

So I erased flash from corrupted unit, and reflashed them with the contents I grabbed from the parts unit.

Reballed the BGAs, put them back on the board, and viola! Unit was able to reach bootstrap.

I use Anritsu MST to do an emergency recovery over LAN to reinstall OS. And everything is working again.

I learned a lot and it was a good experience. Hopefully if anyone else has a bricked bootloader, you can make use of this.
Of course, BGA reballing isn't the easiest type of soldering, and you need to spend some $$$ on the programmer. So not a quick fix.. but once you have the tools, the next repairs will only cost you time

[zeaman]

I was able to revive my MS2721B today. (SDRAM removed , NO CF connector, 3/6 SRAM taken off with pads, no CR1225 battery holder)

The last problem was that it was stuck forever with message "Application is running!" (input : 700mA @ 15V).

From the log it looks that the problem happened right after loading DSP memory. (see telnet log file attached)
I carefully checked all 6 SRAM chips (I replaced 3 of them) and found unsoldered SRAM address pin.  After fixing that I saw my input current jumped to 1.4-1.6A @15V  and in 20 sec I've got the functioning screen.  There was a warning once on  the bad EEPROM first time it loaded.

[Ko]

Could someone advise me about the option installation?
Recently I got a ms2721b without TG option and broken ms2721b w/ TG.
I move this TG into first ms2721b.
But TG couldn’t be enabled on this ms2721b which might not have configuration of the TG.
Can I enable TG w/ some method?
It is very helpful for someone to teach it.

[Ko]

Could someone advise me about the option installation?
Recently I got a ms2721b without TG option and broken ms2721b w/ TG.
I move this TG into first ms2721b.
But TG couldn’t be enabled on this ms2721b which might not have configuration of the TG.
Can I enable TG w/ some method?
It is very helpful for someone to teach it.