LANPlex 2500 dead? CRC failure on Boot Parameter Block

[tobing]

So I acquired a LANPlex 2500 which booted but I could not get into the thing...none of the username/password combos worked that i found on the internet. Soeone online suggested that I open the switch up, remove the battery, and short the terminals of the battery holder to reset the switch to factory settings. I did this and now I have problems.

THe unit powers up, does some RAM tests then:

LANplex 2000 Power On Verification Rom
RCS: V1.18 , Created: Fri Dec 8 18:05:31 EST 1995
Warning: CRC failure on Boot Parameter Block.
Warning: Unable to restore Boot Parameter Block from flash image.

Depress Escape key to continue.

So when I push escape i am promped with the following menu:

Lanplex 2000 Boot Monitor

Commmands:

s <num> <hex-num>
Sets the bootvector <num> to the value <hex-num>
p <num>
Sets the primary boot vector to <num>
b <num1> <num2>
Boot using boot vector <num1> with boot type <num2>
f <hex-num>
Set the boot flags to <hex-num>
l
List the values of all boot vectors,
the primary vector number, and the boot flags
r
Hard reset
h or ?
Print this message

>

i've tried reset with no avail. It doesn't seem to accept many commands. system nvdata reset yields 'checksum failure- invalid boot vector value'.

I haven't found anything on the 3com website to help. Anyboldy have any ideas? Have i fried this thing? any help would be very much appreciated.

tobin

 

[TimRegester]

This is a common problem with one of three solutions, it was the main fault on the Lanplex 2500. The unit can be recovered. btw look under corebuilder 2500 or 3c25100

You will need one of the following:

a pcmcia recovery boot card, this will reboot the switch and can be used to recover the unit. These really like hens teeth, so I would be really surprised if you can find one.

a specific PCMCIA ethernet card, see knowledgebase article Solution ID:112.0.474055.1525918 this works I have done it many many times myself. It can be retried as many times as you like.

remember to upgrade to the latest code and follow the release notes in all code revs up to the current one. the file lpexpand must be loaded first otherwise it will fail.

I would go for an extended switch code rev as these were most stable and a really fine layer 3 switch.

I hope that helps.

 

[tobing]

thanks for the information on that. I found a 3C985C PCMCIA ethernet card on Half.com for $18 with shipping so I ordered it and hope it was worth the investment.

i didn't mention before that the nvram doesn't &quot;initialize&quot; (whatever that means). When i get to the boot menu if I list the boot vectors or try to manually set one it says &quot;nvram is not initialized&quot;

I'd assume that booting off of that PCMCIA card will solve this problem?

Thanks for the help!

 

[TimRegester]

It should do, I never had to return one that I could not recover.

The problem actually seems to be caused by powering off and on the switch. They are mostly left on 24x7x52 so this is never an issue. I had one customer with scores of them and quartely powerdowns. The first one I attended I had none to recover the second I had three (I actually had three spares on standby) Their worst case was losing seven.

 

[worker99]

You will find the lanplex 2500 will only work with the 3c509b card not any other pcmcia version card - it has to be B.
Can you press l in the above mode and do list of all boot vectors - and go from there.
If you don't have the 'earthquake recovery' pcmcia or the 3c509b pcmcia card you can't do anything, except RMA it to 3Com - £731 here in the U.K.