Memory Error

[tschouten]

Anyone else seen this one before:

Invalid Chip Id (reverse= a10ad) System cannot Identify Chip
[0 bytes used, 16777216 available, 16777216 total] FLASH SET READ ONLY



I was in the process of upgrading a 2514 router, I had about 8 (8mb) simms on hand (luckily). I went through 6 of them before I found one that was good. When I performed a show flash detail it would show the chip in the bank but it could not figure out what the ID's were, I've never seen this before. My only thought was perhaps they were after market chips but they are all Viking Components simms for the 2500 sereis. Still scratching my head on this one.

(Yes before anyone asks if the other bank had an 8mb chip in it, it did. I also tried the bad chips by themselves.)
The thing that got me was the fact that it would see the chips tell you the amount they had on them but wouldn't allow you to write to them you could only read.

 

[l1carter]

Tschouten,

Set the config register to 0x2101 and reset the router. This will get the router into RXBoot mode and you can read/write to the memory.

If this doesn't work you may have to erase the flash first then try to upgrade it.

later-

 

[tschouten]

Thanks for the info, unfortunately I didn't explain everything too well. I tride erasing the memory first, going to config-reg setting it to 0x2101 reloading the machine (even tried cold boot). Nothing worked in that instance. If I had two chips in there the orignal and the upgrade I could get the router to begin getting the IOS from TFTP server, however, half way through when it attempted to use the other chip it would bomb out stating it could not write to the memory. I had to literally go through 6 or 7 simms before I found one it would recognize and not give the error message durring bootup (before I got to RXboot.
Perhaps I will open up some of my lab equipment and see if I can recreate the problem with the same chips and post the info here.

I just found it really odd that it would see the memory there be able to use it as read (when it should have been able to read and write). I just find it odd that 6 out of 8 brand new simms would not work. Was wonering if anyone else had ever seen it before.

Thank you for your information though debugall. It is good information you gave me. I already knew it, but it is good info none the less. My fault for not posting all too clearly.

 

[tschouten]

Ok,

This is what I have suceeded in doing in a test environment.


ERR: Invalid chip id 0x80B5 (reversed = 0x1AD ) detected in System flash
cisco 2500 (68030) processor (revision A) with 4092K/2048K bytes of memory.
Processor board serial number 01444422
DDN X.25 software, Version 2.0, NET2 and BFE compliant.
1 Ethernet/IEEE 802.3 interface.
2 Serial network interfaces.
32K bytes of non-volatile configuration memory.

8192K bytes of processor board System flash (Device not programmable)



Router1(boot)#show flash chip

No files on System flash
[0 bytes used, 8388608 available, 8388608 total]
8192K bytes of processor board System flash (Device not programmable)

System flash chips could not be identified
Check the Vpp (12V) jumper (if present) and/or
the chips/SIMMs installed
Chip IDs read :
[0x80B5]

Flash chips supported by system :
Code Rev-cd Chip-Sz Cmd-grp Chip-name
89B4 912D 0128KB 1 INTEL 28F010
89BD 91BD 0256KB 1 INTEL 28F020
01A7 80E5 0128KB 1 AMD 28F010
012A 8054 0256KB 1 AMD 28F020
1CD0 380D 0256KB 1 M5M 28F101P
89A2 9145 1024KB 2 INTEL 28F008SA
89A0 9105 2048KB 2 INTEL 28F016SA
01A4 8025 0512KB 3 AMD 29F040


That is with a 2501, with a 2520 it sees the same chip just fine and dandy! Not a single problem what so ever. The only thing I can think of is perhaps the boot proms are different? Anyone,anyone?

 

[tschouten]

I know the by looking at this now I have somewhat answered my own question.

The show flash chips command gives you this information, what the router will support as far as chips go:

Flash chips supported by system :
Code Rev-cd Chip-Sz Cmd-grp Chip-name
89B4 912D 0128KB 1 INTEL 28F010
89BD 91BD 0256KB 1 INTEL 28F020
01A7 80E5 0128KB 1 AMD 28F010
012A 8054 0256KB 1 AMD 28F020
1CD0 380D 0256KB 1 M5M 28F101P
89A2 9145 1024KB 2 INTEL 28F008SA
89A0 9105 2048KB 2 INTEL 28F016SA
01A4 8025 0512KB 3 AMD 29F040


This is what the router is saying it sees for the Chip ID I have put in there: Chip IDs read : [0x80B5]

80B5 isn't under the supported list (although it works in other 2500 series routers). My thinking is the BootProm level may have something to do with this.

2501:
ROM: System Bootstrap, Version 4.14(9.1), SOFTWARE

2520:
ROM: System Bootstrap, Version 11.0(10c), SOFTWARE
BOOTLDR: 3000 Bootstrap Software (IGS-BOOT-R), Version 11.0(10c), RELEASE SOFTWARE (fc1)

The 2520 sees the chip(s) just fine as I said before. When I performa show flash chips it gives me what I expect to see, shows the banks, what is installed on the banks, and the chip style (AMD, Intel).

If anyone knows a definite answer let me know.

 

[bfb]

With your boot proms showing 4.14(9.1), you have old proms.

Originally, cisco only supported 4 meg intel flash, then the added 8 meg support, then there was a big problem when the started shipping AMD chips, and the older 25xx routers needed new proms. We went through more than one upgrade on each router back then. Somewhere in there they also started supporting "dual-bank" flash where you could either run two flash simms as individuals or could run them together as one double size one.

The big trick is to get the pair of 32 pin PLCCs out of cisco. I have no idea what their policy is now for folks not on smartnet, yet I bet most 25xx rouers are now OFF any startnet contract.

If you are buying used flas simms, try asking for Intel. There was another chip brand, think it was "Sharp" that still ID itself with an Intel code early boot proms accepted.

Get the proper tool or you can damage the mother board below digging out PLCCs with paperclips.

If you are stuck, bend a shallow spoon curve on the end of one of the giant size paper clips and slip it in the corner slot of the socket so the "spoon-tip" curves up under the PLCC chip. Push your end down gently and crow-bar it out. I've done hundreds that way with no problem but prefer the "official" tools and know others that have trashed a unit being careless.

The clipped PLCC corner orients the corrent insertion.

If you are stuck trying to cram a larger 2500 image into a slightly smaller flash, but have full 16 or 18 meg DRAM (the early 25xx routers has 2 meg soldered in), you might want to try running UNIX compress on the file and see if the .Z file is then small enough to fit. Even the earliest boot proms know how to unpack that into DRAM and run it from there. The flash then remains (READ/WRITE) and can be easily reloaded while the router is running. This makes the 25xx router more like their other routers that mostly now use -mz images that are GZIPped and that are in their own self extracting wrapper so the bootstrap doesn't have to know about GZIP.

There have been toolkits around to make -mz images for 25xx routers, but have not seen one for some years. The file will be smaller than the .Z version.

 

[tschouten]

Huh, so it was what I thought it was..hmmm. Go figure!
Thank you very much for the info.