DM DS2A DVTU with dreaded *Software build is incompatible*

Hi everyone,

I have a 9 channel Dedicated Micros DS2A DVTU, which recently died due to the PSU going bad. The thing refused to boot, and the HDD started clicking away. I got it on the bench and the PSU died completely, it wouldn't even spin up the disk.

Not having a spare PSU to hand I hacked an old PC PSU, formatted a old 80gb IDE HDD in my PC, copied across the DVTU s/w and got the thing up and running. Passwords were all reset etc.

I really wanted rather more than 80gb, so I took that drive out and replaced it with a seagate SATA drive on an adapter. This also worked fine, everything humming along nicely.

It was getting late by this point, and I should have counted my blessings and gone to bed, but instead I tried to install the IDE drive as a slave alongside the SATA (master). This is where the fun started. I forgot to change the jumper on the IDE drive to slave (it's been a while since I played with IDE) and so I had a SATA adapter, which doesn't have a master/slave setting, and a master IDE HDD both on the same cable. The machine booted ok, but the application was flaky. One (long) press of the menu button brought up the camera activity screen, and once in it you couldn't get out of it.

No mater what I did the machine was stuck.

A re-boot gave the same result. I stripped out the IDE drive and tried a reboot, still the same.

Ok, next I did something really stupid. I thought I would strip out the sysdata from the NVM and delete the DSmkII.txt file as per the info in this thread http://www.cctvforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=7369 to default the machine and get rid of whatever corruption I had caused in the system files. This would leave a virgin machine to rebuild fresh on the 500gb drive again.

Did all that, tried to boot with the existing build on the 500gb drive, it stuck in the bootloader.

Next I reformatted the 500gb, copied over the DVTU s/w again, and rebooted. everything looked fine, the machine restarted, unzipped the application, loaded and initialised the application and then it got stuck with the dreaded *** Software build is incompatible *** message.

I'm in exactly the same situation as the guy in this post http://www.cctvforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=19825

except I can get into the bootloader and do stuff.

I've noticed that the bootloader version is now 3.1_(006) when the system does it's self-check (I'm sure it used to be a later version???), but when it throws the error it reports System Software Ver. 3.1 (169)-NET(DVTU).

It looks like the on-board firmware is somehow patched up with the sysdata in the NVM to work with the later disk-loaded bootloader and app., and by blowing this data away I've made the thing unbootable.

Does anyone know how to reload the NVM from a file from the UP TOWNGIRL prompt? There is a command SYSDATA which has load and save options.

One last thing - I've noticed that the MAC is now reset to 000000000000 - the MAC SET command doesn't work (i.e. the NVM file for this is missing and the MAC command doesn't rebuild it), although the IP SET command does work, and the network is running.

I did try DM support, but after being on hold for a hour I gave up.

Sorry for such a long post, and here's hoping there's someone out there with more knowledge of this box than me.

Thanks in advance.

The unit has lost all it calibration data in it NVM e.g what it is, MAC address etc. So will need to be returned for repair.

Hope this helps.

Hi grrr009, thanks for your post.

Yup, I pretty much figured that out. After posting last time I noticed that the box says 'Unit not calibrated' when it boots, and executing the config command at the monitor prompt reports an unknown board type.

It's really bugging me that there's no way to re-flash this board and get it going again. I know it wont be financially viable to send it to DM for repair.

Has anyone played with the sysdata or nvmdump commands?

Does anyone know what the PRG and CAL jumpers are for? They're right next to the CPU on the main board. If you jumper PRG, the machine just hangs. If you jumper CAL you get a warning as the machine boots -CAL Jumper in place [40]!

I've had a quick look in the bootloader code, and there is a section in there which relates to loading production defaults into bb_ram0 and eeprom0 - I just can't work out how to run it. Not sure if there's an additional DM application which is required to force this code to run???

Has anyone actually pulled the flash chips from one of these machines and reflashed them in a programmer?? I'm wondering if I could get hold of a good flash image if I could do it this way. The chips in mine are standard 64K SST chips, and I have a programmer that would work. All I need is a good image file.....

Since I last posted I have managed to flash the bootloader to 3.1 (151), which I believe is the latest and greatest for this release of the D2A H/W (DVTU, DVU52). I was hoping this would re-flash the sysdata, but no such luck.

Not sure if ppl know how to do this, so here's what I did.

1) Download the latest s/w from DM.

2) Pull the primary HDD from your DS2 and install in your PC.

3) Copy the file /bin/flsh.cof from the DM distro to the /bin directory on the DS2 drive

4) Copy the file /bootload/boot.bin to the ROOT of the DS2 drive

5) Reinstall the HDD in the DS2

6) Close J1 (next to the header for the relay card ribbon cable) <- halts machine in the bootloader when it starts

7) Boot the machine

8. Connect your favorite terminal emulator to Serial 1 with the following settings: 19200 baud, 8 bit, no parity, 1 stop bit, no flow control

9) Type 'ESC' 'ESC' 'ESC' 'ENTER'

10) At the prompt type 'up towngirl'. Machine should respond with 'Current monitor level is 1'

11) type 'cd bin'

12) rename the file nuke.cof to a file name of your choice by typing 'rename nuke.cof ?????.cof' - this will prevent the machine loading the video application when it restarts i.e. it will halt in the bootloader without J1 being closed

13) turn the machine off

14) remove J1

15) reboot and log in again to monitor lvl 1

16) type 'load flsh.cof' and cross your fingers

17) Machine will reboot and the flash utility will run, then the new bootloader will run

18) log in again and rename the video application to nuke.cof

19) reboot

My machine remains broken after doing this process, so I can't be sure what the changes are - I can say that there are more commands available at the monitor lvl 1 and 2 prompt, but many don't appear to work, probably because my machine is lacking it's NVM contents.

Hope this info is of use to someone.

It's really bugging me that there's no way to re-flash this board and get it going again. I know it wont be financially viable to send it to DM for repair.

hi. no need to send it back. but you will need to work on getting your dvr working on internet for DM support to reflash. sometimes they charge and sometimes not.

i cant find a post we did on the forum last year sometime (it had a number of a dm service center )

I dont think its on the EEproms as ive had a simalar problem and swapped both the chips from another unit and it still doesnt work, i think it may need to be done using the riser programmer port ?? I dont know but as you say there is CAL and PRG links on there.... would be nice to know how to do this, as i have 3 units that have this problem, i do have an eeprom reader as well and tried to copy ove to the chips which did copy but still didnt work, thats why i directly swapped the chips over with no luck...