ISY Won't Boot w/ Either Old Or New PLM Attached (Long & Detailed)

[bjs169]

Over the last few weeks I noticed some reliability issues with my programs executing reliably. Then this past Wednesday I asked Alexa to turn on a device and she replied that the device was malfunctioning. Previously I had heard her tell me that a device was not responding, but this was specific and said "malfunctioning." I use MobiLinc to enable Alexa and I thought maybe they were having some platform issues, so I wait a day. The issue was still happening, so I decided to reboot the ISY. 

When I rebooted the ISY it would not boot and, based on the LEDs, appeared to be in some kind of loop. Power light solid for ~5 seconds with no other LEDs followed by ~15 seconds where power, TX, and RX LEDs were all solid with some almost-steady flashing of the memory LED.  Error LED never comes on. While this was happening I also tried connecting by admin console and couldn't. I pinged the device (from Windows) as I was just curious about network connectivity and noticed that ping pattern aligned with the LED pattern. I would get 14 good pings (time <1ms, TTL=60) followed by a single failed ping (request timed out), then 14 good pings, then a failed ping, etc.

I decided to unplug the ISY, unplug the PLM, plug the PLM back in, and then plug the ISY back in. This did not work. Same LED loop pattern. Same ping loop pattern. When I was doing this I noticed the PLM was warm to the touch. I have read before about the capacitor issue and that they tend to fail after about two years. My PLM was purchased in February of 2018.

I was curious if it was PLM or ISY, so to eliminate ISY, I powered it down, disconnected the PLM altogether, powered up the ISY, and the ISY came to life and I was able to connect via admin console.

I decided to buy a new PLM and do a PLM restore. The new PLM arrived on Friday. I read the Wiki here and numerous threads about how to do a PLM restore. After I felt I understood the process I powered down the ISY, disconnected the old PLM from the ISY, plugged in the new PLM, attached the new PLM to the ISY, and powered up the ISY. It came up successfully. So I went into the admin console (which threw a bunch of communication failure dialog boxes at me - not unexpected), and did a a restore from my last backup (which was from March since my system config is fairly stable and mature at this point), and rebooted. The ISY came up again, I checked the battery icon so it was greyed out, and then selected Restore Modem (PLM) from the File menu.

The process kicked off and I waited. And waited. And waited. And waited. After six hours it was time for bed and the restore was still running. I woke up this morning and the restore was still running. It appeared to me to be in some sort of loop. Dialog box with a progress bar that went from 0-100% (very slowly), dialog box closed, then new dialog box with new progress bar going from 0-100%.

My devices icons were all the green "1011" icons, and I knew from reading that this meant writes were pending, so I right clicked on a couple devices and selected Write Updates to Device. This appeared to have no effect what-so-ever. Just continuation of the same progress bar loop. Icons still the green binary icons

I was very hesitant at this point on what to do, but I decided to reboot. I figured after the reboot I would do a Restore Devices. After waiting a bit the ISY was not responsive on the network. I looked at the device and I was back to the LED loop and same ping loop I mentioned earlier. Now the ISY would not come up with the *new* PLM attached. It would still come up, now in safe mode, with no PLM attached.

I decided that I would eliminate power outlet, network switch port, cables, and ISY power supply from the equation. I moved the ISY to a different room, swapped out both CAT6 cables - this time using a different CAT6 cable for the network and a CAT5 cable for the PLM since I read somewhere (probably wrong info) that CAT6 wasn't supported for a PLM) - and connected the network cable to a new port on a different switch, the PLM plugged into a different outlet, a new power supply for the ISY, and plugged in the ISY. No luck. Same LED / ping loop.

I decided to try the old PLM again just to see if it might miraculously work. It did not. Same LED / ping loop. When swapping out the new PLM I noted that it was slightly warm, but it did not appear to be as warm as the old PLM.

So . . . what's going on? Old PLM is probably bad. Is my new PLM defective? It worked the first time. Only stopped working after the initial Restore Modem (PLM) failed. Is it the ISY? My understanding is that with the PLM connected that even if it can't establish connectivity with the PLM that the ISY should still boot into safe mode. I can get it into safe mode, but only with the PLM disconnected. With the PLM connected the ISY definitely hangs in a loop.

I have another PLM on the way to arrive tomorrow to try again. But I am looking for advice on how I should proceed.

Any thoughts?

(Sorry for the long message but I wanted to provide as much detail as possible)

Thanks,
Brian

 

[Techman]

54 minutes ago, bjs said:

Over the last few weeks I noticed some reliability issues with my programs executing reliably. Then this past Wednesday I asked Alexa to turn on a device and she replied that the device was malfunctioning. Previously I had heard her tell me that a device was not responding, but this was specific and said "malfunctioning." I use MobiLinc to enable Alexa and I thought maybe they were having some platform issues, so I wait a day. The issue was still happening, so I decided to reboot the ISY. 

When I rebooted the ISY it would not boot and, based on the LEDs, appeared to be in some kind of loop. Power light solid for ~5 seconds with no other LEDs followed by ~15 seconds where power, TX, and RX LEDs were all solid with some almost-steady flashing of the memory LED.  Error LED never comes on. While this was happening I also tried connecting by admin console and couldn't. I pinged the device (from Windows) as I was just curious about network connectivity and noticed that ping pattern aligned with the LED pattern. I would get 14 good pings (time <1ms, TTL=60) followed by a single failed ping (request timed out), then 14 good pings, then a failed ping, etc.

I decided to unplug the ISY, unplug the PLM, plug the PLM back in, and then plug the ISY back in. This did not work. Same LED loop pattern. Same ping loop pattern. When I was doing this I noticed the PLM was warm to the touch. I have read before about the capacitor issue and that they tend to fail after about two years. My PLM was purchased in February of 2018.

I was curious if it was PLM or ISY, so to eliminate ISY, I powered it down, disconnected the PLM altogether, powered up the ISY, and the ISY came to life and I was able to connect via admin console.

I decided to buy a new PLM and do a PLM restore. The new PLM arrived on Friday. I read the Wiki here and numerous threads about how to do a PLM restore. After I felt I understood the process I powered down the ISY, disconnected the old PLM from the ISY, plugged in the new PLM, attached the new PLM to the ISY, and powered up the ISY. It came up successfully. So I went into the admin console (which threw a bunch of communication failure dialog boxes at me - not unexpected), and did a a restore from my last backup (which was from March since my system config is fairly stable and mature at this point), and rebooted. The ISY came up again, I checked the battery icon so it was greyed out, and then selected Restore Modem (PLM) from the File menu.

The process kicked off and I waited. And waited. And waited. And waited. After six hours it was time for bed and the restore was still running. I woke up this morning and the restore was still running. It appeared to me to be in some sort of loop. Dialog box with a progress bar that went from 0-100% (very slowly), dialog box closed, then new dialog box with new progress bar going from 0-100%.

My devices icons were all the green "1011" icons, and I knew from reading that this meant writes were pending, so I right clicked on a couple devices and selected Write Updates to Device. This appeared to have no effect what-so-ever. Just continuation of the same progress bar loop. Icons still the green binary icons

I was very hesitant at this point on what to do, but I decided to reboot. I figured after the reboot I would do a Restore Devices. After waiting a bit the ISY was not responsive on the network. I looked at the device and I was back to the LED loop and same ping loop I mentioned earlier. Now the ISY would not come up with the *new* PLM attached. It would still come up, now in safe mode, with no PLM attached.

I decided that I would eliminate power outlet, network switch port, cables, and ISY power supply from the equation. I moved the ISY to a different room, swapped out both CAT6 cables - this time using a different CAT6 cable for the network and a CAT5 cable for the PLM since I read somewhere (probably wrong info) that CAT6 wasn't supported for a PLM) - and connected the network cable to a new port on a different switch, the PLM plugged into a different outlet, a new power supply for the ISY, and plugged in the ISY. No luck. Same LED / ping loop.

I decided to try the old PLM again just to see if it might miraculously work. It did not. Same LED / ping loop. When swapping out the new PLM I noted that it was slightly warm, but it did not appear to be as warm as the old PLM.

So . . . what's going on? Old PLM is probably bad. Is my new PLM defective? It worked the first time. Only stopped working after the initial Restore Modem (PLM) failed. Is it the ISY? My understanding is that with the PLM connected that even if it can't establish connectivity with the PLM that the ISY should still boot into safe mode. I can get it into safe mode, but only with the PLM disconnected. With the PLM connected the ISY definitely hangs in a loop.

I have another PLM on the way to arrive tomorrow to try again. But I am looking for advice on how I should proceed.

Any thoughts?

(Sorry for the long message but I wanted to provide as much detail as possible)

Thanks,
Brian

 

 

You mentioned that you did an ISY restore from a previous backup prior to doing a restore PLM. Was that backup the same ISY firmware version as the one before you did the restore?   Are your ISY firmware and UI currently the same version?

Attached is the correct process to replace your PLM. 

The ISY will always boot up in the safe mode if no PLM is attached. Try following the restore PLM guidelines attached and let me know what happens.

 

 

 

Replace ISY PLM.pdf

[bjs169]

Yes, my firmware is 4.75. So was my configuration backup.

This is now resolved.

I factory reset the new PLM. This seemed to be the key to resolving the issue.

After doing this I was able to get ISY to boot with the PLM attached. I then did another restore from backup and rebooted again. Once again, it came up. I let the query operations all complete and when the system entered the ready state I turned off both battery updates and automatic updates (both the battery and binary menu options set to gray / off). Then I did Restore Modem (PLM) and when the progress bars completed I was left with all my powered devices with a green binary icon and my battery devices with a gray binary icon. One-by-one I right clicked on each powered device and selected Write Updates to Device. This worked on all devices except one. Then I put, one at a time, each battery device into programming mode and then selected Write Updates to Device in ISY. This all worked. For the one powered device that wasn't taking the updates, I deenergized it, turned the power back on, and was then able to write the updates. I am not sure I needed go through each device one-by-one, but I felt it gave me a little more control / visibility.

I did a backup of my config, upgraded to 4.80, then did another backup of my 4.80 confg.

Everything is good now, though it took quite a long while to figure this out and get through the issues.

Hopefully my write up will help anybody else that might come across similar issue.

[lilyoyo1]

4 hours ago, bjs said:

Over the last few weeks I noticed some reliability issues with my programs executing reliably. Then this past Wednesday I asked Alexa to turn on a device and she replied that the device was malfunctioning. Previously I had heard her tell me that a device was not responding, but this was specific and said "malfunctioning." I use MobiLinc to enable Alexa and I thought maybe they were having some platform issues, so I wait a day. The issue was still happening, so I decided to reboot the ISY. 

When I rebooted the ISY it would not boot and, based on the LEDs, appeared to be in some kind of loop. Power light solid for ~5 seconds with no other LEDs followed by ~15 seconds where power, TX, and RX LEDs were all solid with some almost-steady flashing of the memory LED.  Error LED never comes on. While this was happening I also tried connecting by admin console and couldn't. I pinged the device (from Windows) as I was just curious about network connectivity and noticed that ping pattern aligned with the LED pattern. I would get 14 good pings (time <1ms, TTL=60) followed by a single failed ping (request timed out), then 14 good pings, then a failed ping, etc.

I decided to unplug the ISY, unplug the PLM, plug the PLM back in, and then plug the ISY back in. This did not work. Same LED loop pattern. Same ping loop pattern. When I was doing this I noticed the PLM was warm to the touch. I have read before about the capacitor issue and that they tend to fail after about two years. My PLM was purchased in February of 2018.

I was curious if it was PLM or ISY, so to eliminate ISY, I powered it down, disconnected the PLM altogether, powered up the ISY, and the ISY came to life and I was able to connect via admin console.

I decided to buy a new PLM and do a PLM restore. The new PLM arrived on Friday. I read the Wiki here and numerous threads about how to do a PLM restore. After I felt I understood the process I powered down the ISY, disconnected the old PLM from the ISY, plugged in the new PLM, attached the new PLM to the ISY, and powered up the ISY. It came up successfully. So I went into the admin console (which threw a bunch of communication failure dialog boxes at me - not unexpected), and did a a restore from my last backup (which was from March since my system config is fairly stable and mature at this point), and rebooted. The ISY came up again, I checked the battery icon so it was greyed out, and then selected Restore Modem (PLM) from the File menu.

The process kicked off and I waited. And waited. And waited. And waited. After six hours it was time for bed and the restore was still running. I woke up this morning and the restore was still running. It appeared to me to be in some sort of loop. Dialog box with a progress bar that went from 0-100% (very slowly), dialog box closed, then new dialog box with new progress bar going from 0-100%.

My devices icons were all the green "1011" icons, and I knew from reading that this meant writes were pending, so I right clicked on a couple devices and selected Write Updates to Device. This appeared to have no effect what-so-ever. Just continuation of the same progress bar loop. Icons still the green binary icons

I was very hesitant at this point on what to do, but I decided to reboot. I figured after the reboot I would do a Restore Devices. After waiting a bit the ISY was not responsive on the network. I looked at the device and I was back to the LED loop and same ping loop I mentioned earlier. Now the ISY would not come up with the *new* PLM attached. It would still come up, now in safe mode, with no PLM attached.

I decided that I would eliminate power outlet, network switch port, cables, and ISY power supply from the equation. I moved the ISY to a different room, swapped out both CAT6 cables - this time using a different CAT6 cable for the network and a CAT5 cable for the PLM since I read somewhere (probably wrong info) that CAT6 wasn't supported for a PLM) - and connected the network cable to a new port on a different switch, the PLM plugged into a different outlet, a new power supply for the ISY, and plugged in the ISY. No luck. Same LED / ping loop.

I decided to try the old PLM again just to see if it might miraculously work. It did not. Same LED / ping loop. When swapping out the new PLM I noted that it was slightly warm, but it did not appear to be as warm as the old PLM.

So . . . what's going on? Old PLM is probably bad. Is my new PLM defective? It worked the first time. Only stopped working after the initial Restore Modem (PLM) failed. Is it the ISY? My understanding is that with the PLM connected that even if it can't establish connectivity with the PLM that the ISY should still boot into safe mode. I can get it into safe mode, but only with the PLM disconnected. With the PLM connected the ISY definitely hangs in a loop.

I have another PLM on the way to arrive tomorrow to try again. But I am looking for advice on how I should proceed.

Any thoughts?

(Sorry for the long message but I wanted to provide as much detail as possible)

Thanks,
Brian

 

Try the plm in a different outlet and do a restore devices as well as restore plm