Cisco IOS Upgrade - Watchdog Timeout - what gives?

szkizzer

OK so in my possesion I have a Cisco 2610. It came with Cisco IOS 12.2 along with 24D and 8F.

I upgraded the memory, to 64/16, so I can be a little more up to date. Except after upgrade I installed IOS 12.3 and after I installed it, it worked. Perfect right?

Except, that like after 5 mins, I was totally happy and turned it off and went to sleep. And then in the morning today, I turn it on and it keeps restarting cause of Watch dog timeout .

I presumed that the IOS was taking a lot of time, so maybe the watchdog was programmed to cut in after a small while, so I go on and install IOS 11.3 (a 2MB file), thinking that after I install, it would be relatively quick and I could diagnose, what went wrong. But again, after I install IOS 11.3, it decompresses very fast, but Im still stuck with the watch dog timeout error. And keeps restarting itself.

Here is some diagnostic info for the people who would be willing to help me out.

           cisco Systems, Inc.
           170 West Tasman Drive
           San Jose, California 95134-1706



Cisco Internetwork Operating System Software
IOS (tm) C2600 Software (C2600-I-M), Version 11.3(3a)T1,  RELEASE SOFTWARE (fc1)

Copyright (c) 1986-1998 by cisco Systems, Inc.
Compiled Tue 26-May-98 15:15 by ccai
Image text-base: 0x80008084, data-base: 0x805428E0


*** Watch Dog Timeout ***
PC = 0x80024e54, SP = 0x807df458
C2600 platform with 65536 Kbytes of main memory


System Bootstrap, Version 11.3(2)XA4, RELEASE SOFTWARE (fc1)
Copyright (c) 1999 by cisco Systems, Inc.
TAC:Home:SW:IOS:Specials for info

I hope something can be done to take this error out, because my total last resort would be to put in the old 8MB flash chip back in and have it boot to 12.2, which is something Im willing to do, if nothing else works out. But in this case, Im curious that even if I have to go back to 8 MB, I want to atleast figure out what went wrong. So maybe in future, I can figure out stuff like this.

Thanks guys.

dtlokee

A watchdog timout is related to a process taking up too much CPU time. For me these were typically hardware related everything from bad RAM to a faulty network module, and even one time where one of those little copper grounding clips fell off and was loose inside the chassis. I would undo any changes you have made to see if the problem goes away.

They can be tough to diagnose because the router may not stay up long enough for you to do anything.

szkizzer

Actually dtlokee, thank you for your response, but I did something that probably not a whole lot of newbies do.

But turns out, it wasnt hardware related, but rather when I was reading some random google search, I set the configuration register to 0x2142 instead of 0x2102. And it kept restarting, and restarting. Then I was googl-ling some more, and then it turns out then I was setting the Config register for that of the 2500. Instead of the 2600, with which I am working.

And then, when I set the register back to 0x2142, and restarted it. It loaded up fine, and the only thing it said was

Notice: NVRAM invalid, possibly due to write erase .

And then I restarted it several times, to make sure Watch Dog didn't come up, and indeed, it didnt.

And the NVRAM error, we both know isnt due to corruption, but rather due to nothing being there.

SO thanks again.

dtlokee

szkizzer wrote:

Actually dtlokee, thank you for your response, but I did something that probably not a whole lot of newbies do.

But turns out, it wasnt hardware related, but rather when I was reading some random google search, I set the configuration register to 0x2142 instead of 0x2102. And it kept restarting, and restarting. Then I was googl-ling some more, and then it turns out then I was setting the Config register for that of the 2500. Instead of the 2600, with which I am working.

And then, when I set the register back to 0x2142, and restarted it. It loaded up fine, and the only thing it said was

Notice: NVRAM invalid, possibly due to write erase .

And then I restarted it several times, to make sure Watch Dog didn't come up, and indeed, it didnt.

And the NVRAM error, we both know isnt due to corruption, but rather due to nothing being there.

SO thanks again.

Ok, but setting the configuration register to 0x2142 simply states to boot up ignoring the startup config, and it is not platform specific. It would have the same effect on a 2500 or a 2600, but it sounds as if the problem is fixed, but I don't think it was related to the config register.

szkizzer

hmm weird....so i fixed it, by doing something else, huh?

anyways, im happy thats its fixed, and becuase of it, i managed to read like 20 cisco man pages - to see how stuff works in there, including learning all these IOS commands.

So, since im at the beginner stage, i guess its good that I got to learn something, even though i was pretty tense, as to why it wouldn't work.

ALso something not related to this:

The fedex guy just came, but what sucks is some idiot when finding a shipping method for my Cisco router - i bought off ebay, decided to only have the package delivered, by someone who is over 21. And as Im not 21, I could only watch in terror, while the fedex guy was like, ill attempt a delivery tomorow. SOOO MAD. Im not 21, but it sure as hell doesnt take someone who is over 21 to operate or handle a router.

I hate stupid people.