Do bad ports on 3550 make it unusable for lab purposes?

Hey guys, I would like to pick up a Cisco 3550 switch for cheap and was wondering if a known bad port on either the 10/100 or GBIC interfaces would render it useless?

Specifically, the console reports that a particular interface has failed the POST and ends with the message, "Warning this switch is not usable." That doesn't sound good at all, but since I will be using for lab purposes, will it work? Thanks!

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Comments

tiersten

Like all the ports are totally dead or what? If its just a handful of ports that don't work but the rest do then it should be fine...

Plazma

yea, if only a few ports are dead, then you can just put a physical label across them makred "BAD" , or tape works too (that's what I had to do on an old 5505 at my last job)

if all the ports are bad.. then the switch is probably toast.

mista_eng

Hrm, well this was a general question in case I do come across "damaged goods" that may not be fit for production but might have a home in lab.

Below is the output I have seen on one example. I'm not sure if anything followed it, such as a command prompt. It appears that the GBIC port (as opposed to a regular RJ-45 FA eth) is dead, would that disable the entire router?

Base ethernet MAC Address: 00:15:fa:8b:80:80
Xmodem file system is available.
The password-recovery mechanism is enabled.
Initializing Flash...
flashfs[0]: 351 files, 5 directories
flashfs[0]: 0 orphaned files, 0 orphaned directories
flashfs[0]: Total bytes: 15998976
flashfs[0]: Bytes used: 6484480
flashfs[0]: Bytes available: 9514496
flashfs[0]: flashfs fsck took 16 seconds.
...done Initializing Flash.
Boot Sector Filesystem (bs:) installed, fsid: 3
Loading "flash:c3550-ipbase-mz.122-25.SEB4/c3550-ipbase-mz.122-25.SEB4.bin"...#############################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################

File "flash:c3550-ipbase-mz.122-25.SEB4/c3550-ipbase-mz.122-25.SEB4.bin" uncompressed and installed, entry point: 0x3000
executing...

Restricted Rights Legend

Use, duplication, or disclosure by the Government is
subject to restrictions as set forth in subparagraph
(c) of the Commercial Computer Software - Restricted
Rights clause at FAR sec. 52.227-19 and subparagraph
(c) (1) (ii) of the Rights in Technical Data and Computer
Software clause at DFARS sec. 252.227-7013.

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

Cisco IOS Software, C3550 Software (C3550-IPBASE-M), Version 12.2(25)SEB4, RELEASE SOFTWARE (fc1)
Copyright (c) 1986-2005 by Cisco Systems, Inc.
Compiled Tue 30-Aug-05 13:14 by yenanh
Image text-base: 0x00003000, data-base: 0x009A58D8

Initializing flashfs...
flashfs[1]: 351 files, 5 directories
flashfs[1]: 0 orphaned files, 0 orphaned directories
flashfs[1]: Total bytes: 15998976
flashfs[1]: Bytes used: 6484480
flashfs[1]: Bytes available: 9514496
flashfs[1]: flashfs fsck took 9 seconds.
flashfs[1]: Initialization complete.
...done Initializing flashfs.
POST: CPU Buffer Tests : Begin
POST: CPU Buffer Tests : End, Status Passed
POST: CPU Interface Tests : Begin
POST: CPU Interface Tests : End, Status Passed
POST: Switch Core Tests : Begin
POST: Switch Core Tests : End, Status Passed
POST: CPU Interface 2nd Stage Tests : Begin
POST: CPU Interface 2nd Stage Tests : End, Status Passed
POST: CAM Subsystem Tests : Begin
POST: CAM Subsystem Tests : End, Status Passed
POST: Ethernet Controller Tests : Begin
BIST failed on controller 4
POST: Ethernet Controller Tests : End, Status Passed
INIT: failed satellites initializationCisco WS-C3550-24-PWR (PowerPC) processor (revision L0) with 65526K/8192K bytes of memory.
Processor board ID CAT0946N112
Last reset from warm-reset
Running Layer2/3 Switching Image

Ethernet-controller 1 has 12 Fast Ethernet/IEEE 802.3 interfaces

Ethernet-controller 2 has 12 Fast Ethernet/IEEE 802.3 interfaces

Ethernet-controller 3 has 1 Gigabit Ethernet/IEEE 802.3 interface

Ethernet-controller 4 has 1 Gigabit Ethernet/IEEE 802.3 interface
Ethernet-controller 4 failed POST
POST error status : BIST (built in self test) failed

The password-recovery mechanism is enabled.
384K bytes of flash-simulated NVRAM.
Base ethernet MAC Address: 00:15:FA:8B:80:80
Motherboard assembly number: 73-8100-09
Power supply part number: 341-0029-04
Motherboard serial number: CAT09460LPU
Power supply serial number: DTH09459L0K
Model revision number: L0
Motherboard revision number: A0
Model number: WS-C3550-24PWR-SMI
System serial number: CAT0946N112

"Warning this switch is not usable"

Slowhand

mista_eng wrote:

It appears that the GBIC port (as opposed to a regular RJ-45 FA eth) is dead, would that disable the entire router?

No, a single dead port would not disable the whole switch. Just imagine what that would do to an organization that relies on switches like these, if a single port-failure would result in the whole company shutting down. From the looks of it, there's something funky with the IOS, so I'd say your best bet would be to get yourself a fresh copy and reinstall it. If POST still fails after that, then there's more wrong with this switch than just a port, and it's time to scrap it. (It might've been sold off for a reason.) Google some of the warnings you're getting as the device boots, and see what Cisco and other help-sites have to say about them.