Catalyst 2900 will not show IOS

One of my Catalyst 2900 stopped working. I think somebody put it into some crazy mode or got it stuck or something. I'm not sure.

I have the rollover cable connected to the Console port on the switch. I have HyperTerm connected as 9600, 8, N, 1, Xon/Xoff (I've also tried no flow control) & when I boot the switch all of the LEDs come on & stay green accept for 1x which flashes green, the stays on solid amber. I've tried pressing the Mode button & powering on, but that does nothing, the System LED is on solid amber.

I have another switch & router & the rollover cable & Hyperterm combo work fine with them. I just can't seem to get this 'darn' switch to boot up correctly. All I see is the Greek "alpha" character.

When I power on the switch I do not see the IOS boot up, can somebody please help me out?

(that's the "I give up" sign).

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Comments

Jollycork

sounds like the switch is in recovery mode did you try a break sequence ?

side note: did you backup the IOS?

bamim2

I don't know what you mean by 'break sequence'. Can you tell me what to try? I don't care about the IOS at this point, I just need to access the switch. Please give me some hints on what I can try to get into it. Holding the Mode button while it boots up does nothing. Everything I've tried does nothing.

mikej412

bamim2 wrote: »

I don't know what you mean by 'break sequence'.

The break sequence could be as simple as pressing the BREAK key on your keyboard -- or may require a different sequence like the CTRL key AND the BREAK key. It depends on your terminal emulation software.

bamim2 wrote: »

Holding the Mode button while it boots up does nothing.

At what point in the switch boot sequence did you let go of the mode button?

Usually with a 2924XL-EN you hold the mode button and release it a second or two after the LED above port 1x is no longer illuminated. Are you saying the LED above port 1x never went out when you powered up holding the MODE button?

There were lots of 2900XL switch models, so it could help you if you mentioned exactly what model it is.

Is this a production switch? Or is it a lab switch?

bamim2

Thank you very much for the info. I'll try the break sequence. As I said, I'm using HyperTerm, so I'm not sure what the break sequence is with HyperTerm, I don't believe in the 15+ years that I've used it, I've ever had to use a break sequence. I'll look around & fiddle around & see if I can figure it out.

The switch is one of our Lab switches, so that's why I "Just" need to get into it. It's not in our production environment (fortunately). It is just a Catalyst 2900 Series XL. At least that's all it says on it.

I've tried holding the 'Mode' button while it powers on for varied lengths of time with the same result. I guess I wasn't clear enough in the original post, but it flashes green (less then .5 S) & then stays on solid amber. That's why I'm thinking somebody may have gotten it stuck in some crazy mode or something while they were programming it. I can't get anyone to own up to mucking it up. I don't want to be all weird on anyone just because they hosed up our Lab switch either. That's kinda what the Lab is for anyway.

Again, Thank you for the attention on this & any additional thoughts are most appreciated. I have my CCNA, Security+ & some other stuff, but I'm not an expert on switch setup by any means (which you can most likely tell without me pointing that out).

Jollycork

bamim2 wrote: »

Thank you very much for the info. I'll try the break sequence. As I said, I'm using HyperTerm, so I'm not sure what the break sequence is with HyperTerm, I don't believe in the 15+ years that I've used it, I've ever had to use a break sequence. I'll look around & fiddle around & see if I can figure it out.

The switch is one of our Lab switches, so that's why I "Just" need to get into it. It's not in our production environment (fortunately). It is just a Catalyst 2900 Series XL. At least that's all it says on it.

I've tried holding the 'Mode' button while it powers on for varied lengths of time with the same result. I guess I wasn't clear enough in the original post, but it flashes green (less then .5 S) & then stays on solid amber. That's why I'm thinking somebody may have gotten it stuck in some crazy mode or something while they were programming it. I can't get anyone to own up to mucking it up. I don't want to be all weird on anyone just because they hosed up our Lab switch either. That's kinda what the Lab is for anyway.

Again, Thank you for the attention on this & any additional thoughts are most appreciated. I have my CCNA, Security+ & some other stuff, but I'm not an expert on switch setup by any means (which you can most likely tell without me pointing that out).

Here's a Cisco troubleshooting guide for a 2900 XL including how to bypass the bootup of IOS and reload the IOS [if the IOS is corrupted].

there are other guides which tell you what the lights and colors signify, including what ports show what during the boot process..note: usually it's just ethernet ports 1,2, and maybe 3. [because there's 8 lights, but only 6 on the panel] The guide tells you what those ports lights signify during POST .

Catalyst 2900 Series XL Installation and Configuration Guide, March 1998 - Troubleshooting [Cisco Catalyst 2900 XL Series Switches] - Cisco Systems

as an example :

Table 7-1 POST Test Descriptions

Switch LED
Component Tested
LED 1x
DRAM
LED 2x
Flash memory
LED 3x
Switch CPU
LED 4x
System board
LED 5x
CPU interface ASIC
LED 6x
Switch core ASIC
LED 7x
Ethernet controller ASIC
LED 8x
Ethernet interfaces
Switch LED Component Tested

mikej412

Standard Break Key Sequence Combinations During Password Recovery - Cisco Systems

Are you saying the LED above Port 1x never goes out at any point when you power the switch up holding the MODE button?

There were a few 2900XLs that had the wrong LEDs, but usually they will flash amber, then green before it starts the port check -- and that's where the LED above Port 1x goes out.

If the System LED is Amber then it's possible your switch has just died of old age -- but you can hope it's just corrupted software. Catalyst 2900 Series XL Hardware Installation Guide, April 2001 - Product Overview - Cisco Systems

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/switches/ps605/products_installation_guide_chapter09186a008007ead3.html#40660

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/switches/ps605/products_installation_guide_chapter09186a008007eacf.html#10831

bamim2

Thanks for all the info! I'll get on to checking this out right away.

As for the 1x LED, when the system boots it briefly flashes green when all the ports flash green, the goes solid amber & stays that way & the other ports go green & stay that way. It doesn't make any difference to the LED if I press the mode button or not. They all flash as above, with the button pressed or not.

Maybe I have a new Cisco boat anchor? Hopefully not. I'll check out the info & see if can get this turkey working again. Thank you all for your info.

mikej412

If you have another 2900XL in your lab you might want to try the recovery on that so you know what it should be doing.

If you can't get to this

ÿ€

C2900XL Boot Loader (C2900-HBOOT-M) Version 12.0(5)XU, RELEASE SOFTWARE (fc1)
Compiled Mon 03-Apr-00 17:20 by swati
starting...

blah blah blah blah blah blah blah

...done Initializing Flash.
Boot Sector Filesystem (bs:) installed, fsid: 3
Parameter Block Filesystem (pb:) installed, fsid: 4
Loading "flash:c2900xl-c3h2s-mz.120-5.WC12.bin"...######ÿ€

C2900XL Boot Loader (C2900-HBOOT-M) Version 12.0(5)XU, RELEASE SOFTWARE (fc1)
Compiled Mon 03-Apr-00 17:20 by swati
starting...
Base ethernet MAC Address: 00:02:4b:53:76:80
Xmodem file system is available.

The system has been interrupted prior to initializing the
flash filesystem. The following commands will initialize
the flash filesystem, and finish loading the operating
system software:

flash_init
load_helper
boot

switch:

then recovery probably isn't an option.

If you have a wood desk, a dead 2900XL makes a good coffee cup coaster (or mouse pad support).

bamim2

Yup. Sadly I'm about to that point. I can't get this thing to give me anything on the screen, so it's probably going to be a paperweight, mouse pad or now that I'm looking, it may work well as a monitor stand. It will raise my monitor up a couple inches. Of course, I may want to just put it away someplace so it doesn't remind me how much I paid for something that left me so quickly. Kinda like my first wife... ba-****-bump!

Thanks for all the help.