broken 3550?

alliasneo

Hi everyone,

I think my 3550 has just become a very expensive paper weight.

It's been working fine but I swiched it on this morning and the System LED light stays Amber and so does port FA0/1 - all others are green. I have tried to Console in but I get nothing back on my connection. I've tried Putty and Teraterm.

I've had a look around on the Internet and it looks like it's a failed POST which most likely indicates a Hardware failure. My question is, does anyone have any suggesions for things I can try?

I've tried holding down 'Mode' when booting but that doesn't do anything. The Amber LED for 'System' is almost instant when I plug the switch in.

Reef-Tip

Hi
Most of the 3550 are of an age, that they have bad capacitors.
I would open it up and check to see if any have a bulge on the top of them.
If you can solder then it's a simple matter to change them out.
Remember to unplug it first.

fiftyo

Hi,
I've seen a pretty similar synopsis in production. Have you tried to reboot the switch while the console access application is up? You should get some sort of POST message while the switch is booting before the console stop generating output, I'd go from there. Otherwise as above post mentions to open the switch, re plug cables and whatnot.

alliasneo

Hi guys,

I've tried rebooting with the console connected but I get nothing at all. I've opened up my COM connection, unplugged the switch and plugged it back in but no output is displayed.

I've opened the switch up and looked at the capacitors but they all look fine. I can't see any physic damage to the motherboard at all.

I even tried unplugging the fan and then booting up but still nothing - All I get is the Sys light amber and port FA0/1 amber almost immediately after booting.

Any other suggestions or have I reached the end?


Thanks

fiftyo

Unfortunately I don't think you can do much more at this point. It's too much to isolate if you can't view POST messages imo.
You could have a look at this document, Catalyst 3550 Multilayer Switch Hardware Installation Guide, October 2004 - Troubleshooting  [Cisco Catalyst 3550 Series Switches] - Cisco Systems
however, I most likely wont solve your issue. This one gives a little hint too Catalyst 2950 Switch Hardware Installation Guide, August 2004 - Troubleshooting  [Cisco Catalyst 2950 Series Switches] - Cisco Systems

inscom.brigade

have you tried to ping it to a fa1/__ port? telnet or ssh into it, maybe you console port went bad.