Synology DS918+ Bricked / Blue LED of death.

[@Breakfast_of_Champions]

A dual bios is a good solution, amazing they don't have it on a crucial device like this.

[@VioletGiraffe]

My thought exactly. Not gonna buy anything from Synology, ever.

[@56585656587]

It’s a cost cutting measure. Extra development, $2 extra parts. Don’t forget, this is China we are talking about here.

[@samuelfellows6923]

😠

[@MisterFrickel]

@@56585656587 I agree with the sentiment, not with the geography though. Taiwan is not PRC. (At the time I am writing this, gotta be careful in 2022...)

[@ran2wild370]

oh, i am not alone with dual bios coming to mind :)

[@gabrielebiffi9018]

Nice job! I would have never suspected a corrupted BIOS, and having to desolder it is quite off-putting. Well, another lesson learned... and that's always use a UPS :D

[@CMDRSweeper]

Biggest lesson to learn here is simple... DON'T Use a NAS box, build your own. These are notorious for dying and getting your data back is a gamble, if you built your own out of PC parts and it dies, well as long as the drives are healthy you can just plug them into any machine and import them and save your data. These you have no guarantee even if you get the same damned model.

[@bluecollar8525]

@@CMDRSweeper Wait... you can't always get your data back? That seems like it defeats the point. That's really unsettling

[@dshack4689]

Mine died and it was on a UPS, AND it had lived a very sheltered life - my NAS that died is the BACKUP NAS which is only turned on once a month for a major backup of my primary NAS. It seems the bios chip is truly terrifyingly fragile, and here I was thinking 5 drives and 2 fans for redundancy was pretty good =(. It should have dual BIOS if the BIOS is not readonly!

[@rudge3speed]

My 1515+ died, and after some research I found a common problem with those units. I had to replace a transistor and add a resistor, but it is up and running again! Your video gives me faith in trying to solve problems rather than dumping and buying new. I hope it does the same for others.

[@RetroSpector78]

Also was donated 2 Synology NAS boxes (DS1815+) from a colleague that seem to be bricked. Hope the resistor fix will do the trick.

[@YouHaventSeenMeRight]

Most likely it was the same issue that took my DS415+ down: the messed up Intel processor killing its clock line (look for issues with the Intel Atom C2538 for more detailed information), so the unit doesn't have a clock signal during boot. Synology replaced mine under warranty and that unit is still running to this day. If you managed to fix it yourself with a few cheap components, then that may be a cheap way to repair all the x15 series units that use the Intel Atom C2538 processor as its CPU.

[@blathum9]

C2000 Issue MMMM I would upgrade very soon. Sorry this is only a temp fix it won't last forever, yes I had the same unit it does not last. Anything after 2015 should be fine, no more bugs. BTW it was Intels problem not Synology.

[@Alex-lp6bg]

@@RetroSpector78 how did it go?

[@molsen35]

Same. I'm just replacing the transistor on my 1515+. This also happened after a power outtage. I've also ordered a UPS. Power cuts seem to cause a lot of issues with Synology NAS systems.

[@AnnoyDroid]

I think as someone has already mentioned, a dual bios should be the norm and the ability to boot into repair mode even by a USB device would be better than nothing. Great video, really enjoyed it and I am glad you were able to access your data again.

[@rudyruiz9521]

Or a flash bios via USB

[@MrDiamondFlyer]

Impressive repairing skills displayed here. I love what Synology is doing in general. Nothing gets close to it but they have their issues indeed. I'd never run one without an UPS ... The problem you encountered is very rare, but it is common for Synology NAS to become "read only" (in best case) after an outage or to become unable to mount your volumes. It is easy to repair without data loss with the right command, but the check/rebuild will run for >24hrs, which is not good for your stress level ;-) Just one remark .... Never use the built-in admin account. First thing you should do after setting up a Syno is to create yourself one or two other admin accounts named differently and disable that one forever. Well know NAS brands are notorious targets for cryptolockers and old DSM versions had vulnerabilities that were specifically targeted. Having that admin account disabled and an up to date DSM already defeats 99% of the exploits.

[@teekay_1]

Agree. It's a huge risk when you cut the power, not even considering the flashing LED of death. It sometimes takes 12-24 hours to validate the RAID array

[@m0rthaus]

I agree on the admin account change - I'd add that the safest solution is simply to not expose your NAS to the internet. Use it over a VPN to your home network if you just can't live without accessing it, but opening it up to the internet (via forwarded ports or via uPnP) is asking for trouble.

[@teekay_1]

@@m0rthaus I had exposed mine at one point and within days, lots of IPs from China were trying to break into the NAS. I turned off the external sharing at that point.

[@nelsone.hernandez6654]

The problem described here might have happened during a software update. To reduce the risk of corrupted volumes due to a power cut, it may help disabling the write cache feature. On user volumes using ext4, Synology unfortunately uses writeback journaling instead of the default journaling mode and that can’t be changed.

[@dshack4689]

@@nelsone.hernandez6654 but his drives and data were demonstrated to be unaffected, so not sure how writeback journaling of the hard drive relates to a corrupted bios chip...

[@jimadams7765]

That was a brave fix. So glad it was successful.

[@majstealth]

i can not see anything brave here. there was a copy of the bios, it was only 1 chip. what i can see are bad solderingskills^^ it would have been a different story fixing an m.2 ssd by reading 7/8 ic´s and somehow getting the 8th through ecc/crc

[@jimadams7765]

@@majstealth I bow down to your excellent and brave videos and mad skills on the subject. Except I can't find any. So many "brave" videos to choose from on your channel. Idiot.

[@efan1980]

It's not brave if you are an engineer

[@jimadams7765]

@@efan1980 Any venture into the unknown is brave. Especially where gigabytes of personal data is at stake. Being an "engineer" just makes you more aware of the risks involved. That first time flash was always going to be scary. What was your first time like? Or are you still a virgin?

[@efan1980]

@@jimadams7765 No risk Sir.

[@TheClembo]

Fantastic. So well done. Synology should watch this video and send you a new NAS for your expert fix as a thank you. Wish I could give you a million thumbs up. Just great!

[@airfixer9461]

Well done Davy, good repair video fro DS918+ owners. You need to have the necessary skills to troubleshoot & also have the chip baker tools to be able to 'reflash' the chip....and I don't think many of us out here have ever experienced doing this kind of operation.

[@Obelixlxxvi]

It happened with one of my client's QNAP. The QNAP was running on an online UPS, so there was no power supply issue....the box went bad on its own. And QNAP out of warranty service dept. asked for a king's ransom to change the motherboard or the entire box itself. It took us a few weeks to source a few chips and resistors and restore the QNAP's firmware for 1/10 the price. Then another week to figure out how to upgrade it to the latest version of firmware from scratch. Both QNAP and Synology charge a bomb for parts replacement in India. When I added the entire story to a prominent QNAP forum...their official tech support incharge felt the burn and I did give my honest feedback to the country manager. But they are still quite shameless and don't want to admit their policies are meant to fleece the gullible customer.

[@ZX48K]

I have a QNAP, I've lost count the number of times I've lost the RAID 5 volume. Just one disk dying has caused the entire volume to become unmountable. The problem with these NAS devices is that they are software RAID. The only way to recover the data is to contact support or be a Linux master. I much prefer to store my data in the cloud, yes its not as much storage but it forces you to only store what is critical.

[@RockTheCage55]

simply amazing. I'm a programmer & wouldn't attempt this type of work to actually tear it apart & desolder the bios chip & manually edit it with a hex editor & reprogram it is simply amazing. I guess the lesson here for people that couldn't do this type of work (most) would be to make sure you have a UPS on your NAS. I definitely do.

[@davidlp6510]

WOW I am impressed with your prowess and luck there. I had a similar issue with another Synology (RS816). Mine it just decided to stop working. No power issues just died. I changed the power supply and changed a few of the capacitors on the PCB to no avail. I sold it for scraps on eBay ($30). You are right Synology could have a bit more compassion with people in our kind of predicament. No repair or any suggestion to help out other than to buy a new one.

[@reread2549]

Great job on unbricking it. I have my synology NAS Set up with a second synology NAS that’s only job is to back up the primary Nas. I run both on separate battery back up UPS’s. Hopefully I will never need to use the back up. Thanks again for the video

[@rongonzales9326]

Thats funny! I'm doing the same thing with 2 DS918+ . I guess I'm just a backup fanatic! Great minds!

[@timmoore60]

The flashing blue light seems to be a common problem on the Synology units, my DS718+ has failed with the same blue flashing light after being moved to a new location, mine too was powered down by loss of supply (and that has happened a couple of times as it was solar powered and I had a power system fault occur), it would not boot. Interesting diagnosis, but that level of diagnostic is not something I’m equipped to do, as I’m an RF guy. There’s really nobody here in Australia who repairs these devices so I’ll have to look elsewhere for assistance. Glad you fixed your unit.

[@robertbruce7686]

Phew ... relaxing music whilst enter lair of the (un) boot dragon! Excellent structured approach to fix. Well done.

[@dieSpinnt]

To call this a chance find would be rude. That was sheer skill! And thanks for the informative and entertaining video. Good job! What was lucky though is that Synology stores the bios/system image as a plain file(with header) and not encrypted with any strange routine... which is usually the norm. Also that none of the other many components was defective ... That was lucky. :)) Don't forget the backups, as NAS (even in a mirrored configuration) is NO Backup.

[@mandokir]

He just randomly edited the BIOS with no prompt whatsoever. Of course it was lucky as hell.

[@stuartcastle2814]

I think they could at least come up with a firmware recovery option. A lot of PC motherboards have this. Just plug in a USB stick containing the latest firmware downloaded from the manufacturer's website, and possibly push a button. That's pretty much how my PC motherboard does it. Also, I had an old Pioneer VSX 808 home cinema amp effectively killed by a power cut. It was nearly 13 years old, which is a good age for consumer electronics now. One day, I was happily using it, then the power started browning out. Then it was cut for several hours. When it came back, it was still browning out. I did unplug the amp when the power went, but the damage was already done. It took a couple of attempts, but I managed to get the amp switched on. It had lost all it's settings, so I went through setting everything up again. When I'd finished, and was using it, it seemed fine. This happened again and again over the next couple of months, getting worse and worse. Eventually, I had to dump the amp. Partly because of this, and partly because due to other things, I no longer really had the room for a home cinema system. Still don't really. Perhaps when I get an extension built.

[@Cowicide]

It really makes me feel less of Synology that they are kind of running a scam here. They REALLY need to do this ASAP. Having people throwing perfectly fine NAS devices into landfills is disgusting.

[@matthewjbauer1990]

@@Cowicide This is not a scam per say. Apple pulls the same stunt with their phones and computers.

[@Cowicide]

@@matthewjbauer1990 Apple pulls the same *scam

[@Blesna]

that is why IMPORTANT equipment is MUST BE connected through uninterruptible power supplies (UPS)

[@Blesna]

And how the flash drive will help in case of bios breakdown? it`s just does not work

[@허스키김토푸]

My 412+ has same issues. This video is so amazing. I'll try this as soon as possible.

[@RetroSpector78]

Glad you enoyed it !

[@TrimeshSZ]

One company I was working with had a bunch of these things (about 12, I think) - they had 3 of them fail with that blinking blue light in a week. The interesting thing is that as a result of this they decided to replace them all with a different vendor, and I ended up with 2 of the old units - which is still working without any problems.

[@phanter344]

Interesting, I have the same issue on one of mine, a DS218 and ended up buying a new one. I don't really have the tools nor the skills to effect a repair like this. I'm overall very happy with Synology and have 8-9 of them. I've had a better experience with Synology than I have with QNAP where I had a 6-bay one die 2 weeks before it's warranty ran out and it's replacement die 2 months after it ran out. Great job on yours though.

[@RetroSpector78]

Yeah. Also pretty happy with Synology but was a bit annoyed with the fact how easy these things can break. Friend of mine has 2 8-bay units that also got bricked. Going to look at them also. A shame that they make it difficult to fix. And when they are just out of warranty you have very few options.

[@n.h.s.a.d.m.]

This kind of troubleshooting would be beyond most users. It's too bad there isn't an easier way to fix it, easier than removing a chip and reflashing it using a special writer interface. I wonder if this is a common way this unit fails. Congratulations on repairing it!

[@Chris-tf7gi]

Power supply went on my Synology NAS. It looked very much like yours when it would turn on, except that turning it on a few times actually got it to boot. Mine also went out after a power failed. Replaced the power supply and now it works great again. (Not a big deal. It uses the same PS as some servers.) I don't especially mind that it had a fault as this NAS was 11 years old. Its now serving as my backup NAS backing up a new NAS. Now if it had been a chip that had gone out, I don't think I'd have fixed it. Subscribed.

[@appwraith]

Nice repair! As cool stuff Synology builds, ultimately this is why I decided to build my own NAS out with a 2 core, old AMD APU board. Even if the board fries, I can just pop in any old replacement and the data should be fine.

[@sageosaka]

100% agreed on the fact that having to go through this thorough of a fix is a little much for something so expensive. Synology needs to be better in this regard.

[@cpuuk]

Wow, I take my hat off to you sir, a masterclass in debugging.

[@808v1]

nice troubleshooting example, really appreciate seeing items other than consoles or comps getting diag'd and fixed like this - thanks very much.

[@RetroSpector78]

Thx !. Glad you like it.

[@powerupminion]

Nice video. I have a DS918+ myself and I was thinking about cleaning it out of dust and do a little physical maintenance. I just wanted to take a peek and see what I was thowing myself out into.

[@RoyHess666]

I had a broken DS415+ with the well known Intel Atom bug, I had to solder a 100 Ohm resistor to a certain spot on the mainboard and since then it runs and keeps running, even to this day. But that reminded me: Always have a backup, and in my case: I have a backup on a different media, and I have a cold-standby NAS, a DS415play just to be on the safe side

[@RetroSpector78]

Yeah also went ahead and installed a cloud sync now. I have 2 DS1815+ 8 bay bricked Synology boxes from a colleague that I will try to fix. Hopefully the resistor trick will be sufficient.

[@mikeselectricstuff]

I also had this - resistor fixed it

[@MediaCenter-q5b]

Great video. I have the same 418. Running running almost 5years. Hope they are ok.

[@PCBWay]

This is absolutely stellar! 👍

[@jkennan]

Very impressive fix. Way beyond the average user I suspect (i.e. me!)

[@callmefoxie2950]

Speaking of Synology, I got a DS412+ that was broken -- whenever it tried to load firmware it thought it was a completely different unit and thus it downloaded a wrong firmware. I managed to load the GRUB that's on the built-in flash drive into IDA and somehow found undocumented (d'uh) argument that forces specific model to the kernel/OS... And it has been working ever since :) no clue where the actual model is stored, BIOS (checked build date) matches the one from DS412+.

[@paultech9385]

Amazing, good investigative work! Add a UPS and be sure to snapshot to an external drive along with the C2 backup as a good off-site option.

[@gavinrewell9703]

I have no skillset to do what you have done. Very impressive.

[@RetroSpector78]

Thanks a lot. Glad you enjoyed the video !

[@VirtuProse]

"Oh my!" I thought. How can someone be so unlucky? Didn't take a backup or anything. I'm so glad I'm not like him! "Oh my!" I thought. How can someone be so skilled? Didn't even seem like a problem. How useful to be more like him!

[@awesomearizona-dino]

Your skills saved you. This is NOT a normal scenario with other users.

[@aguswidi9316]

Great CPR you did to your NAS

[@DC-Nigma]

Nice just fixed a DS1815+, your video was suggested. and I need to say I am happy that i seen it 😀, this gives me some more inside on how the synology is build. The 100 ohm fix for the ds1815+ fixed my synology but a corrupted bios is something i would never think of.

[@MarthallersMisadventures]

This was very impressive work. This is a video that I will remember for years to come!! Thank you for taking us along for the ride.

[@JenniferinIllinois]

Congratulations!!!! Happy to see you didn't lose your NAS.

[@tapdatmac]

This is why I have my NAS on a double battery backup. Partial Home Backup With a UPS connected!!

[@ch33psk8]

Impressive repair. Great investigative approach. I only just replaced my old failing UPS powering my DS918+. As it turns out I am writing this comment atm during a power outage, happy to have dodged a possible bullet, phew!

[@nickpage221]

I have a DS918+, I watched this video and now I'm back to looking online for a compatible UPS 😲 I was looking at some last year but, had a hard time finding one that is on Synology's compatibility list for this model AND is a good brand with good reviews and is a good price and a good fit for my network setup/physical limitations.

[@ChipGuy]

Synology can't really do anything here. This problem is with all the Atom C2000 series and some of the Celeron SoC series. The C2000 has this LPC bus problem and the Celeron does something equally stupid on the SPI bus when in bad mood. I had the same issue on a rack unit. At the end we replaced the PCB which in this case is a removable card. Good to see that you were able to just fix the flash. Since I did not discard the module I can try the same using the spare (yes spare) NAS we got because of this.

[@VioletGiraffe]

Synology can't really do anything here? That's silly. They could protect the flash chip better, install a backup flash chip, or not use a SoC that spontaneously bricks itself in the first place.

[@Giepie]

I would love to know your results (if you try to repair). I have 2x Synology NAS's with the same symptoms (a RackStation RS2416+ and a 5 bay DS1512+). (If you have a KZbin channel, please share a link)

[@ChipGuy]

@@VioletGiraffe Obviously you have not read the datasheet and the AppNotes. The SoC does not support any of this.

[@ChipGuy]

@@Giepie I got the Rackstation RP8xx+ something. 4 bay with that C2000 SoC and also that proprietary USB (I think it's USB) but not USB formfactor flash drive in it. Now that I know what the problem is I can try fix it when I have time. But at the time it failed my only chance was to order the new module in with over night express, since 16 people relied on that NAS being operational.

[@Giepie]

@@ChipGuy I wasn't able to find replacement boards (at least not here in South Africa), so I was forced to replace these units. I kept the faulty units, hoping to fix them "when I have time" (famous last words 😁) I suspected the DOM's (disk-on-module) to be corrupt, never crossed my mind it could actually be the ROM. I don't have the chip programmers etc, but will consider getting one - unless someone knows how to flash the ROM without removing the chip. I'd love to see your results 😁 (hopefully this would encourage you to fix yours 😁😁)

[@PitboyHarmony1]

So, it seems like the preventative solution to all this, is to use a UPS on units like this, and avoid power supply errors.

[@bloeckmoep]

Nahh, that is not a real solution. Corruption still creeps up in an always powered system, those tiny serial flash ICs are always a single point of failure. Regardless of vendor and maker from lenovo/ibm to gigabyte, seagate to samsung, all of them use a serial flash for their firmware. A real solution to this would be a second back up flash but disconnected from data and power lines, only to be jumpered when needed. Unlike the gigabyte pseudo dual bios where everything is always connected and prone to silent corruption of main and back up flash.

[@MeneGR]

@@bloeckmoep Those were my thoughts as well. Maybe the BIOS chip was already corrupt and the problem didn't present itself until the next boot, when the machine tried to read it.

[@bloeckmoep]

@@MeneGR : a lot of device fail that way, bit flip/rot while powered on for a rather long time. That's also the reason why gigabytes dual bios fails too, the slave chip is always powered and connected to data lines, only the chip select is low. Add to this, the rigidity of firmware and serial flash to accommodate failing or degrading memory cells... flustercluck ensured. Can remember, apple put out an ios update for their iphone 4 to accept failing/faulty/aged battery ics. Iphone batteries come with a serial flash containing battery parameters, storing runtime, recharges, battery life cycle etc etc. Now if this always on ic degrades, there are certain symptoms suddenly showing, like spontaneous freezes or shut downs. That was fixed in an ios update to make the firmware more forgiving of errors stemming from the battery.

[@donoester6744]

@@bloeckmoep Having no experience with standalone flash ICs myself, except that they are probably accessed through SPI. But don't they have an embedded flash controller that actually controls the erasing/writing? I'm just kind of surprised how easy it seems to be to corrupt data, but presumably corruption can occur anyway? Retention should be many, many years.

[@ruth1boaz2]

My same NAS suffered the same problem. However, it is not easy for me to copy your way to correct it. I am thinking to build my own NAS with one of my old PC. Thanks for your sharing.

[@blizzy78]

I'm glad my DS212 is running just fine for 10 years now :) I only boot it up every day to do backups, though. It's not running 24/7.

[@ElvisRandomVideos]

Synology boxes are definitely unreliable boxes! Mine died and I had to resort to hacking the box just like you did to get more life out of it. In my opinion a NAS box should last over 10 years for me to trust storing my data in it! Thanks for sharing the video I was about to buy another Synology product and I’m clearly not doing so now!

[@gremfive4246]

Excellent job fixing it, I'm kinda suprised you have a prebuilt NAS I would have thought you would have built your own.

[@RetroSpector78]

Hehe ... guess I'm not as hardcore as you think :) Sometimes I just want things that work. I also have an iPhone instead of an Android cause I don't have a lot of interest customizing everything. But I might do some kind of custom NAS build or FreeNAS solution soon :)

[@50shadesofbeige88]

I can appreciate the idea of an all in one NAS, but this is a good example of why I opted for a recycled tiny Optiplex.

[@jmkhenka]

So.. you buy used hardware instead? Thats a nice solution, they will break to. When a cap goes it does not matter if it is synology or a optiplex. But mainly, there is 0 replacements for a box the size of a 4 bay NAS. I would love a freeNAS or opensource system, but i refuse to have a box 5 times the size and noise. Also Syno comes with alot of extra fluff like services and programs not available on FOSS devices, so you loose a lot of simplicity

[@dustinslaboratory897]

I have a DS212 with 2x 4TB drives (in mirror). I only recently put it in service, but I keep a full backup on a RAID. I just don't trust the thing. The original owner who gave it to me stated that it had gotten slower and slower after every update it received. I had to manually disable a bunch of bloat with putty/ssh to get it back to its original performance. Anyway, great fix! I messed with bios flashing before, but this is next level.

[@GeoffSeeley]

Not sure I'd trust my data on a box that bricks itself on a power outage! Seems odd this bricking, almost like it's on purpose to make you buy another... No way cutting power should corrupt a flash chip like this.

[@jmkhenka]

I doesnt, does it? There is always flukes. Stuff break all the time. And who knows, power perhaps was lost when it was updating the bios..

[@robertlock5501]

That's what i'm inclined to think too

[@nickwallette6201]

More than likely some sloppy power management. If it’s a flash chip, it can be written to. Usually the difference between write and read is the state of a pin or two. If the pin states are poorly defined while voltage rails are rising or falling, it can easily lead to data corruption. This is why there are power management ICs to hold everything in reset when power is outside of preset thresholds.

[@riaanlouw1874]

I have a 214 / 414 and 918+ (with the expansion unit), and there has recently been a couple of power failures (loadshedding), in my country. Even though all three NAS devices are hooked onto a UPS, and are suppose to shut down in the event of the UPS getting to 50% backup time, my UPS failed on 3 seperate occasions, meaning all my NAS devices crashed. I never had the above problem of any of the devices being bricked, as they all started up normally again. So, I would agree, the above seem to be an oddity. Having said that, I'll be a lot more careful in future, and make sure my UPS batteries are replaced every year or so.

[@RetroSpector78]

Yeah, but there are lots of reports where people experiencing this blue LED of death after a power cut. I think there should be a procedure to reflash the thing in case it goes horribly wrong like this. Don't think every NAS consumer will go out and buy a UPS device for the extra protection.

[@smada36]

Amazing fix! I have a DS1817+ and it plays on my mind every day. It's predecessor, the 1815+ was one that was notorious for bricking itself and I worry that the issue was not solved before the design of its replacement. Mine is about five years old so it is about the time for it to give up. I have it, and the router, on a UPS so it should be getting the cleanest, most stable power and connection I can feed it. I just backup everything that I don't want to lose in other places, but it is not viable to do that for everything. I'd probably buy another one. Building my own is possible, I have enough parts here to do it, but the Synology software is really good. It is nice that you can just put the disks into another box and it just works again.

[@jmkhenka]

1815 had/has a cpu that had a known documented bugg. The fault was INTELS not synology. Millions of devices got broken by that, most common routers, firewalls (we have replaced 20 firewalls due to the same cpu bugg) etc, and this was Enterprise hardware. There is a solution that works most of the time - soldering a resistor on two pins. But its a temporary bugg. there is much documentation on the nets about it, wich devices are affected etc. One of the Synology rackstations was affected, I had to reboot the NAS for updates and it never came back. A collegue of mine soldered the resistors and it worked again.

[@RetroSpector78]

Have 2 of those 1815 bricked boxes here that I will try to revive as well.

[@smada36]

@@RetroSpector78 I look forward to watching that. I have seen so many people on KZbin complain about them, it would be great to see a video with a positive outcome.

[@Subgunman]

Finding the bios on their web site is no problem. Obtaining the equipment to read/write to various EE proms is not an issue BUT Bit Banging that firmware can be an issue for many individuals. We used to do a lot of this bit banging on some Motorola radios many many years ago and many times there were forums that had posted the mods to the original firmware so one did not have to spend hours changing data line by line only to have to create the correct check sum so the radio could boot up properly. Easier to use the correct motherboard with the proper software and do a DIY NAS. You might not get the fancy case and removable drives but you will wind up with something that is easily repairable. A very interesting and thought provoking issue. Interesting comments and suggestions as well.

[@juanmacias5922]

This was amazing, great repair!

[@RetroSpector78]

Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it.

[@TeionM83]

There is a good reason for ICT fixtures to use various pins for contacting onto the test pads on the PCB. Also, programming is via BSC (Boundary Scan), because ICT is not ideal for that. ICT is good for detecting electrical failures on the PCB and that's what it was designed to do.

[@digital-experiance2390]

Hmm, meaning what and being helpful when? Care to contribute anything to this context? Of cource ICT is problematic with bios chips. Thats why he unsoldered it.

[@TeionM83]

@@digital-experiance2390 ICT has no problem with testing flash memories. Reading their content is another story. You need a specific fixture AND testing program for reading/writing flash in circuit. Useful? No. It's just a fact, why would it need to be useful?

[@igalaviz]

Congratulations on fixin your NAS!! Very nice diagnostic :)

[@ErkanKaya-d6v]

It's a pleasure to watch your videos😁

[@99man]

Impressive critical thinking. Well done.

[@RetroSpector78]

thx ... glad you enjoyed it.

[@roysigurdkarlsbakk3842]

Nice one! I guess I'd start off with connecting the drives to a linux box to see what's there. Usually it's mdraid, after all, so it shouldn't be too hard to get out, but them, you'll need the space to back it up etc. This is one of the reasons I tend to stick to home-grown servers with mdraid (or something) instead of something fancy ;)

[@unibrowser1]

It's amazing you knew how to fix the issue. In order to prevent this, you should have the NAS on a UPS though 🙃

[@seangraham2879]

Glad to see you back I've missed your videos always love learning from

[@RetroSpector78]

I appreciate it ! More videos to come soon.

[@ThorLite]

One of the best videos tou made.Really enjoyed it.

[@HouseNuova500]

Perfect job done here. With the right tools and the right brain, it's excellent. I own two Synology NAS (a 1511+ and a 1821+), and I hope this will not happen to me. I've made all the things necessary to have the chance to my side : the two are hooked to a UPS with a capacity more than enough to power them for more than 20 minutes... but shit can always happen.

[@dshack4689]

I go even further - I have 2 Synology NAS, one in my house and one in the shed, both each on their own UPS and the shed is linked by fibre and yet still my NAS#2 died =(

[@JWalterHawkes]

This is great. Thanks. Mine just died after an accidental power off... I'm ordering a new power supply (which I've read is a possible problem... my light doesn't steadily blink, just blinks once or twice then turns off, no fans.) and if the power supply doesn't do it, I may have to get another one. Thanks again for this!!

[@dennisvanmierlo]

Excellent video! I do agree that Synology should make the NAS more robust on the hardware to survive power outage. But an OS is never happy when power suddenly drops out. My advice to always use a UPS in combination with your NAS. This prevents a lot of these power outage issues.

[@dshack4689]

My NAS are UPS protected and still died with this led status error

[@JARVIS1187]

So glad you were able to get it fixed! :) Good job!

[@RetroSpector78]

Thx ... took some investigation but managed to pull it off.

[@XLGaming]

15:04 it could also just be a different bios revision for newer NAS boxes.

[@erikandersen2477]

Dual bios is a must even though an UPS comes to mind to protect against power cuts and general power fluctuations :)

[@joebarrett4353]

I had utter faith in my mirrored NAS believing I had safe data. Having watched your vid, I am now backing it up to a good old fashioned hard drive. What a nonsense to have to do that because I don't have the skills to do what you did.

[@gilou006]

Very interesting, bravo for your skills. Caught a little mistake : the frame is not made of aluminum. It looks and feels (I have a Ds 920+) like iron.

[@mvp_kryptonite]

Great vid! I had something similar after a powercut and luckily for me the power adapter gave up. Replaced it with a 3rd party one and it was up and running again. Now to rebuild my cache for the 2nd time, expensive SSD lasts much longer than cheap SSD in my experience with the 918+ (both Samsung SSD too)

[@AsurmenHandOfAsur]

Put it on a UPS so it can shutdown properly instead of getting an abrupt power cut! I have a few Cyberpower and APC units, they work great!

[@ronreyes9910]

I had a couple Synology NAS's in the past but didn't care for them. QNAP is my go-to NAS now.

[@Knightfall23]

Re constructing those Hex codes gave me flashbacks to my x86 assembly language course I have a true respect for people who can decipher hex and assembly like it’s nothing. Boggles my mind always.

[@Knightfall23]

Great job on the fix - what text editor were you using on the Mac to compare text files?

[@oblac]

Your skills are impressive my good man ... great job !!! Synology should watch and learn ... We all know they won't ... but one can hope ;)

[@randallgriffin7358]

Yikes! I am a normal guy without your skills or tools, and my problem is slightly different: two blue blinks then power off. So, my question is: "Can I install my 4 drives (2x8TB & 2x10TB) in a new Synology unit without data loss?" Or perhaps you do house calls?? You are an excellent diagnostician and very brave. Thanks.

[@Cowicide]

It really makes me feel less of Synology that they are running a scam. They REALLY need to allow easy way to reflash the BIOS for these kind of issues ASAP. Having people throwing perfectly fine NAS devices into landfills is disgusting.

[@rubengarciajr7560]

Not just bios though. Any little thing can render the mobo unusable, and of course the issue is you can’t repair it or buy another one. For 500 units I suppose it’s not that bad but there’s units that cost 1000-2500.

[@nneeerrrd]

good video about what happen to those who cheaped out on the UPS investment for his data storage

[@areameye69]

holy smokes. what a deep dive. still hoping, that this will not happening to me tho. Nice vid man, thanks for sharing. 👍

[@2368rafa]

Hello, thanks for your video, but a query, how you get the bios file, when you download the firmware is in a .pat format, and tried to decompress with 7zip and nothing, can you please indicate how you did it? Thank you

[@1834RestorationHouse]

Great troubleshooting there!

[@ASUSTOR_YT]

Hey there RetroSpector78, we'd love to send one of ours and help you retrieve your data if needed or at the very least leave you with a solution that keeps your data backed up. We also love supporting retro computing and even recently added MS DOS support to our NAS devices. Hit us up if interested!

[@Sansui350A]

That's cool (seriously).. but I'm guessing that's via SMB1.. hopefully those that don't need that feature can disable it!! That's insecure as hell! The only faults I was aware of with the Synology units was the clock circuit in some models, due to hardware defect of that SoC/chipset. TIL their BIOS chips go pop too. Huh, welp, there ya go. Shame, I'd thought they cleaned up their act.

[@ASUSTOR_YT]

@@Sansui350A Not necessarily! SMB1 is one way to access it but we also have ensured FTP support runs on as early as MS DOS, WebDAV for Windows 95/98 and virtual machines to keep the insecure protocols on a server inside and separate from the NAS as well as dual Ethernet to keep networking separated. I run retro machines myself! My favourite is Windows 98

[@Sansui350A]

@@ASUSTOR_YT Nice. Thought out better than others, for once, I like it! :) But, the key security issue is.. do you have an option to disable SMB1, or have it disabled by default?

[@ASUSTOR_YT]

@@Sansui350A Of course! Absolutely! It's disabled by default but it's a simple switch to turn on and off.

[@Sansui350A]

@@ASUSTOR_YT You know... that's funny that a company that doesn't specialize in NAS/storage like AT ALL, gets that shit right, yet others often don't. or just make garbage. I might have to explore some of ASUS NAS box products for specific-use-case scenarios because of this.

[@KnutBluetooth]

This is one of the major reasons I never buy ready to use appliances and build my own servers even if it's more expensive. I know that when (not if) something goes wrong it's going to be much easier to fix it.

[@wishusknight3009]

Freenas/Truenas ftw. Though I have heard BRTFS isnt to bad, but is still having teething issues after 10 years of development.

[@KnutBluetooth]

I don't even bother with specialized NAS/Network appliance distributions. I don't need preconfigured stuff and an interface. I use the same Linux distribution that I use on desktops without all the desktop packages installed. That way I don't have to remember yet another way of doing things. Been using BTRFS for around 6 years on that server and so far never had a problem. I replaced both drives once online when smartd detected too much problems. But I only use RAID1 (mirror). The problems with BTRFS are with more complex RAID levels.

[@Apismeliffera]

Bought a Synology NAS and a Back Up Power Supply for it at the same time. For what I spent on the NAS and the hard drives, the BUPS was inexpensive insurance against an unexpected power failure.

[@michaelrichardson8467]

Glad you got your data back! I will never use synology after discovering truenas and being able to choose your hardware. Synology makes a good product, but my lord if they ever have a hardware issue you're in a world of hurt.

[@Rivenworld]

One of the reasons I always use a UPS, gives me a chance to shut things down properly.

[@RetroSpector78]

Yes will look into that. But I do wish they would make it a bit easier for fix these kinds of issues.

[@blademan7671]

Sorry about the loss. 1. Use a UPS with USB connection to Synology. UPS configuration allows for Syn to park heads on power loss, but still connected to UPS. 2. Backup your Syn. If you want to lower risk of data loss. My UPS has saved me a bunch of times.

[@cascastro]

That was a really good video, but you could have saved all that trouble in the first instance by just attaching an uninterrupted power supply. I have had issues in the past where my domestic supply would cut and it cost me to get my pc repaired (I did it myself). However I learned an important lesson and now both my pc and my NAS are connected to UPS to prevent just such a problem as this one shown from occurring in the first place. I know this is a 20/20 hindsight thing, but it just gives peace of mind to me and I would recommend others doing the same.

[@RetroSpector78]

So everyone is telling me :) however I don’t think you should expect consumers to add a UPS device to every electronic device to avoid bricking devices during outages. So mixed feelings about this. But I definitely see the added value. Just wished Synology would make it easier to unbrick these devices.

[@cascastro]

@@RetroSpector78 I’m a domestic consumer and decided to get UPSs for my kit having learned a hard lesson in the same way you did. It just means I can relax should another power cut occur in the future. They aren’t too expensive either.

[@RetroSpector78]

Will buy one and make a video on it. Thx for watching and hope to see you in future videos as well !

[@cascastro]

@@RetroSpector78 👍🏻

[@JohnnieHougaardNielsen]

I've had a DS918+ die suddenly, in a similar way. Had another solution, but when I looked into the NAS failure, symptoms looked like the infamous "Low Pin Count" interface affecting some Celeron CPU models. When I later was going in to try to fix it (found a suggestion in a KZbin video), the machine was able to boot again, without issues.

[@marcfusch]

Hi, where do you download a synolgy bios. I'm unable to find one.

[@artursmihelsons415]

Nice repair and great video! 👍 I wonder, why Synology didn't put backup BIOS IC on so expensive device.. 🤔 Expensive PC mainboards have that option..

[@beograd07]

my DS418j bricked a few months before warrant expired (at the first power cut). I already had all my important data on it so was scared if I take it back and they replace it with the new box It may corrupt my data on my HDs for whatever reason. So I applied an insanity theory on it: try the same thing over and over expecting different outcome. And it worked. Removed the HDs (exactly the same config as yours 2X4GB red and 2X4GB Seagate = 8GB total). Instead of turning it off on the blinking power button, I would just pull the power from the back, wait a couple of seconds and plug it back in and try to start it again. Didn't work so tried different combo. Hold the power button, and then plug in the power, plug the power in and then press and hold the button, plug the power in and then rapid pressing the blue button, plug the power in and normal start and let it blink for the next hour or so, plug the power in and wait certain time before I press and hold the power button... so many combination nothing worked. But then during one of the attempts, I heard the beep and the blue light stopped flashing. It booted normally. After this I immediately copied most important files to my other Synology DS216se which I use only as a media player. Then I tried to power off and on just using the power button. It worked fine. So how am I going to take it back and ask for the replacement when it is working now. Pull the power cord out again and brick the unit again? What if they do what I did and return back to me the same box again as "repaired"? I would waste a lots of time then until the warranty is out. So I went and bought the cheapest UPS for it and "solved" the problem. My DS216se had so many power cuts but was never bricked so I assumed it is flawed design with this DS418j model. Then next thing happened. While I was on my holidays my cheap UPS failed. I got home and replaced the internal battery in my UPS $20 and got it going again but the DS418j was bricked again. And insanity theory applied again and got it going again. This time just by unplugging the power from the back and starting it again normally. After 10-15 attempts comes the beep and the boot started. It has been running since without any problems. I never tried to brick it again but since I saw this video I may look for the later bios to flush it and try to brick it. Maybe the proper flush will fix the problem. Rewriting the EPROM by software should clean any bug leftover in it and get me same reliability as I have with my old and much cheaper DS216se. If not I can always rely on insanity.

[@Eyetrauma]

I'm sure Synology will take your video to heart and make some much-needed changes...like encrypting future updates so you can't recover them with some offset scrounging. How do you expect to make money if you can't sell 'em a new turnkey NAS? 😁

[@tra-viskaiser8737]

Just a reason to not use raid and just backup on individual drives, in multiples. Takes more resources, but without the risk of a company trying to mine you for more money with poor design..

[@wishusknight3009]

@@tra-viskaiser8737 You use raid to increase availability. As well as multiple synced backups.

[@tra-viskaiser8737]

@@wishusknight3009 I do understand why people feel comfortable with it... I also grew up with the tng ideals of a second backup, and raid never sat right in my comfort zone for backup. But it's whatever you feel best with, especially if space or power isn't a factor.

[@angrydove4067]

Great save, I have a Synology as well, a different model butI hope I don't end up with a nice brick someday.

[@RetroSpector78]

I hope so too! Always have a backup in place. Cloud sync or removable drive ...

[@MediaCenter-q5b]

Great video. I have the same 418.

[@BrandonFeldmeier]

Found this very interesting, thank you!

[@SkyShazad]

Im So happy that you was able to fix this, But it has Also Scared me as I have them same model and roughly about the same time length, no warrenty now,, even though youve explained how to fix this, i wouldnt know how to do it, as that not my strong field.. anyway awesome video my dude

[@RetroSpector78]

Thx ! Definitely not trivial to repair no ... Always make sure you have a good backup strategy in place. Even if you do have a NAS / raid setup.

[@artomontonen3722]

Some old ATOM CPU Synology NAS boxes need one or two new resistors. Due to a design error, the NAS box does not work properly and stuck, but there are also videos about this problem on KZbin. Bios chips can be corrupted, but the first time I saw that it happens in a Synology NAS box. Power brick can be, also broken. The manufacturer does not offer any repair once the warranty has expired. KZbin has revealed that many errors are due to a design error made by Synology, which is not a good thing when you have to think about the quality and price of the product.

[@sunniy25]

well done...soo interesting to look at

[@MrZeroPage]

Fantastic work - well done !!