6600 (non M) wont boot

Rich McCabe

Went to fire up the 6600 this morning and  ended up with a triple red flash showing it wont boot. Tried holding in the power button until I got the white but that did not help.

Filled out a help ticket but I think I have heard they are running behind?  Anything else to try while waiting on them?

I am assuming its going back for repair.

YV5WZ

AH0U

Don’t just turn it off but also unplug the power cord and wait a few seconds before you plug it in svain

Hunter - K3IE

Had the same issue with my 6600 - the 3 flashes of death. Had to send mine back - Tim and team did a timely turnaround for me. - Hunter K3IE

John WA7UAR

What was the reason for your issue Hunter? 

Rich McCabe

Hunter - K3IE

Technical reason was never given. My original 6600 arrived on a Friday and I had it up and running the next day (Sat). Powered it down Saturday night and would not boot the next morning. Multiple reboot attempts and resets later I gave up. Opened a ticket Monday morning and Tim responded quickly with a reset procedure - that failed and he said “send it back” and apologized profusely for the inconvenience. Apparently the demand is high for these rigs and they are using a third party for assembly. Tim mentioned they had identified a “weak link” somewhere in the chain that affected a block of units. This particular symptom has been posted multiple times on this forum. Not sure if the specific causes are related but the way Flex responded to my situation made me feel like they “had been there before”. The most important thing to me was the professional way Tim and Flex handled the fix. They were in daily communication with me providing updates when I could expect the replacement radio. The y told me to hold on to the oririginal rig until I received the new one and then ship it back prepaid. They followed up to make sure the new one was stable - which it is. I am really enjoying the 6600 - no regrets. FWIW - Hunter

Rich McCabe

Jim K4JAF

I too had this same problem with a new 6600. Worked one day, powered down and would not boot up next morning.. Quick replacement by Flex and no problems at all with second 6600.  

Sterling, AK1K

Russ Ravella

This is a little scary.  I took delivery on a 6600 a week ago and it failed in this same way in the first two hours!  Turned it off, started it back up, three flashing red light.  Nothing I tried helped and Flex Support just had me ship it back.  Matt, Eric and Dawn were fantastic in getting me a replacement as fast as possible but I sure hope this isn't an endemic problem (meaning, it's just a matter of time before the replacement fails too).  There are several other posts on this forum from people with this problem.  Jeeezzzzzz......  But the good (great) news is Flex is turning out to be a high quality "no BS, no run around, just make it right - period" company in actual practice so one way or anther, things should be OK in the end.

Bill -VA3WTB

If the support was not as good yes it WOULD be scary.

Ted VE3TRQ

Need to provide the opposite side also. Have had my 6600M since April, on most of the time 7x24, but also turned off a dozen times in that period, and zero problems of any kind. I feel for those who have had problem units, but there certainly must be a large number of satisfied owners with no problems.

Bill -VA3WTB

Correct Ted, out of a few thousand in the field we see pretty low problem post.

Rich McCabe

No doubt there are a lot of zero issue units out there.

I will get it back soon enough I am sure.

Russ Ravella

Yeah Ted, I suspect that's true.  If there are even a few hundred units out there in which several types of hardware issues can all result in boot failure, and you search for boot failure and get say 10 hits, that may seem like a lot of boot failures but it's actually only a few percent of several types of hardware failures being reported here over whatever period the search covers (I saw about 2 years worth in mine).  That's pretty darn good for a high tech piece like a Flex radio.  I'm counting on that being the situation.  Its just that it seems like several boot failures hit recently making me wonder if there might be a new part issue.    I'm a retired physicist who worked in spacecraft payload design and manufacturing for 36 years.  Sudden defective parts and sub assemblies in the supply chain are a fact of life and totally unavoidable.  What matters is that Flex is being honest, transparent and direct, and super responsive.  And that has sure been my experience of them so far.

Rich McCabe

N8SDR

Rich, is it possible another device on your network is assigned the same IP address when your plugged into the switch or router? could you try adding a different but static IP for it and see if that works/ - Also make sure that the small contact blades on the ethernet connector are not bent and shorting against another.

Bill -VA3WTB

Rich make sure you contact Flex and let them know what you found. Before sending it back,,you may have found something they can help with?

Rich McCabe

N8SDR

Rich McCabe

Jeffrey Kerber, N3VE

Rich McCabe

Joe N3HEE

Check the log on the router.  Is the radio making DHCP requests to your router ?  Are other devices on that router getting IP addresses via DHCP ?  

Rich McCabe

N8SDR

What brand and model is the router

Rich McCabe

Ted VE3TRQ

This thread is getting a lot of attention, with reason :-) What an interesting problem! Strange things can happen if there are cable or connector problems in Ethernet. Have you tried swapping out the Ethernet cable(s) between the Flex and the router, Rich? Of course if the connector in the Flex is at fault, it's a return to the factory. Ethernet interfaces negotiate speed and TX/Rx pairs in the cable, so connectors and cables with problems can manifest in odd ways.

Rich McCabe

Jay Nation