QNAP TS-453 Pro stuck on "SYSTEM BOOTING"

[QueNAP?]

I don't know, no obvious reason. I don't think dust has been a big problem but can't verify if overheating was an issue. Was kept in location that didn't really exceed 20c. It's been powered down for a few months and not in use, the failure to boot was the behaviour on first boot in a while

[Yippym]

I came across this issue with a QNAP TS-879 Pro, found out that the mouse USB preventing the system booting further than System Booting. Just try removing all USB devices, hope that helps.

[crybaby]

I don't know, no obvious reason. I don't think dust has been a big problem but can't verify if overheating was an issue. Was kept in location that didn't really exceed 20c. It's been powered down for a few months and not in use, the failure to boot was the behaviour on first boot in a while

Hm, if it's been powered down for a long time, then a hardware failed to boot, so this could be a sign of bad capacitors. In this case I believe you still have a chance to revive your NAS. Try to replace all capacitors on the motherboard with new ones. Then if the issue remeins there is no chance - perhaps the processor has gone.

[QueNAP?]

I don't know, no obvious reason. I don't think dust has been a big problem but can't verify if overheating was an issue. Was kept in location that didn't really exceed 20c. It's been powered down for a few months and not in use, the failure to boot was the behaviour on first boot in a while

Hm, if it's been powered down for a long time, then a hardware failed to boot, so this could be a sign of bad capacitors. In this case I believe you still have a chance to revive your NAS. Try to replace all capacitors on the motherboard with new ones. Then if the issue remeins there is no chance - perhaps the processor has gone.

ok thanks for the tip. i'm shortly moving house so will hold fire for a couple of weeks and that will be a little project to start then.

[tycho1974]

So is there a definitive fix for this issue? I'm running into this just now; I had no idea my device had even rebooted (I had not initiated it). It's been stuck on "SYSTEM BOOTING" for who knows how long, and I NEED to keep the data on my NAS. I'm thinking one of the drives might be bad, but I haven't had a warning, so I just have no idea what to do.

It seems like the best course of action is to hard reset, remove the drives, power on the NAS, power down the NAS, replace the drives, power on the NAS. I hope that works, but how do I determine/fix the underlying issue?

[tycho1974]

So is there a definitive fix for this issue? I'm running into this just now; I had no idea my device had even rebooted (I had not initiated it). It's been stuck on "SYSTEM BOOTING" for who knows how long, and I NEED to keep the data on my NAS. I'm thinking one of the drives might be bad, but I haven't had a warning, so I just have no idea what to do.

It seems like the best course of action is to hard reset, remove the drives, power on the NAS, power down the NAS, replace the drives, power on the NAS. I hope that works, but how do I determine/fix the underlying issue?

Follow-up question: Should I try to "rescue" the machine using the 8-step method described above, or if I should just power off now, build a separate unRAID server first, then attempt to boot up the QNAP and (hopefully) immediately copy all contents to my new server? JFC, my blood pressure is sky-high right now.

[hallux]

Another TS-453-Pro hits the dust. Strange this issue is happening to us all almost at the same time. System fan 1 failed message in the email. NAS stuck on SYSTEM BOOTING. Tried rebooting several times, no image or text through HDMI. 3 of the 4 disk lights are red, even when disks are not installed. As read above, seems to be a dead motherboard. Is there any possibility of repair for the motherboard? Buying a replacement this days in my country is almost impossible.

[lazydk]

I got the exact same issue tonight at 00.30 CEST.

453-Pro 4.4.1 1216 build 20200214
All LEDs green.

Unusual memory usage (100%) just before the crash.

Got this syslog message:
2020-06-10 00:30:43 QLOGD event log: Users: System, Source IP: 127.0.0.1, Computer name: localhost, Application: Hardware Status, Category: Fans, Content: [Hardware Status] System fan 1 failed.

[Wintermoose]

I didn't yet have time to connect a screen, but it seems the same thing happened to me tonight. System fan 1 failed, boot loop. Disk leds are green.

So qnap released something that bricked our hw?

[hallux]

Or we are all hitting a wall on the TS-453 Pro life expectancy.

[gregreid]

Another ME TOO!!!! Yet another TS-453 Pro stuck on "SYSTEM BOOTING". It was running the latest firmware, and the problem started happening a week ago -- at the same time as all of you others. Surely this can't be a hardware failure coincidence!

I had to wait a week to get a new power supply from Newegg to see if that would fix it. It just arrived; I plugged it in (with drives removed) and hoped for the best. But nope, still the "SYSTEM BOOTING" forever.

No output to HDMI.

Given that so many of us have had the exact same problem in such a tight timeframe, it seems to me that this has to be a software rather than hardware issue. QNAP needs to help us all resolve this!

[Snoramg]

I just got the same error this morning fans on full speed and "system booting" but 2 HDD led got red...
after removing all the disks and turned it on still it was red. This is kind of confusing me.
Last week I refreshed to the newest version.
HDD: 4x 2TB WD red.
The interesting thing that I didn't receive any error message.

Any idea for a solution? Or someone got feedback from QNAP?

[gibxxi]

Your NAS has a corrupt DOM. This is a firmware bootloader that is located on an ADATA ROM chip attached via a standard USB (Motherboard style) header in your NAS. It handles the initial booting process prior to "handing over" to the full QTS OS installed on a hidden partition on your NASes disks. See the thread below for the method I used to recover the NAS when i encountered this very issue. Be sure to remove ALL the drives prior to doing the recovery, with the device powered down, and once recovered, get the NAS up to the same version (or later) firmware than you were previously using, prior to re-inserting the disks. I'd also recommended that when you DO re-insert the disks, you do so with the unit powered down to avoid a potential re-sync occuring, and more stress being applied to the disks than is nessecary.

NOTE: This recovery method will require you connecting a USB keyboard to the NAS (front connector) and your monitor to the HDMI-Out on the rear. You'll also need a bootable USB memory stick containing the recovery software and replacement DOM image.

viewtopic.php?p=745760#p745760

Dan / Gib.

[gibxxi]

Another point to note; QNAP hides the BIOS information log with a boot logo screen by default on the HDMI output. But unlike standard ASUS, Gigabyte, etc. motherboards, they've just used a black screen to hide the details. So unless your monitor is reporting "No Signal Detected" don't assume a HDMI signal isn't being output. Also, the HDMI connection is a negotiated link (i.e: bi-directional). So it needs to be connected, with the target monitor on and active the second the NAS is turned on. Later on down the line (after the NAS has hung) is too late. As soon as you start the NAS, start spamming the DEL / F2 keys like you would on a standard PC to get into the BIOS and turn off the BIOS "BootScreen Logo" or whatever it's called (I forget). Obviously, you'll need a USB keyboard attached to one of the USB2.0 ports, preferably a portable one with embedded mouse / trackball so you only need to connect one device. Don't attempt trying to use the USB3.0 ports in it's degraded state, as these might not be supported at the BIOS level properly.

These NASes are essentially just mini-pc type devices as far as functionality is concerned, and the "boot" drive (equivalent of the Windows "Boot Manager") is the internal USB-connected ADATA DOM chip. It exists to enable a "recovery" / "Install" enviroment for when fresh (i.e: bare, unformatted, unpartitioned, new) hard disks are inserted to install the QTS / Linux system onto. If this DOM chip gets corrupted, the system won't boot, and a recent version of QNAP's 4.4.1 firmware was causing this very issue on the TS453-PRO in a some cases - I can't remember the exact version, it was several months ago I fixed mine. I was able to recover my TS453-PRO using the method in the linked post above. I read the section of the guide listed for acquiring the TS453-PRO DOM image, but since the method for creating the USB stick for that model *doesn't* work (bad / incompatible display driver), I instead used the guide instructions for the TS453B-Mini, BUT with the DOM image I'd already downloaded for the TS453-PRO.

I've had no such issues on my TS453-Mini, but DID have to recover my PRO from the very same symptoms everyone else here is reporting. I did also have it setup to use HybridDesk Station (HDMI) prior to it going south though, which *may* or may not have a bearing on me getting HDMI output alot of others seem to be lacking (assuming the aforementioned boot-logo issue isn't the cause, as I suspect may be the case).

After the successful DOM re-flash, I then rebooted the device, and used QFinder to upgrade the firmware to the latest available, as with no drives installed, you have no web-interface or QTS system to access, and then rebooted it again. Once I verified it was starting with the latest firmware, I fully powered it down, re-inserted the disks, and powered it back up for a 3rd time. It booted into QTS without issue. However, I did have a FULL copy of all the data on the NAS, elsewhere, just in case.

Dan / Gib.

[gregreid]

That's all very useful information, Dan/Gib, and I appreciate you taking the time to post it. I'm the only guy on the planet who doesn't own a USB keyboard, so I ordered a $10 one from Amazon yesterday so that I can hammer on DEL/F2 during boot. I also ordered a 2G USB thumb drive (as all of my USB thumb drives are much bigger). I'll let you know of my results when I have them. Thank you again!