GSP-930 GW Instek Spectrum Analyzer not starting up - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / testgear

author: Sixten
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: February 09, 2025, 03:33:36 pm
content: With risk of creating a duplicate , I don't know if my post ended up in the right categoryAnyway - I have this GSP-930 GW Instek Spectrum Analyzer that won't start.Pressing the on/off-switch starts up all voltage rails and they all are ok.On the main board containing a FPGA I connected a UART to see if the boot-sequence could get me some leads and according to attached dump it seems that the FPGA doesn't manage to start correctly.A far as I understand the FPGA (XC3SD1800A-4CS484LI) is loaded by an externally memory which means if it's faulty or have a bad soldering underneath it should be possible to replace without having it programmed.I know this model have kind of a "well known" issue, since I've seen several 930 with this same boot-problem and the only solution is to ship it for repair.Anyone that's familiar with this issue or hints what to check?

author: nctnico
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 09, 2025, 03:57:34 pm
content: It looks like the data in the NAND flash is corrupted. Try to contact GW Instek and if there is some way to recover the unit using a USB stick with a fresh firmware image on it so the NAND gets re-flashed. I don't think there is anything wrong with the hardware so don't 'repair' what isn't broken.

author: Sixten
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: February 10, 2025, 06:28:46 am
content: Thanks a lot for your suggestion nctnico.It sounds reasonable and is for sure worth a try.I do however don't had that success to get a reply from GW Instek support last time, but I'll do another try.

author: duster
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: February 17, 2025, 03:05:30 pm
content: Hi,Do you have any methods? I have got two gsp-930 with the same nand flash booting problem, can you start them? Thanks!!!

author: duster
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: February 18, 2025, 02:40:05 pm
content: i think here is the answer form our bilibili: copy the bin from a good gsp 930, then replace the bad one! it worked in this up video: 【固纬GSP-930频谱仪维修记录-哔哩哔哩】https://b23.tv/tNsesosgood luck!

author: Sixten
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: September 22, 2025, 05:53:16 pm
content: Hello,I'm returning to this thread again and hopefully I get really appreciated feedback as last time when nctnico pointed me in the right direction to get this beast up and running.Well, I didn't manage to fix it completely - every time when using the instrument I had to load an uImage by tftpboot from the U-boot prompt, then booting the embedded system by the bootm-command which then loaded the data- and filesys-img from a SD-card.This worked in 90% of my attempts and with full functionality of the spectrum analyzer, but sometimes it failed and ended up with this GSP930 login-prompt.Last week I made several attempts to get it started but without success, it always ended up at this login stage and with no functionality and I can't figure out what's causing this failure.I'm not skilled at all when it comes to embedded Linux since I'm more into HW and RF but it looks like the image loaded by tftpboot is corrupt in some way since a lot of fault occur and it doesn't manage to create any partitions or mount any devices. I can live with starting the instrument with this workaround even if my preferred choice is to make it work without it. I guess a huge progress would be to actually manage to login within the Linux-system to get more control of the structures of the files and boot sequence, but I am were I am so first attempt is to make it work again.Attached is a dump from when the instrument booting up ok (unfortunately without printenv), a dump when it wont and a picture of the files stored at the SD-card.duster; I prepared an answer to you but you're to quick and answer yourselfIf you got the bin I would like to try itThanks!