MDO3014 Bricked - Power Loss During Upgrade - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / repair

author: MacG
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: September 14, 2020, 02:22:02 am
content: I managed to make a very expensive mistake. I was moving desks and thought it was a bright idea to upgrade the firmware on my Tektronix MDO3014. Moving equipment on the other side of the room and tripped a power loss. It is now a brick. I just got a quote to fix and it was $6,712.20. I have seen an article that says it is possible to do "a partial tear-down will be necessary to restart the machine" (https://www.testandmeasurementtips.com/dealing-oscilloscope-firmware/).Does anyone have ideas on how to get the scope working again?

author: MacG
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: September 14, 2020, 07:44:22 am
content: There is a "cpu power" "global reset"Anyone used these to force an upload of firmware?

author: rvalente
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 14, 2020, 10:29:38 am
content: I would be pretty confident there is a rescue bootloader that can be activaded in some fashion, firmware updates problems are not that uncommon.Does the device responds through gpib commmands?Have you tried to reach tek forums?

author: darkstar49
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 14, 2020, 10:46:05 am
content: Although it's a repair question, I'd also post something in the test equipment forum (yes, I know, that's not the idea...), I believe you'll find lot of Tek fans there who do not often look into the repair forum...But that quote is simply a scandal ! I guess it's the replacement of the acquisition board...You might also ask some servicing companies whether they could help (without replacing the board)... they may have internal connections to some Tek engineers who could potentially come up with other options.

author: fzabkar
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 14, 2020, 09:36:36 pm
content: Do you have a link to the firmware update? It may be possible to extract the payload and directly program the flash memory.There may be text strings which could provide some clues as to how to proceed.

author: coromonadalix
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 15, 2020, 12:01:05 am
content: you have to create a free acount to get the fw updates

author: MacG
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: September 15, 2020, 02:18:35 am
content: Hi rvalenteThe device will not power up. I am going to get it back from the service company today and try the "CPU Power" to see if I can get it to power up. I will try the TEK forums.Thanks

author: rvalente
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 15, 2020, 11:38:47 am
content: Quote from: fzabkar on September 14, 2020, 09:36:36 pmAFAIK the flash IC is BGA, a nightmare to solder it back with confidenceThere must be a recover path, this is rather obvious to happen

author: rvalente
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 27, 2020, 08:05:56 pm
content: I'm curious, have you made any progress?

author: pcwrangler
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 29, 2021, 04:18:02 am
content: I have a similar problem and believe mine needs a firmware update. Did you ever have any luck with this? Anyone know how to update the firmware with an external programmer?