Synology DS214+ lightning damage repair - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / repair

author: ulltrium
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: July 13, 2018, 10:39:11 am
content: Hello,I'm trying to repair a Synology DS214+ NAS that has been damaged by a lightning strike during a storm.I have removed from the motherboard both network controller chips that were obviously damaged (with a hole inside), the SATA controller chip which was shorted to ground and a 3.3 power supply chip.After this the NAS started to blink blue (before nothing was happening) and I could connect with a serial adapter to read the U-Boot messages. So here is what I get:BootROM 1.20Booting from SPI flashHigh speed PHY - Version: 2.1.2 (COM-PHY-V20)Update PEX Device ID 0x78230High speed PHY - Ended SuccessfullyDDR3 Training Sequence - Ver 4.5.0DDR3 Training Sequence - FAILED - Wrong Sample at Reset ConfigurationsStatus = DDR3 Training Error: Bad sample at reset********** DRAM initialization faild! ********As obvious, I thought it is a bad DDR chip as well but I replaced both of them and still got the same error.At this point I'm sucked, I don't know what else can I try, I believe the CPU survived since I can read these messages, am I right?If anyone has any idea it would be much helpful for me.Thank you!Cornel.

author: LateLesley
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 13, 2018, 10:46:21 pm
content: It seems to be a timing error from what I can find out. I'd be checking the clock line, maybe a clock was running off the 3.3V power? It could be the replaced RAM isn't the correct speed? Just some ideas to check. Also, I take it you checked any caps around the data lines?

author: sokoloff
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 14, 2018, 02:18:06 am
content: I love a challenge almost as much as the next guy, but I gotta say that a < $300 DS-218+ is looking like a pretty good answer to the question...

author: ulltrium
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: July 16, 2018, 01:21:06 pm
content: Thanks LateLesley, I replaced the memory with exact the same chips, and also the old Hynix chips turned to be just fine, they survived. I'll try to figure out if the clock works and if there is any shorted caps. Thanks for the hints. Although, I'm thinking more like that the Marvell CPU is faulty, it gets hot quicker than normal and the 3.3 power supply current is 1.7A, which I think is a little high, but I still not understand how come I receive console messages with a dead CPU?

author: Kjelt
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 16, 2018, 01:32:31 pm
content: Lightning can be a PITA, sometimes after three months chips fail that seemed to have survived at first.If it is an essential dayly NAS for you I replace it and use this one as backup NAS if you get it repaired.Good luck with the repair.

author: ulltrium
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: July 17, 2018, 07:45:15 am
content: Thanks Kjelt, I have replaced the NAS, of course, the hard drives were fine. It's just a challenge for me to see if I can get it repaired, right now I'm trying to understand if the CPU is also dead, which means game over, the mother nature wins.

author: ulltrium
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: July 18, 2018, 02:27:13 pm
content: Does anyone know what the PIC16F micro-controller is doing on the board? Is it the one that loads U-Boot and generates the serial console messages?

author: Bighouse
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: August 19, 2019, 03:18:36 pm
content: Any news on this one? I have the same issue, and while I didn't encounter any lightning strikes recently, I have the same symptoms as you; the unendless blinking blue led, which half of the internet has, when a synology dies. However I never see anyone really dive into the electronics of them.