Unbrick Synology DS918+ (4 replies)

Hi,

I'm attempting to unbrick a Synology DS918+. Purchased this unit second hand, and it arrived DOA. No information on its history.

Upon connecting power and pressing the power button, the blue power light switches on and blinks. The fans spin up. The unit does not beep, and the blue light blinks endlessly. The network connection is never active and the hard disk activity lights to not illuminate.

I have connected to the serial port header through an opening on the bottom of the unit. As described elsewhere, I connected to pins 2, 4, and 6 using a USB to UART adapter. The connection is correct, as I am able to test it using an identical, working, DS918+ unit.

On the working unit I get a long boot sequence output that starts with the following text:

                             GNU GRUB  version 2.00

   Press "CTRL-C" for boot menu or it boots automatically in 0s.
  Booting `SYNOLOGY_2'

  Checking file [/zImage]...Passed.
  Checking file [/rd.gz]...Passed.

          Serial: xxxxxxxxxxxxx
   Custom Serial: Empty or invalid checksum.
            MAC1: xxxxxxxxxxxx
            MAC2: xxxxxxxxxxxx
            MAC3: Empty or invalid checksum.
            MAC4: Empty or invalid checksum.
            MAC5: Empty or invalid checksum.
            MAC6: Empty or invalid checksum.
            MAC7: Empty or invalid checksum.
            MAC8: Empty or invalid checksum.
[    0.000000] Initializing cgroup subsys cpuset
[    0.000000] Initializing cgroup subsys cpu
[    0.000000] Initializing cgroup subsys cpuacct
[    0.000000] Linux version 4.4.59+ (root@build3) (gcc version 4.9.3 20150311 (prerelease) (crosstool-NG 1.20.0) ) #25556 SMP PREEMPT Thu Mar 18 13:00:35 CST 2021
[    0.000000] Command line: root=/dev/md0 earlyprintk=apl console=ttyS2,115200n8 ihd_num=4 netif_num=2 HddHotplug=1 SataPortMap=23 sata_remap=0>2:1>3:2>0:3>1 syno_hw_version=DS918+ vender_format_version=2 syno_hdd_detect=18,179,176,175 syno_hdd_enable=21,20,19,9 syno_usb_vbus_gpio=13@0000:00:15.0@1,11@0000:00:15.0@2 sn=xxxxxxxxxxxxx macs=xxxxxxxxxxxx,xxxxxxxxxxxx
[    0.000000] KERNEL supported cpus:
[    0.000000]   Intel GenuineIntel
[    0.000000] x86/fpu: xstate_offset[3]:  960, xstate_sizes[3]:   64
[    0.000000] x86/fpu: xstate_offset[4]: 1024, xstate_sizes[4]:   64
[    0.000000] x86/fpu: Supporting XSAVE feature 0x01: 'x87 floating point registers'
[    0.000000] x86/fpu: Supporting XSAVE feature 0x02: 'SSE registers'
[    0.000000] x86/fpu: Supporting XSAVE feature 0x08: 'MPX bounds registers'
[    0.000000] x86/fpu: Supporting XSAVE feature 0x10: 'MPX CSR'
[    0.000000] x86/fpu: Enabled xstate features 0x1b, context size is 1088 bytes, using 'standard' format.
[    0.000000] e820: BIOS-provided physical RAM map:
[    0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x0000000000000000-0x0000000000057fff] usable
[    0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x0000000000058000-0x0000000000058fff] reserved
[    0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x0000000000059000-0x0000000000085fff] usable
[    0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x0000000000086000-0x00000000000fffff] reserved
[    0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x0000000000100000-0x000000000fffffff] usable
[    0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x0000000010000000-0x0000000012150fff] reserved
[    0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x0000000012151000-0x0000000067c17fff] usable
[    0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x0000000067c18000-0x0000000067c18fff] ACPI NVS
[    0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x0000000067c19000-0x0000000067c42fff] reserved
[    0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x0000000067c43000-0x0000000067c7dfff] usable
[    0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x0000000067c7e000-0x0000000068c7dfff] reserved
[    0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x0000000068c7e000-0x000000007822efff] usable
[    0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x000000007822f000-0x000000007aebefff] reserved
[    0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x000000007aebf000-0x000000007afbefff] ACPI NVS
[    0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x000000007afbf000-0x000000007affefff] ACPI data
[    0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x000000007afff000-0x000000007affffff] usable
[    0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x000000007b000000-0x000000007fffffff] reserved
[    0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x00000000d3709000-0x00000000d370afff] reserved
[    0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x00000000e0000000-0x00000000e3ffffff] reserved
[    0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x00000000fed01000-0x00000000fed01fff] reserved
[    0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x00000000ff800000-0x00000000ffffffff] reserved
[    0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x0000000100000000-0x000000017fffffff] usable
[    0.000000] bootconsole [earlyser0] enabled
[    0.000000] NX (Execute Disable) protection: active
[    0.000000] extended physical RAM map:
[    0.000000] reserve setup_data: [mem 0x0000000000000000-0x0000000000057fff] usable
[    0.000000] reserve setup_data: [mem 0x0000000000058000-0x0000000000058fff] reserved
[    0.000000] reserve setup_data: [mem 0x0000000000059000-0x0000000000085fff] usable
[    0.000000] reserve setup_data: [mem 0x0000000000086000-0x00000000000fffff] reserved
[    0.000000] reserve setup_data: [mem 0x0000000000100000-0x0000000001d646c7] usable
[    0.000000] reserve setup_data: [mem 0x0000000001d646c8-0x0000000001d646d7] usable
[    0.000000] reserve setup_data: [mem 0x0000000001d646d8-0x000000000fffffff] usable
[    0.000000] reserve setup_data: [mem 0x0000000010000000-0x0000000012150fff] reserved
[    0.000000] reserve setup_data: [mem 0x0000000012151000-0x0000000067c17fff] usable
[    0.000000] reserve setup_data: [mem 0x0000000067c18000-0x0000000067c18fff] ACPI NVS
[    0.000000] reserve setup_data: [mem 0x0000000067c19000-0x0000000067c42fff] reserved
[    0.000000] reserve setup_data: [mem 0x0000000067c43000-0x0000000067c7dfff] usable
[    0.000000] reserve setup_data: [mem 0x0000000067c7e000-0x0000000068c7dfff] reserved
[    0.000000] reserve setup_data: [mem 0x0000000068c7e000-0x000000007822efff] usable
[    0.000000] reserve setup_data: [mem 0x000000007822f000-0x000000007aebefff] reserved
[    0.000000] reserve setup_data: [mem 0x000000007aebf000-0x000000007afbefff] ACPI NVS
[    0.000000] reserve setup_data: [mem 0x000000007afbf000-0x000000007affefff] ACPI data
[    0.000000] reserve setup_data: [mem 0x000000007afff000-0x000000007affffff] usable
[    0.000000] reserve setup_data: [mem 0x000000007b000000-0x000000007fffffff] reserved
[    0.000000] reserve setup_data: [mem 0x00000000d3709000-0x00000000d370afff] reserved
[    0.000000] reserve setup_data: [mem 0x00000000e0000000-0x00000000e3ffffff] reserved
[    0.000000] reserve setup_data: [mem 0x00000000fed01000-0x00000000fed01fff] reserved
[    0.000000] reserve setup_data: [mem 0x00000000ff800000-0x00000000ffffffff] reserved
[    0.000000] reserve setup_data: [mem 0x0000000100000000-0x000000017fffffff] usable
[    0.000000] efi: EFI v2.50 by INSYDE Corp.
[    0.000000] efi:  ACPI 2.0=0x7affe014  SMBIOS=0x78757000  SMBIOS 3.0=0x78755000
[    0.000000] SMBIOS 3.0.0 present.
[    0.000000] Kernel/User page tables isolation: disabled
[    0.000000] e820: last_pfn = 0x180000 max_arch_pfn = 0x400000000
[    0.000000] x86/PAT: Configuration [0-7]: WB  WT  UC- UC  WB  WT  UC- UC
[    0.000000] e820: last_pfn = 0x7b000 max_arch_pfn = 0x400000000
[    0.000000] Using GB pages for direct mapping
[    0.000000] RAMDISK: [mem 0x3746a000-0x37a2cfff]
[    0.000000] ACPI: Early table checksum verification disabled
[    0.000000] ACPI: RSDP 0x000000007AFFE014 000024 (v02 INSYDE)

On the bricked unit, there is no output on the serial connection when it is powered on.

If I remove the memory DIMM from the bricked unit, and power on, a repeating error message appears on the serial output of the bricked unit while the blue power light is flashing:

Memory training failed.  Stuck in a dead loop: Acting

This confirms, at least, that the serial port of the bricked unit is functional.

From what I've read on this and other forums, I think I should attempt to restore the U-boot to this device? I have downloaded the .pat file containing the firmware for the DS918, and I can find the U-boot files contained in that package.

I also have a Raspberry Pi available to help with this process.

I read in other threads a procedure involving "kwboot", which is used to restore the Uboot firmware.

Otherwise, I'm completely new to all of this. If anyone has suggestions, including how to proceed with kwboot, I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks!