Ariva 254 - dead after a channel database upload? Surely not...! Help most appreciated!! [Archive] - Satellite Support Forum .: Home of OpenViX Team:.

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spotbeamlooksgood

11-04-23, 16:46

Hi all,

Newbie here, but since I've already spent half of Easter looking for an old RS232 cable, might as well give this a shot!

I tried to update a channel list from one version of an Ariva 254 to another via USB a few days ago... But alas, I must've missed something in the uploading process as it accepted all, began to reboot... and then dead.

No "ON", no "Ash", no logo... nothing. It just won't appear to power on - no lights at the ethernet port, or via the Optical out (if it is supposed to have those), no "ON" on the front display. Power adaptor is fine, as it powers the other model just fine (and the other model's adaptor does not power the broken one.)

I really can't see how I could have fried anything in the process, but I found out too late that apparently Ariva firmware/channel uploading is not quite the easy task it's supposed to be.

The unit is in perfect low-use condition otherwise, so I thought it worth a go to see if any of you have had any experience of this failure, or advice on if it is even possible to bring it back from the dead at all. The sheer 'lack of power' after a channel upload still baffles me. Now I wish I'd just done the damn rearranging manually..

Thoughts most welcome and any suggestions would be amazing.

Thanks a lot!

cactikid

11-04-23, 17:54

spotbeamlooksgood

11-04-23, 18:45

There are 2 different types of cables rs232 with parallel wires and the other DB9 with a crossover wire used on old boxes to flash them.

Not sure on Arriva but there were 2 things you could do update / flash the image , and updating channel list and no idea if you can update to send to wrong one

Alas, this was all via USB until the point it died. I was hoping to find an old null modem RS232 to try to flash/repair, but the machine doesn't even "turn on" visibly, so wondering if anyone has had this before.

I originally believed I didn't send the channel list to the wrong uploader, but I did get a brief BIN warning I didn't have time to read - accidentally said yes! - so it very likely did happen there.

Really annoying there isn't some really basic way to reset the firmware if all comes to all, but hopefully still recoverable.

cactikid

11-04-23, 23:42

If you still have the manual have a read of flashing it as thinking its only via cable and not Usb and those cables are easy to come by

adm

12-04-23, 00:17

If you still have the manual have a read of flashing it as thinking its only via cable and not Usb and those cables are easy to come by

Finding a PC that will support RS232 these days is a bit more difficult. Often older software that communicates via rs232 only supports it on comms ports 1 to 4 and usb to RS232 adapters get configured by default to comms ports with higher numbers.

Perhaps see

https://kb.plugable.com/serial-adapter/how-to-change-the-com-port-for-a-usb-serial-adapter-on-windows-7,-8,-81,-and-10

If the box still has a boot loader it may be looking on the RS232 port before you see see life from the box. I don't know anything about your box but on other makes of boxes that I've owned the procedure was to turn the box off, set up the software on the computer and say go and then turn the box on.

cactikid

12-04-23, 11:46

Had a few Golden Oldies running XP and had that port and cable in laptop bag.

Never liked those converters as half the time they did not work , maybe wrong cable used.?

spotbeamlooksgood

16-04-23, 01:24

Thanks to you all for your help - there's some potential in the possibility it's listening on the RS232 port, so I'll pick up a cable and use an old Win XP machine from the attic to see what can be done - will let you know how it goes!