Author Topic: LS Quad shutting down for no apparent reason  (Read 14636 times)

rpoitras

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LS Quad shutting down for no apparent reason
« on: November 18, 2015, 07:47:33 AM »
I might as well take a shot at posting here with this issue as I cannot find any valid information elsewhere.

I have a Quad LS, the old/original one, 4TB, firmware 1.11 that I use as a backup for my server which I also use as the main NAS. I have a backup/mirror scheduled weekly from the main NAS to the Buffalo. The Buffalo has been working flawlessly for many years now and I never even had a drive fail. Recently it started to shut itself down for no apparent reason. I checked the switch in the back and it's already set to Manual, and I also went through the settings and disabled the shutdown option when a RAID error is detected. I also ran a scan and disk check and everything seems to look normal. There is no log so I can't check for any shutdown reason but checking the status always reveals "Normal". So, I'm at a loss as to why it's shutting down. Any ideas? I'd hate to just have to trash this unit as it has served me well for many years.

Texturtle

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Re: LS Quad shutting down for no apparent reason
« Reply #1 on: November 18, 2015, 11:44:31 AM »
What is the full model number?

rpoitras

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Re: LS Quad shutting down for no apparent reason
« Reply #2 on: November 19, 2015, 07:36:49 AM »
It's the LS-QL/R5.

Texturtle

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Re: LS Quad shutting down for no apparent reason
« Reply #3 on: November 19, 2015, 09:39:14 AM »
It may have a drive on the verge of failure. If you have the equipment to put a drive in a PC, shut it down and pull one drive at a time, connect the drive to a PC and run CrystalDisk Information on it. It may reveal a marginal drive having problems.

rpoitras

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Re: LS Quad shutting down for no apparent reason
« Reply #4 on: November 19, 2015, 11:23:35 AM »
Thanks for your reply. I can do this with my desktop so will be going that route. Thanks for the help!

rpoitras

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Re: LS Quad shutting down for no apparent reason
« Reply #5 on: December 23, 2015, 09:08:57 AM »
So I pulled each drive and the first one came up with a "Caution" status in Crystal Disk Info, although I can't decipher the actual reason. The other three are fine. The "Reallocated Sectors Count" attribute is the one causing the caution status so I ran a full scan on the drive using SeaTools and it came up as Passed. I have no idea how that is supposed to make sense so I ordered a new drive anyway and will post up again when it's installed. I'm hoping it is a drive issue (seems to be so) but what I don't understand is why it causes the NAS to shut down. I have that option disabled (auto shutdown on SMART errors) so hopefully it isn't an internal problem in the unit itself.

peterke057

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Re: LS Quad shutting down for no apparent reason
« Reply #6 on: December 24, 2015, 01:55:07 PM »
Mine keeps having this problem every few months too. By now I have replace 3 of the 4 disks and it still keeps happening that the bloody thing keeps shutting down and giving errors. I guess after 5 years it is time for a complete replacement. Pretty disappointed with the quality (or rather lack thereof).

rpoitras

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Re: LS Quad shutting down for no apparent reason
« Reply #7 on: December 25, 2015, 07:54:50 AM »
Well I replaced the "cautioned" drive with a new one and it shutdown during the rebuild sometime last night. I just turned it back on and it's rebuilding again but I'm assuming it will shut down again. Any issues with the power supplies? I was hoping for an easy fix because I don't think the main boards are serviceable, right? Ugh.

rpoitras

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Re: LS Quad shutting down for no apparent reason
« Reply #8 on: December 28, 2015, 07:34:01 AM »
Just an update, after turning the Linkstation back on it went to rebuild the array and completed successfully. It's also been running since and has not shut down. It often would run for multiple days before shutting down so I'm not out of the woods yet but hopeful this was the issue.

scollins

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Re: LS Quad shutting down for no apparent reason
« Reply #9 on: January 03, 2016, 12:58:25 PM »
My LS-Q2.0TL/R5 is exhibiting the same behavior.  It will shut down randomly, and many times won't power on.  Right now the green LED on the power brick is blinking, as is the ethernet link LED on the back.  The date code on the Seagate drives is 11142, so roughly May 2011.  Roughly 4 years of service or so, is that the best I can expect from a NAS?  It has always been connected to an APC UPS750 pure sine wave UPS, and properly shut down during power outages before the UPS batteries ran out.

It is configured with 4x 500MB drives, setup in RAID10.  It is running at near 95% capacity used too.

I can't get the unit to stay operational for more than 20  minutes at a time.  I've copied over the majority of the files to a WD Passport Ultra, so I'm less concerned with lost data at this point.  Using a USB to SATA adapter, I've pulled all 4 drives and run Passmark's Diskcheckup V3.3 on all 4 drives.  All show "OK", although drive 4 did drop off briefly during one test, so I'm wondering if that drive is suspect.

As I need more capacity, I'm wondering if I should invest in new drives and see if that fixes the issue, or just punt on the 1 yard line here and go with a QNAP or Synology instead.  Since I'm well beyond any warranty period, Buffalo tech support has been pretty much non-existent, so I'm left to troubleshooting on my own.

rpoitras

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Re: LS Quad shutting down for no apparent reason
« Reply #10 on: January 03, 2016, 05:50:57 PM »
Well its still shutting down so obviously wasn't an issue with the drives. I didn't check and didn't even recall there was an LED on the power brick. I will check that as well as maybe it means there's a problem with it if its blinking? I'd be satisfied if replacing the adapter fixes the issue. A $40 fix after this many years wouldn't be so bad.

scollins

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Re: LS Quad shutting down for no apparent reason
« Reply #11 on: January 08, 2016, 01:22:30 PM »
A friend loaned me a power brick from an unused Buffalo Quad he had at work, and so far mine has stayed up and running for 14 hours.  Not sure if I've isolated and fixed my particular issue, but I'll update if/when it decides to shut down again......

rpoitras

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Re: LS Quad shutting down for no apparent reason
« Reply #12 on: January 08, 2016, 05:55:28 PM »
A friend loaned me a power brick from an unused Buffalo Quad he had at work, and so far mine has stayed up and running for 14 hours.  Not sure if I've isolated and fixed my particular issue, but I'll update if/when it decides to shut down again......

Yes please post back either way if you could. This would be great info. Thanks!

scollins

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Re: LS Quad shutting down for no apparent reason
« Reply #13 on: January 10, 2016, 07:15:34 PM »
A friend loaned me a power brick from an unused Buffalo Quad he had at work, and so far mine has stayed up and running for 14 hours.  Not sure if I've isolated and fixed my particular issue, but I'll update if/when it decides to shut down again......

Yes please post back either way if you could. This would be great info. Thanks!

Stable operation continues, although I don't want to jinx myself.

I think a bad power brick was the source of my issue, sounds like it may be the same for you.

rpoitras

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Re: LS Quad shutting down for no apparent reason
« Reply #14 on: January 11, 2016, 08:13:46 AM »
A friend loaned me a power brick from an unused Buffalo Quad he had at work, and so far mine has stayed up and running for 14 hours.  Not sure if I've isolated and fixed my particular issue, but I'll update if/when it decides to shut down again......

Yes please post back either way if you could. This would be great info. Thanks!

Stable operation continues, although I don't want to jinx myself.

I think a bad power brick was the source of my issue, sounds like it may be the same for you.

Thanks again. I just ordered a replacement power supply and hopefully that fixes the issue. I was on the fence between ordering a new adapter or just buying a USB/eSATA enclosure and re-using the drives but I'll gamble a bit on the adapter being the issue. The LED on mine was not flashing when I checked it after noticing the NAS was powered off again so I'm not convinced it's my issue but it's worth a shot. Hopefully yours keeps running along as well!