I have successfully managed to brick my LS-CH2.0TL-EU, and I mean it is literally only a brick now. When I switch it on, there is no LED activity and no harddisk access. Only the fan spins at low RPM. How did I get there?:
I made an obviously wrong firmware update and then the LED was periodically blinking red six times, pause, blink six times, and so on... Then I did a TFTP recovery which seemed to be successful, the led switched from blinking blue to violet (pink?), then to red/violet alternating, then to steady red. At this time I was able to find the box with LSUpdater and wrote an older version of the firmware, which seemed to finish without errors. Switched off/on and then there was the red blinking again. Again did a TFTP successfully and then flashed a newer version of the same firmware (I got both from the buffalo support site). Same again. Then I TFTPd again, and this time the led turned violet/pink as before but then the LS shut down immediately and since then I can't get a single blink out of it. I plugged it off and on - but nothing.
Has someone else seen this behavior? Is there a way to revive it on without opening the case? And if I do open the case do I need to build a JTAG to manually flash the uBoot boot loader? Or is the disk somehow damaged and I need to attach it to a pc for recovery?
Thanks for any hints or advices!
The firmware you were flashing to the unit that from the europen site or North American site? From what you have described as its current activity the unit needs to be replaced. To recover the data the unit you will need to connect the extracted drive to a Linux machine or a software like UFS explorer that will enable a windows pc to read XFS the Linux file format.
I took the one from http://www.buffalo-technology.com/support/downloads/ls-chl-linkstation-live/, so I guess this is not the european version. But before that I tried it with another version I found on a german website. What do you mean by "replaced". Does warranty cover such issues? That would surprise me. Or did you mean that the unit is really really dead? Luckily I have no data to rescue but I will mount the drive anyway.
Thank you!
I am sorry to tell you that you really have a brick.
If your unit has really no light activity, this is no red, blue amber light, you really have a brick.
The same happened to me 6 months ago, and as far as I know, the only thing you can do is recover the disk.
Forget about the region, firmware is the same. The problem was caused by wrong TFTP boot or bfecause of forcing downgrades.
Sure JTAG should be the solution, but I have goggled and I am convinced, there is really now way to unbrick.
Post your findings, I am really curious.
OK, thanks! That makes sense - especially the forced downgrade part - and it's my own fault being so careless. I'll recover the disk and then try to access the serial console - there is a japanese guide at http://www.yamasita.jp/linkstation/2008/11/081115__serial_console_1.html
Also you might find the following pages interesting:
http://www.yamasita.jp/linkstation/2008/11/081112__disassemble.html
http://forum.buffalo.nas-central.org/viewtopic.php?f=71&p=149855#p149855
http://buffalo.nas-central.org/wiki/Serial_and_JTAG_port_LS-XHL
I'll post my progress here