Firmware Upgrade problem. Dreaded A- status and "There was a problem loading the application." error

[Anonymous user]

Greetings.

I have multiple AP7941 series PDU running 357 firmware I am trying to upgrade to the latest firmware.

So far I tried it on 2 and both fail with the same result.

Web application is not loading with "Error: The application was not able to load.
 
You are attempting to access an APC device.

 There was a problem loading the application. Please login to the device via telnet for more details."

First I tried using the application to do upgrade, but if failed after first step to reconnect and do second step.

I decided to use ftp procedure instead.

The result is the same.

I seen two possible states after I upload firmware upgrade files:

Either :

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
        About System

        Model Number      : AP7941
        Serial Number     : ZA0811011879
        Manufacture Date  : 03/16/2008
        Hardware Revision : B2
        MAC Address       : 00 C0 B7 CE A8 6B
        Flash Type        : AMD A29DL322DB

        Press to continue...

        -----------------------------------------------------------------------
        Module Information

        Description : Rack PDU APP
        -----------------------------------------------------------------------
        Name        : rpdu              Type        : StatApp
        Version     : 392               Sector      : 16
        Date        : 07/07/2016        Time        : 10:40:30
        CRC16       : D94B

        Press to continue...

        Description : Network Management Card AOS
        -----------------------------------------------------------------------
        Name        : aos               Type        : APC OS
        Version     : 357               Sector      : 47
        Date        : 10/10/2007        Time        : 16:23:57
        CRC16       : 655A

or

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
        About System

        Model Number      : AP7941
        Serial Number     : ZA0811011879
        Manufacture Date  : 03/16/2008
        Hardware Revision : B2
        MAC Address       : 00 C0 B7 CE A8 6B
        Flash Type        : AMD A29DL322DB

        Press to continue...

        -----------------------------------------------------------------------
        Module Information

        Description : Network Management Card AOS
        -----------------------------------------------------------------------
        Name        : aos               Type        : APC OS
        Version     : 392               Sector      : 16
        Date        : 07/06/2016        Time        : 15:12:05
        CRC16       : C3FF

        Press to continue...

        Description : Network Management Card AOS
        -----------------------------------------------------------------------
        Name        : aos               Type        : APC OS
        Version     : 357               Sector      : 47
        Date        : 10/10/2007        Time        : 16:23:57
        CRC16       : 655A

Currently I have following state:

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
        About System

        Model Number      : AP7941
        Serial Number     : ZA0811011879
        Manufacture Date  : 03/16/2008
        Hardware Revision : B2
        MAC Address       : 00 C0 B7 CE A8 6B
        Flash Type        : AMD A29DL322DB

        Press to continue...

        -----------------------------------------------------------------------
        Module Information

        Description : Rack PDU APP
        -----------------------------------------------------------------------
        Name        : rpdu              Type        : StatApp
        Version     : 392               Sector      : 16
        Date        : 07/07/2016        Time        : 10:40:30
        CRC16       : D94B

        Press to continue...

        Description : Network Management Card AOS
        -----------------------------------------------------------------------
        Name        : aos               Type        : APC OS
        Version     : 357               Sector      : 47
        Date        : 10/10/2007        Time        : 16:23:57
        CRC16       : 655A

When doing FTP upload i first uploaded apc_hw02_aos_392.bin  and then apc_hw02_rpdu_392.bin

I also noticed that one of the file in the folder where apc_hw02_aos392_rpdu392.exe was extracted is apc_hw02_aos_202.bin

I am not sure what's the purpose of that file because it seems like older version.

I would appreciate any advice on how to proceed with this.

[BillP]

Hi Fedor, 

I've noticed that in both situations, the AOS firmware version is showing as 357 while the APP version is 392. So it looks as if the APP got upgraded while the AOS did not. What I would suggest is re-uploading the AOS via FTP, logging back in and making sure that it got upgraded properly, and then re-uploading the APP after that. 

Also, the reason that the executable comes with firmware 202 is because if you were to upgrade the firmware from a very old version, you would need to upgrade to version 202 before you could upgrade to version 392. 

Regards, 

Nicole 

[Anonymous user]

I tried process multiple times with AOS file upload, but the upgrade just doesn't seem to go through.

What worse sometimes i see this kind of behavior.

After I upload 392 aos file i login and see

American Power Conversion               Network Management Card AOS      v3.5.7
(c) Copyright 2007 All Rights Reserved
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

But when i go to about system

Description : Network Management Card AOS
        -----------------------------------------------------------------------
        Name        : aos               Type        : APC OS
        Version     : 392               Sector      : 16
        Date        : 07/06/2016        Time        : 15:12:05
        CRC16       : C3FF

        Press to continue...

        Description : Network Management Card AOS
        -----------------------------------------------------------------------
        Name        : aos               Type        : APC OS
        Version     : 357               Sector      : 47
        Date        : 10/10/2007        Time        : 16:23:57
        CRC16       : 655

It's like I have both versions there.

What is going on exactly.

[BillP]

Well what happens when you upload the new AOS, it writes over the old APP, and when you upload the new APP, it writes over the old AOS due to space constraints. So at one point you could have 2 AOSs on the card at a time. 

Since FTP does not seem to be working correctly, my next suggestion would be to follow the XMODEM protocol for firmware upgrade using this knowledge base: http://www.schneider-electric.us/en/faqs/FA156047/. 

[Anonymous user]

I tried that before posting here.

It's very slow but seems to be leading to the same result.

Seems like no matter what I do I am stuck with same AOS version.

Is there anywhere I can try download other version of upgrade so I can try that?

[Anonymous user]

How about earlier version of AOS bin file ?

Maybe I can try going that path instead of going all the way to 3.9.2

[BillP]

Hi - yes, that is all I attached since it is the older file you probably don't have. You should already have all of the other files you need that should be extracted from your original attempt - an apc_hw02_aos_392.bin and apc_hw02_rpdu_392.bin.

So just double check when you FTP in and make sure the prompt says AOS 3.5.7, then push the .bin file I attached to the post. Log back in through FTP or even the web and see if everything is fine again. If it is, look for the two 392 bin files I mentioned and load those up, AOS first, then rpdu file. You have to quit/log out of FTP between each to let the NMC reboot, which maybe you already know if you looked at the FTP instructions.

Hope that clarifies.

[Anonymous user]

This worked! Actually this workd using upgrade tool and after that going to 392 worked as well.

Thank you.

Seems like can't just the version i had initially.

[BillP · Accepted solution]

Glad to hear, thanks for the update.