[Soekris] net5501-70: 2 of 4 devices are broken

[Marie Koreen]

Frédéric VANNIÈRE wrote:
> Hello,
>
>
> I've bought 4 soekris net5501-70 + standard case from soekris.eu.
> They have been upgraded from 1.33 to 1.33b BIOS and they have
> a SANDISK 4Go Extreme III compact flash. The automated installation
> of the linux systems has been done from PXE and works.
>
> 2 boxes will be vpn/gw/dhcp/dns/netboot in a datacenter, 1 will do
> the job at our office and 1 is a spare box.
>
>
> I've made several tests :
>   1. Hard power on
>   2. Hard power off/on (box plug)
>   3. Soft reboot
>   4. Hard reset
>   5. Hard power off/on (box plug)
>   6. Soft reboot
>   7. Hard power off/on (wall plug)
>   8. Hard power off/on (wall plug)
>   9. Hard power off/on (wall plug)
>  10. Soft reboot
>  11. Hard reset
>  12. Hard power off/on (box plug)
>
> the results are pretty bad :
>   - box1 has failed on all "Hard power off/on" tests (6 times)
>          but it worked when I've redone power off/on again
>   - box2 has passed all the tests
>   - box3 has failed on 1 "Hard power off/on" test
>   - box4 has failed on all "Hard power off/on" tests but 1 (5 times) 
>          but it worked when I've redone power off/on again
>  
> Is it a known problem and what is the solution ?
>
> Regards,
>
> Frédéric.
>  
>
>
>   
What do the cards ID themselves as when you boot these boxes?  I only 
ask because depending on where you got the "sandisk" CF cards, they 
might be fake.  China is trying to pass off a lot of fakes as extreme 
III and extreme IV cards.  I got a fake myself, but you can tell because 
the card will ID itself as a Sandisk card in the bios detection.  The 
fake I had ID'd itself as "SMI MODEL" instead of "Sandisk ####" 
whatever.  And it would have all kinds of booting issues.  I went to a 
store and bought a real one and have had absolutely no problems since.

-Marie