APX 4000 Codeplug Update Failed

[tfhphoto]

First a couple of housekeeping items/background:

The company I work for is an authorized RX-only user on a Phase 2 public safety simulcast site that is part of a statewide system.

The APX 4000 was purchased new from a local Motorola shop.

It was initially programmed by the shop with later programming performed (about 6 months ago) by one of the LE agencies authorized on the system.

Although I've been a ham for 30 years and am proficient in programming certain brands of commercial radios, neither I nor the company I work for have access to any M programming software, cables or keyloaders. We did nothing to the radio.

Sorry, but I wanted to get all that out of the way to avoid unnecessary debate.

A coworker had the radio on his desk and says it was functioning normally. But, a little while later, noticed it was unusually quiet. He looked at the radio and the light on the front/top was flashing red and the display read "codeplug updt failed."

It's now quiet like a brick.

I did the usual power cycling and letting it sit without the battery installed. No joy.

I called the local comm center director and he advised that there were no OTAR/OTAP updates pushed and that our radio had not been stunned.

I took it to the Motorola shop, they looked at it for 10 seconds and, after asking me if I'd tried to hack it, they advised that it needed to go to depot.

My questions are:

Does it really need a four-week vacation at the depot?

Or, if the LE agency that last touched our radio had saved the personality and code plug (I think they did), could they re-upload those into the radio and clear the error?

And, the big one for me..... How the heck could this have even happened? Has anyone seen this before?

TIA

 

[KevinC]

Although anything is possible, I've never seen an APX spontaneously display codeplug update failed.

My money is on someone monkeyed with it.

As far as the original codeplug being able to fix it we don't know since we don't know what exactly is wrong with it, but it's worth a try.

 

[SCPD]

Try to rewrite the plug to it. May take a few times but if it doesn't then the depot is its final destination.

Giving the update failed and several entities having systems on it it's possible one did try a over air update or someone yanked the usb in process of writing or turned it off or the battery died during a write not allowing it to update the plug and reboot properly.

No telling. It has the odd issue the latest firmware does if someone tools around with older illegal items on loose out there. So from what I have heard and you describe. Newer firmware is finicky with the older garage stuff. Probably why he asked if anyone tried to alter it by that or at least read or write and something happened during the codeplug read and write process.

Try to throw in the saved plug, like I said may take a few times but if it still fails to boot depot is its trip.

 

[tfhphoto]

UPDATE -

The radio had to go off to depot where they replaced the main board.

 

[IAmSixNine]

Sad to see a quality radio like that have a board issue. especially since it had no TX on it.

 

[tfhphoto]

Especially since it was 2 months out of warranty......

 

[Project25_MASTR]

Especially since it was 2 months out of warranty......

I literally just sent of a customer's APX6500 HP that had the receiver just go deaf as a doorknob...2 months out of warranty.

 

[TXRXMD414]

OTAR?

I re-read your timeline. It is possible the LE agency with authorization may, and I do mean MAY, have inadvertently loaded a codeplug on to the radio that switched on the OTAR. If that is the case, when the radio was in the charger and it RX the update, it may have had something go wrong...potentially really wrong.

I too would also attempt a re-prog. with a known good codeplug data or simply cloning from a known working twin.

If that does not work.......A trip to the great batwing Depot is in order.

Just my 2 cents.