Bricked Radios

[packrat42]

Good Morning/Evening,
Need to pick ya'lls brains. I am a CIV contractor support a government agency. We have licensed software etc and a Moto partner we get some support from ( we have to be careful what we ask for, contracts and whatnot). Anyway, we have been trying to reprogram a variety of older 1500/2500/5000 radios, AN and BN versions. I have used CPS r20.01.00 and the RKN4106A running on both XP and WIN10 using both a FTDI USB to RS-232( both machines) and an express-card PCI to RS-232 adapter.
Problem is I have bricked both 1500 and 5000 radios, even reading and writing the same codeplug to the radio will do it. I can program APX radios and mobiles just fine.
I keep getting the "Error in port or radio, error context 23" message.
Any ideas how to recover the radios ( Moto does not have any flashes to buy now) or at least stop committing radiocide?
Thanks
Stay Safe!

 

[Ant9270]

Good Morning/Evening,
Need to pick ya'lls brains. I am a CIV contractor support a government agency. We have licensed software etc and a Moto partner we get some support from ( we have to be careful what we ask for, contracts and whatnot). Anyway, we have been trying to reprogram a variety of older 1500/2500/5000 radios, AN and BN versions. I have used CPS r20.01.00 and the RKN4106A running on both XP and WIN10 using both a FTDI USB to RS-232( both machines) and an express-card PCI to RS-232 adapter.
Problem is I have bricked both 1500 and 5000 radios, even reading and writing the same codeplug to the radio will do it. I can program APX radios and mobiles just fine.
I keep getting the "Error in port or radio, error context 23" message.
Any ideas how to recover the radios ( Moto does not have any flashes to buy now) or at least stop committing radiocide?
Thanks
Stay Safe!

A reflash would do it. You’ll have to utilize a tool that is “forbidden” to talk about on here. Make sure all cable connections are tight when programming. Appears maybe your computer is moving too fast for the ASTRO25 CPS or your computer is having a driver issue and failing mid programming cycle. Are you operating on 32 or 64 bit?

 

[Giddyuptd]

What 01/cc error you getting? You might get lucky

 

[packrat42]

A reflash would do it. You’ll have to utilize a tool that is “forbidden” to talk about on here. Make sure all cable connections are tight when programming. Appears maybe your computer is moving too fast for the ASTRO25 CPS or your computer is having a driver issue and failing mid programming cycle. Are you operating on 32 or 64 bit?

Thanks for the reply, I have tried XP (32 bit) on a 15? yr old machine and WIN10 (64 bit) on a newish machine. Same thing. At one point I used a serial protocol logging program, it almost looks like the radio just stops responding after a write, as you can see the host sending to the radio and nothing coming back.

William2910, no display on these. One of the ones that I did brick a while back flashed the 01/82 error but can say the ones I am working on now do the same.

 

[Giddyuptd]

If you have a original code plug somewhere for each one, try when possible different pc, different cable preference a serial one and write the original code plug back. It may take several tries. If that dont work and the radio refuses try a firmware update then re write original plug back in.

I have seen some have issues with the last several versions xts cps in windows 10 due to data transfer issues or things running in background which affects the data rate, causing the cps to crash. Most their radio after a successful read time the rsdio will reboot back up.

ive noticed this occurs when using windows10 , on a legit USB, or legit serial to USB like the guc232a iogear.

I've noticed that the final cps 20.01 release takes longer and is slow to read in windows 10, with minimal CPU performance on stock machines. Throw that in on top of the data rate bogging down = time bomb for a 01/82 or more critical error.

Does the tuner let you read the tuning data? If so screen shot each radios values and save them marked as which radios in each you can simply use ms paint or whichever program such as Adobe pdf pro paste in the screen shots then save that in event the radio needs to have someone look at it.

 

[MTS2000des]

Fail 01/82 can also be caused by failing EEPROMs. These radios are a decade old or more. If they've seen a lot of use, the background writes can easily put these to the limit of usable write cycles and all it can take is a CPS write to put it into a state. Software cannot fix failing hardware. Not trying to be "that guy" but there is a reason why MSI took these off life support. Sometimes they can be revived just trying the write process over and over but how long until it dies again?

 

[packrat42]

Thanks for all the advice, I did find a solution.
So, I used a RKN4105A cable, I could not get this to work on any WIN10 machine. I was able to use a XP machine with a 2gHz Celeron and Intel USB 2.0 chipset. This seems to be pretty stable as I have been able to "recover" a number of 1500/5000 radios that had the error in port or hardware. Oddly enough this would not work when using a USB hub. I have not been able to recover a couple of 2500s that have the 01/82 error. One of the 01/82 radios is apparently new as the MOTO sticker is still on the front so I don't think the EPROM is the issue on that one. Sadly as I do not have the OEM codeplug for any of these or indeed the old codeplug it's gonna be a crap shoot recovering these. ( if at all). As to the EPROM issue, I know the use history on these radios and I don't think they have been programmed repeatedly, as to background writes I have to assume you mean during general usage of the radio, am I thinking correctly on that?
Thanks and stay safe.

 

[MTS2000des]

One of the 01/82 radios is apparently new as the MOTO sticker is still on the front so I don't think the EPROM is the issue on that one. Sadly as I do not have the OEM codeplug for any of these or indeed the old codeplug it's gonna be a crap shoot recovering these. ( if at all). As to the EPROM issue, I know the use history on these radios and I don't think they have been programmed repeatedly, as to background writes I have to assume you mean during general usage of the radio, am I thinking correctly on that?
Thanks and stay safe.

These (and all modern radios) do background operations when the radio is powered on doing "nothing" to the user, like storing trunking active control channels, last talkgroup affiliated on, scan lists, last zone/channel powered down/up on- lots of things going on "under the hood" at the radio operating system level just as your desktop PC is doing things while idle, which when dealing with Flash memory, there is a limit before blocks being marked bad begin to become a problem. A radio that is 10+ years old (most of your ANs are at least that if not more) with being on at least 8-10-12 or more hours a day have EEPROMs that are electrically "worn out".

As far as a radio appearing new, not disputing that, but without having verified provenance of the radio, it could be a replacement housing, a depot rework (which may have used but functional at the time of repair) parts, or even a "desk queen" that sat in a charger TURNED ON for a decade on someone's desk.

You just never know.

 

[Giddyuptd]

Speaking the eeproms going out I know there was tons of corrections AN 2500s some time ago (year or so) auctioned off which had the eeprom failure according to a source.

Theyd go into a flash zap but anything else brain dead. I'd imagine many have filtered onto the web by now and since that time.

I know many in that lot were in detention pen radios and from what I've seen it is a common thing even after proper training theyd leave the radio in the charger in the pod station entire shift then take them home to have a charged battery to scan.

My understanding is they were only issued 1 battery and some had the want to carry it on them off duty and would use the charger on duty while sitting in the pod stations removing it when they left and then drop it back in being on.

Add that up for hours and months the brain eventually has seen better days.