NASLite Network Attached Storage

I've purchased 4 STB1030Ns that were packaged as Cedar Systems NutShell Pro systems. All 4 of them have BIOS passwords set. I've tried using JP5 to reset CMOS and removing the battery for more then 12 hours with no luck.

Can anyone help me with this problem?

Thanks... Alan

Hi Alan,

The Nutshell Pro that I used did not have a BIOS password set, so I don't know what the password may be. It's also very strange that the password does not clear using the jumpers.

I did reflash my BIOS, but that was simply vanity on my part since I didn't like the Nutshell boot screen and preferred the GCT Allwell boot screen instead.

Anyway, I'd probably start with the guys at http://www.badflash.com/ for advice. Also, if you need the original GCT Allwell BIOS image I used, let me know and I'll email it to you.

Hi Alan,

Well I have the manual and have checked the jumper setting to clear the cmos and it is indeed the one you used.

You could try these backdoor passwords,

Award Backdoor BIOS Passwords
One reported Award backdoor BIOS password is eight spaces. Other reported Award backdoor BIOS passwords include 01322222, 589589, 589721, 595595, 598598 , ALFAROME, ALLY, ALLy, aLLY, aLLy, aPAf, award, AWARD PW, AWARD SW, AWARD?SW, AWARD_PW, AWARD_SW, AWKWARD, awkward, BIOSTAR, CONCAT, CONDO, Condo, condo, d8on, djonet, HLT, J256, J262, j262, j322, j332, J64, KDD, LKWPETER, Lkwpeter, PINT, pint, SER, SKY_FOX, SYXZ, syxz, TTPTHA, ZAAAADA, ZAAADA, ZBAAACA, and ZJAAADC.

http://www.plasma-online.de/english/ide ... b_gct.html

Motherboard
Global Circuit Technology (GCT) MB1030 v2.0A

I have looked high and low and there is not a lot of info or pdf's on the MB

Anyway I emailed the company and am awaiting a response.

Here is the email from tech support.

i hope this helps.

Hi Eden,

try to reflash the bios back to our original bios then CLEAR the CMOS again.

We don't know what the password had been used from the boxes that you have purchased.

Regards,

Tony Kuo,
GCT-Allwell Technology, Inc.
http://www.allwell.tv
tel: 626-968-1116
14321 Don Julian Road
City of Industry, CA 91746 USA

I received an email from Tony Kuo at GCT-Allwell that had the latest BIOS attached. I'm guessing that this is what you received from Tony too edeng. I cant figure out how to install it because I can't access BIOS to have it boot a CD or hard drive. It will only boot the D.O.C.

Do you guys have a back-door to install the BIOS without booting to a CD or hard drive? Or maybe there is a boot time key sequence that will allow me to select the boot device?

I tried removing the D.O.C. and attaching a CD and hard drive (seperate attempts) but I got an error stating that no bootable system was available.

All suggestions are greately appreciated!!!

Thanks... Alan

The exact error that I get when removing the D.O.C. and attempting to boot from a CD or hard drive is

DISK BOOT FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER

You say that you have 4 boxes, have you tried all of them to see if any boot from another device? then you could access the DOC and put on the bios and flash from here then put the DOC in each box and flash those.

Eden

I have verified that all 4 have BIOS passwords, but I have only tried to boot a CD/hard drive from one of them. I'll give the other 3 a try this evening.

Thanks for the suggestion... Alan

The first thing I’d do is ask the guys at badflash.com if they know of a way to get into that particular BIOS. I’m sure they will point you in the right direction.

Worst case, you can order a fresh STB1030N BIOS from them in order to boot one of your machines. That will allow you to play with it and decide what you wish to do with the other ones.

Below is a procedure that is not recommended for obvious reasons, but when put against the wall, has worked for me on a number of occasions:

Pull the good BIOS carefully out of the socket and place it back in the socket, just making contact but not fully inserted.

Boot the machine using a CD or drive containing all necessary utilities as well as the new BIOS image.

Once at the prompt, pop the BIOS chip from the socked as quickly as you can without damaging any of the pins - pull straight out while holding to a grounded water pipe

Place the old, unusable BIOS in the socket loosely, just making contact and run the flash utility with the appropriate image. If all works well, the checksums will match and you should have a good flash.

Reboot the machine with the newly flashed BIOS to verify.

Now keep in mind that all standard precautions and disclaimers apply – don’t insert the BIOS chip backwards, make sure there is no static and that you are grounded, make sure you don’t short the board since it’s powered while you are doing all this, Server Elements or I will not be held responsible for any damage to your hardware and/or mental condition , etc.

Like a said, this is not recommended but if you are brave enough and don’t have much of a choice, it does work.

The latest in my BIOS password saga...

I tried booting all 4 machines and each of them gave me the error:
DISK BOOT FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER

I've tried to contact Neoware.com (the company that bought Cedar Systems back in 2004). They havent responded to the first two emails that I sent them.

I've sent an email to Jack at Badflash.com explaining my problem and asking for sugguestions.

Thanks so much for your advice guys!!! If you think of anything else that I can try please let me know.

Thanks again... Alan

MMMMM..

Sure Tony would help?

Alan why not send Tony the DOC and maybe he could put the sofware you need on it?

just a thought.

Good news!!! I got the BIOS updated!!!!

I purchased 5 DiskOnChip chips from the Internet for almost nothing. One of them had a bootable Win95 Command-Line on it along with LL3.EXE (an OLD version of LapLink). I had an old LapLink cable and was able to locate and download a copy of LL3.EXE. Then I copied the latest BIOS to the DiskOnChip and flashed the BIOS.

Now I need to dig out the NASLite Nutshell document and continue installing NASLite.

Thanks for all of your ideas and suggestions guys.

Thanks again... Alan