7941G stuck in firmware upgrade loop

[dylan.ebner]

I have a brand new 7941G phone that we attempted to change from SCCP to SIP for testing. We placed the contents of the firmware zip file into a tftp directory and pointed DHCP option 66 to that tftp server and started the upgrade process. The phone grabbed the term41.default.loads file serveral times over several reboots but now it appears  to be stuck in a loop. It no longer tries to pull any files from the tftp server, it just sits with the upgrading screen and then occasionally reboots itself. It is getting an IP address, so that we know is working.

Any ideas?

Thanks

[asandborgh]

Dylan,

a.     try a factory reset

b.     leave it for awhile (like overnight) - I've seen phones that I thought were bricks come back to life when left for awhile

P.S. is  the TFTP server a CCM?

Good Luck,

Art

[Chris Rimmer · Accepted solution]

First thing I always try when having firmware issues is removing the voice vlan then configuring the access vlan with the voice vlan number.  This of course assumes your 7941 is connected using a voice vlan.

You might also attempt to load the SCCP firmware again and restart the process.

[alijames]

Hi,

What Firmware rev have you got loaded on the TFTP server? You cannot go straight to 8.5.3.

You will need to have 8.5.2, 8.5.2 SR1 and 8.5.3 all on the TFTP server, with the loads file from 8.5.2 having overwritten the others on the TFTP server.

Check out this thread https://supportforums.cisco.com/message/1172324 for more info

Hope this helps.

Alistair

[dylan.ebner]

Alistair-

   Thanks for the reply. I do have 8.5.3 on the tftp server. I do not remember the firmware that was loaded onto the phone from the factory and we are not using CCM. The problem I am now in is it looks like the phone isn't grabbing anything from the TFTP server anymore. It gets and IP address, but I do not see anything in the TFTP server log. Does that sound like the phone has been bricked?

I am going to try and watch what the phone does with wireshark. Maybe that will give me some clues to how dead the phone is.

Thanks

[alijames · Accepted solution]

Hi Dylan,

That is the problem then. Does the phone display the Cisco Splash screen, but with a circle with a dot in it bottom left hand side, and after a short while come up Auth Fail? If so, that is the phone being unable to find a suitable firmware version.

If this is the case, download and put the 8.5.2 & 8.5.2SR1 firmwares on your TFTP server ( copying 8.5.2 last, so the correct term41.default.loads file is present.

The phone should then be able to upgrade to 8.5.2, then 8.5.2SR1 and finally to 8.5.3.

We've given up on 8.5.3 for the moment and set our default load to 8.5.2, as this is the last version that new phones can be upgraded from without manual intervention.

Hope this helps, and let me know how you get on.

Alistair

[dylan.ebner]

The phone comes up with the splash screen with the circle and dot in the lower left corner, but it never says auth fail. Instead it will then go to a split screen where on the top part of the screen it says upgrading with the ip address of the phone listed and terms.default listed below that with an OK next to terms.default. I can ping the ip address the phone displays, but I cannot get to it's web server.

[alijames]

Hi Dylan,

Yep, that's the same symptoms as we had.

Try putting 8.5.2 on the TFTP server and see how that goes.

Cheers,

Alistair

[dylan.ebner]

Will do.

Should I delete the 8.5.3 files off the tftp server first?

Do I need to do anything on the phone or just power it up?

[alijames]

Probably a good idea to remove them, and power cycle the phone.

Cheers,

Alistair

[dylan.ebner]

Alistair-

    Thanks for the help. We managed to get the phone back on it's feet and loaded with a SIP image. I removed the 8.5.3 images fromt the tftp server and placed the 8.5.2SR1 and 8.5.2 images on the server instead.

However, when I power cylced the phone it still did not pull the new image (or any files for that matter). A previous poster said to take the phone off the voice vlan. I tried this thinking I was maybe handing some bad information on my voice vlan DHCP settings. The phone started to pull the new firmware once I moved it from the voice vlan.

I went back and checked my dhcp settings on the voice vlan and everything looked good. The phones must have some kinda feature or bug in the bootloader that if it gets the same IP address from a DHCP server it eventually stops trying to pull and image. Once the ip address changes, it tries again for some reason.

[Chris Rimmer]

The voice vlan configuration should have been removed, but the same voice vlan number used as the access vlan.  IP addressing assigned by DHCP should have been the same.  Once the firmware loads correctly, the access vlan and voice vlan can be configured to the original settings.

I have had numerous issues with TFTP firmware loads.  This has solved the issue in all but one case.

Thanks,

Chris

[yi1rm0001]

Hi Daylan

I have same problem can you tell me whats the steps to fix it and which IP you put for tftp server?.

thank you

[dylan.ebner]

I'm sorry but it has been so long I don't remember anymore. I think I just pulled my phone from a Voice vlan and put it onto a regular data vlan. and then reconfigured the DHCP server/tftp on the regular vlan.

[jijunape1968]

I have te same proble and noone can help me, I have a Cisco Ip Phone 7941 and I can't find where to get the firmware to converte it from SCCP tp SIP, can anyone help me please. otherwise I'll have to buy a new phone