C2960L: global config mode - Invalid input detected

[BobGreer65666]

Hi there,

Thanks for reading.

I'm temp-installing a C2960L to support a company training room for 3 months.  I can't get into global config mode:

Switch>en
Switch#conf t
                 ^
% Invalid input detected at '^' marker.

For sure: it's missing.

Switch#?
Exec commands:
access-enable Create a temporary Access-List entry
access-profile Apply user-profile to interface
access-template Create a temporary Access-List entry
archive manage archive files
authentication Authentication options for eEdge
beep Blocks Extensible Exchange Protocol commands
bulkstat Bulkstat exec commands
calendar Manage the hardware calendar
call-home Call-Home commands
cd Change current directory
clear Reset functions
clock Manage the system clock
cns CNS agents
connect Open a terminal connection
copy Copy from one file to another
crypto Encryption related commands.
debug Debugging functions (see also 'undebug')
delete Delete a file
device device classifier
diagnostic Diagnostic commands
dir List files on a filesystem

Have you seen this before?

Thanks!

[Reza Sharifi]

Hi,

Do you have full access to the switch?

Can you post the output of "sh ver"?

HTH

[BobGreer65666]

Hi Reza, I attached output from an initial bootup and the show ver.

Thanks again for reading!

[Leo Laohoo]

Does the switch have an existing config?  Maybe someone has configured access control.

[BobGreer65666]

Hi Leo,

I replaced the running config in flash with a blank text file by the same name: config.text.

[Leo Laohoo]

Upgrade the firmware.

[BobGreer65666]

Thanks for the recommendation.  I went from 

c2960l-universalk9-mz.152-7.E0a (old)

to
c2960l-universalk9-mz.152-7.E2.bin

But the problem persists.  Validated the running IOS:

* 1 52 WS-C2960L-SM-48PS 15.2(7)E2 C2960L-UNIVERSALK9-M

Thanks again!

[Leo Laohoo]

Ok, do a "wr erase" and then reboot the switch.  

[BobGreer65666]

I couldn't drive to work fast enough lol. 

Now, I'm thinking flash may be corrupted.  After wr erase, the switch is prompting for a password.  It appears that the switch "holds on" to a password in spite of there not being one.  Holding the mode button to drop down to prompt switch: only lists boot as an option.  Googling "flash_init unknown command" shows me 1) just how old this switch is and 2) indicates bad flash.

Time to put this switch down

Thank you Leo and Reza for your suggestions!

[Leo Laohoo]

I suspect someone is pulling a prank and re-configured the boot variable string to boot the config file with a different name. 
This is why I'm asking to erase the config using the "wr er" command and then reboot the switch.