Cisco 891F - Defective IOS and Password Recovery disabled

[JPauschert]

Hi all,

we have 8 defective Routers 891f. Our Customer tried to upgrade the Routers IOS via remote connection.

While sending the new IOS to the Router the connection was interrupted.

Unfortunately the Password Recovery Function is disabled so we don't have access to the Rommon.

The Router is trying to load the IOS from flash but this leads to an error because of incomplete upload.

I tried to boot the Router with 2GB USB-Pendrive (FAT16) on it. But this doesn't work.

Does anybody know wether the Router will boot the Cisco MEMUSB-128FT or similar out of the box?

Can't believe that we have to send all Routers to Cisco Repair to have all Flash-Chips changed with working IOS on it.

Thanks in advance.

[Rich Uline]

JPauschert,

Even with the password recovery feature disabled, you should still be able to access rommon. The caveat is that this will erase your configuration. Try connecting to the console, booting the device, and entering the break sequence. You should be presented with a prompt like this:

PASSWORD RECOVERY IS DISABLED.
Do you want to reset the router to factory default
configuration and proceed [y/n] ? y
Reset router configuration to factory default.

Regarding the flash drive: IIRC, Cisco devices will not recognize drives over a certain limit. It looks like the limit for the 891 is 256MB. You shouldn't need the official Cisco part; any 256MB drive should work.

[JPauschert]

The Router doesn´t accept a break command. Your description works with a Password Recovery disabled Router that is able to load the IOS. If you send a break command directly after the Router has unpacked and loaded the IOS you will be ask if you want to Reset the Router to Factory Default.

For this function to work it is necessary that the IOS is loaded.

But thank you anyways. Will try to get a 256MB Pendrive. 512 MB Pendrive doesn't work. Any other suggestions? 

[JPauschert]

Total memory size = 512 MB
Field Upgradeable ROMMON Integrity test 
_______________________________________ 
ROM: Digitally Signed Production Software
C891F-K9 platform with 524288 Kbytes of main memory
Main memory is configured to 32 bit mode 

Upgrade ROMMON initialized
PASSWORD RECOVERY FUNCTIONALITY IS DISABLED
loadprog: error - on load of image from file system with monlib
Image size (29425664) does not match the expected size (89610452)
boot: cannot load "flash:"

System Bootstrap, Version 15.4(1r)T1, RELEASE SOFTWARE (fc1)
Technical Support: http://www.cisco.com/techsupport
Copyright (c) 2014 by cisco Systems, Inc.

Total memory size = 512 MB
Field Upgradeable ROMMON Integrity test 
_______________________________________ 
ROM: Digitally Signed Production Software
C891F-K9 platform with 524288 Kbytes of main memory
Main memory is configured to 32 bit mode 

Upgrade ROMMON initialized
PASSWORD RECOVERY FUNCTIONALITY IS DISABLED
loadprog: error - on load of image from file system with monlib
Image size (29425664) does not match the expected size (89610452)
boot: cannot load "flash:"

[ludogo]

Has there been a resolution to this issue?. I cannot break into ROMmon mode. Thanks

[martin1.plank]

hi,

got same problem, is there any solution to solve it?