Strange text during boot of 2811

[NateTidwell]

I recently became the network tech at my office and I am testing some of our gear. I came across a Cisco 2811 which boots up and shows some very strange text. I am not sure what caused this, and I have been looking everywhere for a way to resolve this but I have not found any solutions that work.

Here is the text that shows when the system is booted.

總總總總總總總總總總總‽畐呔⁙潬⁧〲㌱ㄮ⸲〲ㄠ㨷〰㌺‶總總總總總總總總總總總ഽ

扢藁Ⓞꓧ蒤膆ꒇ蚇ڥƆ 憀ā쐁쒥聢쟅蚅蒁蓄ꗅ蓦藅Ꞅ⍄ꚇ蚦엄蒤얅ꚤⓥ蒦蚦扢蛢욆Ꟈ쓄蚧藥䄠䏣蚥쒄꓅蚆薥撄蓅ꞅ쓄蚇엦艃쓦ꟄꚆ藅蒅ꓤ얄ꒄ蚆脠ꓤ撆扢萢쟤憆捂쟄쓄蓦ꒆ솄蓧꒤擤ꗲ蒆蓄엥蚤ꖆ蒅앤薄쒧蟄䏅쓄蚧꒦엧薅蒤蓅蓦蚤₆蚤扤≢蛇䉡쑣쓇䎄웥蓧 .

I have let the device sit like this for about 30 minutes to see if anything else would happen but no luck. I have tried to boot the device with no compact flash card in it, but that didn't do much either. Is there a way i.e. reset button, or anything to get this to go back to a fully defualt setup?

[Richard Burts]

The thing that most often causes symptoms like this is that the console speed does not match the configured speed of your terminal emulator. In this case the router boots generating this very strange output but will actually complete the boot process and go into normal processing. After this router boots do the interface lights indicate that they are operating? If you plug a device into the Ethernet ports do you get the link light illuminated?

Probably the best way to investigate this would be to set the speed of your terminal emulator at each of the possible speeds (starting at 1200 and working up through 2400, 4800 etc up to the maximum speed). Bear in mind that some emulators require that after you change the speed setting in the emulator that you stop and restart the connection.

Give that a try and let us know the outcome.

HTH

Rick