SPA525G Stuck in reboot loop

[hotstartsw]

I was trying to change the wallpaper on my SPA525G and I entered a URL but forgot to include the "http://" in front of it.

After saving the settings, the phone rebooted and is now stuck in a reboot loop. Each time it gets to the picture of the phone with an arrow pointing to a cloud and then restarts again.

I can't get into the web interface.

Is there a way for me to clear the settings to either fail-safe or factory defaults so I can recover my phone?

Cheers

Paul

[info]

I'm not sure if it will work, but disconnect your ethernet cable and then restore defaults of your phone using the setup button

[hotstartsw]

Thanks for the suggestion but unfortunately even without the Ethernet cable in, it still wont boot as far as the menu.

[Patrick Born · Accepted solution]

Hi Paul,

The phone can usually display the setup menu from pretty early in the boot cycle. Try press the menu button even though it look like it may not be available, perhaps the menu will be available.

The menu feature is usually available before the phone starts looking for network information.

Regards,

Patrick

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[hotstartsw]

Trying to bring up the menu before it was ready worked. Thanks for the suggestion.

It was a little trickier in that I still couldn't do a factory reset (gave an error saying it can't be reset whilst in the call) but it did delay the reboot long enough so that I could get into the web interface and remove the offending setting and regain control of the phone and then do a factory reset.

Thanks for your help.

Paul

[Patrick Born]

Paul,

That's great news! I'm pleased that you've been saved the bother of RMA'ing the SPA525G. Thanks for your patience and also for letting me know.

I changed my phone's config to match yours but could not get it to boot-loop.

If you're feeling brave and have some time, it'd be great if you could update your phone's firmware and test again.
https://www.myciscocommunity.com/docs/DOC-11915

If you're able to replicate the issue, I'll open a CDETS against this to save others from the misery you experienced.

Regards,

Patrick

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[hotstartsw]

Just for everyone else's benefit. After spending about an hour on the phone to Cisco, they issued a RMA# so I am seeking a replacement with the supplier.

I've got to say I'm a little disappointed there is no factory reset button on the back of the phone or a key combination at bootup that can restore the phone to a failsafe configuration.

[Patrick Born]

Hi Paul,

Can you help me replicate what you did please? I've tried my lab but cannot get my SPA525G to boot-loop.

Here's what I changed:

Do you recall what version of firmware the phone is running?

Regards,

Patrick

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[hotstartsw]

Here's the information so you can see if you can replicate the problem.

I'm on firmware 7.1.7.

I set the picture to www.hotstartsoftware.com/hs525g.bmp (without entering "http://")

I'm also fairly sure I didn't change the "Background Picture Type" like you did.

Hope that helps.

Paul

[Patrick Born]

Hi Paul,

You asked, "Is there a way for me to clear the settings to either fail-safe or factory defaults so I can recover my phone?"

Yes, when a phone boots, it looks for a configuration server. If you make a configuration server available, you can have the phone overwrite any configuration that needs changing, provided the phone has not been locked by a service provider, of course.

Scan through this zero-touch configuration document: https://supportforums.cisco.com/docs/DOC-9954

Starting on page 6 is a diagram and description of the phone's boot process.

Page 14 shows traces from when the phone issues a DHCP DISCOVER to the network, the document describes the phone's boot process.

Starting on page 9, I show how to build a configuration file for the phone.

You could do the following to recover your phone:

1. Build a file with the following content to clear out any wallpaper related configuration and then reboot the phone:

Yes
10

Default

Default

2. Save the file as spa525G.cfg [case is sensitive, note upper case G, everything else is lowercase]

3. Configure a TFTP server

4. Configure your DHCP server to offer option 66, the IP address of the TFTP server from step 3

5. Reboot the phone

6. The phone will reboot and load the new config file

Regards,

Patrick

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[finalconnect]

Return the phone and start over.

[finalconnect]

Sorry forgot the :) after my last post.

[Patrick Born]

:-) no problem. Thanks for making this place a little more fun.

Take a look at https://www.myciscocommunity.com/message/24255#24255 Paul was able to get his phone working again.

:-)

Patrick

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[rseals]

I have managed to do the same thing with one of my SPA525G phones running 7-3-5 firmware.  Ironically it was messing with the background wall papers that did it.  I cannot get the menu to come up.  I setup a laptop with a DHCP and TFTP server and long with wireshark.  The Phone boots and gets a DHCP address and then just sits there.

Here is the configuration file that has it screwed up:

http://stlmosipsvcs01.magellanhealth.com/spa525g-7-3-5.bin
XXXXXX
3600
10.200.2.250



2
3600
14400

GMT-06:00
YES

MHS St. Louis
MHS St. Louis
MHS St. Louis
Text Logo
98765
stlmosipsvcs01.magellanhealth.com
http://stlmosipsvcs01/images/christmas02.bmp
Download BMP Picture

77589
77589
7758901

[hotstartsw]

Hi rseals

Did you manage to get out of the reboot loop with your phone?

I found that if I repeatedly pressed the menu button when it was rebooting, I could gain enough control to get back into the web interface and remove the erroneous settings and then do a factory reset.

Paul