wlc 5508 stuck in reboot cyle when DP from CGE5.0 ...is initializing

[Mfpage]

hello all

I am new to this as i just purchased a wlc 5508 and 3702ap from a local hospital at a state surplus site.  I had the device running and suffered a power outage and the wlc was not on a ups yet. after attempting to restart the device it is now  stuck in a boot loop with the following text copied from the console.  

WLCNG Boot Loader Version 1.0.20 (Built on Jan 9 2014 at 19:02:44 by cisco)
Board Revision 1.3 (SN: FCW1802L0TP, Type: AIR-CT5508-K9) (G)

Verifying boot loader integrity... OK.

OCTEON CN5645-NSP pass 2.1, Core clock: 600 MHz, DDR clock: 330 MHz (660 Mhz data rate)
FPGA Revision 1.7
Env FW Revision 1.8
USB Console Revision 2.2
CPU Cores: 10
DRAM: 1024 MB
Flash: 32 MB
Clearing DRAM........ done
Network: octeth0', octeth1
' - Active interface
E - Environment MAC address override
CF Bus 0 (IDE): OK
IDE device 0:
- Model: STEC M2T CF 1.0.0 Firm: K1367MIX Ser#: STIM2Q4413347104613
- Type: Hard Disk
- Capacity: 977.4 MB = 0.9 GB (2001888 x 512)

Press <ESC> now to access the Boot Menu...

Loading primary image (8.5.171.0)
100%

38700375 bytes read
Launching...
init started: BusyBox v1.6.0 (2010-05-13 17:50:10 EDT) multi-call binary
starting pid 847, tty '': '/etc/init.d/rcS'
Decompressing... OK
Validating...... OK
Set PLX switch MPS settings .............!!!!!!!
Starting DB Services...
Detecting Hardware ...

set smp_affinity for irq 48
003f
Starting Web Services ...
DP from CGE5.0 ...

WLCNG Boot Loader Version 1.0.20 (Built on Jan 9 2014 at 19:02:44 by cisco)
Board Revision 1.3 (SN: FCW1802L0TP, Type: AIR-CT5508-K9) (P)

Verifying boot loader integrity... OK.

OCTEON CN5645-NSP pass 2.1, Core clock: 600 MHz, DDR clock: 330 MHz (660 Mhz data rate)
FPGA Revision 1.7
Env FW Revision 1.8
USB Console Revision 2.2
CPU Cores: 10
DRAM: 1024 MB
Flash: 32 MB
Clearing DRAM........ done
Network: octeth0', octeth1
' - Active interface
E - Environment MAC address override
CF Bus 0 (IDE): OK
IDE device 0:
- Model: STEC M2T CF 1.0.0 Firm: K1367MIX Ser#: STIM2Q4413347104613
- Type: Hard Disk
- Capacity: 977.4 MB = 0.9 GB (2001888 x 512)

Press <ESC> now to access the Boot Menu...

the wlc is disconected from the 3560 switch so i dont believe there is any dhcp issues.

i have let the device cylce through 4 reboot cycles with the same result.

i have not attempted to boot from the backup image on the device which is 8.5.161.0

this setup is in my home lab which is running window server 2016 on a hp ml350g6.

from what i have found this may be that the flash is damaged/corrupted and i dont have a service contract as this is for my small photography business and i know the wlc 5508 is at eol.

any thoughts or help would be greatly appreciated.

i do have my old linksys running in the background for wifi access but was looking to rebuild 

my infrastructure with more reliable and robust equipment.  

mark

[marce1000]

  - @Mfpage              - Try the backup image

  M.

[Mfpage]

marce, thanks for the suggestion.  Later yesterday afternoon i did try the backup image and the same reboot cycle occured.  I will be attempting some other things this morning.  i had tftp connection with this box and have a backup of the config and i am not concerned about that. 

I did experiment with xmodem on a switch to reinstall a fresh ios but i do not have an image to install on the wlc. 

[Rich R]

You cannot install software via xmodem - only from a booted, running software image.

Try factory default reset.
Try reseating any components (flash, memory etc) - remember to use anti-static grounding so you don't blitz them.

If none of that helps you likely have a new door-stop.

Since you have a home lab server why not use 9800-CL on the server? 
3702 is supported up to IOS-XE 17.12.x but nothing after that because it's also End of Support.
https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/wireless/catalyst-9800-cl-wireless-controller-cloud/nb-06-cat9800-cl-cloud-wirel-data-sheet-ctp-en.html
https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/wireless/controller/9800/17-12/release-notes/rn-17-12-9800.html#Cisco_Concept.dita_c9f5f62c-3813-4ab2-9365-71d583c3a462

[Mfpage]

Rich ,  this is my first foray into the cisco wireless environment as i  had an opportunity to grad some cisco hardware, inexpensively, through this state surplus auction site.  i will look into the cl9800 option.  I am enrolled in the cisco network academy through my service with the civil air patrol  and had downloaded the virtual controller image but for what ever reason it will not startup in virtual box. i had done a factory reset and opened the box and re-seated all the removal able components before i joined the forum and that did not help.

Here is the strange part.  Yesterday afternoon, after the device was unplugged for about 15 hours,  it started normally and is now running.  Are you aware of any capacitors that may have discharged that would have allowed the flash to fully clear?    Is there a way to completely erase any corrupted files from flash at the cli?   Online documentation for the 5508 is pretty unclear and a help cmd at login does not list any flash options.

thanks for the info about the cl9800 and i will look into it

[Rich R · Accepted solution]

No, there's nothing you can do directly on the flash in AireOS.

And yes faulty capacitors are a fact of life on old hardware ...

9800-CL is only supported on specific versions of specific hypervisors - not VirtualBox.
Table 5 of the Release Notes I linked above has the details. 
Since you're running Windows Server you can run it under Hyper-V.

[Mfpage]

rich,  thanks for the updates and i had the virtual image for the 5508 that i had tried in virtualbox as i have been playing with virtual machines for a while now.  I did play with microsoft hyper visor and found it to be a little more cumbersome when compared to virtualbox which i have been using for a long time.   i will do some more work with microsofts hyperv.  again thanks for the info about the flash and i will keep in mind that prolonged unplugs my be my only option if the device gets in this reboot cycle again.

mark