Dolby IMS2000 (No longer supported) CPU1&2 RED, not pingable. Ideas? or Bin?

[Steve Guttag]

Since you say it is a 1201 and I don't know your familiarity with the "FMT" series of NEC projectors. Please know, that the "service" password has changed for them (more than 4 digits) and that is required to clear things. AND, you still need to remarry the IMS within the NEC DCC software. Since it is a 1201, either the "Classic" DCC or the "New Coke" version of DCC should work to marry the IMS.

So, you do need to do two things to clear a marriage tamper! If you don't have the current code or the marry passwords (it is the one for Doremi...don't be fooled by the Dolby faceplate...the Dolby passwords are JUST for the CAT745), you'll need to obtain those.

To add to Leo's point above, I've been known to take a piece of foam and put it over the switch in the NEC card cage so that when the IMS goes in, it has an easier time "pressing" in on that switch.

[Marcel Birgelen]

Marcel:

Care to rephrase that?

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-Steve

My table probably got cut off at just the right row.

[Leo Enticknap]

Steve - with the one I had, it was the switch at the back (bottom left) of the card cage that failed, not the one at the front that the IMB faceplate depresses. And it wasn't just a broken or bent lever - it had gone internally bad. Once I had it out of the projector I pushed down on the lever, heard the switch click, and got a reading of megaohms from it. The one at the front was OK, but I replaced it anyways - silly not to after all that disassembly.

A Dolby tech I worked this with (when initially suspecting an IMS2000 fault) told me that they are contacted about this (tamper switch in an NEC goes bad, and the customer or tech suspects a bad IMS) all the time. The telltale symptom is if the projector does not report a tamper, even after you've pulled and reseated the IMS, and then the marriage procedure fails.

[Steve Guttag]

Good info! Thanks Leo!

[Marcel Birgelen]

Still, even with the tamper error active, why isn't he able to reach the IP address of the IMS? The tamper issue shouldn't block the controller side of the IMS from booting...

[James Gardiner]

I am off interstate on a service call for 7 days. This will have to wait.
The VGA converter did not work as suggested by Dolby.
I have ordered a DVI one.. very cheap. But will take a few days to arrive, hope its here when I get back.

[Leo Enticknap]

Still, even with the tamper error active, why isn't he able to reach the IP address of the IMS? The tamper issue shouldn't block the controller side of the IMS from booting...

Good point: in the case I described above, I still had IP contact with the IMS, and its web UI worked OK (apart from complaining of a projector communication error).

Easiest way to establish if we're dealing with a projector problem, an IMS problem, or both, would be to swap the suspect IMS into another projector, and if it works OK, a known good one into the suspect projector. But obviously that's easier said than done if this is a single screen venue.

[Sean McKinnon]

You can try getting a boot ISO from Dolby and booting off a USB incase it is a failed SSD.

[James Gardiner]

Ok, finishing this story off..
The unit in question, it had a faulty HD for about 5 weeks (Yes it went on this long as COVID restrictions kept getting in the way of getting a service man to site.)
It was after a second HD died and we rebooted the unit, that the system went bad. And this total fail occurred.

At appears now I have in in my lab, and I have changed the HD's the unit is now behaving as expected. I am initialising a set of HDs now and will run it a few days doing tests. But it looks like it was connected to a HD failure causing a wider malfunction for the unit as a whole.

Very rare I expect.
I have not really seen a failed HD cause a system to fail like this. I imagine the issue did something to the power.

[Leo Enticknap]

Interesting. Agreed that a bad drive must have buggered up the 5V bus somehow, and prevented other things powered by it (the boot flash drive?) from working.

I had a similar problem with a Barco DP2K-15C. The card cage lost all power: lamp power supplies still lit up and whirred when power was connected and the switch off, but absolutely nothing happened when the switch was flipped. We originally thought it was the SMPS, but it wasn't. After much trial and error, I discovered that if the CCB was disconnected from the card cage, that enabled the fans to start and the ICP to boot up. At this point I ran it past Cinionic, expecting them to tell me to replace the CCB, but instead they reported that this can happen when one of the larger fans goes bad, and suggested that I disconnect all of them, attempt to boot the projector, and if successful, reconnect them one at a time until I identify the bad one.

At this point, the customer decided that he wasn't willing to sink yet more service call money into an 11-year old projector (this was one of the first Series 2 Barcos sold), and to upgrade to an SP4K; so I never did complete the diagnosis. But if Cinionic are right, that would be another case of a part failure causing power supply disruption, thereby killing the entire machine.