IMS2000 indicator LED puzzle

[Leo Enticknap]

Well here's a weird one to start the weekend.

At the tail end of a service call, the main business of which was unrelated, I was asked to check out an IMS2000 in another room that was apparently refusing to play encrypted DCPs. As soon as I set eyes on the faceplate, I jumped to the conclusion that there was no mystery as to why:

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No SM lights at all should mean that the media block side of it is completely buggered; a green on the left-hand SMS light and nothing on the right is supposed to mean that it's still booting. But the web UI looked entirely normal, including a green indication for the security manager! The only thing a log analysis complained about was that the firmware was not current (it was on 4.6.11 as I found it; current is 4.6.15). The tech at the location told me that he'd updated the software and SM in an attempt to install the certificate extension, and then installed that extension successfully, but that he was unable to install the firmware update.

I was able to install the firmware update, and was hoping that doing so would restore normal indicator LED functionality; but it didn't. However, after doing this, it accepted the encrypted content tester DCP and the KDM for it, and played it successfully!

The tech didn't know if the indicator LEDs were in this condition before he installed any of the updates. Apart from those LEDs, this IMS2000 appears to be working normally and in good health. I wondered if anyone else has encountered behavior like this, and if so, if it can safely be ignored, or if it is likely an early warning of more serious problems.

[Frank Cox]

Is it possible that the leds are physically disconnected somehow?

[Caleb Williams]

The leds on the left are controlled via executables in /doremi/bin/ and /doremi/sbin. (Fun fact: you can run one of those programs and set the cpu led's however you want until a status change or reboot). The controller for the SM led's is under the IMB shield.

In your picture only one of the cpu led's is lit indicating that the server is "Booting." Does that jive with what was happening on the web-interface when you took the picture? If not, then there may be a problem with the host system as well.

We have had a few IMS2000's crap out due to power-delivery issues on the board, and it's possible that whatever is supposed to feed power to those led's is dead and caused a short when it died. Given the state of the IMS when you started troubleshooting, I'd bet the same issue effected the whole media block but was able to recover after a power-cycle when trying to install firmware.

I have to ask, because it's in my IT-brain-nature; Was the IMS powered down for a time and then powered back on?

I would not trust that server long-term.

[Leo Enticknap]

Thanks Caleb. My gut feeling is that I wouldn't, either.

My understanding is that the projector/server is left on 24/7.

In your picture only one of the cpu led's is lit indicating that the server is "Booting." Does that jive with what was happening on the web-interface when you took the picture?

No - the web UI behaves as if the thing is fully booted, functional, and shows normal status for everything. With the faceplate status LEDs as they are in that photo, it plays DCPs, encrypted and unencrypted.

Is it possible that the leds are physically disconnected somehow?

I don't know, but suspect that they are soldered onto the motherboard. By the time I got to look at this IMS2000 I was rapidly running out of time before a hard out from the site (the earlier task, and the main reason for my being there, ran into problems and took longer than expected), otherwise I'd have done the pull, contact clean, and reseat ritual. I also briefly wondered about the projector's SMPS and/or backplane being a factor (the projector is a decade-old DP4K-23B): we know that the backplane in particular is prone to failure in older Series 2 Barcos. But all of those lights were normal, and the projector was not registering any warnings or errors.

[Marcel Birgelen]

I suspect that those LEDs are being controlled by the GPIO controller on the mainboard. Maybe this controller has an issue? You apparently have nothing else connected to the GPO/GPI ports, otherwise I'd check if those ports would still behave normally.

[Steve Guttag]

If the unit is booting up and running properly but the LEDs don't light (none of them), I'd suspect that which drives the LEDs, not the SM itself. The serial number for the server comes from the SM. if the SMS is getting the serial number for the SM, it is coming up.

I've had other brand servers where the LED status was absent (GDC SX-2000AR) including the Ethernet port LEDs didn't light. The IMB worked perfectly otherwise and still is a decade or so later.

[Leo Enticknap]

If the unit is booting up and running properly but the LEDs don't light (none of them)..

One of them does: the left hand side of the two SMS LEDs. The other five are all out.

Caleb's theory that some sort of power disruption event either burned out or killed the power to five out of the six LEDs makes the most sense to me, and is supported by the fact that the LED that does work shows the correct color to correspond to the actual functionality of the unit. This would also suggest that the power to all six LEDs comes from the outside the FIPS enclosure, because if power for the SMS LEDs came from within it, the entire SM/media block side of it would be bricked; and as Steve notes, the web UI would not display its six-digit serial number.

The bottom line is that the customer is content to carry on using this IMS2000 until it breaks. It's in a film school lecture theater, that apparently only plays DCPs once or twice a year. Most of the time it's used for Powerpoints and alternative content via the CCB's DVI inputs, and when they do next get a DCP show, they'll have long enough to figure out a plan B if the IMS2000 has become nonfunctional at that point. They are also only ten miles from our shop, so if they did need to replace it quickly, we could make that happen without any trouble. If this were a full time regular movie theater in Dead Skunk Junction, ND, the nearest tech is a day's travel away, and a couple of days without the ability to play DCPs would do serious harm to their business, I'd advise pre-emptive replacement at this point. But thankfully, we're not in that situation.