Meraki Z1 help needed - appears to be constantly rebooting

[John3290]

Need some advice from people in the know.

Basically we have a Z1 at home (wife is a home worker). First time with kit on Monday and logged on working fine with new laptop and apparently new Z1.

16 mins 45 seconds the connection drops. Think Nothing of it and it reconnect, 16 mins 45 seconds later it does it again. Basically it did it all day.

She phones IT support who don't appear to have a clue. Blamed our broadband dropping out every 16 mins 45 seconds. I check router, held a solid connection for 9 days, no errors, lost packets etc. Every other device streams flawlessly all day long.

After a number of calls with each one going through same process of checking our ADSL cabling etc etc they advice to hard reset device. We do this and still reboots bang on 16 mins 45 seconds and will connect but after the 1st reboot when it powers back up it no longer works. In the meraki setup webpage the device then shows as NO NAME and no longer shows the Z1 model name. If reset again it will connect and meraki setup page shows correct model and network name, it works fine again for 16.mins and 45 seconds then reboots. Only reconnects if device is reset via reset button on back.

When I say it's.rebooting, basically bang on 16 mins 45 all the rear lights that were on (internet lights and LAN1 lights as only 1 laptop connected) go off. Then every light on rear for all ports etc flash on then device starts up.

Having researched a little to me I think it's doing a firmware update on the second memory chip, rebooting to switch over to it but it's failing. That sound feasible?

Also if Z1 is literally just powered on, no LAN or internet cables attached it will reboot bang on 16 mins 45 seconds. I think maybe 2 or 3 times it's rebooted around 14 to 15 mins. 

IT support can see it disconnecting but haven't a clue how to troubleshoot it and have been reluctant to send out a new device to try. They also can not advice why it's rebooting when not even connected to the internet.

Not sure what info I can supply on top of above.

Our internet is 40 MB ADSL connected at 39MB. Line supports 60MB. Based in the UK.

Anyone see anything like this before? Does it sound like faulty hardware or an issue with the firmware update?

Thanks

John

[BrandonS]

I suggest asking your IT support nicely to escalate this to Cisco Meraki support.  If Meraki support does not have any good ideas they will normally send out a replacement without much hassle.

I manage plenty of Meraki gear and have never heard of anything like the particular issue you describe.  I would guess it is either the Z1 is bad or there is some rare compatibility issue with your ISP gear.  Replacing the Z1 should help determine where to look next if it does not solve the issue.

[BrandonS]

Actually, based on "Also if Z1 is literally just powered on, no LAN or internet cables attached it will reboot bang on 16 mins 45 seconds. I think maybe 2 or 3 times it's rebooted around 14 to 15 mins. " I think you have an easy case to get a replacement shipped out from Meraki.  

[John3290]

Hi, thanks for replying. After 3 days with local IT support they are sending out a new Z1 which will arrive tomorrow by courier. I'm confident it's not a compatibility issue with the internet as friends of the wife with the same internet company and speed ADSL have no issues plus as mentioned it reboots when not even connected to the internet.

I was hoping someone had experienced similar issues. Just seems weird that's all. from research Cisco state the Z1 will work while downloading and updating new firmware at the same time to a secondary chip in the unit. They stated takes around 11 mins or slightly longer and once installed device auto reboots and switches to the new firmware which kind of ties in with what it appears to be doing  but for some reason then doesn't work and keeps rebooting.

IT support have been very hard work and took 3 days to convince them to send a new Z1  box out. 

Will update tomorrow evening (UK time) on the outcome of that. 

[BlakeRichardson]

Sounds like a bad unit, it would be interesting to see if the unit still faults without anything apart from power plugged into it. I suspect a bad component is causing power issues. 

[John3290]

Hey,

Yep as described above it does reboot every 16 mins 45 seconds with only power supply connected an no other cables.

[John3290 · Accepted solution]

UPDATE:

New Z1 arrived by DHL. Working spot on with no reboots.

If only  IT support had listened on Monday this would have been resolved 3 days earlier.