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High percentage of Ethernet Failures - Pi 3B
Posted: Fri Apr 05, 2019 4:51 pm
by gdouglas
I'm beginning to wonder if there's a serious issue with the Ethernet part on the 3B.
I have 8 - 3B units and of those 8, 3 of them have experienced Ethernet hardware failure. All are relatively new units (<1 year old). One died the day I received it.
While the kernel still sees the part -- and the drivers load, Ethernet link and communication always fails -- and in fact the Link LED on the pi illuminates regardless of the presence of a cable or link partner. Eth0 comes up and gets an avahi autoconf IP address.
Yes -- I've tried different OS images (I'm using the latest Raspian lite in general), cables, switches, config tweaks etc, and even hard locking switch ports to all of the various speed/duplex combinations. The symptom is always the same.
I'm looking to understand why this is happening in such high number. The USB ports all still work just fine.
Is there a process by which I can send these units back for analysis -- and/or is there any documentation regarding how or why the part (and I suspect specifically the Ethernet PHY's analog side) might fail?
Is there a known design problem / errata that might explain my experience?
Thanks in advance!
Re: High percentage of Ethernet Failures - Pi 3B
Posted: Fri Apr 05, 2019 6:07 pm
by pcmanbob
Hi.
I think if this was a common issue then with the millions of pi3B's that have been sold we would have seen a lot of people coming to the forum for help and a lot of suppliers complaining due to the number of returns.
First I would look at the network you are connecting them to ( assuming they are all connected to one network ) to see if there is something like a bad switch or a switch with poe turned on, that could be causing these failures.
Re: High percentage of Ethernet Failures - Pi 3B
Posted: Fri Apr 05, 2019 7:54 pm
by gdouglas
I agree with your response -- but i've 'been there done that' with cables etc!
Everything's been checked -- and in fact I quarantined my original switch just in case -- and changed over to another but it still happens.
FYI: in addition to the units I have, a partner has another, larger number of pi 3B's (out of an order of about 100pcs) that exhibit the same symptoms. Completely different network.
FYI2: Our process is:
1) Enable USB boot on the pi with a stripped down image (Sadly the 3B doesn't come with USB boot enabled)
2) Netboot the pi with a blank SD card
3) Have the pi image itself (using dd) from an imaged stored on NFS.
The units usually break between 1 and 2.
I'm mostly looking for guidance on what, from a hardware perspective, could kill the Phy in such a manner -- and could this somehow be a side-effect of enabling network booting/power/etc.
Re: High percentage of Ethernet Failures - Pi 3B
Posted: Sat Apr 06, 2019 12:24 pm
by mahjongg
copy sent to moderators.
Re: High percentage of Ethernet Failures - Pi 3B
Posted: Sun Apr 07, 2019 8:18 am
by dobova86
I read somewhere, that microchip lan951x chip production has changed recently for some weakness in the industrial model due to temperature. I can’t remind where I got the news, but this was not related to Pi.
Re: High percentage of Ethernet Failures - Pi 3B
Posted: Mon Apr 08, 2019 4:42 pm
by gdouglas
Thanks for the lan951x info. I'll look into errata. All help is greatly appreciated.
Re: High percentage of Ethernet Failures - Pi 3B
Posted: Tue Apr 09, 2019 10:10 am
by jamesh
Hi gdouglas,
we would be interested in getting one or two of your defective boards back for testing, as this is not a problem we have seen before.
Can you send an email to
info@raspberrypi.org, FAO JamesH, and we can organise something over email rather than on here.
Thanks
James
Re: High percentage of Ethernet Failures - Pi 3B
Posted: Mon Apr 15, 2019 2:58 pm
by gdouglas
Thanks JamesH -- email sent.
Re: High percentage of Ethernet Failures - Pi 3B
Posted: Mon Apr 15, 2019 7:45 pm
by jamesh
gdouglas wrote: ↑Mon Apr 15, 2019 2:58 pm
Thanks JamesH -- email sent.
I've got a few days off over Easter, so don't expect a reply until next week!
Re: High percentage of Ethernet Failures - Pi 3B
Posted: Wed Apr 17, 2019 3:36 pm
by gdouglas
Thanks for letting me know -- and enjoy your time off.
Reply when you can. I have devices ready to send.
Re: High percentage of Ethernet Failures - Pi 3B
Posted: Tue Apr 30, 2019 4:07 pm
by gdouglas
Hi James -- hope you had a good Easter break!
I haven't seen a reply from you via email. I re-sent a message this morning.
Thanks.
Re: High percentage of Ethernet Failures - Pi 3B
Posted: Tue Apr 30, 2019 8:36 pm
by jamesh
gdouglas wrote: ↑Tue Apr 30, 2019 4:07 pm
Hi James -- hope you had a good Easter break!
I haven't seen a reply from you via email. I re-sent a message this morning.
Thanks.
Hmm, nothing made it to me first go , I'll see what happens with the one this morning. Make sure you address it FAO James Hughes
Re: High percentage of Ethernet Failures - Pi 3B
Posted: Fri May 03, 2019 5:54 pm
by gdouglas
Hi again James -- I sent the emails again ( a couple of different ways) to
info@raspberrypi.org -- did you receive them?
Is there some other way we can connect?
Thanks~!
Re: High percentage of Ethernet Failures - Pi 3B
Posted: Thu May 09, 2019 3:59 pm
by BespokeTech
gdouglas wrote: ↑Fri Apr 05, 2019 4:51 pm
I'm beginning to wonder if there's a serious issue with the Ethernet part on the 3B.
I have 8 - 3B units and of those 8, 3 of them have experienced Ethernet hardware failure. All are relatively new units (<1 year old). One died the day I received it.
While the kernel still sees the part -- and the drivers load, Ethernet link and communication always fails -- and in fact the Link LED on the pi illuminates regardless of the presence of a cable or link partner. Eth0 comes up and gets an avahi autoconf IP address.
Yes -- I've tried different OS images (I'm using the latest Raspian lite in general), cables, switches, config tweaks etc, and even hard locking switch ports to all of the various speed/duplex combinations. The symptom is always the same.
I'm looking to understand why this is happening in such high number. The USB ports all still work just fine.
Is there a process by which I can send these units back for analysis -- and/or is there any documentation regarding how or why the part (and I suspect specifically the Ethernet PHY's analog side) might fail?
Is there a known design problem / errata that might explain my experience?
Thanks in advance!
Hi,
Any PoE come into play here? I note you mention that you have tried different switches cables etc, but presumably that was after each one had died! Did the 3 faulty pi's all die when plugged into the same switch hardware? If so I would be interested to know the make/model of network switch used.
Re: High percentage of Ethernet Failures - Pi 3B
Posted: Thu May 09, 2019 4:01 pm
by jamesh
gdouglas wrote: ↑Fri May 03, 2019 5:54 pm
Hi again James -- I sent the emails again ( a couple of different ways) to
info@raspberrypi.org -- did you receive them?
Is there some other way we can connect?
Thanks~!
info@ is the appropratie way, I'll ask around to see what's happened to them.