B&G Zeus3 stuck in reboot loop

[LongRange]

Today my B & G Zeus3 9" decided not to work anymore. Instead, it just reboots constantly.

Once power is applied everything looks normal for approximately 10 seconds. The B & G splash screen logo appears as expected, but just before the point where it usually displays the EULA and wants me to "Accept", it just reboots again, ad infinitum.

It is a fairly simple setup. Only power and N2K cables are connected, but the rebooting happens even if I disconnect the N2K, by way of experiment.

I left it rebooting for at least an hour, connected only to power. A seemingly perpetual loop. I left it to cool down completely, and switched on power again during a cool evening. Same behaviour - constant rebooting on the logo splash screen.

The unit is just over two years old, purchased new from a B & G dealer in Italy. We are in Greece now (Evia).

I installed it myself, and I am pedantic. There have not been any recent changes to the wiring, and no physical abuse of any kind. Physically, it is indistinguishable from new, mounted in a Scanstrut Scanpod on top of the cockpit table. Wiring is more than adequate. It has its own dedicated 2x2.5mm marine cable, with voltage at normal levels. No obvious signs of corrosion anywhere in that system.

Running the engine makes no difference.

Yesterday it was perfectly fine. No signs of impending trouble. In three summers of gentle cruising, it has never done this before.

The unit was updated to the latest available firmware about two months ago, and used almost daily since then.

All suggestions are welcome. Thanks.

[Knotsailingwitu]

Take out any SD cards and reboot

[Knotsailingwitu]

Maybe reseat them

[LongRange]

Originally Posted by Knotsailingwitu

Take out any SD cards and reboot

Thanks. I tried that, to no avail. It does not change the behaviour.

Does anyone know of a magic button combination that makes the unit enter a diagnostic mode?

I am guessing that the problem is software and not hardware, based on having taken care of the unit, and my impression that B&G makes decent stuff. It seems caught in some kind of kernel panic loop, in which case I'd rather not disassemble half my boat just to send it to somebody who's going to press three buttons in A Special Way Only The Dealers Know, thereby flashing the factory OS image and no doubt charging me hundreds of Euro.

[Neptune's Gear]

Call Navico. If it still does this without SD cards, its had an internal disk failure. Navico are likely to replace it free of charge. Bad luck, thats an unusual fault I've only seen once before in 7 years of being a B&G dealer and service agent.

[Dockhead]

I had the same failure with my gen 1 Zeus Touch, just last week.


It was caused by an IP address conflict. You might try removing power from it, disconnecting all Ethernet connections (radar, second MFD, GoFree, sonar, etc.), then powering it up.


Then reconnect Ethernet devices one by one.


This worked for me.

[Neptune's Gear]

Doh, good point DH. I should have said "pull out the SD card and all cables except the power cable and try again" 1st...
To assume that is done is a potential problem!

[LongRange]

Thanks all. I appreciate the help.

The only remaining cable is power. I removed the N2K drop cable, which is the only other connection it had (ethernet socket has nothing connected to it).

Card (Navionics) is also gone.

The rest of the boat is fine. Luckily the boat still has its original ST60 instruments, and they're working. I was going to rip them out eventually, but now I'm rather thankful for the redundancy.

At this stage I believe I've done everything possible at the end-user level to simplify and troubleshoot, without effect, and I will call Navico on Monday morning.

[Cpt Mark]

For the rest of us who own this equipment please post your eventual fix
Thanks

[sailing_gal]

I have found their techies on their help lines to be very helpful. Unfortunately, the manual does not go have much detail on troubleshooting.

[FlyingScot]

Call tech support if you can.
I believe you have to hold down the X or the X and Check during start up. Keep holding until it boots up.

Use at your own risk.

[stgermain45]

I had this same issue on a brand new Zeus3 12" a few weeks ago exactly how you describe. Looks normal, splash screen, then perpetual reboot. In my case, it went away after a few times powering down at the breaker and then powering back up a bit later. In the 3 weeks since, I have not had any issues except for one instance where it froze up. I've been leery of the rebooting issue returning. Since it is new, I've been wondering if it might be prudent to replace under warranty. On the other hand, I just returned from a 10-day trip not completely powering it down once (standby mode used) with not a single problem.

[LongRange]

Originally Posted by stgermain45

I had this same issue on a brand new Zeus3 12" a few weeks ago exactly how you describe. Looks normal, splash screen, then perpetual reboot. In my case, it went away after a few times powering down at the breaker and then powering back up a bit later. In the 3 weeks since, I have not had any issues except for one instance where it froze up. I've been leery of the rebooting issue returning. Since it is new, I've been wondering if it might be prudent to replace under warranty. On the other hand, I just returned from a 10-day trip not completely powering it down once (standby mode used) with not a single problem.

Mine has gone for inspection to the local B&G service rep here in Greece. As a card- carrying member of the Nintendo Navigator club, I feel naked and vulnerable without it

I too tried cutting all power to the unit, several times, but it made no difference. I came to the conclusion that even if it started magically working again I would still need to get it inspected, otherwise I could not trust it again.

[wiseman]

sounds like a key is being held
Down on some models this happened. Try gentle moving with slight pressure to see if you can release the sticking key.hope this helps

Originally Posted by LongRange

Today my B & G Zeus3 9" decided not to work anymore. Instead, it just reboots constantly.

Once power is applied everything looks normal for approximately 10 seconds. The B & G splash screen logo appears as expected, but just before the point where it usually displays the EULA and wants me to "Accept", it just reboots again, ad infinitum.

It is a fairly simple setup. Only power and N2K cables are connected, but the rebooting happens even if I disconnect the N2K, by way of experiment.

I left it rebooting for at least an hour, connected only to power. A seemingly perpetual loop. I left it to cool down completely, and switched on power again during a cool evening. Same behaviour - constant rebooting on the logo splash screen.

The unit is just over two years old, purchased new from a B & G dealer in Italy. We are in Greece now (Evia).

I installed it myself, and I am pedantic. There have not been any recent changes to the wiring, and no physical abuse of any kind. Physically, it is indistinguishable from new, mounted in a Scanstrut Scanpod on top of the cockpit table. Wiring is more than adequate. It has its own dedicated 2x2.5mm marine cable, with voltage at normal levels. No obvious signs of corrosion anywhere in that system.

Running the engine makes no difference.

Yesterday it was perfectly fine. No signs of impending trouble. In three summers of gentle cruising, it has never done this before.

The unit was updated to the latest available firmware about two months ago, and used almost daily since then.

All suggestions are welcome. Thanks.

[Alita49DS]

I have had, and perennially, still have the same crash error on my Garmin 751xs. Which takes data from Raymarine ST60 instruments.

I do not know about B&G but in the case of Garmin there is a diagnostics page which shows the error. I will start a new thread about that as it is a different unit and therefore might have a different solution.

What is interesting is that both B&G and Garmin appear to use software written in a way that on something such as a PC has been unacceptable for years. Namely, that there is no what is called "sand boxing" of parts of the operating system so that a fault does not result in a complete crash. For something that is meant to be relied upon to the extent that your life might depend on it you might think that this is extraordinary.

A blue screen of death on a PC has not been seen for years, yet on something just as, if not more, expensive, and arguably more important, a black screen of death is OK.