[SOLVED] aliexpress minipc (topton) - enters in boot loop

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Ivan Dimitrov

Member
Jul 10, 2016
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Hello, I have been using an 6 port topton minipc from Aliexpress for almost 2 years as router and everything was working OK until it wasn't. The PC restarted and after that it is either restarting constantly or boots and works for a few minutes/hours and boot loops again. Exactly the same behaviour as described here.
The behaviour is the same with Proxmox and pfSense from m.2 or sata SSD.
Any other suggestions how to debug the issue?
Any other possibilities besides trying to heat board to see if the issues is an BGA soldering problem?
 
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sko

Active Member
Jun 11, 2021
247
130
43
Replace the power supply. I have 5 of the 4-port units in use and had the exact same error with one of those which run off the power brick that came with them and with one that is powered via PoE-splitter when that splitter went bad. Replaced the PSU/splitter and they are working again ever since.
At boot they draw the most power, so thats when the PSU usually collapses. You can try to set the CPU boot up power limit to the lowest setting (can't remember the exact name of the option, but it defaults to max performance) to verify if it's the PSU.
 
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Ivan Dimitrov

Member
Jul 10, 2016
52
5
8
40
Yeah, I was also thinking of the power supply and will try with new one. Anyway I doubt it as the system is managing to boot some times and even works for a while.
 
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sko

Active Member
Jun 11, 2021
247
130
43
The PSU usually breaks down if stressed above a certain threshold - sometimes the system might stay just a tad under that threshold and boots successfully. If those systems are powered up they run at ~10-12W (N5105), so no problem for a dying-but-not-quite-dead-yet power supply.
Try booting at lowest CPU clock setting - if it succeeds it is very likely the PSU that's dying.
 
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Ivan Dimitrov

Member
Jul 10, 2016
52
5
8
40
Yep, it was the power brick. Everything works fine now.

Key lessons learned ;) - always run your firewall as VM!!!
After the box failed --> chuck a 4 port I350 to your proxmox host --> VM restore --> reconfigure a bit --> up and running .
 
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