Dlink DNS-321 NAS - No power

[techtips]

Hey everyone, I picked up a older D-Link DNS-321 NAS unit without a power adapter last winter and I finally ordered a replacement Jentec JTA0512 power adapter.

The adapter just arrived recently so in some form of excitement I plugged it in and to my dissapointment, the DNS-321 unit doesn't power on.

I brought the adapter and NAS box to work for my 12 hour shift and started to strip it down and try to observe what could be wrong.

After doing a successful capacitor replacement on an iMac using this great forum, I feel that I can identify a blown/faulty capacitor.

To start off, the power adapter has a 4-pin DIN connector. Two pins don't read anything with the multi-meter (grounds?) but the other two read 5v and 12v.

Other then that, I am unsure what to look for or check. The main board doesn't show any signs of any chips being burnt. All solder points look fine from the eye but I haven't used a magnifying glass to inspect them.

When the power is attached to the NAS unit here is what I've observed:

• Power button/reset button don't do anything
• No diodes light up at the front
• The fan doesn't spin up
• I've tried to do a hard reset on the box, nothing changed.

I know this box isn't worth much at all but for education purposes, I'd love to try to figure out why it's not working and attempt to fix it. This is a Linux based device and it would be neat to fire it up and play with it slightly.


Here are a slew of pictures I took of the board:

















If anybody has a suggestion on what I can look at next, it would be greatly appreciated :-)

[sofTest]

Re: Dlink DNS-321 NAS - No power

I would start with testing and/or replacing the CR2032 battery. Otherwise, you are left with start probing the motherboard with multimeter. I can't see anything obvious wrong from the pictures. This is the only advice I can give.

[momaka]

Re: Dlink DNS-321 NAS - No power

If anybody has a suggestion on what I can look at next, it would be greatly appreciated :-)

First, make sure the power adapter still works when you plug it in the NSA unit and that the voltages on the connector are what they should be.

Next, inspect the power connector solder joints on the NAS board. If in doubt, resolder them.

Then, check if you have 5V and 12V on traces near the power connector. If yes, then the NAS board is getting power, and will need to dig in deeper from there.

I see at least three buck voltage regulator circuits on the board and one linear regulator. So those would be the next item to check. But I will walk you through that once you report back on the status of the above items I mentioned first. That way, I won't be posting unnecessarily long troubleshooting advice if the problem turns out to be a simple one.