Bricked DS-7608NI-E2/8P-2T After Upgrade

[Anthony Lombardo]

Hello all,
Recently purchased a HIKVision DS-7608NI-E2/8P-2T from a company on on eBay who deals in overstock and freight salvage goods. Have bought many cameras and other items from them with great satisfaction. Box was factory sealed when it arrived with silver tape on flaps and was brand new.

I set everything up and was working beautifully until I tried to upgrade the firmware. Now the NVR still boots and shows camera feeds but when trying to log in the user id (previously admin) is now just a bunch of boxes, ? marks and other characters about 20 characters in length. Called HIKVIsion tech support and we were able to see the NVR through IVMS4200 but unable to log in from there either. They suggested calling Anexiter who by searching the serial number was the distributor of the NVR, but they were unwilling to provide any assistance. I also noticed on one of the labels on the box says ADT Customized. The original FW Version was V3.3.601_174014 and the NVR was manufactured in 11/2017. I was trying to upgrade to ds-76xxni-e1e2p_usa_firmware_v3.4.21_160630 which was the first of 4 upgrades to current version:

Original installed version: V3.3.601_174014
Step 1: ds-76xxni-e1e2p_usa_firmware_v3.4.21_160630
Step 2: ds-76xxni-e1e2p_usa_firmware_v3.4.3_160822
Step 3: ds-76xxni-e1e2p_usa_firmware_v3.4.5_170224
Step 4: ds-76xxni-e1e2p_usa_firmware_v3.4.92_170518

Tried the TFTP thing but there is no serial port on this DVR is I understand the directions correctly listed in other threads.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[alastairstevenson]

Tried the TFTP thing but there is no serial port on this DVR is I understand the directions correctly listed in other threads.

The Hikvision tftp updater does not require a serial port - it operates over the network.

Suggestion:
Re-apply with the tftp updater the same version of firmware that was last installed.
This should work OK, and if it does, the configuration should be reset back to defaults, so the NVR would change to an 'Inactive' state where you need to create your own strong password to 'Activate' it.
The tftp updater tool and instructions can be found here on the forum : TFTPServ
And a very good tool to find the NVR, to show the status of the NVR, to 'Activate' the NVR, to change the IP address to match your network, is the SADP tool here :SADP Tool

In summary:
Unzip the tftp updater files into a folder on the PC.
Drop the digicap.dav firmware file into the same folder.
Change the PC IP address to 192.0.0.128
Start the tftpserve.exe program, accept the Windows firewall request.
Check the program says 'Initialised on 192.0.0.128'
With the PC and NVR connected to the switch/router as normal, power on the NVR.
Observe the status messages, looking for 'System update completed'.
Close the tftpserve.exe program.
Check the NVR status with SADP, 'Activate' it by creating your own password, change the IP address as needed for your network.

Good luck!

 

[pozzello]

Alastair's recover method my not be needed.

A couple thing to try before the big hammer approach indicated by Alastair:

If you happened to have disabled the password on the CONSOLE (mouse & hdmi UI)
you can 'restore to inactive' from the 'system maintenance'/defaults page' and go from there...

If you are locked out the console as well as the UI due to changed admin username, see
NVR V3.4.62 build160503 Multi-lingual Release

 

[Anthony Lombardo]

I appreciate all the help. Turns out that just hitting ENTER or OK on the login screen with the garbage user name without supplying a password got me in. It then brought me to a screen to enter the old password, a new password and confirm new password. Hit OK from there without putting any info in and brought me to the menu with admin privileges. Factory reset and upgraded to each of the remaining updates without an issue. Never thought to not enter a password. Thanks again.

 

[pozzello]

yeah, that's the recovery method described in the link i posted. the user/password database is basically munged, so there's a good chance that one or more of the admin users have blank passwords.
you got lucky on the first one...