Hikvision NVR stuck at "Uncompressing Linux... done, booting the kernel" after firmware update (No HDMI/VGA, SADP, or IP)

kimizz

n3wb
Sep 18, 2026
1
0
oSW
Hi everyone,

Model: DS-7616NI-K2
PCB: DS-80241-PREV2.0

I am trying to recover a Hikvision NVR via UART serial connection after a failed/stuck firmware update. The TFTP update process completed successfully, but the device is now soft-bricked and stuck at the kernel boot stage.
I tried flashing almost all the firmware versions from that link, as well as others:
Hikvision

Problem Summary:

  • The unit powers on and passes U-Boot, but stops indefinitely at:

    Starting kernel ...

    Uncompressing Linux... done, booting the kernel.

  • No display output on VGA or HDMI.
  • No network activity: Device does not get an IP, nor is it visible in Hikvision SADP tool.
  • TFTP firmware flash went through cleanly without reported errors, but the system fails to initialize after reboot.

Has anyone experienced this specific hang at kernel boot on HKVS U-Boot devices after a TFTP flash? Could this be an incorrect/mismatched bootargs variable, a corrupted rootfs partition, or an incompatible firmware version for this hardware revision?

Any guidance on how to force a full environment reset or correctly re-flash the partitions via U-Boot would be greatly appreciated!

HKVS # printenv
bootcmd=tftp 0x42000000 $(bootfile);bootm 0x42000000;
bootdelay=1
baudrate=115200
ipaddr=192.0.0.64
serverip=192.0.0.128
gatewayip=192.0.0.1
netmask=255.255.255.0
bootfile=uImage
ver=U-Boot 2010.06-svn39711 (Dec 10 2019 - 12:53:10)
stdin=serial
stdout=serial
stderr=serial
phyaddr1=7
mdio_intf=rgmii
bootargs=mem=512M console=ttyS0,115200
ethaddr=ac:cb:51:f6:17:14
sec=tftp 0x42000000 Ky2015-1-H3536-uImage_sec;bootm 0x42000000;
default=y2mount /nand;y2rdm /nand/uImage 0x42000000;
verify=n
tftpblocksize=8192
hik_ver=verison V2.0-39683-39711 (build 20191210125352 root)

Environment size: 571/4092 bytes
HKVS #