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Offline LT.Iglehart  
#1 Posted : 15 March 2023 16:40:14(UTC)
LT.Iglehart

United States   
Joined: 21/04/2013(UTC)
Posts: 4
Location: NYC
My CONTROL STATION CS-2 was operating normally, with lots of trains loaded.
Here is the description of my situation which was sent to Marklin Customer Support (no reply (so-far)):
**********
My Central Station CS-2 has been working normally.
I have updated the unit successfully before and wanted to check if additional updates were available.
I connected my CS-2 to the internet with an ethernet cable.
Launched the update using the CS-2 on-screen prompts.
The CS-2 started the Update - which was lengthy - downloading a scrolling list of files.
The Start-Stop Bar flashed occasionally.

When this process appeared complete, pressed the <More> Button on the lower right of the display.
The screen changed to a blue background and I saw a green progress bar fill from left to right as the process continued.

At this point the screen went dark.
There was a small white cursor (dash or underline) blinking on the upper left edge of the screen.
Gradually this cursor moved down until it reached the bottom (lower left) of the screen.
This blinking cursor has remained (barely visible) at the bottom left of the screen.
After more than 3 hours the cursor is still blinking at the bottom left edge of the display.

I think the CS-2 was supposed to re-boot after the green progress bar.

It looks like the CS-2 has “Frozen” on the update.

**********

I THINK THE UPDATE FAILED DUE TO A LACK OF SYSTEM MEMORY CAPACITY.
IS THERE A DYI "RE-SET" FUNCTION HIDDEN SOMEWHERE?

HAS ANYONE HAD THIS HAPPEN?
ANY SUGGESTIONS/RECOMMENDATIONS WILL BE APPRECIATED!

THANKS
Offline JohnjeanB  
#2 Posted : 15 March 2023 17:14:04(UTC)
JohnjeanB

France   
Joined: 04/02/2011(UTC)
Posts: 3,083
Location: Paris, France
Hi (no first name?)
Welcome to the forum if I am not too late.

I am using CS2s since 2010 and quite a lot.
One died before the hardware version that brought "galvanic Isolation" and 5 A max current, it went back to Göppingen for exchanging the mother board and replacing with a 60215 motherboard..
I got a second 60215 unit which I used a lot (2 units alltogether).

Now, one of them does not boot anymore (the initial screen remains and the progress bar continues forever.
The second one is almost fully functional except that the program track channel is dead (it provides a positive voltage that cannot be interpreted by any loco, in any protocol.

Sorry for the long introduction, now is the little I know:
- Märklin will not repair a CS2 even for a small problem, because according to the EU law, Märklin would be OBLIGATED to provide a warranty which they can't on some components
- Märklin will propose a rebate for the replacement with a CS3 BUT you must send the faulty unit to Göppingen AND the rebate proposal is LESS that what you can get with some German shops.
- the story goes (I cannot confirm) that the CS2 uses a solid-state memory (this part is sure) that can patch errors up to a point and when that point is reached then you have mass storage issues
- of course during a download a large activity on storage (mass memory) is performed. So it reveals weaknesses in the mass memory system, like the one you experienced.

To some extent you are right, your CS2 could not finish booting up by lack of valid mass memory.

What can you do?
- before one of my CS2 finally died, it remained for month with the cold start problem but after quite a persistance (I am a stubborn person) it accepted to finish booting and worked for a few month.
- what is the present status of your CS2? Dark screen, the starting image with a roundhouse, other ?

Personnaly I ended up purchasing a CS3 (60226) for less than 600€ from MSL (Lippe)
Here is my opened CS2
60215 IMG_4343 red.jpg
Cheers
Jean



Offline LT.Iglehart  
#3 Posted : 15 March 2023 18:47:45(UTC)
LT.Iglehart

United States   
Joined: 21/04/2013(UTC)
Posts: 4
Location: NYC
Thanks for the response Jean,
The screen is blank (dark) the only sign of life is that tiny white blinking cursor in the extreme lower left of the screen.

From your post, it sounds like MARKLIN is just "walking away" for the issue.

I start with a fully functioning CS-2, connect directly to Marklin via internet/ethernet, invoke the CS-2s own Update routine, watch the update files scroll by as they are downloaded. watch the update proceed...
and end up with a DEAD CS-2!
This seems to be completely Marklin's responsibility!

Wow, what a triumph of German engineering!

Thanks again for your response, it is much appreciated.

I will contact my Marklin Dealer and continue to wait for a response form Marklin's Customer Support.

Thanks Again!!!


L. Iglehart
Offline JohnjeanB  
#4 Posted : 15 March 2023 21:51:46(UTC)
JohnjeanB

France   
Joined: 04/02/2011(UTC)
Posts: 3,083
Location: Paris, France
Hi
I understand your aggravation, quite an expensive an nice unit.
From the legal perspective, Märklin commited itself to a 2 year warranty and they ceased to produce it around 2017, so they are clean.
Now with at least 3 failures on my CS2s I can say there never was a warning sign: It is fully functional and all of sudden it does not work.
I was not really happy to have to purchase a CS3 but when you must, you must.

Is it better with other brands? Not sure at all.

My previous computer (good american brand) let me down after 5 years of service and I bought a new one.
Cheers
Jean
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