Cisco 3550 amber lights

[superfox1]

Hey guys, this is my first post, so I hope it is in the correct location if not, move it for me!

At one of my customers sites, they have a Cisco 3550 switch that every time anything is plugged into one of the interfaces, all the interface leds flash amber, then return to green within a few seconds (30 seconds or so). While it is flashing amber, everything is down, so the customer is not connecting to exchange or the internet.

Any ideas before I open a TAC case?

 

[C0RR0SIVE]

Sorry this may not be of any help, but does the switch auto sense the length of the cable to reduce power needed? Could be possible that it does that to each cable being added it then restarts and checks each port and then uses only the power needed for the length of cable... I know some basic switchs have started to do that to get some sort of green power label...

 

[Kharn]

Cisscos support site is very helpful on this matter *sarcasm*,

Amber -

System is receiving power but is not functioning properly.

but they fail to tell you what exactly the problem might be, are they blinking in any determinable sequence? or are they just blinking in a steady fashion?

 

[bilbus]

That is completely normal!

thats the cisco loop check .. it tests that link to make sure you have not made a network loop.

I beleve you can disable it, but its worth having.

 

[mikesgroovin]

Cisscos support site is very helpful on this matter *sarcasm*, but they fail to tell you what exactly the problem might be, are they blinking in any determinable sequence? or are they just blinking in a steady fashion?

Well, if you know what you are looking for Cisco support and documentation on their products is probably one of the best (if not the best) in the world. Depending on the Amber light and what the light was for the quote you made would most likely make sense. Sorry that I'm seeming to jump on the defensive, but yea, you might see what you quoted on their site or within documentation... but it was probably listed under a specific function. The light serves for different meanings depending on what the device is doing at the time.

As for the lights. There are a series of tests that the device makes. There is a loop test that it makes and the lights do blink like this, but I've never noticed it cause a problem THAT noticeable. The loop test is extremely short.

 

[Kharn]

To be honest mike this is the first time I have been on Ciscos technical support site, and I haven't really experimented to had to service any of there products so it was harsh for me to judge them from one search.

 

[C0RR0SIVE]

From what little experience I have had with Cisco switchs at my old votech school, they did that, it was a combination of loop tests to check for a loop back, and a combo of checking all the lengths of wires to use the right ammount of power to keep the connection going, took our switchs about 30 seconds to do this cycle, there was a way to turn it off, but we chose not to because when setting the wiring closet up I accidently made 3 different loops in the network... Not pretty watching things come to a halt.

 

[mikesgroovin]

To be honest mike this is the first time I have been on Ciscos technical support site, and I haven't really experimented to had to service any of there products so it was harsh for me to judge them from one search.

It's ok. It's just pretty rare to see a company take their technical documentation department so seriously. What you quoted was certainly true for a specific function and usually at that point you would login to the switch and view some logs to figure out frank from ava.

It's ok to misjudge though... I called Stella a "beer" once upon a thread, remember?
LOL

 

[mikesgroovin]

From what little experience I have had with Cisco switchs at my old votech school, they did that, it was a combination of loop tests to check for a loop back, and a combo of checking all the lengths of wires to use the right ammount of power to keep the connection going, took our switchs about 30 seconds to do this cycle, there was a way to turn it off, but we chose not to because when setting the wiring closet up I accidently made 3 different loops in the network... Not pretty watching things come to a halt.

Yea, I suppose that it could take that long because there is a physical and a memory test too. I guess that the time frame always seemed pretty quick to me. Sadly, I dont have a client with a 3550 to log into right now... otherwise I would run it and see.

 

[bilbus]

All managed cisco switches do this.

The physical and memory tests are done during bootup and ios loading. ....

As i said earler, this is completely normal for a cisco switch.