A friend called me about a broken Gira Control 19 Client 2. It kept rebooting continuously, even after performing the recovery procedure.

I ran several tests and was able to repair the device. If you have a broken device, feel free to send me an email (or the device) and I’ll see if I can help fix it.

Hardware Overview

The Gira Control 19 Client 2 uses an iBASE IB898-I25 x86 based 3,5″ single-board computer. It features:

  • Intel ATOM processor
  • LVDS20 cable for touchscreen connection
  • 4GB RAM
  • 64GB 2,5″ Innodisk SATA SSD
  • Black passive heatsink on the back
  • Pre-installed with Windows 7 Embedded Standard

Repairing the Gira Control 19 Client 2

  1. Suspecting the SSD
    First, I thought the SSD might have bad blocks. The device kept throwing blue screens and rebooting randomly.
    So I removed the SSD and created a full dump of all partitions. It contains:

    • System Reserved (100MB, NTFS)
    • Gira Control Recovery (18.5GB, NTFS)
    • Primary Data (40GB, NTFS)
    • Gira Logging (1GB, NTFS)

    I replaced it with this Crucial MX500 2.5″ 500GB SSD, cloned the partitions, but the spontaneous reboots continued. So: not the SSD.

    Gira Control 19 Client 2 - Innodisk 2.5 inch SATA SSD
  2. Suspecting RAM
    Next, I tested the RAM. I inserted a bootable USB stick with MemTest86, entered the BIOS (DEL key), selected the USB drive, and tried to boot.
    MemTest86 started, but immediately caused a reboot.
    I replaced the RAM with this Crucial 4GB DDR3L-1600 SODIMM (IBASE IB898 supports “1x DDR3L-1066 SO-DIMM, Max 8GB (Non-ECC)” according to the datasheet, so it’s worth trying a 8GB memory module here).
    However, the reboots became even more frequent with the new RAM and SSD.
    Gira Control 19 Client 2 - Innodisk 4GB RAM
    Power Supply!
  3. This pointed me toward the power supply. The Crucial MX500 SSD required more power, and memtest86 would stress the RAM further.
    I heard a soft “click” and measured voltage drops from 12V to ~3.5V when it rebooted.
    I removed the internal power supply and hooked up my lab power supply: Success! The device booted fully and MemTest86 passed. Current draw was ~2.5A.
    I ordered this Mean Well EPS-65S-12 on Amazon.nl (or .de or .com) PSU (12V @ 6A), and it now runs stable. It can deliver up to 6Amps which should be enough for peaks.

Notes

  • The latest QuadClient requires at least .NET Framework 4.5.2 (included in Gira’s latest image).

  • Installing newer versions (4.7.2 or 4.8.0) was not successful in my tests.

Extra Info

The IB boards are hard to get and I hope they don’t fail. Note that the Gira Control 19 (non client 2) has an IB883 board. It’s easy to see the difference because a Gira Control 19 Client 2 has a DisplayPort connector and the Gira Control 19 (non client 2) has a DVI connector.