Synology ds1512+ NAS
I am a big fan of the Synology NAS's - for a long time a Synology NAS has been my number 1 recommendation for a home or small business NAS device. The combination of price, performance and features makes them pretty much ideal if you are willing to pay the premium for a pre-built NAS. I've especially liked the DS1010+ and its successors because of the size and expandability plus the speediness of file transfers. I like Synology products so much that I personally am running two DS1010+ units, each with one 5 disk expansion unit (the DX510).
However, the new Synology DS1512+ seems to be suffering from some teething problems. Folks on various review sites and Synology's own forum are reporting failure to reboot properly within a few days to a few weeks of putting the NAS into service. This has gone so far that the term "blue blink of death" has been applied - related to the blue light on the front of the NAS that blinks indicating a boot problem.
One reviewer on Amazon summed up his thoughts as follows:
But, none of them has the DS1512+, which is (at the time I purchased my unit 3 weeks ago) pretty new. A number of people have told me they have had zero problems with the DS1511+ and I assumed the DS1512+ would be even better. Apparently, though, now that I have purchased the product I see from the Amazon.com reviews and the Synology company's own user forum that lots of custoers are having problems with this new model so I have to assume some design or supply chain issue. I am hopeful it will be corrected soon because the feature set and the functionality (when it was working) seemed pretty great.
For those shopping for NASes, I suggest either getting a different model (The 1511+ is still on the market or there are other manufacturers), or wait until this new model gets the kinks worked out.
Source: Amazon
As I mentioned, this problem is being discussed on the Synology forum as well. One post mentioned that it looks like there is a manufacturing defect that has affected the motherboards of this unit. However, note that there are only a few people who have reported the problem on the forum - so it is unclear exactly how widespread the issue is.
So, for now, I am recommending that readers of this site hold off purchasing the Synology DS1512+ until a fix is announced and fielded. Please note that there is no evidence that other Synology NAS devices are affected - only the brand new DS1512+ seems to be hit by the problem.
I will post back here as soon as a fix is reported or if I hear anything new.
I’m having issues with the DS412+. I think there is a raid controller issue. My raid keeps breaking even though I do not have any volumes established. Been struggling with it for a week now. Customer service is uneven. I get one email a night with a short answer.
Sean, certainly the customer service at Synology is taking a beating on their forum. Hopefully, they will get their act together. I haven’t heard of any other problems with the DS421+, though.
And Synology doesn’t seem to reply to forum posts and does not do support on the weekends (no email nor phone). And that is a huge problem.
Actually, there was one or perhaps two people in the synology forum with ds1812+ units that have the same issue (blinking blue light after reboot)
This problem also affects the new DS1812+, which uses almost identical hardware.
The most frustrating part is that this was first reported a few weeks ago and Synology has yet to publicly acknowledge the problem or even say they are working on it. Many are also frustrated at the slow response to their support requests and the cumbersome RMA process.
I was getting ready to purchase one; I hope this issue is resolved soon or else I’ll look elsewhere.
They have finally acknowledged an issue in Twitter replies.
https://twitter.com/#!/Synology/status/188324185276297216
https://twitter.com/#!/Synology/status/188323114537598977
Certainly seems to be a good sign. Hope the fix arrives quickly. Synology NAS’s are among the price/performance leaders in pre-built machines…
Hi. I have the exact same issue after upgrading my DS1010+ to the DSM version 4.0. Restarting the device appears BBOD. I never had problems before in other updates or performance. After long wait, be patient and not touch it, I could access the NAS. There was a notice of cohesion (unfortunately not note exact message). Sorry for the translation by google translator.
I upgraded my both of my DS1010+ devices to the 4 version of DSM. Both rebooted fine. I doubt that this is the same problem as others are having – I haven’t seen any other reports of upgrade issue with the older models. Hopefully, yours is working fine now.
Bought the DS1512+ about a week ago. Upgraded to DSM 4.0 and started off with 3 disks. Copied a bunch of data to it and let it run for a few days. Rebooted the thing and it rebooted just fine, so I added 2 more disks and expanded the original volume (which took ~30 hours). Left for a day out of town and the thing is on, but unresponsive. I can ping it, but that’s it. Tried rebooting it and now BSOD. FML.