Fixing broken Thecus N8800PRO NAS or install Linux on Thecus N8880PRO NAS

A few days ago one of my old Thecus N8800PRO NAS storages stopped working. Instead of throwing it away i decided to take a closer look at it.

First i discovered the missing VGA Port on the system. So no way for more debugging.

But if open the NAS and take a closer look to the mainboard you see that Thecus just „forgot“ to put the VGA Port on the Mainboard.
It would be too much work to solder one on the board if you just want to know what’s exactly broken. So i just killed one of the many many VGA Cables we collected over the years. I removed the metall shield from one side with electronic pilers and directly connect it with the mainboard.

Here we go … VGA Output from the NAS system. Not a very beautiful solution but it works 😉

The many many error messages told me that this little thing was broken.

It is an IDE Flash storage stack of two 128MB Flash Modules (IDE Master and Slave) for the thecus operating system.
This are 40-Pin IDE Flash Modules and i quick ordered one online. I choose a cheap 2GB module to have enough space for the new system. Openmediavault needs a little bit more than 1GB after a fresh installation.

With an USB stick i installed OpenMediaVault http://www.openmediavault.org on the Thecus.

But you can install every other linux oder nas distribution you like.

Now you had a new storage system with an fresh linux and fresh software instead of the old Thecus software which had no update for „decades“.

This Post Has 5 Comments

Niel Swart
19 Sep 2017 Antworten

Hi

Where did you purchase the IDE Stack?

Thanks
1. sebastian
  20 Sep 2017 Antworten
  
  Hi,
  
  from Amazon: https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B013QFU70S/
jason
1 Jun 2018 Antworten

I’m wondering if the CPU fan is running on yours. I thought when I was booting the original DOM that it was spinning but now it seems it is not. Might be worth checking this.
Jason
6 Jun 2018 Antworten

There are also USB headers on the motherboard. I had a cable to create an internal USB port which I used to install Ubuntu.

Thanks for the info on the VGA port – really eased installation!
Falk
26 Nov 2021 Antworten

Hi,
I don’t know if you have still this thecus. I got one this week and tried to get it to work. My Problem is that some cables, especially the button panel cable from the front are not connected. On the mainboard I can not found a matching connectorpoint or label. Can you please make me some detail pictures of the internal wiring?
Next thing is to upgrade the ram and install OMV with your VGA trick 😉

Regards,
Falk