# Zotac Zbox Nano not booting



## rampage (May 8, 2012)

Hi everyone i hope you can help.

I have just bought a new Zotac Nano mini pc and have had it running for a few hours and now the system will not boot, even to the bios.


i have had the system running with windows with everything fine and dandy, in the bios i enabled a setting to wake the system on power restore and after that that system will not boot. it sits there with the fan spinning at 100% and not displaying any video (the mini pc only has one HDMI as an output)

(i forget the actual name of setting, but if the power went out it enabled the system to reboot and start up again)


I did manage to get the system to boot but this involved the lovely (warranty void sticker) to unplug the cmos battery. this would work but when the system was powered down 1>2 more times it would freeze at the bios boot and need to be unplugged again.

This is where my main issues now comes, i can not get the system to boot even with the bios battery and system unplugged for 20 min, i have tested it with no HDD and different RAM even with no HDD and RAM and its the exact same issue.


any ideas would be very helpful

Thanks.


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## lyndonguitar (May 8, 2012)

wow i just saw one of these earlier. what a coincedence.

did you try resetting cmos and bios settings


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## Red_Machine (May 8, 2012)

You might have to press and hold the power button with it unplugged and the battery removed, as the capacitors can sometimes hold a charge that will keep the CMOS settings saved even with the battery removed.


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## rampage (May 8, 2012)

i have, well i thought i have completely drained it, im leaving it over night (just because its bed time) then seeing it it boots again tomorrow.


The problem is i cant seam to reset the bios, with the cmos battery unplugged and using the power button trick, or even waiting 20min.  

side note... (i have checked the power brick and it is putting out the correct 19v )


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## Batou1986 (May 8, 2012)

which version of the Nano ?


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## rampage (May 8, 2012)

nano AD10 (had to put my own Hdd and ram in)   AMD E-350 apu


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## CaptainFailcon (May 8, 2012)

try and look for a bios update 

and next time don't buy zotac


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## Batou1986 (May 8, 2012)

CaptainFailcon said:


> next time don't buy zotac



Why 
I have 1 personal Nano AD10 and a few VD01's running POS software for some clients for almost a year now without a single issue.


I have the same model and have never experienced this issue, tho I just put mine to sleep most of the time since it uses < 2w and comes outa sleep in like 10 seconds.
I would make sure the bios is updated to the latest version, I updated mine as soon as i got it up and running.


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## CaptainFailcon (May 8, 2012)

Batou1986 said:


> Why
> I have 1 personal Nano AD10 and a few VD01's running POS software for some clients for almost a year now without a single issue.
> 
> 
> ...



I bought 2 for my one for my mom and one for my step dad ... both had 'issues' with quirky bios's (failure to accept a usb keyboard,endless reboot cycles,black screen's)
tl;dr I sent them back and I wont ever buy zotac again


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## rampage (May 9, 2012)

i might have to work out a RMA , but this is a ebay buy so i will see what happens.

i am trying for a bios update, but it needs to boot first, not sit there just spinning its fan


**update.   Australia Zotac don't want to know about it, so i have contacted the eBay seller (so much for being Australian sender) Zotac UK and the email address on the warranty sticker.   its just a waiting game now.


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## rampage (May 11, 2012)

apologies for the double post.

UPDATE

by fluke the nano booted two days ago and has been running fine sense with a fer reboots.

today after waking up i find it sitting there with the power idle LED showing (red led) and the cpu fan revving its nuts off at 100%.


re seated ram, tried a different ram stick, reset bios via the reset button and still o luck

any i dears to to type of problem  bios? power ?


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## CaptainFailcon (May 11, 2012)

rampage said:


> apologies for the double post.
> 
> UPDATE
> 
> ...



overheating ?


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## bdugan (Jan 5, 2015)

I had this problem today (Zotac NANO, won't turn on, red LED on, press button, no change in LED, no sign of life) and called Zotac support in the UK from the US, since that's the only number I could find.  Tech support was not much help and concluded that I should return the unit through the retailer.  I never like to do that if I can avoid it, so I opened it up and looked for some other fix.  The CMOS reset switch didn't help.  But disconnecting the coin-sized backup battery did fix it.  It continued to work after re-connecting the battery.

I don't quite understand this, because I had not made any changes to the CMOS settings.  But I thought this might be useful to someone else having this problem.

Worth noting: the battery is not accessible without voiding the warranty.


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## OneMoar (Jan 5, 2015)

sounds like a bad solder joint these zotacs are plagued by them


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## bdugan (Jan 5, 2015)

OneMoar said:


> sounds like a bad solder joint these zotacs are plagued by them



I have 3 of these, and I did find and repair a bad solder joint already on one of them.  It was on the power supply connector, where it joins the board, and it was obvious because the device could be turned off and on by wiggling the connector.

(The thing is, I like these Zotacs anyway.  They're a really nice compact design.  I hope they can sort out their manufacturing issues.)


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## Batou1986 (Jan 5, 2015)

well since the thread is necro'd I'll report that mine is still running strong


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## ltdrum (Jun 23, 2015)

bdugan said:


> I have 3 of these, and I did find and repair a bad solder joint already on one of them.  It was on the power supply connector, where it joins the board, and it was obvious because the device could be turned off and on by wiggling the connector.
> 
> (The thing is, I like these Zotacs anyway.  They're a really nice compact design.  I hope they can sort out their manufacturing issues.)


I hope you are still on this site... I have about 10 of these doing the same thing, I have been trying to find out WTH is going on. Can you send me a picture of where you repaired the solder joint? Did you think about using a heat gun to re-liquify the solder on the board?


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## zotac_solder (Jan 28, 2017)

ltdrum said:


> I hope you are still on this site... I have about 10 of these doing the same thing, I have been trying to find out WTH is going on. Can you send me a picture of where you repaired the solder joint? Did you think about using a heat gun to re-liquify the solder on the board?



Hi. Here is the photo you need:
Zotac ZBOX CI323 NANO

Used a 75watt soldering iron to heat each of the 5 legs, from the bottom of the board, for 10+ seconds, using several pounds of pressure.


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## sneekypeet (Jan 28, 2017)

A bit late to the party with that reply, but I allowed it since it is helpful to the thread. Thread Closed.


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