Here’s a list of 26 common issues with Dahua NVRs, organized for your reference:
1. Device fails to start after powering on
- Incorrect power input.
- Poor connection of the power cable.
- Power supply is damaged.
- Program upgrade error.
- Hard drive damage or cable issue.
- Compatibility issue with new hard drives like Seagate DB35.1, DB35.2, SV35, Maxtor 17th generation, etc. Upgrading to the latest firmware resolves this.
- Front panel failure.
- Mainboard failure.
2. Device reboots automatically or frequently crashes after a few minutes
- Unstable or low input voltage.
- Incorrect hard drive jumper settings.
- Bad sectors on the hard drive or faulty cable.
- Insufficient power from the power supply.
- Unstable video signal from the front-end device.
- Poor heat dissipation, excessive dust, or a harsh operating environment.
- Hardware failure.
3. Hard drive not detected after startup
- Hard drive power cable is not connected.
- Faulty hard drive cable.
- Incorrect jumper settings on the hard drive.
- Hard drive failure.
- Faulty SATA port on the mainboard.
4. No video output on single, multiple, or all channels
- Program mismatch, upgrade to the correct firmware.
- Image brightness set to 0, restore to default settings.
- Channel protection (or screen saver) activated.
- Hardware failure.
5. Unable to find recorded video during local playback
- Incorrect hard drive data cable or jumper settings.
- Faulty hard drive.
- Upgraded to a firmware with a different file system.
- Desired video has been overwritten.
- Recording has not been enabled.
6. Local playback displays garbled images
- Program data reading error, small bitrate, and mosaic effects during playback. Typically fixed by restarting the device.
- Incorrect hard drive data cable or jumper settings.
- Hard drive failure.
- Hardware failure.
7. Incorrect time display
- Incorrect settings.
- Poor battery contact or low voltage.
- Faulty crystal oscillator.
8. Unable to control PTZ (Pan-Tilt-Zoom) camera
- Front-end PTZ failure.
- Incorrect PTZ decoder settings, wiring, or installation.
- Incorrect wiring.
- Incorrect device PTZ settings.
- PTZ decoder and device protocol mismatch.
- PTZ decoder and device address mismatch.
- When using multiple decoders, add a 120Ω resistor at the far end of the A/B cable to eliminate reflections and impedance mismatches, otherwise PTZ control may be unstable.
- Excessive distance.
9. Client or Web cannot log in
- Client installation or display issues, operating system version too low.
- ActiveX control blocked.
- DirectX graphics acceleration engine not installed or outdated graphics card drivers.
- Network connection failure.
- Network settings issue.
- Incorrect username and password.
- Client version incompatible with device firmware version.
10. Network preview image or recorded file playback shows mosaics or no image
- Poor network stability.
- Limited client resources.
- User lacks preview permission.
11. Unstable network connection
- Network instability.
- IP address conflict.
- MAC address conflict.
- Faulty network card on the computer or device.
12. Recording/Burn/USB backup errors
- Burner and hard drive connected on the same data cable.
- Backup process uses excessive CPU resources; stop recording before backing up.
- Data size exceeds backup device capacity, causing errors.
- Incompatible backup device.
- Backup device failure.
13. Keyboard unable to control the device
- Incorrect serial port settings.
- Incorrect address.
- Insufficient power supply when using multiple converters; each converter needs its own power supply.
- Excessive transmission distance.
14. Unable to disarm the alarm signal
- Incorrect alarm settings.
- Manual alarm output activation.
- Faulty or incorrect input device connection.
- Issue with specific firmware versions, upgrade to resolve.
15. Alarm not triggering
- Incorrect alarm settings.
- Incorrect alarm wiring.
- Incorrect alarm input signal.
- Alarm device connected to two loops simultaneously.
16. Insufficient video storage time
- Front-end camera quality issues, dirty lenses, backlit installation, aperture lens not adjusted properly, etc., leading to high bitrate.
- Insufficient hard drive capacity.
- Hard drive failure.
17. Downloaded files won’t play
- Media player not installed.
- Missing or outdated DirectX graphics acceleration engine.
- When converting to AVI format and using MEDIA PLAYER, the computer does not have the DivX503Bundle.exe plugin.
- Windows XP requires installing DivX503Bundle.exe and ffdsho-2004 1012.exe plugins.
18. No image, black screen
- Incorrect IP of the remote device.
- Incorrect port number of the remote device.
- Incorrect username/password for remote device.
- Network connection issue with the remote device.
19. Incomplete display interface
- Check the current resolution and ensure the display supports the resolution. For example, if the resolution is 1920×1080, the monitor must support 1920×1080 resolution.
20. No HDMI output on the display
- Check if the display is working in HDMI mode.
- Check if the HDMI cable is working correctly.
21. Client multi-channel preview image lags
- Check network bandwidth; multi-channel preview requires higher bandwidth, at least 100 Mbps.
- Check PC performance; multi-channel decoding requires decent PC performance. A PC decoding 16 channels should have at least a 4-core CPU, 2GB RAM, and a dedicated graphics card with 256MB of memory.
22. IPC (IP Camera) unable to connect
- Check if the power supply is connected.
- Ensure the IPC network is stable and connected.
- Ensure compatibility between IPC program and storage device.
- Confirm IPC has fully started.
- Check if IPC is in the blacklist.
- Ensure the IPC isn’t overloaded with too many connections, causing failure to transmit images.
- For third-party IPCs, confirm the IPC’s port and time zone match the device.
- Ensure the current network environment is stable.
23. Display resolution set to 1080P, but monitor does not support it
- Power off, then power on again while holding the Fn key. After 5 seconds, release it, and the device will revert to the default resolution.
24. Unable to find “Add Remote Device” option on the Web interface after login
- Clear the web control cache and reload.
25. IP and gateway set correctly, can access the internet via the router, but cannot access after reboot
- After rebooting, check if the device can ping the gateway. If not, use Telnet and the “ifconfig -a” command to check the device’s IP address. If the mask and gateway change, upgrade the firmware and test again.
26. Connecting to a VGA monitor shows the main stream instead of the sub stream in multi-split mode
- 32-channel devices display the sub stream on 9 or 16 splits.
- 4/8/16-channel devices display the main stream on all splits.