Hi, I'm Edu from Spain. I'm new to the forum.
I have a CRS328-24P-4S+RM that doesn’t finish booting. As soon as I plug it into the power outlet, it powers on, runs the fan test, and looks like it’s going to start up, but then it gets stuck in a loop and never completes the boot process.
Is there anything I can try to recover it, or does this mean the device is likely no longer functional?
Thanks in advance for any help!
Hi and welcome.
Already tried netinstall ?
Thank you very much. The issue is that the device never fully powers on. When I plug it into the power outlet, it performs a fan test and all the LEDs light up. After about 40 seconds, it repeats the same process and keeps looping like that. It never appears in Netinstall. I recorded a video showing the issue, but I can’t upload it here.
Can you connect with consolecable to console port ?
Does it show something on screen ?
And then this should be possible:
Sorry for the delay — it took me a while to get a console cable, and honestly, I hadn’t considered that option before.
This was the error I was getting:
Press any key within 2 seconds to enter setup..
loading kernel... OK
setting up elf image... OK
jumping to kernel code
ERROR: no system package found!
Kernel panic - not syncing: Attempted to kill init!
{9f83df0c} panic+0x84/0x1c0
{9f83df44} do_exit+0x80/0x688
{9f83df84} do_group_exit+0x4c/0xc0
{9f83df9c} __wake_up_parent+0x0/0x18
Rebooting in 1 seconds..
BootROM 1.41
Booting from SPI flash
BootROM: Image checksum verification PASSED
As soon as I could access the menu, I formatted the drive:
What do you want to configure?
d - boot delay
k - boot key
s - serial console
n - silent boot
o - boot device
r - reset booter configuration
e - format storage
w - repartition nand
g - upgrade firmware
i - board info
p - boot protocol
b - booter options
j - boot os
t - test ram memory
x - exit setup
your choice: e - format storage
Do you realy want to format your storage device?
that would result in losing all your data
type "yes" to confirm: yes
storage formating complete sector 12/256
done!
As soon as I was able to access the boot menu, I formatted the drive and forced the boot via Ethernet using Netinstall. The MikroTik came back to life — but with a bittersweet result.
I updated it to version 7.20.2, and now the fans are running at full speed. A few things caught my attention:
[admin@MikroTik] > /interface/ print
;;; poe-out status: controller_error
(en todas las interfaces)
[admin@MikroTik] > /system health/ print
Columns: NAME, VALUE, TYPE
0 poe-out-consumption 450 W
1 cpu-temperature 34 C
2 fan-state ok
3 fan1-speed 9630 RPM
4 fan2-speed 9735 RPM
5 board-temperature1 29 C
6 psu1-voltage 0 V
7 psu2-voltage 0 V
8 psu1-current 0 A
9 psu2-current 0 A
[admin@MikroTik] > /system resource print
uptime: 2m11s
version: 7.20.2 (stable)
build-time: 2025-10-21 07:28:20
factory-software: 6.47.4
free-memory: 450.5MiB
total-memory: 512.0MiB
cpu: ARM
cpu-count: 1
cpu-frequency: 800MHz
cpu-load: 100%
free-hdd-space: 3232.0KiB
total-hdd-space: 16.0MiB
write-sect-since-reboot: 14
write-sect-total: 4080
architecture-name: arm
board-name: CRS328-24P-4S+
platform: MikroTik
[admin@MikroTik] > /tool/profile
Columns: NAME, USAGE
NAME USAGE
networking 0.5%
management 61.5%
winbox 0.5%
ethernet 0.5%
console 1.5%
neighbor-discovery 0%
spi 3.5%
firewall 0.5%
profiling 7.5%
poe 1%
kernel 2%
prestera_dx_mac 2%
total 81%
Could it be a fault in the PoE controller or the power supply?
Thank you
Could be.
I only have 3 of those running and none of them for more then a year, so I have no in-depth experience with that device for that part.
They have internal PSU, if I am not mistaking ?
Maybe someone else can chime in with more relevant feedback.
Yes, the power supply is internal and only has one electrical connection. I have many Mikrotik devices, but this is the first one that has failed like this.
A suggestion: downgrade ROS to version 7.19.4 ... many users found that version pretty stable on various device models.
And definitely install Routerboot version suggested by running ROS (/system/routerboard/print). Perform a hard boot after installing different Routerboot to make sure all hardware gets properly reset and initialized.
Sorry for the delay, I had a health issue and put everything on hold, but I'm better now. I've tried several versions: LTS, 7.19.4, and the latest stable version, 7.20.4, and the problems are similar. I have almost no information on version 6. I've always installed versions using a netinstall to ensure a completely clean installation. I think there's a firmware issue with the PoE controller. Any ideas? Thank you very much.
That amount of PoE consumption is what we - highly specialized technicians 
- usually call "a hell of a lot", considering that the specs:
https://mikrotik.com/product/crs328_24p_4s_rm
Max power consumption 494 W
Max power consumption without attachments 44 W
imply a max PoE out of 450W.
Very likely that is what drives the fans to spin full speed, but this model has had alternate issues with fan speed management, see:
And this is also "not right":
From the looks of it, it seems to me like some sensors (PoE out consumption and PSU voltages) are somehow defective (whether they sense the right values BUT they are interpreted wrongly by firmware or RoS has to be seen, of course.
Try netinstalling the same RoS version you had before, including the routerboard firmware, if it still behaves like this it is more likely to be a hardware problem.