# RTU appears either dead or "locked up"

When the unit is behaving properly, there is a system watchdog that will automatically reboot the unit when it is dead for 90 seconds. If this feature is not performing, it may become necessary to cleardown the unit to its factory defaults. Under certain unusual circumstances, data in certain register locations within the Catalyst's flash memory module may become corrupted. If this occurs, the RTU may lock up or behave erratically.

- If the RTU will not respond to any front panel keys, e.g. Power ON/OFF, then the unit is considered "locked up."
- To regain control of the unit, first temporarily disconnect the battery by disconnecting the positive battery terminal.
- Next remove primary power by unplugging the unit.
- Next restore primary power to the RTU.
- The unit should boot automatically. If the unit performs as expected, then it may have only needed to be rebooted.
- Reconnect the battery terminal.
- If the unit continues to act strangely, then a good practice would be to reformat the file system.
- To reformat the unit, enter PROGRAM mode. For OTP and FP use keycode 93911 to reformat and reboot. For Alarmware™, use the Cleardown menu item.
- The process can take several minutes. When done, the RTU should respond normally to pressing front panel keys.
- If the unit continues to perform improperly, please contact your RACO representative.

After reformatting is complete:

- Restore your user configurations for this RTU, including recorded speech messages, by connecting to the Catalyst with Alarmware™ (via modem or preferably by local serial port connection).
- Alarmware™ will report a database mismatch.
- Select "Export Alarmware™ configuration to RTU".
- Using local serial port connection at 57,600 baud, the length of time the configuration restoration process will take will depend upon how much speech data has been recorded and saved in the corresponding Alarmware™ configuration file.
- Any user configurations or recorded speech memory data, which was not previously saved in the Alarmware™ configuration file, will need to be re-entered as needed.