Arlo Base Station (VMB3500) power light stuck on amber

[CaptFreddy]

I'm on my second unit after Arlo support recommended out return the original two days after I originally purchased from Best Buy. 4 days later I'm on base station and cameras number two. What's still no luck. My internet provider cable one can see the Arlo through my system but the amber light stays on. I've called I've Googled Etc to no avail. I've opened Port 80, 443 and 1 2 3 . I've done multiple resets on the router the base station yet still get the amber light. Please help. I have the original Arlo system with a 3500 base a hiltron modem supplied through Cable One.

[brh]

@CaptFreddy 

Do you have an active Firewall on your computer that could be blocking your base from connecting to the internet? Also, some modems have a built-in firewall and in that case you need to do wht is called Port Forwarding. Ask you isp about this or research the modem online to see if that is the case.

Brian

[jguerdat]

The topic here says the POWER LED is amber. Nothing is going to work in that case. Verify what LEDs are showing what.

[malcolmr]

Check the power supply.

My VMB4000 died after 18 months of totally reliable service so they got me to return it and sent out a replacement. While I was waiting, I bought another unit and used that for quite a while. When I went to use the replacement, it wouldn’t work either - same problem, continually rebooting over a 90 second cycle.

So I sent that one back too.

And, guess what. The replaced replacement did the same thing!

I tried swapping the components around between the functional and non-functional unit and it turned out that my original power supply was the common problem - both base stations would work with the newer power supply and neither would work with the old power supply.

I bought a cheap, universal 12v power supply and everything is now working fine!

Note that there is nothing to indicate that the power supply is faulty. It still shows 12.2v on the multimeter but, after it has been used for a while, seems warmer than the non-faulty one.

It seems to be a deficiency of the Arlo support arrangement that they insist on you returning the unit WITHOUT the power supply. They must have thought that I was stupid for returning 2 perfectly functional units!

[jguerdat]

I agree that the power supply must always be considered. Unfortunately, a voltmeter test isn't sufficiet - you need something that captures a period of time such as an oscilloscope or measurment of AC ripple. The supply is cheap (in many ways) and should always be checked and considered.