 jmorlanHmm... That's funny.Premium,MVM
join:2001-02-05
Pacifica, CA
kudos:4 | [Firmware] Did I brick my WRT54G? I was doing a routine upgrade of the stock Linksys firmware for my WRT54G v2. All seemed well. The screen said the update was successful, but did not have a "continue" button. Instead I got an error "Problem loading page." The power light kept flashing. I hit the reset button on the back; held it for 10 seconds. Power light still flashing. Unplugged the router for 10 seconds. Plugged back in and power light still flashing. Turned off computer, modem and router. Turned on computer, modem and router. Router power light still flashing and there is no internet connectivity.
Any suggestions? |
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 Bill_MIBill In MichiganPremium,MVM
join:2001-01-03
Royal Oak, MI
kudos:1
 ·Comcast
·WOW Internet and..
| It does sound like something went bad. There is a short window of opportunity, seconds after it starts booting, it can receive a standard firmware via tftp. It's usually called the "TFTP Method" as I recall.
Problem: It's tricky to do, takes practice, and must be setup very specific. I've done this a lot with a version 4, which may differ. Perhaps someone know if it's only version 1 that had to be hacked to set boot_wait=on?
HTH, Just my 2 cents. |
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 stev32kPremium
join:2000-04-27
Mobile, AL
kudos:1
 ·DIRECTV
 ·AT&T Southeast
·Mediacom
| reply to jmorlan
10 seconds may not be long enough. With the router plugged in push and hold the reset button for 30 seconds. Keep the reset button pushed in and unplug the router for 30 seconds. Then with the button still depressed plug it in and hold the button for another 30 seconds. Finally do a normal reboot (just unplug and wait about 10 seconds then plug it in). If it does not come up after that you have a new (temporary) paper weight.
I'm not positive, but I believe Linksys has some software that can un-brick the router, but you have to get it though linksys tech support. I don't think it's on their website.
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jmorlanHmm... That's funny.Premium,MVM
join:2001-02-05
Pacifica, CA
kudos:4
1 edit | Thanks. I tried what you suggested with no luck. I also tried chatting with linksys support and they said it was out of warranty. They offered a couple of different levels of pay support, none of which I wanted.
I have looked around but have not been able to find any magic software to bring it back to life. Chat support did not mention anything like that. I have enabled TFTP in Windows and have a good bin file ready to go, but I have not been able to get the router to respond to ping. |
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stev32kPremium
join:2000-04-27
Mobile, AL
kudos:1 Reviews:
·DIRECTV
·AT&T Southeast
·Mediacom
| Try the DD-WRT forum for linksys routers. »www.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewforum.···9a7b3149 There are people on there that know more about linksys routers than linksys. There are also several threads on how to de-brick a router. |
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Bill_MIBill In MichiganPremium,MVM
join:2001-01-03
Royal Oak, MI
kudos:1 Reviews:
·Comcast
·WOW Internet and..
2 edits | reply to jmorlan
said by jmorlan:I have enabled TFTP in Windows and have a good bin file ready to go, but I have not been able to get the router to respond to ping. Yep, you're on the right process. I hope you were able to set a static IP in 192.168.1.x. This is important. Despite any other settings, the router will be at a fixed 192.168.1.1 address and the other box has to be all ready for it.
It's best the two items be the only thing on the network (router and the 1 machine). Yes, unfortunately, it may not be available as nicely in version 2. I'm pretty sure it's there back to version 1 but may not be as usable. It's in the boot portion of flash (called the CFE) that doesn't change with firmware.
A little more in case it helps...
The router will put out an ARP packet just before that golden time, announcing its presence at 192.168.1.1. A packet sniffer like WireShark can see if this occurs. This little announcement, along with the ping, helps your machine know the MAC address of the router at 192.168.1.1 immediately. So that ping has more function than just seeing the timing - your box should be actively looking for 192.168.1.1 on the network for this to work.
Yep, it's tricky, but beats the alternative. If you're familiar with JTAG it's always available to write the flash. Not for everyone, though.
One quick note. There's a "short these 2 pins" technique floating around. It has validity for certain corruptions. It's supposed to force an initialization of the small configuration part of flash memory known as "nvram". It can achieve this. But it's not likely you have this form of corruption since the main firmware was being written when it went bad. This technique is NOT for main firmware corruption. It also has a history of causing more problems than it attempts to fix.
Good luck and let us know how it goes. |
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 slpip3
join:2007-02-20
Springfield, VA
1 edit | reply to jmorlan
»www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Tftp_flash
Special for Linksys WRT54GL Users
If the router seems to be bricked so that the power light is constantly blinking and pinging the router results in TLL=100 continuously, then there is still a great chance that tftp can help. Firstly you must flash the router with the original firmware available at Linksys homepage www.linksys.com, since flashing it with DD-WRT probably won't give any result at all. Then do a 30/30/30 and after that you can flash with DD-WRT Mini. The initial flashing can be done with only the mini version, perhaps later you can move on to bigger versions of it.
See the link above for the detail. |
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jmorlanHmm... That's funny.Premium,MVM
join:2001-02-05
Pacifica, CA
kudos:4 | Thanks again for all the help. I finally got some time to work on it some more and I'm afraid the boot-loader is hosed.
I used a packet sniffer and the router is not responding at all. The only packets detected are from my computer to the router. The router is completely unresponsive.
Also when it boots the DMZ light comes on for only a fraction of a second and then goes out. From what I read, that's not a good thing. Apparently the DMZ light needs to stay on for several seconds for this to work.
Thanks again. |
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slpip3
join:2007-02-20
Springfield, VA | When you press and hold the reset button, don't hold it for just 10 second. You should hold the reset button until you see all the LED lights are gone. |
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jmorlanHmm... That's funny.Premium,MVM
join:2001-02-05
Pacifica, CA
kudos:4 | said by slpip3:When you press and hold the reset button, don't hold it for just 10 second. You should hold the reset button until you see all the LED lights are gone.
I did the 30-30-30 reset hold several times. |
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public
join:2002-01-19
Santa Clara, CA | reply to jmorlan
said by jmorlan:
I used a packet sniffer and the router is not responding at all. The only packets detected are from my computer to the router. The router is completely unresponsive.
In that case installing the console port or using jtag are your options. |
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slpip3
join:2007-02-20
Springfield, VA | reply to jmorlan
Special for Linksys WRT54GL Users
If the router seems to be bricked so that the power light is constantly blinking and pinging the router results in TLL=100 continuously, then there is still a great chance that tftp can help. Firstly you must flash the router with the original firmware available at Linksys homepage www.linksys.com, since flashing it with DD-WRT probably won't give any result at all. Then do a 30/30/30 and after that you can flash with DD-WRT Mini. The initial flashing can be done with only the mini version, perhaps later you can move on to bigger versions of it.
[edit] TFTP Tools
With TFTP, all of the information about the transfer is specified during the initial command/setup; there is very little client/server interaction compared with standard FTP.
Vista and Win7 command line TFTP: You need to enable it in Control Panel -> Programs and Features -> Windows Features -> check mark: TFTP Client
Windows GUI TFTP utilities:
Simple Windows GUI TFTP Utility
- The server/IP address is that of the router being flashed.
- Leave the password blank.
- Navigate and select the firmware you wish to flash.
- Set retries to a number between 10 and 99.
No-nonsense open source TFTP tool, Tftpd32 includes TFTP client as well as DHCP, TFTP, SNTP and syslog servers
»tftpd32.jounin.net/tftpd32_download.html |
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| reply to jmorlan
Here is a great article that helped me unbrick my wrt-54gl. It should work on your too.
»blog.rim3y.net/?p=1492
--
Vonage user since Mar 2004. |
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jmorlanHmm... That's funny.Premium,MVM
join:2001-02-05
Pacifica, CA
kudos:4 | reply to jmorlan
Thanks again to all who tried to help. I was getting ready to try one more time and went to download the latest firmware again.
Guess what? Cisco pulled it! It was bad firmware and so all of this was really their fault.
Even though the router was out of warranty, I think the company should do the right thing here because it was their bad firmware that caused the problem. They'll probably do nothing because of the EULA for the firmware which holds them harmless.
I think I'll try Monday to talk to customer service. |
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| I did the same thing. Saw there was no v2 firmwares out there, I downloaded the one for v1.1 v2.1 that was the same file. Mine is now blinking the power light with no response on 192.168.1.1. Any further info from Linksys? |
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jmorlanHmm... That's funny.Premium,MVM
join:2001-02-05
Pacifica, CA
kudos:4 | No, nothing from Linksys about this. They did not respond to my email.
I'll send again and suggest you do the same. I think they should be responsible for their own bad firmware regardless. |
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| I checked with them. They pulled the V2 firmware b/c it bricked the v2s. She basically told me I was SOL now and that I shouldn't have downloaded the v2.2 or the v1.1 firmware (that both had the same file name b/c it didn't call out v2 specifically. |
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jmorlanHmm... That's funny.Premium,MVM
join:2001-02-05
Pacifica, CA
kudos:4 | said by cookiemonstr :I checked with them. They pulled the V2 firmware b/c it bricked the v2s. She basically told me I was SOL now and that I shouldn't have downloaded the v2.2 or the v1.1 firmware (that both had the same file name b/c it didn't call out v2 specifically.
So they post an update that is intended for the v2 product and it bricks the product and now they say it's your fault.
That's not a reasonable response from a reputable business. I think it may be time to escalate to a higher level or go to your friendly local media consumer advocate.
Let's shine a little public light on this! |
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jmorlanHmm... That's funny.Premium,MVM
join:2001-02-05
Pacifica, CA
kudos:4 | reply to cookiemonstr
I spoke to Linksys customer support on the phone and they are replacing my router. They are replacing it with a WRT54GS ver. 7.0.
It took a while, but they finally did the right thing!
Anybody else that got stung with this bad firmware should call Linksys customer support and explain the situation. |
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jmorlanHmm... That's funny.Premium,MVM
join:2001-02-05
Pacifica, CA
kudos:4 | reply to cookiemonstr
Follow up. The new router arrived today. I set it up and it works fine. Next step is to return the old router to Cisco.
In the meantime, I now have a spare D-Link DIR601. What's a good use for it? |
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