AC68U (was TM-AC1900) won't accept 378.56, or anything

[jcarrra]

I converted a TM-AC1900 using the process discussed in another thread here into an "AC68U." There were some difficulties during the process(es), but I did end up with Merlin 376.47 on it as the process leads into that.

It was working fine. I had not put it on WAN yet, but the admin interface was there and everything looked great. Turned it on several times. All seemed normal.

Then, tonight, all fell apart. I decided to upgrade to 378.56 to get a relatively recent version on it.

--flashing from within System upgrade page failed almost instantly (hash checks out btw) x3

--using the "miniCFE" upload screen (put router in recovery mode, hit its IP, and get the page). It fails. x3

--Move to using the ASUS Firmware Recovery Tool. AhHa. It runs all the way to completion (first time it has ever worked for me). Eventually it shows "Please wait for the system to reboot". So I wait. Nothing changes. NOTHING. Lights on router do not change state. Nothing new appears in the tool dialog. Wait a LONG time. Nope. Redo. Nope. No ping. x3

--Recovery mode > tftp FW to it. Seems OK, but only lights on are pwr and port 1. No ping.

Cycle power on router--and it's almost a brick, at least for now, as before. It's IP is unreachable--except in recovery mode. Factory Reset does nothing. Clear NVRAM does nothing.

Putting it to recovery mode is the only way now to get an IP on it that "listens," but can't seem to flash anything. Oh, wireless lights appear to always be off.

Do I trash it? Ouch. Magic appreciated.

 

[husky55]

I read your post several times and you did everything one can possibly do to revive your router. Upgrading RMerlin firmware one version to another should not brick your router. But in this case it did. I am pretty sure that somehow the CFE was corrupted and therefore your router cannot boot. May be, if you can tftp cfe 1.0.2.0 with the right MAC numbers from your TM router that might do it. Good luck.

 

[jcarrra]

I had a major breakthru this morning just minutes ago.

I located a copy of ASUS stock 376.3626--the first one that expanded the rootfs, AND WAS ABLE TO LOAD IT WITH ASUS Firmware Restoration tool in recovery mode. Whew--at least not bricked.

However, my next step not only fails...it puts the router back into the previous state....wireless off, only pwr and port 1 lights on, no ping! That was caused by trying to load Merlin 378.56. That would not load...
-from within the admin interface
-from opening the miniCFE load window in recovery
-from the ASUS Firmware Restoration tool, which seemed to detect that it was non ASUS fw and failed instantly.

The ONLY way I could do it (but not really) was tftp
tftp -i 192.168.1.1 PUT RT-AC68U_378.56_0.trx EDIT TO CORRECT
while in recovery mode.

But as noted, that seems to finish loading just fine, but left with a 'nothing' router--wireless off, only pwr and port 1 lights on, no ping.

So, I have recovered back to the ASUS stock 376.3626 and just wonder if they have locked out 3rd party FW with that.

 

[jcarrra]

Things continue to get worse...

I had the state described before where ASUS stock 376.3626 loaded through the Restoration tool.

Since my ultimate goal is to get this into the Merlin universe, I tried again to load the 378.56. I know from before that neither the ASUS tool nor miniCFE interface (showing ASUStek in its logo) will do it...I think they simply reject anything not ASUS (conjecture). So the only way I know than those two is
tftp -i 192.168.1.1 PUT RT-AC68U_378.56_0.trx EDIT TO CORRECT

Did that. Traffic meter showed the upload flow for about the right amount of time. End state is 192.168.1.1 will not show an interface. Reboot. 192.168.1.1 will not show an interface. 192.168.1.1 will not ping.

Go to recovery mode. 192.168.1.1 will not ping.
Pwr off unplug, back to recovery multiple times, 192.168.1.1 will not ping. Can't load anything by any means.

 

[KevTech]

Are you setting your network adapter to static IP when trying all this?

Also, it sounds like you may not be letting the router sit long enough after upload.

 

[jcarrra]

Are you setting your network adapter to static IP when trying all this?

Also, it sounds like you may not be letting the router sit long enough after upload.

Yes, definitely use a wired connection with a static IP.
Some of the tries were "long sits." Some may not have been.

But the issue at the moment is "no response to ping" even when powering into recovery mode.
It is looking like I bricked it beyond even recovery to get out of it.

Unless there is a "reset recovery to factory" switch combo.

 

[KevTech]

I always use these without issue.

IP 192.168.1.2

subnet 255.255.255.0

gateway 192.168.1.1

 

[jcarrra]

I always use these without issue.
IP 192.168.1.2
subnet 255.255.255.0
gateway 192.168.1.1

No different than mine except I use .14 instead of .2 which makes no difference whatsoever (any number between 2 and 254 will "work"). But if 192.168.1.1 won't talk back to you...it makes no difference how correct you are.

 

[KevTech]

I just mentioned 192.168.1.2 as sometimes when I use other IP the router will not respond.

 

[jcarrra]

I just mentioned 192.168.1.2 as sometimes when I use other IP the router will not respond.

Do you mean this is your computer IP or you use 1.2 to hit the router?

If 1.2 is for your computer, it makes no technical sense why any other from 3 to 254 would be any different.

And if you mean 1.2 to address the router, I'm floored.

 

[husky55]

Did you really tftp a 66u firmware into a 68u router, or was that a typo?

 

[jcarrra]

Did you really tftp a 66u firmware into a 68u router, or was that a typo?

Typo...I only have one AC66U trx stored and it is in a folder I would never have drilled to and is 378.55, so it would not have transferred.

Corrected the previous posts.

 

[jcarrra]

Typo...I only have one AC66U trx stored and it is in a folder I would never have drilled to and is 378.55, so it would not have transferred.

Corrected the previous posts.

oh heavens
I found a link to RT-AC66U_378.56_0.trx.lnk
in C:\Users\Bob\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Recent

That means I DID have that file even though I don't now.
Now I am scared.
That link pointed to Documents where I was storing them temporarily for ease of navigating to them in cmd window. uh oh---now that looks to have been a stupid possibility.

 

[jcarrra]

After thinking about this overnight, I reluctantly conclude (80% onfident) that I did flash an AC66 trx into the AC68.

OK, really stupid, I know and accept. And I thought I was being careful by copy/paste the name rather than type it.

The question now is, is there any path out of it, or have I bricked it for real?

 

[jcarrra]

So I ended up with having an almost bricked state for several days (no IP to talk to, no ping, router simply had no IP address, NO MATTER WHAT DONE).

It was my fault..two mistakes in sequence led me to tftp-ing an AC66 firmware into the (now) AC68. Dumb, I know. I even thought I was being careful--copying the filename for example instead of typing, but I copied name from the wrong folder, AND put the wrong trx into the "flash-from-here" folder AND the mis-copied filename WAS the name of the file put into the flash-from-here folder.

Anyway--days of reading and trying things, and I was starting to look at places to buy a JTAG device, when I ran across a post talking about all recovery modes known to mankind! It mentioned what is commonly called the 30-30-30 method, also called hard reset, which I had not tried yet. Did, and it worked! Couple of flashes and now I have Merlin 378.56_2.

Here is 30-30-30 process just in case anyone ever needs it

Disconnect the router from UTP cables (not the power cable).
Push reset button for 30 secs.
Without releasing reset button, disconnect power cord.
Hold the reset button for another 30 secs.
Replug the power cord.
Still hold the reset button for another 30 secs.
Release the reset button and give the router about 10 secs to resettle.
Disconnect power cord for another 10 secs and then reconnect.
All should be in default settings now.

This procedure is usually called 30/30/30 reset.

SUMMARY
hold reset w/ pwr 30s continue to
hold reset w/o pwr 30s continue to
hold reset w/ pwr 30s
release 10s
disconnect pwr 10s
reconnect (pwr on)

 

[Deleted member 22229]

Asus routers do not respond to 30/30/30 reset. Simply holding down the WPS button and then power on and hold WPS button for 10 seconds sets everything back to factory and clears nvram.

 

[jcarrra]

Asus routers do not respond to 30/30/30 reset. Simply holding down the WPS button and then power on and hold WPS button for 10 seconds sets everything back to factory and clears nvram.

All I can tell you is facts.
I had done the WPS hold then pwr on. x-many
I had done ordinary reset press with power on. x-many
I had done reset hold when pwr off then on (recovery). x-many

NONE of those gave me a router that would open an interface or respond to ping.

30-30-30 did. x-1

 

[husky55]

@jcarra, I did what you did X-many times with my T-Mobile CellSpot. With your last post, did the 30-30-30 also. Then did the hold WPS and wifi and reset and turn power on then after a few seconds let of of the wps and wifi and hold to the reset for 20 sec. All to no avail. Never got pass the power on light.
I did the most elementary mistake. Somehow ended up with the mini web and clicked on nvram and voila, total bricked.
Real happy you were able to recover!!!!

 

[jcarrra]

Sorry. I know how I felt.

If you want to go through the effort, look into getting a JTAG module and cable. With a true brick, it is about the only way.

Your report does support what Kal-El said.
I don't know why it worked for me.

 

[Engineer]

For you guys that have bricked the router (or think so), can you try the following....

Tips for getting to mini-CFE webserver

• Power off the router using the power button
• Set your PC's IP to 192.168.29.2, subnet 255.255.255.0 and gateway 192.168.29.1 (assuming the recovery mode is 192.168.29.1)
• Navigate to 192.168.29.1 using your browser. Browser status will spin indicating looking for page
• Press and hold the reset button while powering on
• When the mini-CFE webpage appears on the browser, release the reset button
  
  The browser status must be spinning (looking for a webpage) for this to occur. This method seemed much easier than the hit and miss of trying to go into mini-CFE webserver blindly. If the above doesn't work, try changing your IP to 192.168.1.2 with subnet of 255.255.255.0 and gateway of 192.168.1.1 and then try the above procedure using 192.168.1.1 instead of 192.168.29.1. It's rare that a firmware will destroy a CFE (bootloader) but it's possible on some since they check and overwrite the CFE (which can be dangerous for Asus to be doing down that road IMO).