ASUS RT-AC3200 not entering rescue mode

[steve.azzopardi]

Hello, Thursday March 30th 2017 I came back home from work and I see that I have no network. When I look at my router I see that all LED's are just statically on apart from the power one and the wireless ones look at the image here.

I started the recovery process follow religiously this following link https://www.asus.com/uk/support/FAQ/109961/ but when I tried to enter rescue mode it still doesn't work. I also found a "different" way to enter rescue mode where I use the power button instead of unplugging it which still didn't work my LED's are just stuck and nothing is responding. At first I tought that it must be the leads so I went ahead and continued with the recovery, but still no luck the software just gives me Invalid IP address.

 

[jegesq]

Why would you go into "Rescue Mode"? The photo simply shows that your 2.4ghz and 5ghz radios are not broadcasting. Rescue mode is used when something goes awry when updating the firmware.

The photo seems to show that you had an internet connection and four client devices connected to all four LAN ports. So you should have had a "network connection" but just not wireless connections to client devices that were formerly connected only via wifi.

Based on your post, I'm not sure what you really did. Are you saying that unplugging the router and plugging it back in did not restore your wifi radios? That turning the AC3200 on and off by using the power button also didn't restore the wifi radios?

Did you ever try just unplugging the device and holding in the "reset" button for about 30 seconds while powering the device back on? That's what I think most of us would have done first if simply recycling power didn't work. Reset would restore the device back to factory settings. If you haven't already bricked it, that's what I would suggest trying.

 

[Pierino]

You might want to check the boot process over a serial connection using a uart to USB adapter.

 

[steve.azzopardi]

@jegesq Hello, I am sorry maybe I wasn't clear enough. That photo yes shows as you describe but that happens all the time where nothing is connected to it apart from the D/C. Also there is no boot process as well. As soon as it gets power it just stays like that. Also I tried all of your suggestions but before I posted and now again just in case still no luck.

@Pierino Do you have any resources that might help me with that?

 

[jegesq]

Here's an oddball suggestion: Do you have another AC power adapter that matches the specs of the adapter for your AC3200? If so, you might try another known good power adapter to see if that might be the source of your issue.

I cannot tell you how many times I've had a power adapter start to fail that causes issues with the device that it is powering. For example, my Slingbox started to act up (it would be "on" but would not respond to any commands and could not be otherwise accessed). A new replacement power adapter solved the problem. I've had this happen with powered network switches, and several other devices. Knock on wood, never had this happen with any of my Asus routers, but hey, it's worth checking it out just to rule it out.

I would recommend that you try the "reset" button option several more times, with a new known good power adapter. See if that works and let us know.

 

[steve.azzopardi]

@jegesq I do have another asus router that works, so I can test it with that if the specs are the same. I will need to wait for the weekend so will keep you updated. Thank you for the suggestion.

 

[Pierino]

You'll need to buy an adapter like this http://www.ebay.com/itm/1pc-USB-2-0...rial-Converter-CP2102-STC-PRGMR-/371046646242

Open up the router, connect it to the serial header, download a program called putty, set it up and I/we can talk you through the rest if our decide to try this.
If you don't want to and are willing to pay for two way shipping, I could do it for you.

 

[steve.azzopardi]

@Pierino I will give it a shot on my own time, always nice to learn something. Anyways asus are happy to send me another one since it is under warranty.

 

[TonyH]

You'll need to buy an adapter like this http://www.ebay.com/itm/1pc-USB-2-0...rial-Converter-CP2102-STC-PRGMR-/371046646242

Open up the router, connect it to the serial header, download a program called putty, set it up and I/we can talk you through the rest if our decide to try this.
If you don't want to and are willing to pay for two way shipping, I could do it for you.

This is jumping the gun. B4 this there is some more things to try. First thing is OP, can you ping the router? Is the power indicator LED blinking? Did you try to hard reset the router? Rescue mode means putting the router into f/w load time. TFTP may be useful in this situation if only you see TTL=100ms when your ping is working. You can repeat the ping as many times as you need using /r switch.

 

[jegesq]

[QUOTE/=Anyways asus are happy to send me another one since it is under warranty..[/QUOTE]


Then I'd just send it back and chalk it up to some bad hardware.[/QUOTE]

 

[Pierino]

Spending $7 isn't necessarily jumping the gun.
I've put dozens of asus routers into rescue mode but I had trouble with the rt-ac3200 that had dd-wrt on it. It kept timing out before it would transfer the firmware.
I hooked my serial cable on it, issued flash -noheader : nflash1.trx and flashed that way.
Even when using the firmware restoration utility it is nice what is going on.
Anyway I also had a feeling that due to the led behaviour that it would be unrecoverable. I wrongly assumed it was out of warranty or he wouldn't have posted here.
I figured he would have just gotten an rma.
Sorry.

 

[RMerlin]

I often get better results using a tftp client than either the firmware recovery tool or the miniweb interface.

 

[Gil]

Hi all,

I registered to post in this thread as I'm having exactly the same issue. I flashed Tomato successfully on the router, attempted a reflash of DD WRT with factory reset and I'm now completely locked out.

- if I attempt to enter recovery mode, it never gets that far - it just keeps bootlooping
- It will accept a factory reset (WPS button+ power on) but this doesn't help
- If I allow it to boot up regularly, it appears to boot fully (the WAN indicator lights up) but is completely unresponsive

So, I'm thinking that I am going to have to use the serial flash method to recover. I'm based in the UK - is this the correct adapter? http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CP2102-US...488433?hash=item36085c1cf1:g:qn0AAOxytL9SIgUd

Thanks in advance

 

[Pierino]

Hi all,

I registered to post in this thread as I'm having exactly the same issue. I flashed Tomato successfully on the router, attempted a reflash of DD WRT with factory reset and I'm now completely locked out.

- if I attempt to enter recovery mode, it never gets that far - it just keeps bootlooping
- It will accept a factory reset (WPS button+ power on) but this doesn't help
- If I allow it to boot up regularly, it appears to boot fully (the WAN indicator lights up) but is completely unresponsive

So, I'm thinking that I am going to have to use the serial flash method to recover. I'm based in the UK - is this the correct adapter? http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CP2102-US...488433?hash=item36085c1cf1:g:qn0AAOxytL9SIgUd

Thanks in advance

Yes that will work.

 

[Gil]

Yes that will work.

Thanks that's brilliant.

Over the past ten years, I've used a handful of routers with DD WRT / Tomato, but I've never really experienced a brick to the point where I have to serial flash, so this part is new to me. Is there a guide I can use that will walk me through the process when I have the adapter?

 

[Pierino]

After you hook it up, in putty or whatever you use, type nvram erase then enter.
Hopefully at that point you will get a ping response of ttl=100.
Then type: flash -noheader : nflash1.trx and upload the firmware. I usually use tftpd32 by jourin.
You can read this. https://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Serial_Recovery, I hope it's ok for me to post that.
Note the guide says flash -noheader : flash1.trx but the guide was written years ago.

I also had an rt-ac3200 that I couldn't flash any other way than using serial.

 

[roblangston]

I have the same issue as above, router will not enter rescue mode after downgrading the firmware. I have purchased a USB to UART cable but before I open up the router does someone have the pinouts for the AC-3200 available. Thanks in advance.

 

[roblangston]

Ok, I have got a little further, hooked up the USB to UART cable but am unable to break into the router boot sequence with repeatedly hitting Ctrl-C. I can see the text output on the screen via Putty but it gets to the boot the image... line, then comes up with could not load and repeats over and over. Does anyone have any ideas?

 

[RMerlin]

Turn the router on while pressing the Reset button. Release it once the power LED is flashing.

 

[roblangston]

Many thanks for the reply but I am unable to ping the router while in recovery mode. I have tried assigning a manual ip address of 192.168.0.9 and 192.168.1.9 and pinging 192.168.0.1 and 192.68.1.1 but dont receive replies from either.