Asus RT-AX89X B2 is Boot Looping (BRICKED or Hardware fault?)

[JFerris]

My son recently bought a RT-AX89X router from a guy on facebook only to get home and discover it does not work (big mistake i know but to late now). As a result he has given the router to me to see if i could fix it.
So far i am not sure if the fault is with the hardware or software, it appears to boot for about 10 seconds with the fan running then the fan turns off and about 20 seconds after that the system resets and starts all other again.
I have tried using the Asus Firmware Restoration software to recover the system but that fails "ASUS Firmware Restoration app says router is not in restauration mode", at first i had the wrong IPs as Asus instructions do not match the IP in the enviroment settings but after connecting to the serial interface i have got the correct ip and server ip from it and still it fails to work (Same error).
I have tried clearing the setting by holding WPS during boot, in the serial monitor i can see the setting cleared but nothing else has changed.
Monitoring the boot there are a number of errors that come up but searching online has not provided me any solid answers as to where the problem lies as alot of the errors im seeing people are saying arn't actual errors or the search leads to something else not relevant to this router. Hopeing some one on here might be able to point me in the correct direction with this fault.

I dont know if any one can help but just incase have attached a copy of the output when booting normaly and in recovery mode
Also the enviroment variables are as follows:

RT-AX89U# printenv

baudrate=115200
bootargs=console=ttyMSM0,115200n8
bootcmd=tftp
bootdelay=2
bootfile=RT-AX89U.trx
eth1addr=F0:2F:74:C5:BF:ED
eth2addr=F0:2F:74:C5:BF:ED
eth3addr=F0:2F:74:C5:BF:ED
eth4addr=F0:2F:74:C5:BF:ED
eth5addr=F0:2F:74:C5:BF:ED
ethact=eth0
ethaddr=F0:2F:74:C5:BF:ED
fdt_high=0x4A400000
fdtcontroladdr=4a99d120
flash_type=2
imgaddr=0x4B000000
ipaddr=192.168.50.1
machid=8010000
mtddevname=Bootloader
mtddevnum=0
mtdids=nand0=nand0
mtdparts=mtdparts=nand0:3968k(Bootloader),128k(environment),-(UBI_DEV)
netmask=255.255.255.0
partition=nand0,0
serverip=192.168.50.75
soc_version_major=2
soc_version_minor=0
stderr=serial@78B3000
stdin=serial@78B3000
stdout=serial@78B3000

Environment size: 734/131068 bytes
RT-AX89U#

 

[Squall Leonhart]

hold the wps button as you power it on until the power led turns off and back on.

 

[JFerris]

hold the wps button as you power it on until the power led turns off and back on.

As i said in the origional post "I have tried clearing the setting by holding WPS during boot, in the serial monitor i can see the setting cleared"

Please choose the operation:
   1: Load System code to SDRAM via TFTP.
   2: Load System code then write to Flash via TFTP.
   3: Boot System code via Flash (default).
   4: Entr boot command line interface.
   7: Load Boot Loader code then write to Flash via Serial.
   9: Load Boot Loader code then write to Flash via TFTP.
wps button pressed!

   3: Boot System code via Flash (default).

RT-AX89U bootloader version: 2.1.1.6
MAC Address: F0:2F:74:C5:BF:E8
wps button pressed!
wps button pressed!
wps button pressed!

0x5d000 bytes written to volume nvram
Erase 0xc03e0000 size 0x20000
resetting ...

One thing i failed to mention before that might have somthing to do with why the recovery mode will not work is that, where LAN 3-8 are detected as gigabit ports the WAN port along with LAN1 and 2 are all only running at 10M

 

[JFerris]

I have been trying to load the files over serial but the connection is to unstable for the full 50mb with kermit most i have acheaved it 67% before it fails, i wondered if it is possable to slow the baud rate to help with stability but if i change the enviroment setting the baud rate does not change on the serial port. Any ideas anyone?

 

[EvoPulse]

I have been trying to load the files over serial but the connection is to unstable for the full 50mb with kermit most i have acheaved it 67% before it fails, i wondered if it is possable to slow the baud rate to help with stability but if i change the enviroment setting the baud rate does not change on the serial port. Any ideas anyone?

So I figured this out: (I've been trying to bypass ASUS firmware controls to install DD-WRT on this unit, and ended up bricking the router as well)

Recovery Mode:
With device powered off, hold the reset pin, and power on device. You should get a slow white LED blink.
Plug your Ethernet into the blue WAN port.

Using TFTP:
Set network adapter to 192.168.50.75 / 255.255.255.0
You'll send the ASUS binary to 192.168.50.1
push to device. You should see a ton of network activity
Device will reboot to solid lights. Three white, one red.

Reset NVRAM:
Power off device, hold WPS button and power on device.
Stop holding WPS once the white LED is blinking fast. Device will reboot.

Move ethernet cable from WAN port to the yellow lan port.

Profit.

Source:

[OpenWrt-Devel] New target IPQ8074 / Asus-ax89x(u)

Note:
I had originally tried downgrading the firmware on this device which seem to have bricked it. I then had to update to the last firmware I had upgraded to. If you don't know what firmware it was on, you may want to just start with the oldest firmware on the ASUS website and slowly work your way up trying the firmwares until it boots correctly. (They appear to have partition changes between major revisions)
Also after recovering my device, I was able to install the initial dd-wrt firmware using this!