Bricked RT-AC5300

[amm009uk]

Well I've had it 2 days and bricked it I flashed 380.59 as soon as I got it. Did this thru recovery mode cause with web admin it fails due to ASUS locking things down a bit. Configured openvpn which ran great. Enabled jffs also fine. Went out, came home and saw no Wi-Fi !!!

Since then I've tried everything. I can enter recovery mode, uploading any version of firmware works. Still in the recovery program it then says system recovery in progress which goes very slowly up to 2% and suddenly competes successfully. I don't know if that's normal??

That's really it. I've left it for hours and tried several times. Can't ping it or no Wi-Fi is up.

I tried resetting nvram thru the mini web in recovery. I also tried holding wps with power up. After both of these I flashed and still no success it won't come up.

Any ideas

 

[RMerlin]

Try both the CFE mini web interface and the Firmware Recovery tool from Asus.

 

[amm009uk]

Thanks.
I seem to be having more success with recovery tool. It appears to upload ok After the upload it says "system restore in progress" for up to 2% then completes to end. Is that normal?

With the mini web I can do a nvram reset but I can't upload the firmware. The mini web seems to die out. For instance from a fresh recovery mode and a reboot I get the mini web. If I now refresh the browser I can't get back into mini web. If I now reboot the laptop I still can't get mini web. I have to restart recovery mode. But I do get reply from ping with TTL=100.

Have I killed it
ps. yes I have static IP with correct netmask.

 

[RMerlin]

Recovery is much slower than a regular flash. Give it a good 20-25 minutes after uploading the firmware - the router will automatically reboot itself once it's done writing the partition. You will be able to tell by the wifi leds turning on again due to the boot process.

 

[izzner]

One more almost bricked router.....

 

[amm009uk]

Recovery is much slower than a regular flash. Give it a good 20-25 minutes after uploading the firmware - the router will automatically reboot itself once it's done writing the partition. You will be able to tell by the wifi leds turning on again due to the boot process.

Ok so I went tried flashing thru browser which I did do before. I remember in Chrome I saw progress in the status but in IE no progress. Now in Chrome I see connecting and then timeout. Was checking things with netstat and saw no connection.

I've now done a flash from an old Windows 7 machine with Chrome. I see progress and netstat shows connection all the way to 100% upload. Recovery was slow blinking too all the time now after 100% upload I guess it rebooted and solid power light is on nothing else. I'll wait...still hope

 

[TonyH]

If you saw TTL=100ms, how about trying tftp?

 

[amm009uk]

If you saw TTL=100ms, how about trying tftp?

Ok last flash thru Chrome didn't work either. I also tried tftp which completed uploading and then waited 10 mins and rebooted.

Waiting around 30 mins after reboot each time.

Still same issue though. Power light is on, I believe it reboots a couple of times as power light goes off. ping -t does show 2/3 successes after a while then rest fail.

Upload of either stock or Merlin seems to work. Appears to fail loading firmware.

Any more ideas please?

 

[pete y testing]

Power light is on

if in recovery mode the light should be blinking

 

[amm009uk]

if in recovery mode the light should be blinking

You're right it's blinking in recovery. It's only power light after a reboot.

 

[amm009uk]

In summary, flashing thru browser, rescue app or tftp all seseem to work. After reboot it's not coming up.

 

[bayern1975]

here is tutorial how to flash correctly asus based firmware on all asus routers. it is working for downgrade firmwares from 380.60 to any older also....i tested this method for downgrading.....it works well....
https://www.asus.com/support/faq/1000814/

 

[amm009uk]

here is tutorial how to flash correctly asus based firmware on all asus routers. it is working for downgrade firmwares from 380.60 to any older also....i tested this method for downgrading.....it works well....
https://www.asus.com/support/faq/1000814/

Thanks for that but I did go thru this article and I had been scouring thru pages of other ppl having problems and everyone did manage to recover their router so I have hope.

But I will go thru the article one more time very carefully and I'll take notes and post my steps just in case I'm missing the obvious.

The fact that I can enter recovery and upload is a good sign (or so I tell myself).

 

[sfx2000]

Go back to the factory firmware if you can thru firmware recovery... see the Asus Website, and follow the steps exactly - LAN4 is your friend here...

 

[amm009uk]

Still no luck Here is what I am doing.

PC is Windows 7 with static 192.168.1.2/255.255.255.0
No firewall
Reboot before each upload and wait till HD settles down

Router off nothing plugged in except LAN 4 (also tried LAN 1)
Hold reset button in then power on. Wait for slow power light blinking then release reset button
Wait about 5 mins
Run Chrome and upload firmware
Wait about 30 mins but only power light is on

I must be in Recovery I can always upload firmware
I've tried nvram reset before each flash
Tried Asus rescue app
Tried tftp waited 5 min and rebooted
Tried ASUS firmware latest and prior
Tried Merlin's latest and beta 380.60

On reboot I see WAN light comes on then off. Power light comes on next and stays on
Its not idle. I've left it for hours and every 5-10 mins it appears to reboot

Here is the last things I did to it.
On Merlin's 380.59
It was running openvpn client fine.
I setup DDNS but that gave me a Public IP before VPN was up. Due to double NAT, I used a custom script in jffs. I disabled DDNS and renamed the script to openvpn-event. Rebooted and it was fine. Public IP was now my VPN IP.
In fact everything was going well!

Did one more final reboot and went out. On return its bricked. My first real beast and its dead.

Is it time to give up? Should I sent it back for repairs?
Could cost close to $100 to ship it back to US so only worth doing if there's a good chance it can be fixed.

 

[vincom]

forget about using browsers like chrome when in recovery mode=fail.
keep trying recovery tool or tftp.
run recovery tool first then boot router into recovery mode, when you see recovery tool uploading file walk away for 30 minutes then go back and do a "normal" router reboot(unplug power for 30 sec and then replug router)

 

[amm009uk]

forget about using browsers like chrome when in recovery mode=fail.
keep trying recovery tool or tftp.
run recovery tool first then boot router into recovery mode, when you see recovery tool uploading file walk away for 30 minutes then go back and do a "normal" router reboot(unplug power for 30 sec and then replug router)

Still bricked I'm afraid. I'm beginning to think it might not be anything I did just happens to be faulty. It ran fine for almost 2 days and last reboot killed it. I was only updating a script for DDNS.

I've tried all the suggestions above - thank you. I guess its time to for some ASUS help

I have a question though, the router did update itself within first few mins of turning it on. I then couldn't flash Merlin through web gui for obvious reasons. I did flash it thru recovery. Was that ok? Anyone else did the same on same router?

Now I do have another new RT-AC5300 just unboxed but not updated so I need to be sure. It still has 3.0.0.4.380_753

 

[ASadani]

Go back to the factory firmware if you can thru firmware recovery... see the Asus Website, and follow the steps exactly - LAN4 is your friend here...

I know this is an old post but why is LAN4 your friend? In my case in recovery the firmware uploads up to 60 % and then completes and then the router is unstable. I really want to downgrade back to 380.59.1