RT-AC68U... Is it bricked?

[Darf Nader]

Hi, I am again trying my luck at trying to factory reset a RT-AC68U that I gave up on a while back because I didn't have the time. I had Tomato running on it previously but it was super unstable and while attempting to perform a factory restore it because stuck in this state where it is the link light I connect to lights with traffic and the power LED and rear light seem turn on-off-on-off etc.. every few minutes or so. What's worse is that even when I go through the restore per the rescue mode process because the IP doesn't reset. Using arp-scan I found that its IP is 192.168.69.1 and I cannot get it to revert to 192.168.1.1. The restore tool (at least for MacOS) doesn't function unless the NIC connected to the router is in 192.168.1.0/24. Even if I could change this behavior, nmap shows no TCP ports open on the device. It response to pings but thats about it.

Any ideas?

 

[Darf Nader]

I found this page which tells how to upload the firmware using tftpt which I was able to do. It took a few minutes to upload the trx package and I gave it 10 minutes to "set".

I had rebooted and it was on the same IP but it didn't seem to give any joy but at on point after a reset I ran nmap and I got action momentarily:

mlitwin@chromesthesia:[~/Downloads/RT-AC68U_384.11_2]$nmap -p 8080 192.168.69.1
Starting Nmap 7.70 ( https://nmap.org ) at 2019-06-04 17:53 PDT
Nmap scan report for 192.168.69.1
Host is up (0.0060s latency).

PORT STATE SERVICE
8080/tcp filtered http-proxy

Nmap done: 1 IP address (1 host up) scanned in 0.26 seconds

Then it was gone faster than it was there. So weird.

 

[Darf Nader]

Welp, I have tried uploading the firmware and it uploaded OK and I waited for it to "take" but basically it will stay up for a bout 5-10 minutes and then it seems to power cycle on its own. I see all the lights flash like a nortmal power cycle but it never gets beyond the power LED steady on and link light flashing. It will stay like this for maybe 10 minutes before it cycles again. It does this continuously.

It's still on the old IP 192.168.69.1 but it can't get any port to stay open which I might be able to connect to. Reset and rescue still does nothing/ Anything else I might try before I get a USB/serial adapter and crack it open?

 

[Smokindog]

Do you have a different wall wart you can try?

Welp, I have tried uploading the firmware and it uploaded OK and I waited for it to "take" but basically it will stay up for a bout 5-10 minutes and then it seems to power cycle on its own. I see all the lights flash like a nortmal power cycle but it never gets beyond the power LED steady on and link light flashing. It will stay like this for maybe 10 minutes before it cycles again. It does this continuously.

It's still on the old IP 192.168.69.1 but it can't get any port to stay open which I might be able to connect to. Reset and rescue still does nothing/ Anything else I might try before I get a USB/serial adapter and crack it open?

 

[Darf Nader]

Do you have a different wall wart you can try?

Maybe, if I dig far enough. Why? Do you have a specific reason to consider that the transformer is faulty based on the symptoms I described?

The best way I could describe the behavior is that the reset button seems ineffectual.

 

[Smokindog]

It's just one of those things you check. Wall warts fail and sometimes in weird ways that can vary power/voltage and affect electronics. Resetting the device and changing the wall wart are just two common things to try.

Maybe, if I dig far enough. Why? Do you have a specific reason to consider that the transformer is faulty based on the symptoms I described?

The best way I could describe the behavior is that the reset button seems ineffectual.

 

[Kyle Hessenthaler]

A few years ago, I had issues with my ASUS RT-AC66U trying factory reset it with no luck. I thought I bricked it until I found a solution on this website:
https://superuser.com/questions/706212/asus-rt-ac66r-hard-reset

The solution that worked for me is as follows:
TURN Off the router with the power button, Hold the WPS button and turn it on! Wait 15 seconds while holding the WPS button and then release WPS button. Let the router boot normally and you should have 192.168.1.1 back!

I followed these steps and it brought my router back. I hope this will help you with your router.

 

[Darf Nader]

TURN Off the router with the power button, Hold the WPS button and turn it on! Wait 15 seconds while holding the WPS button and then release WPS button. Let the router boot normally and you should have 192.168.1.1 back!

I followed these steps and it brought my router back. I hope this will help you with your router.

Holy s__t! That worked! You are a monster of rock, Kyle. I probably missed this because I was looking specifically for threads specific the RT-AC68U. You clearly are the better googler.

And here I was about to crack the thing open to access the serial port like that poor guy did

Thanks so much! I hope that other people who run into this wacky problem for this model will find this thread now.

 

[dosborne]

I had a similar experience (reset button vs WPS button)
https://www.snbforums.com/threads/ntp-issues-384-11-on-ac68u.56540/#post-490399

 

[Grisu]

Holy s__t! That worked! You are a monster of rock, Kyle. I probably missed this because I was looking specifically for threads specific the RT-AC68U. You clearly are the better googler.

And here I was about to crack the thing open to access the serial port like that poor guy did

Thanks so much! I hope that other people who run into this wacky problem for this model will find this thread now.

It is well known in the forum that for RT-AC68U there are 3 types of factory reset (software, reset button and WPS while powering on) and sometimes one seems to work better than the other, most times WPS is recommended as most stable reset function.
You are just a bit to impatient for more answers