RT-N66U Bricked ?

[Rajesh]

Hello Experts,

Need your advice!

Have been a happy RT-N66U from 2012 without any issues and about a week ago while updating to the new firware (3.0.0.4.380.3264), the router is bricked.

What did I do recover ?
1. Reset the router, no-luck.
2. 30-30-30 reset, no luck.
3.I can upload the firmware using Asus Recovery utility, but nothing happens after that.
4. I tried uploading DD-wrt, tomato and the stock firmwares using the recovery tool, the process goes on but nothing happens post that.


Current Status:

When I switch on the router, the power LED fast blinks, I can't ping the router, no web UI.

Am I missing something ?

Thanks,
Rajesh

 

[L&LD]

1. Reset or 'rest' the router?
2. 30-30-30 reset does not work on Asus routers.
3. How long did you wait? It could take an hour or more.

What firmware version were you on when you tried the 380.3264 version? Did you remove any USB drives from the router and rebooted it before you tried flashing new firmware?

 

[Rajesh]

1. Reset or 'rest' the router?
2. 30-30-30 reset does not work on Asus routers.
3. How long did you wait? It could take an hour or more.

What firmware version were you on when you tried the 380.3264 version? Did you remove any USB drives from the router and rebooted it before you tried flashing new firmware?

Reset it is
I waited for 90mins.
Before the upgrade I was on 3.0.0.4.378.9459.
I never usually was removing USB during the flashing, so did the same this too but landed up in this mess.
But now, nothing is connected to the router except power and one LAN cable connecting to my PC.

 

[gffmac]

Try this, visit 192.168.1.1, and with browser recovery interface reset NVRAM and flash merlins 380.57. dont touch anything else and leave it for 2 hours just to be sure. Cross fingers.

 

[Rajesh]

Try this, visit 192.168.1.1, and with browser recovery interface reset NVRAM and flash merlins 380.57. dont touch anything else and leave it for 2 hours just to be sure. Cross fingers.

I have started this process now. I'll wait till morning, that's more than 2 hours. Will keep you posted.

 

[vincom]

I have started this process now. I'll wait till morning, that's more than 2 hours. Will keep you posted.

search for asus recovery mode tutorial

 

[Rajesh]

Here I am after 9hours,
1. Started the router in recovery mode.
2. Using recovery tool, I uploaded the Merlin 380.57 firmware and went to sleep.
3. This morning, I see the power LED flashing fast, but cant ping the router

Should I give up on this folks ?

 

[KevTech]

Try uploading a smaller size stock firmware from the 376 version.

http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/wi...3861.zip?_ga=1.204501080.939800313.1466023963

 

[gffmac]

Good luck Rajesh, I know when I had my N66U there was a few times I thought it was bricked but I managed in the end, maybe even try a different pc/ethernet cable just in case something else is causing the issue.

 

[Rajesh]

Okay guys here's another update:
After trying almost all the firmwares in the last few days and none of them working, I upgraded to Tomato firmware again.
1. After loading Tomato, I just left it that way for about 2hrs and after 2 hours, I powered off the router for another 2 hours.
2. After rebooting, viola!! My router is back to life. But...is very unstable, the power LED keeps fast flashing and rebooting every 10mins. Sometime after the reboot, it never comes online, so I had to bring it online by starting the router by holding the WPS button.
3. From the Tomato, I selected the option to upgrade the firware and got in the stock Asus firmware. So far so good. Its been over 15hours and no issues yet.

However, what is concerning me is that the Power LED is still flashing, where as it shouldn't be in normal mode of operation. Any clues on what I could be missing ?

 

[TonyH]

Okay guys here's another update:
After trying almost all the firmwares in the last few days and none of them working, I upgraded to Tomato firmware again.
1. After loading Tomato, I just left it that way for about 2hrs and after 2 hours, I powered off the router for another 2 hours.
2. After rebooting, viola!! My router is back to life. But...is very unstable, the power LED keeps fast flashing and rebooting every 10mins. Sometime after the reboot, it never comes online, so I had to bring it online by starting the router by holding the WPS button.
3. From the Tomato, I selected the option to upgrade the firware and got in the stock Asus firmware. So far so good. Its been over 15hours and no issues yet.

However, what is concerning me is that the Power LED is still flashing, where as it shouldn't be in normal mode of operation. Any clues on what I could be missing ?

Any chance you thought about your power adapter is going South? Just to get one thing out of the way, try another one. Next is maybe some electrolytic cap. on the main board is going..... Only way is to open the router and inspect all the caps.

 

[Rajesh]

Any chance you thought about your power adapter is going South? Just to get one thing out of the way, try another one. Next is maybe some electrolytic cap. on the main board is going..... Only way is to open the router and inspect all the caps.

power supply is absolutely fine Tony. I verified it.

I happened to stumble up on the router logs and this is what I see:

Jun 19 19:40:40 rc_service: waitting "stop_wps_method" via wpsaide ...
Jun 19 19:40:41 rc_service: wpsaide 230:notify_rc stop_wps_method
Jun 19 19:40:41 rc_service: wpsaide 230:notify_rc start_wps_method
Jun 19 19:40:41 rc_service: waitting "stop_wps_method" via wpsaide ...
Jun 19 19:40:42 rc_service: wpsaide 230:notify_rc stop_wps_method
Jun 19 19:40:42 rc_service: wpsaide 230:notify_rc start_wps_method
Jun 19 19:40:42 rc_service: waitting "stop_wps_method" via wpsaide ...
Jun 19 19:40:43 rc_service: wpsaide 230:notify_rc stop_wps_method
Jun 19 19:40:43 rc_service: wpsaide 230:notify_rc start_wps_method
Jun 19 19:40:43 rc_service: waitting "stop_wps_method" via wpsaide ...
Jun 19 19:40:44 rc_service: wpsaide 230:notify_rc stop_wps_method

Any help on the above logs is appreciated.

Thanks,
Rajesh

 

[Rajesh]

Another piece of logs:

Jun 20 16:55:31 rc_service: waitting "stop_wps_method" via wpsaide ...
Jun 20 16:55:32 kernel: Attempt to kill tasklet from interrupt
Jun 20 16:55:33 FTP Server: daemon is stoped
Jun 20 16:55:33 Samba Server: smb daemon is stoped
Jun 20 16:55:33 WEBDAV Server: daemon is stoped
Jun 20 16:55:33 NAT Tunnel: AAE Service is stopped
Jun 20 16:55:33 NAT Tunnel: AAE Service is stopped
Aug 1 05:30:06 syslogd started: BusyBox v1.17.4
Aug 1 05:30:06 kernel: PID hash table entries: 2048 (order: 11, 8192 bytes)
Aug 1 05:30:06 kernel: CPU: BCM5300 rev 1 pkg 0 at 600 MHz
Aug 1 05:30:06 kernel: Using 300.000 MHz high precision timer.
Aug 1 05:30:06 kernel: Dentry cache hash table entries: 65536 (order: 6, 262144 bytes)
Aug 1 05:30:06 kernel: Inode-cache hash table entries: 32768 (order: 5, 131072 bytes)
Aug 1 05:30:06 kernel: Mount-cache hash table entries: 512
Aug 1 05:30:06 kernel: PCI: Initializing host
Aug 1 05:30:06 kernel: PCI: Reset RC
Aug 1 05:30:06 kernel: PCI: Initializing host
Aug 1 05:30:06 kernel: PCI: Reset RC
Aug 1 05:30:06 kernel: PCI: Fixing up bus 0
Aug 1 05:30:06 kernel: PCI/PCIe coreunit 0 is set to bus 1.
Aug 1 05:30:06 kernel: PCI: Fixing up bridge
Aug 1 05:30:06 kernel: PCI: Fixing up bridge
Aug 1 05:30:06 kernel: PCI: Enabling device 0000:01:00.1 (0004 -> 0006)
Aug 1 05:30:06 kernel: PCI: Fixing up bus 1
Aug 1 05:30:06 kernel: PCI/PCIe coreunit 1 is set to bus 2.
Aug 1 05:30:06 kernel: PCI: Fixing up bridge
Aug 1 05:30:06 kernel: PCI: Fixing up bridge
Aug 1 05:30:06 kernel: PCI: Enabling device 0000:02:00.1 (0004 -> 0006)
Aug 1 05:30:06 kernel: PCI: Fixing up bus 2
Aug 1 05:30:06 kernel: IP route cache hash table entries: 4096 (order: 2, 16384 bytes)
Aug 1 05:30:06 kernel: TCP established hash table entries: 16384 (order: 5, 131072 bytes)
Aug 1 05:30:06 kernel: TCP bind hash table entries: 16384 (order: 4, 65536 bytes)
Aug 1 05:30:06 kernel: highmem bounce pool size: 64 pages
Aug 1 05:30:06 kernel: Amd/Fujitsu Extended Query Table at 0x0040
Aug 1 05:30:06 kernel: Physically mapped flash: CFI does not contain boot bank location. Assuming top.
Aug 1 05:30:06 kernel: number of CFI chips: 1
Aug 1 05:30:06 kernel: cfi_cmdset_0002: Disabling erase-suspend-program due to code brokenness.
Aug 1 05:30:06 kernel: Flash device: 0x2000000 at 0x1c000000
Aug 1 05:30:06 kernel: Creating 5 MTD partitions on "Physically mapped flash":
Aug 1 05:30:06 kernel: 0x00000000-0x00040000 : "pmon"
Aug 1 05:30:06 kernel: 0x00040000-0x01fe0000 : "linux"
Aug 1 05:30:06 kernel: 0x0016e700-0x01d80000 : "rootfs"
Aug 1 05:30:06 kernel: 0x01fe0000-0x02000000 : "nvram"
Aug 1 05:30:06 kernel: 0x01ee0000-0x01fe0000 : "jffs2"
Aug 1 05:30:06 kernel: Found an serial flash with 0 0KB blocks; total size 0MB
Aug 1 05:30:06 kernel: sflash: found no supported devices
Aug 1 05:30:06 kernel: dev_nvram_init: _nvram_init
Aug 1 05:30:06 kernel: u32 classifier
Aug 1 05:30:06 kernel: OLD policer on
Aug 1 05:30:06 stop_nat_rules: apply the redirect_rules!
Aug 1 05:30:06 kernel: Netfilter messages via NETLINK v0.30.
Aug 1 05:30:06 kernel: nf_conntrack version 0.5.0 (2048 buckets, 16384 max)
Aug 1 05:30:06 kernel: ip_tables: (C) 2000-2006 Netfilter Core Team
Aug 1 05:30:06 kernel: net/ipv4/netfilter/tomato_ct.c [May 7 2016 19:03:39]
Aug 1 05:30:06 kernel: ip6_tables: (C) 2000-2006 Netfilter Core Team
Aug 1 05:30:07 kernel: VFS: Mounted root (squashfs filesystem) readonly.
Aug 1 05:30:07 kernel: Warning: unable to open an initial console.
Aug 1 05:30:07 kernel: Algorithmics/MIPS FPU Emulator v1.5
Aug 1 05:30:07 kernel: et: module license 'Proprietary' taints kernel.
Aug 1 05:30:07 kernel: et_module_init: passivemode set to 0x0
Aug 1 05:30:07 WAN Connection: Ethernet link down.
Aug 1 05:30:07 kernel: et_module_init: et_txq_thresh set to 0xce4
Aug 1 05:30:07 kernel: bcm_robo_enable_switch: EEE is disabled
Aug 1 05:30:07 kernel: eth0: Broadcom BCM47XX 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet Controller 6.30.163.2002 (r382208)
Aug 1 05:30:07 kernel: wl_module_init: passivemode set to 0x0
Aug 1 05:30:07 kernel: PCI: Enabling device 0000:01:01.0 (0000 -> 0002)
Aug 1 05:30:07 kernel: eth1: Broadcom BCM4331 802.11 Wireless Controller 6.30.163.2002 (r382208)
Aug 1 05:30:07 kernel: PCI: Enabling device 0000:02:01.0 (0000 -> 0002)
Aug 1 05:30:07 kernel: eth2: Broadcom BCM4331 802.11 Wireless Controller 6.30.163.2002 (r382208)
Aug 1 05:30:12 RT-N66U: start httpd
Aug 1 05:30:12 syslog: Generating SSL certificate...
Aug 1 05:30:13 hour monitor: daemon is starting
Aug 1 05:30:13 hour monitor: daemon terminates
Aug 1 05:30:14 disk monitor: be idle
Aug 1 05:30:15 miniupnpd[278]: version 1.9 started
Aug 1 05:30:15 miniupnpd[278]: HTTP listening on port 47680
Aug 1 05:30:15 miniupnpd[278]: Listening for NAT-PMP/PCP traffic on port 5351
Aug 1 05:30:15 syslog: module ledtrig-usbdev not found in modules.dep
Aug 1 05:30:15 syslog: module leds-usb not found in modules.dep
Aug 1 05:30:16 kernel: SCSI subsystem initialized
Aug 1 05:30:17 kernel: ufsd: driver (8.6 U86_r187446_b122, LBD=ON, acl, ioctl, rwm, ws, sd) loaded at c026d000
Aug 1 05:30:17 kernel: NTFS (with native replay) support included
Aug 1 05:30:17 kernel: optimized: speed
Aug 1 05:30:17 kernel: Build_for__asus_n66u_2011-10-27_U86_r187446_b122
Aug 1 05:30:20 kernel: scsi 0:0:0:0: Direct-Access Multi Flash Reader 1.00 PQ: 0 ANSI: 0
Aug 1 05:30:21 kernel: sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] 15523840 512-byte hardware sectors (7948 MB)
Aug 1 05:30:21 kernel: sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is off
Aug 1 05:30:21 kernel: sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Assuming drive cache: write through
Aug 1 05:30:21 kernel: sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Assuming drive cache: write through
Aug 1 05:30:21 kernel: sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Attached SCSI removable disk
Aug 1 05:30:21 kernel: sd 0:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg0 type 0
Aug 1 05:30:21 usb: USB vfat fs at /dev/sda1 mounted on /tmp/mnt/sda1.
Aug 1 05:30:22 rc_service: hotplug 398:notify_rc restart_nasapps
Aug 1 05:30:22 FTP Server: daemon is stoped
Aug 1 05:30:22 Samba Server: smb daemon is stoped
Aug 1 05:30:22 miniupnpd[278]: shutting down MiniUPnPd
Aug 1 05:30:22 Samba Server: daemon is started
Aug 1 05:30:24 miniupnpd[432]: version 1.9 started
Aug 1 05:30:24 miniupnpd[432]: HTTP listening on port 54670
Aug 1 05:30:24 miniupnpd[432]: Listening for NAT-PMP/PCP traffic on port 5351
Aug 1 05:34:15 rc_service: wpsaide 228:notify_rc stop_wps_method
Aug 1 05:34:15 rc_service: wpsaide 228:notify_rc start_wps_method
Aug 1 05:34:15 rc_service: waitting "stop_wps_method" via wpsaide ...
Aug 1 05:34:17 rc_service: wpsaide 228:notify_rc stop_wps_method
Aug 1 05:34:17 rc_service: wpsaide 228:notify_rc start_wps_method
Aug 1 05:34:17 rc_service: waitting "stop_wps_method" via wpsaide ...
Aug 1 05:34:18 rc_service: wpsaide 228:notify_rc stop_wps_method
Aug 1 05:34:18 rc_service: wpsaide 228:notify_rc start_wps_method
Aug 1 05:34:18 rc_service: waitting "stop_wps_method" via wpsaide ...
Aug 1 05:34:19 rc_service: wpsaide 228:notify_rc stop_wps_method
Aug 1 05:34:19 rc_service: wpsaide 228:notify_rc start_wps_method
Aug 1 05:34:19 rc_service: waitting "stop_wps_method" via wpsaide ...
Aug 1 05:34:20 rc_service: wpsaide 228:notify_rc stop_wps_method
Aug 1 05:34:20 rc_service: wpsaide 228:notify_rc start_wps_method
Aug 1 05:34:20 rc_service: waitting "stop_wps_method" via wpsaide ...
Aug 1 05:34:21 rc_service: wpsaide 228:notify_rc stop_wps_method
Aug 1 05:34:21 rc_service: wpsaide 228:notify_rc start_wps_method
Aug 1 05:34:21 rc_service: waitting "stop_wps_method" via wpsaide .

 

[Rajesh]

Update:
All the above mentioned issues are fixed with the latest firmware 3.0.0.4.380.3831 update from Asus. However the signal range seem to have dropped on both 2.4 and 5Ghz.