Stuck in Recovery Mode

[Trebuin]

Ok, I've searched around and have had no luck, so maybe someone here might point me in the right direction.

Basically, my asus (listed below) lost connection to the main router that it was repeating for, so I thought, why not reset it to fix it? Power light and connected lans were the only ones lit...power is in a slow blink so it went into recovery. I've tried everything to get it out of recovery to include using the asus utility to reupload the firmware (tried several versions) with all saying the recovery was a success, but when it restarted, it would stay in recovery. The 192.168.1.1 address does not work for it and I cannot get it to accept a flash reset as it just goes into recovery on every re-power. I did set up the ip address at 192.168.1.2, subnet 255.255.255.0 and router as 192.168.1.1 correctly but it just does not want to leave recovery.
I've tried powering on holding the WPS, no change, holding reset...that puts it into recovery anyway but worth a try. Pulled the power and tried depleting it...no luck. I would appreciate any help. Thanks!

Using latest firmware.

 

[4Leaf]

Go to the router page while its in recovery mode at 192.168.1.1

Enter the latest merlin firmware or whatever firmware ur trying to download where it says upload.

After it gets done uploading the firmware and says Please wait a few mins the router is rebooting, it will take anywhere from 15 to 40 mins until it will come back on to where u can configure it.

I've been in the exact same situation before my friend.

 

[4Leaf]

Turn off obtain ip address automatically on ur local area connection settings before u do what i told u above and enter

IP Address: 192.168.1.x
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway:
and leave the default gateway blank

 

[Trebuin]

That page was not working.

I've made some progress by interrupting the upload using the utility forces the router to do some sort of soft restart and I get everything back until the next reboot, then back to recovery. I've finally gotten the 192.168.1.1 website working using this and can change firmware only this way, but resetting nvram has done nothing and changing firmware has done nothing...it just wants to boot into recovery mode. Still troubleshooting.

 

[Trebuin]

I was able to set it up, but will now have to use that asus tool every time I want to restart. There's something corrupt and I just can't pinpoint it. Probably time for a new router, sadly.

 

[Trebuin]

Every time I would use the utility to upload the firmware, it would only take about 1 min, not the 15-30 or so everyone was talking about. Also, when finally recovering my system, none of the settings were erased...not good. I downgraded to version .39 to get the command line back and executed nvram erase there, but the issue is still holding. Each reboot, it starts in recovery, I have to pull out a pan cable and restart my computer in bootcamp to run the utility just to cancel the upload to get a reset and see the router boot again. I can't leave it this way before my next deployment.

 

[Trebuin]

Only indication that something is wrong right now is that the power light continuously blinks fast, even though it is working right now.

 

[4Leaf]

So did u get it working?

And did u mean that whenever u would clear the nvram after the firmware was installed and ready to go it would randomly boot into recovery mode?

 

[vincom]

i have the ac66u, it only takes a few minutes to flash and reboot the router.
ive went from stock to merlin to tomato & back to stock multiple times w/out issue
its important to use the correct asus restore utilty, i uploaded one for u to try which i got from asus website restore utilty.
you also must set you network card connected to the router as a static ip and preferably to the #1 lan port but not sure if thats necessary.
try a different network cable.
if you can ping the router while its in revovery mode you should be able to tffp the firmware but i have not tried that method yet
if all else fails maybe bad hw

 

[Trebuin]

Still not working correctly. It will always boot into recovery mode now...off restating using the power button or using "reboot" on the webpage. I did manually set the ip...reference above, used LAN port 1, and can flash to any version of firmware I want. I can also freely wipe the nvram successfully. The problem is that the router just wants to boot into recovery every restart or power outage. Maybe a failed router?

 

[jlake]

If you search the forum, there's quite a few posts that will probably help you.

 

[Trebuin]

over 24 hours now and I've yet to find anyone who is stuck in recovery mode with what appears to be a successful firmware update and nvram reset.

 

[KevTech]

Are you letting the router sit after an upgrade until it reboots on it's own or waiting so long then powering off/on with the power button?

The firmware upgrade takes only about a minute but the router needs to sit untouched until it reboots.

If you don't let the router sit and reboot by itself then you will be stuck in a recovery mode loop.

Reboot after flash could take up to 45 minutes although longest i have seen is 30 minutes.

 

[Trebuin]

Are you letting the router sit after an upgrade until it reboots on it's own or waiting so long then powering off/on with the power button?

The firmware upgrade takes only about a minute but the router needs to sit untouched until it reboots.

If you don't let the router sit and reboot by itself then you will be stuck in a recovery mode loop.

Reboot after flash could take up to 45 minutes although longest i have seen is 30 minutes.

I thought it let it boot on its own, but just to try, I re-ran the firmware upload. First try was using the asus utility and I let it sit for 2 hrs. It actually rebooted on its own right after the upload. It tarted by uploading, then started restoring...I keep seeing it only get to 1%, then swing to 100% and reboot. I let it sit after that for 2 hrs. No change.

I'm now only a few mins into waiting on doing the firmware upload by using the non-recovery mode webpage. It's now sitting in recovery mode and I'll let it sit there until I get back from picking up dog food from the store. It's worth a try. The next option I will try is uploading the firmware using the recovery mode webpage...if I can remember how to get that to work.

 

[usamario]

Not able to recover

Hi
I am in the same situation, I have been able to flash it a few times before but this time, it just failed.
Al of a sudden I was not able to load the home page and then I got the message to upload to the latest version, which I had flashed last week.
I then did the reset and used the recovery utility and it goes to the process and it reports a failure to update. I have done all possible at this point. I purchased the router october 2013, so it is under warranty. I already have an RMA.
I am not an expert, but I think the cause may be the latest firmware. Xxxx.517.
Good luck
Mario

 

[TonyH]

Hi,
One suggestion, hold down the reset button good 5 to 10 minutes
and see what happens.

 

[Trebuin]

Hi,
One suggestion, hold down the reset button good 5 to 10 minutes
and see what happens.

Thanks for the help, I RMA'd it already so I can't try that trick. I'm sorry I won't be able to try that troubleshooting step. Thanks for all your help Tony. New router is working fine, flashed fine...went to version .42 as that seems to be the most stable once I found out most of my problems were with using the 5ghz to extend when I should have used the 2ghz. I'm assuming the router may have actually failed on a hardware level as prior to the failure, the wifi would constantly stop transmitting...it's up for 2 seconds then down for a second, then up for 2, down for 1, and so on continuously. This one shows solid even performance.