WL-500g Premium died After Upgrading Firmware

[badnews]

Hello... i have the following problem ...

I tried updating dd-wrt firmware (with newer version)... while doing so i forgot to put it in recovery mode.... anyways.. i udated via web interface.. it was updating... after that my router i useless.

I cannot enter recovery mode or so anything. The power light is just lit up, doesn't blink.
If i plug in any cabled the router detects them... if i try to connect via cable (i inter ip, getaway, dns manualy: 192.168.1.2... n dns/getaway 192.168.1.1)

the router connectswith limited connectivity n the network has its old name that i had...
I cannot ping 192.168.1.1.

so this is my case.... any ideas would be appreciated

thanks !

[avberk]

pin9 trick perhaps?

search the forum for it.

[Wayland]

So after I replaced my power supply I entered recovery mode and flashed the router with the clear-nvram and recover images. After that I flashed it with Oleg's firmware (1.9.2.7-10). Without power cycling the router I connected to it via telnet. I executed these commands:

erase /dev/mtd/3
erase /dev/mtd/4
reboot

I did this because I've read here that it should be done after messing with pin 9. Since then I haven't been able to ping the router and I'm not able to enter recovery mode. I already tried shortening pin 9 again but it didn't help.

My power LED hasn't been on a single time since I flashed the router with Oleg's firmware (even when I was issuing commands over telnet). The switch functions as normal. The respective LAN ports' LEDs blink as they should and I'm able to ping other computers.

Is there anything left I can do?

[newbiefan]

OK, lets give him a try....maybe that your son should use a hammer...lol

Open a command prompt and 'cd' to the directory where you downloaded the firmware (.trx file).
Type 'tftp -i 192.168.1.1 PUT yourfirmware.trx' but DO NOT HIT ENTER!
Unplug the power to the router.
Hold down the reset/restore button while reconnecting the power. Wait until the power light starts blinking before releasing the reset/restore button.
Hit enter in your command prompt window (to run 'tftp -i 192.168.1.1 PUT yourfirmware.trx').
Wait 15-30 seconds for the image to upload. If you receive a TFTP timeout message start the process over again (from step 3).
Wait 4-5 minutes and power cycle the router.


But: when your last installed firmware was ddrt, you have to do some other steps (or better: you have to use different files).
Give me some minutes, I'll come back soon -try it in the meantime.....

[newbiefan]

Well, here is the guideline in order to allow a flashing of olegs firmware
(or to give your router a chance.....)
hopefully it works....

1.) download the file WL500gp-1.9.2.7-7g.zip from http://oleg.wl500g.info/1.9.2.7-7g/ and unzip to a new folder e.g. My Documents, AsusOleg
and cd to that directory
2.) download the files below (attached)
3.) set your network settings of your pc manually to 192.168.1.5
4.) follow the guideline which I posted before and use wl500g-clear-nvram.trx and wait some minutes
5.) now follow the guideline again and use wl500g-restore.trx and wait some minutes
6.) same again and now use the downloaded file WL500gp-1.9.2.7g.trx wait about => 10 minutes

good luck!

Well my account is broken right now, therefore I can not upload the second file wl500-restore.trx
The file should be available somewhere.... I'll upload it tomorrow (hopefully my account works),
now its too late here (MEZ)
But anyhow, here is the first one...http://wl500gp.lima-city.de/tools/

[evanloon]

Hi!
I have seriously bricked my WL-500g (running dd-wrt 2.3 SP2) by uploading a corrupt config file.

When I turn on the router, the power LED is on continually. There is no radio and DHCP through LAN is not working either.
I tried resetting the router to fabric defaults: nothing happens.
I tried going into restore mode (holding the rest button during power on), but that doesn't work either!
I read the sticky about unbricking the WL-500g Premium and the WL-500g DeLuxe, but I have a WL-500g (standard or call it what you want) which has a different mainboard and a different flash chip.
Does anybody know anything else I could try? Or is it a goner...
Thank you VERY much for your help in advance!!!!
Kindest regards,
Eric van Loon

[jaapjeuk]

Hi!
I have seriously bricked my WL-500g (running dd-wrt 2.3 SP2) by uploading a corrupt config file.

When I turn on the router, the power LED is on continually. There is no radio and DHCP through LAN is not working either.
I tried resetting the router to fabric defaults: nothing happens.
I tried going into restore mode (holding the rest button during power on), but that doesn't work either!
I read the sticky about unbricking the WL-500g Premium and the WL-500g DeLuxe, but I have a WL-500g (standard or call it what you want) which has a different mainboard and a different flash chip.
Does anybody know anything else I could try? Or is it a goner...
Thank you VERY much for your help in advance!!!!
Kindest regards,
Eric van Loon

i had the same problem in the past, was solved in this way:
1) install windows/rescue.exe (from the asus wl-500g utils-cd)
2) put the wl500g in upgrade mode
3) flash first (using rescue.exe) http://oleg.wl500g.info/wl500g-clear-nvram.trx and then
4) wl500g in upgrade mode flash with wl500g-recover.trx , afterwards
5) wl500g in upgrade mode flash with normal firmware

see:
http://87.239.12.26/~d02042/showthread.php?t=2197
http://wl500g.info/showthread.php?t=2197

[evanloon]

i had the same problem in the past, was solved in this way:
1) install windows/rescue.exe (from the asus wl-500g utils-cd)
2) put the wl500g in upgrade mode

Hi Jaap!
The problem is that I cannot switch to upgrade/restore mode.
When I press the reset button during powering on the unit, nothing happens. The power LED just stays lit continualy and will not flash...
Thank you very much fo your reply!
Kindest regards,
Eric van Loon

[Matej]

Hi,

Tis is my first post here but I've been hanging around this and several other WL-500 forums for some time now in search for a solution of my problem.

I have a WL-500gP which I've flashed to DD-WRT shortly after purchase. I've been quite happy with DD-WRT's networking features but since it lacks stable USB support I've decided to flash the unit to Oleg's firmware. I had some trouble with this flash so I decided to use a similar method that worked for the DD-WRT flash. The first (and sadly last) step was to flash with tftp using wl500g-clear-nvram.trx. After waiting a couple of minutes and rebooting (i didn't hold down the reset button - perhaps was this a mistake) the unit was dead. The led lights flash upon power-up and then the power led goes immediately off. The air led stays on but it's very dim (barely noticeable light). The lan indicators work normally. It's like the boot process doesn't happen. Could I have corrupted or erased the bootloader? I haven't been able to renter recovery mode since then. The power led stays off even when power cycling with the reset button pressed. I've also tryed to short pin9 to ground several times as described in some threads. It didn't help.

I have no idea what else to try. Does any one know the cause and/or solution for this problem? I would appreciate any help.

[JohnS@]

Hey guys!

I got myself a bricked router (don't know how it was bricked exactly because I received it in this state from its former user)... still I wonder if someone has an idea as to what course of action to take when the following serial console output is the only thing that the router will output:

----------------------------------------------------------------------
CFE version 1.0.37 for BCM947XX (32bit,SP,LE)
Build Date: ¤@ 6¤ë 12 16:31:07 CST 2006 (root@localhost.localdomain)
Copyright (C) 2000,2001,2002,2003 Broadcom Corporation.

Initializing Arena
Initializing Devices.
rndis0: Broadcom USB RNDIS Network Adapter (P-t-P)
CPU type 0x29006: 264MHz
Total memory: 33554432 KBytes

Total memory used by CFE: 0x80800000 - 0x8089B670 (636528)
Initialized Data: 0x808317E0 - 0x80833EC0 (9952)
BSS Area: 0x80833EC0 - 0x80835670 (6064)
Local Heap: 0x80835670 - 0x80899670 (409600)
Stack Area: 0x80899670 - 0x8089B670 (8192)
Text (code) segment: 0x80800000 - 0x808317E0 (202720)
Boot area (physical): 0x0089C000 - 0x008DC000
Relocation Factor: I:00000000 - D:00000000

Device eth0: hwaddr 00-XX-XX-XX-XX-XX, ipaddr 192.168.1.1, mask 255.255.255.0
gateway not set, nameserver not set
Null Rescue Flag.
Boot program checksum is invalid
Hello!! Enter Rescue Mode: (Check error)

Reading :: TFTP Server.
Failed.: Timeout occured
Reading :: TFTP Server.
Failed.: Timeout occured
[this continues forever]
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Additional notes:
1) Although it seems that an IP address is assigned to eth0 I can not ping the router (of course I have set a static IP in the same subnet on the computer I'm trying to connect from)!
2) The MAC address in the console output above has been altered for this posting, in real life looks like it should.
2) Recovery mode: same output except that it says "Hello!! Enter Rescue Mode: (Forced!)"
3) Pin shorting has not changed anything (Pin 9)
4) Neither TFTP or the ASUS Utility can connect to the router, not even in forced recovery mode.... probably because the router can not even be pinged (cp. point 1).

... sombeody got an idea how I can get some life back into the device?

[Tronix]

What's port you are used, when you connect your desktop to router? MAN or LAN? Try to used different port...

[JohnS@]

What's port you are used, when you connect your desktop to router? MAN or LAN? Try to used different port...

tnx, tronix. I tried the following:

1) as usual one of the LAN ports ... tried all four (just to make sure)
2) tried WAN (which should not work) and which also did not work

what worries me when looking closely at the console output is especially the following:

--------from console output -----------------------
Initializing Arena
Initializing Devices.
rndis0: Broadcom USB RNDIS Network Adapter (P-t-P)
---------------------------------------------------

... should't there be also the eth0 LAN adapter that is initialized at this point?

[Tronix]

Try folowing (from Oleg's russian FAQ):

1) Turn off router power.
2) Push (and keep pushed) RESTORE button and turn on router power.
3) Still wait, when POWER led is blinking (about 1 sec.) and push-out RESTORE button.
4) Connect by cross-over or patch-cord to anything LAN port on router.
5) In Windows TCP/IP config set static IP 192.168.1.2 (if router has address 192.168.1.1) and network mask 255.255.255.0. Disable all firewalls.
6) ping 192.168.1.1
7) tftp -i 192.168.1.1 put your_firmware.trx
Still wait, until your see: ransfer successful: 3706880 bytes in 7 seconds, 529554 bytes/s
8) Wait about ~10 minutes.

PS: Sorry my poor English (

[usp]

I upload firmware from 1.9.7.5 to 1.9.7.2 via web interface, the router does not respond for a long time. I refesh the web and nothing happen. After that I still access internet in a few minutes then it come down. The power led blink all the time. The ethenet connection also down. I can not access the router anyway.

How can I do to rescue this router. Please HELP me!!!

Thanks a lot!!!

[newbiefan]

Don't worry!

First: write exactly which firmware you've taken (choosen).

Search for the right fw (should be the latest - http://oleg.wl500g.info/1.9.2.7-8/ )

Then use tftp to flash your new firmware, but pleeaaaase: wait some minutes more after flashing and use just a wire connection.

Follow exactly http://wl500g.info/showthread.php?t=10989
but use the name of your fw instead of tomatoxxxx.trx

If that fails, there is an other possibility to bring him back......
But I have done it several times and it always worked.