Dead or brick ? Lan and WAN 1-4 leds on steady

[heavyrail]

I've got WL-500GPv2 router and by mistake I tried to apply 32MB-RAM patch for v1:

nvram set sdram_init=0x0009
nvram set sdram_ncdl=0
nvram commit
reboot

After that LAN1-LAN4 and WAN LEDs became lit constantly, and router could not be put in recovery mode using standard RESET button technique. I had googled similar cases, and found out that serial console would help. I've tried two variants of serial console adapter - MAX232-based and FT232-based, but there was nothing on the terminal. So I tried to ground pin 9 on flash chip during boot. Since I did the trick, the behaviour of router had changed. Now LAN LEDs is off, WAN LED reflects actual activity, and I can put it in recovery mode with Power LED flashing continuously... but I can't reflash it! No pings to 192.168.1.1, still no activity on serial console, both Linux atftp tool and Windows ASUS firmware restoration utility don't work.
Please tell me what's probably happened with my router? Maybe my serial console doesn't work properly because of wrong soldering etc? Can anyone point me to exact schematic that work? Maybe the last chance to reflash is JTAG? But I couldn't find nor any schematic neither howto on this. Can anyone help me?

[radko]

Unit with faulty power supply have all led light. Also I change the power supply for another but nothing change. Please give some clue.

[robinio]

If you search the forum, you will notice that the cause of solid lan leds mostly is a defect power supply. With shortening the wrong pins you can damage your router and produce a definite brick.
I hope you did not do too much damage...

MMCM, you are the man! Tried everithing, but then replaced power supply and Asus start working normally.

Power supply can break like anything else...

[TthomasS]

Hello there,
My ASUS WL-500gP broke down after storm goes over my house. I identify problem in onboard power supply. I toughed two of chip near to power conector. And these two chips was so hot. Temperatures about 50 degress, I estimate.
I tryed to find tech. spec. in google, but I have no luck.

Can someone of masters help me to solve my problem, please.

[wpte]

scratch that previous post: http://wl500g.info/attachment.php?at...1&d=1150812229
middle pin is supposed to be loose...


Can you make a photo of yours? since this one I found seems a lot like your photo


Are any of those capacitor tops popped?

[TthomasS]

scratch that previous post: http://wl500g.info/attachment.php?at...1&d=1150812229
middle pin is supposed to be loose...


Can you make a photo of yours? since this one I found seems a lot like your photo


Are any of those capacitor tops popped?

There is no one of capacitors popped.
I will take photo of mine own board tomorrow, and I will upload it.

[WLFan]

I also woke up one day to find my router going bonkers. It survived to its third birthday, which is a major miracle going by the info above...

Thanks to the pics and instructions on this thread I have a functioning router again. I really appreciate the help!

[pedrinho]

hi,
try this, has revived my box - wl500g premium v2

- prepare on pc firmware file original or ....... any other *.trx
- prepare on pc firmware restore software (from cd)

- power off
- connect pin 16 from flash chip to ground, power on until power led is flashing,
- remove ground wire
- start restore (upload) software with chosen firmware
- after upload box (mine was) should be alive with 192.168.1.1
- connect telnet and run "erase nvram", "erase linux"
- upload firmware again
- power off
- reboot

rgds, pedrinho

[sunfire]

Hi guys

It's my first post on the forum so please go easy on me .
I joined the open source world very recently when a colleague of mine from the office gave me the wl-500gp (v1) to use for spare parts in my personal hw projects. I fixed the router and eventually I discovered it's actually a very nice router (especially with custom firmware like openwrt). I even did the ram mod (now the router has 128 MB of ram and used to work ok until I messed it up). Long story cut short: after installing the openwrt whiterussian 0.9 I got so pi**ed off (don't ask why) that I deleted _all_ the nvram settings using the webif (except the hardware_version, pmon_ver, sdram_config, sdram_init, sdram_ncdl and sdram_refresh) - also please don't ask why. Now the router seems to boot up fine (except the power led doesn't go off after the boot loader finishes loading and lights up when the router has finished booting). Both the reset and the restore buttons do not work (actually they work but they are not effective) so I cannot put the router in recovery mode. The power led lights up and the wifi led is off when powering up the router and after some time the wifi led lights up also so the router seems to boot ok but not configure any IP on any interface (wired or wireless) - maybe because I deleted all the MACs from the nvram ? I've got a serial console cable but with different connector (and no matter how pi**ed off I am a female connector cannot be plugged into another female connector ). Provided that I will change the connector tomorrow and get the console to work ok could you guys please guide me into hacking the CFE and program the nvram settings back ? Also I would need a minimum list of nvram settings which can get the router to work ok (so I know what to write back in my nvram). I have the MACs saved so I only need the other nvram settings and how to do the job using the serial console.

Thank you in advance and sorry for the long post

[neoredz]

Good day, sorry about the header, I really cant think of any proper title about the problem on the router.

Here's my network setup, 3 computers wired to the wl-500gp, 2 desktops and 1 laptop, before there are no problems but suddenly surfaced recently.

The laptop suddenly is having a hard time connecting to the internet, I checked the LAN icon on taskbar and it says its disconnected, by the way the 2 desktops are connected to the internet, no problems.

By the looks of it, it seems the problem was on the laptop, tried going for a USB to LAN converter but it didn't cut it, still the same problem, changed cables, same problem, until I decided to change the whole router itself.

Purchased a wired router, connected the 3 computers and there are no more problems! The laptop is connected to the internet. All of them working simultaneously.

What I noticed is that, the power supply for the wl-500gp is now hot to touch when connected for about 15mins. I know that power adapters tend to go hot while being used but this one is very hot to touch.

I'm not sure if this is the problem or maybe there are others who experienced this. I just wanna ask for recommendation on what to do with it. Thanks a lot in advance.

[neoredz]

Update: I opened up the power supply and the router. Found a bloated capacitor on the router and power supply Maybe this is the cause of the problem?

The black capacitor here on the router is bloated.


The black capacitor is also bloated on power supply. Green one looks ok.



Should I replace all of the capacitors on the power supply? Since on the other threads that I've read, its the Green capacitor that becomes bloated. How about the capacitors on the router?

[zeromega]

Hi. My router was working fine, then it suddenly stop: I have no lan/wlan access to the router. I can start it in recovery mode, but i get no ping. I tried with asus recovery tool and with tftp, without success.

What can I do now?
Thanks

[billthor]

I lost my power supply and got this response. I used an old Zip drive power supply with the right voltage to get up and running. Found a replacement power supply on Amazon.

[zeromega]

Thanks. I'll try with a new one.

[henkoegema]

........... (shorting pin9) more than once.............................

Where is pin 9 on the WL-500W ?

I've seen pictures of pin 9 on the wl-500gx (http://www.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=2507), but that is different (the area is covered by a plate) than the 500W