WL-500g Premium died After Upgrading Firmware

ok i managed to do this by messing around DD-WRT firmware that was installed on the unit. i was tampering with routing tables and routing modes when the unit froze....i powered it off and back on, and that was it. AT FIRST, it would take forever to assign IP to my computer, but it would do it, no acces to web interface tho. now its completely dead, just LAN led goes on when you plug the cable in, thats about it. no telnet reply, no default IP ping reply, no last IP ping reply. in short - nothing.
i cant force it into recovery mode, the power led doesnt start blinking, its just on. no wireless signal. tried shorting the pins on the flash memory - no success.
I noticed theres a 20 pin jumper type connector on board so i was thinking if i can use that to hook a JTAG cable or something to it.
out of those 20 pins, 2 are not connected to anything. (the 2 closest to the front end of the unit)
can someone tell me what pin is what for the JTAG?? and the schematic for the cable please?
i tried lookin on the net, but i cant find that matches my actual case.
The unit processor is BCM4702KPB, the flash memory is 29LV320ATTC-90
Thanks a lot :)

Why don't you ask DD-WRT guys?

The header you're talking about is for UART and it's described in the forum.

i left the same post there but no replies either.
I couldnt find any cable specs. i saw one of your posts somewhere giving a pin layout for this specific type of processor, but i have more pins so i cant quite figure out how to adapt the cable to it.
if i'm not too much of a pain, could you just post the link here for that UART cable?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by stormwolf

i cant force it into recovery mode, the power led doesnt start blinking, its just on. no wireless signal. tried shorting the pins on the flash memory - no success.
I noticed theres a 20 pin jumper type connector on board so i was thinking if i can use that to hook a JTAG cable or something to it.
out of those 20 pins, 2 are not connected to anything. (the 2 closest to the front end of the unit)
can someone tell me what pin is what for the JTAG?? and the schematic for the cable please?

---

I think i have the same problem with you.....the firmware damage..........
Can't force in recovery mode and reset key not function
I want to know how to diy a cable to fix this problem~
Any one can help us~?
THX~^^

When trying to test the newer version of the original ASUS firmware from Olegs latest, with TFTP, I found that my router could not exit recovery mode.
I can send it any firmware (oleg, Asus, Nvram-reset...) with both TFTP or the ASUS recovery utility but too soon after that it responds to pings again with a TTL=100, so it remains in recovery mode, and it seems not capable of storing and booting the new firmwares it receives.
Furthermore it still contains the latest IP I gave to it (192.168.0.2) in spite of the fact that I press the reset button for 20 seconds.

Any ideas?

TIA

Hi

Connect up a Serial Converter to it and look what the bootloader says, or maybe send it back for Service to Asus ?

If it flashes the firmware completely and then dont work even after a manual nvram reset via button, i dont have a clue...


Greets
Wlanman

Hi Oleg!

I think i have a similar problem... - but my eth0 is initialized! But I still cant ping the box or put a new image on it... i wrote my problems description here:
http://www.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtop...?p=87908#87908

I know thats another board - but if you have any hint for me i would be really glad!

Thx, dude

Hi there,

It seems in order to enable 32 Mb Ram, I bricked my wl500g deluxe entering wrong memory values :(
It seems that I should have entered :

nvram set sdram_init=0x2008
nvram set sdram_ncdl=0x0000
nvram commit
reboot

But I entered values for wl500g premium and the router no longer boot.

So. Now that I bricked my router what are my options ( if any ) to get it back working ?

Read this
http://www.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=2507

Hi! Thx for the info, but shortening Pin 9 doesnt change a thing...
Please check this thread here http://www.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=15908 and give me hints if anyone has an idea...

Tried this:

Code:

---

CFE> flash -offset=65536 flash0.os flash0.os
Reading flash0.os: Done. 8062791 bytes read
Download of 0x7b0747 bytes completed
Write kernel and filesystem binary to FLASH (0xbfc40000)
flash device 'flash0.os'
Programming...
ERROR!! copysize is 8062791, amtcopy is 8028132
Failed.: Unknown error

---

Any hints?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Oleg

Type these lines in the cfe prompt:

Code:

---

nvram erase
flash -offset=65536 flash0.os flash0.os

---

---

DONT try this... after that my device doesnt boot into cfe anymore....

Hello,

There's one thing I was wondering: it was how can one brick a router ? You can always come to either the recovery mode (started before the firmware is even loaded) or the bootloader (serial line+tftp) because the bootloader can't be overwritten in an upgrade ?

If no, can you explain me.

Thanks

Jean

I've two pieces of Wl500gP - A couple of times before they went uresponsible changing som nvram settings and then I had success debricking grounding pin9. This time I upgraded the firmware (dd-wrt), restored factory defaults and tried to restore some backup'ed settings.
Both routers went dead and the one I got back in business using pin9 trick.
The other one is still troubling me, descriped below.

The router is able to enter recoverymode holding down restore button. Then the router is pingable at 192.168.1.1, but uploading firmware with the restoraion tool or TFTP is really slow and always times out before ever finishing.

Then I've tried grounding pin 10, 12 16 and 17. The last two makes the router enter recovery mode and then speeds are great and the router accepts a new firmware. Tried several different builds, both dd-wrt and olegs firmware and so on.
When TFTPing the new image the router never gets back in business, but using restoration tool the router always boot, but only until poweroff or reboot. So until changing settings etc. the router is accessible trough http/telnet and wireless is working.

Is my bootloader broken? - Anyone ever experienced something like this? - I've also tried olegs files
wl500g-clear-nvram.trx and wl500g-recover.trx and from telnet "mtd erase nvram" (after grounding pin16) - But always the is router only is accessible right after flashing from restoration tool and only until it's rebooted.

Really weird. Anyone knows how to solve this. I have tried attaching a serial cable (old phone usb2serial cable with pl2303) for further diagnosing, but I can't get this to work. Only crappy output in hyperterminal.

Any help would be appreciated. Also posted a similar thread at the dd-wrt forum, but no answers.

I've managed to get my router back... And still I got no serial console. But I'll definetly have to get myself a working one.

nvram-clean.sh - did not help
wl500g-clear-nvram.trx - did not help
wl500g-recover.trx - did not help

Flashing from recovery mode always timed out, and never made the router work.
Flashing from recovery mode after shorting pin 16/17 with gnd always was a success with every firmware, but only until reboot. Tried to clean nvram with "mtd erase nvram" or "nvram-clean.sh" before rebooting without success. Ended up doing like this

1) power off
2) short pin 16 with GND and power on until power-LED started flashing
3) removed the shorting of pin 16
4) flashed with dd-wrt
5) after router alive, telnet 192.168.1.1 and logged in
6) ran "mtd erase nvram"
7) ran "mtd erase linux"
8) reboot
9) router started up in recovery mode
10) flashed with olegs firmware (or other firmware), and wasn't slow anymore - after reboot the router was alive and kicking, also after poweroff.

Dunno if the above mentioned method will help someone out there, but maybe someday.

A couple of days ago i tryed to install dd-wrt on my wl500gP. It was successfull and I was able to log on to webif and all. When changing some pppoe settings from webif it all suddently stopped working.
I managed to reflash to asus official firmware 1.9.7.5 but I think the router is bricked now. When I power on, the power led is just blinking. I am able to ping 192.168.1.1 but Im not able to connect to a webif or telnet.
If I set up a ping -t I notice that when I try to use Firmware Restoration tool the ping stops and the tool says "No wireless device in recovery mode is found".

Does anyone know any solutions to this or is it just to be thrown away? :(

I've bricked my wl500gp numerous times and I have yet to find one that wasn't fixable.
Usually recovering from any bad flash involves:
* Setting up your own addresses manually. In windows you can navigate to TCP/IP under network connections in your control panel and set your own IP and default gateway.
* Now that you have your connection set up, stick the router into recovery mode and the asus firmware utility should be able to find it and upload wl500g-clear-nvram.trx to it.
* After that you can stick in whatever firmware you want and it's as good as new.

Based on discussions and abilities bought WL500gP with the idea to have small always running linux box.

Via standard ASUS firmware interface flashed

http://downloads.openwrt.org/whiterussian-jffs2-4MB.trx
.
later on, via recovery mode I upload (flash)
http://downloads.openwrt.org/whiteru...-jffs2-8MB.trx

After this, router stopped responding(no ping).

I put him in recovery mode by reset button again and start upload standard firmware.
Via usage of Firmware restoration tool ((c) by ASUS)
I start uploading WL500gp_1.9.7.2_TW.trx/
Upload stops near 30% and breaks up, router does not respond to ping or web requests.
I read about pin9 hack and break all warranty seals.
pin9 hack. Recovery mode again, flash image transfer
vVia usage of Firmware restoration tool ((c) by ASUS) breaks up midway.
We, together with Mr.Evtushenko soilder in com port on the router board. Using FT232B (http://www.ftdichip.com/Drivers/VCP.htm) we get router console with CFE prompt by pressing Ctrl-c on boot
We read http://wl500g.info/archive/index.php/t-8935.html
nvram erase, Waiting 10 minutes. No output/
We reboot with reset pushed down and watch console --

tftp server: Failed.: Timeout occured
Reading :: TFTP Server.

We give him standard asus flash image
tftp -i 192.168.1.1 WL500gp_1.9.7.2_TW.trx
i:
Failed.: Timeout occured
Reading :: TFTP Server.
Failed.: Timeout occured
Reading :: TFTP Server.
Failed.: Timeout occured
Reading :: TFTP Server.
Failed.: Timeout occured
Reading :: TFTP Server.
Failed.: Timeout occured
Reading :: TFTP Server.
Failed.: Timeout occured
Reading :: TFTP Server.
Failed.: Timeout occured
Reading :: TFTP Server.
TFTP_BLKLEN!!
Done. 7974912 bytes read
Download of 0x79b000 bytes completed
Write kernel and filesystem binary to FLASH (0xbfc40000)
flash device 'flash1.trx'
parseflag = 0, the copysize is 7974912
Programming...
after cfe_writeblk, the copysize is 7974912, amtcopy=7974912
done. 7974912 bytes written

Waited 10 minutes, tea\coffee\smoke. router does nothing.
We reboot him and -- BRICKED -- no output on console, no ping, no web interface.

Is it possible to revive this router?

Thanks for reading on, will be grateful on any info on the subject//

Maxim

It happened to me some times ago, and I found some kind of tutorial on this forum about how to hardware reset the brick :)

Search the forum about how to open the router and short-circuit the pin 9 on the hynix EEPROM to the ground

for me it worked, but read carefully and study your board with a magnifier against those instruction because it is risky.

Good luck !

read this http://wl500g.info/showthread.php?t=1606&highlight=pin

yes it is possible by the the wl500g-clear-nvram.trx and the wl500g-recover.trx. available on this side after this you have to flash your wl500gp with the firmware you need. all by the recover mode. i can also email you these firmwares. Good luck

I have the feeling, mine is not fixable... I have a static address, netmask is correct, gateway is correct (does not matter anyway), the router is flashing - and the firmware restoration tool does not find the router.

The thing still answers pings, but that's all. Any other ideas? Use some ftp tool from Unix? Any mistakes that I could have made?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Barefoot

I have the feeling, mine is not fixable... I have a static address, netmask is correct, gateway is correct (does not matter anyway), the router is flashing - and the firmware restoration tool does not find the router.

The thing still answers pings, but that's all. Any other ideas? Use some ftp tool from Unix? Any mistakes that I could have made?

---

Ok, no panic. I don't know how and why, but finally it the router was recognized and the upload began. The procedure was like this:

1. Click around cluelessly in those ugly network configuration menus of MS Windows.
2. Wait until the network setting application crashes and you get an error window (not responding).
3. Right after the crash, the restoration tool will start the upload automatically.

Maybe it's to be recommended to go back to Linux and use tftp... seems to be easier. All in all I guess I failed in giving Windows a static IP at the right point in time.

Hi guys,
I have an Asus WL-500g Premium which I had loaded a couple of months back with DD-WRT to play with, but then set apart because with the settings I had done it became hard to connect to (can't remember what I did!).
I now pull it off the shelf to reflash it, and when I connect it all I get are 5 orange LEDs on and steady. These are the WAN and all the LAN leds. The power & AIR leds do not light/blink/anything.
When plugging in power with reset pressed it stays the same.
I've opened the unit and I THINK I've correctly shorted PIN-9 to ground for aprox 20 secs with power connected, and it still stays the same.
I've looked through the forums but all the posts regarding birck/dead seem to have one which is not "as dead" as my one seems...
Is it dead? Any suggestions? How hard should I hit it with a hammer (or would it be best to let my 10 month old son play with it instead?).
Thanks in advance.

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.....

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/

I think you didn't read my post... The power light is off, the LAN/WAN lights are on. When I turn it on with reset/restore pressed, the lights don't change at all.
If I could get it to blink/whatever normally, then I would follow the regular procedure and put in a .trx in there. It's "stuck" with the leds on as I describe it.
This is why I need suggestions, because I've TRIED the PIN-9 reset to see if I could get that to work, and that is also the same.

Point taken - anyhow - have you ever tried the failsafe mode?

http://wiki.openwrt.org/OpenWrtDocs/...e/Asus/WL500GP

Do you have a simple RS232 serial converter (MAX232)?
If yes, connect your PC with your Router and look at the messages.

If nothing helps: last chance is a JTAG cable - but until now I havn't found the right pinout, maybe it's somewhere....
http://www.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=12053 (is interesting).
And I guess you know how to find the hariydairyunbrick software.

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

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by 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

---

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

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by jaapjeuk

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

It's working again!!!!!
I erased the memory of the wl500g by the good old pin 10 trick.
Here is how:
1) Turn off the unit
2) On the mainboard find the memory chip (M29W320DT)
3) Find a very small wire and connect pin 10 to ground (e.g. one of the edges of the screw hole)
3) While grounding pin 10 plug in the power cord. You will need al least three hands here...
4) The power LED should start flashing slowly now, indicating that the memory is wiped and the device is now in the recovery mode.
5) Start the normal firmware installation procedure. The reset button is now also working again.
Thank you all very much for your help!
Kindest regards,
Eric van Loon

you did a good job, eric! but how you knew how to reset the memory?

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.

Hi all!

I've bricked my wl-500gp probably by unplugging the power cord to early during firmware upload (but I'm not sure for this, because I was waiting a few minutes before unplugging). Now I can't get the rescue mode by holding the reset switch and there seems to be no serial output on UART_TX0 nor UART_TX1 (I used a scope). After power on, the four LAN LEDs are lighting up for one or two seconds and then they're going dark. If an ethernet wire is connected, the light is flashing by traffic. The power LED stays dark all the time. Shorting pin 9 or 10 doesn't work. Seems that there is even no CFE loader... :-(

Hope for your help...

Seems to be the same as here: http://wl500g.info/showthread.php?t=11724

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!!!

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.

Thank you so much. But in this cases, does the PC recognize the router via 192.168.1.1?
I tried to reload firmware by Asus Firmware Restoration but not successful. And internet explorer say fail when I type http://192.168.1.1.
I will do a try with yours after work today.

Thank you!

This is important: disable any firewall!
Particularly any norton security and so on.....

You can try it simple: when you hold the reset button (which is not so easy) during power on and the power light starts blinking after some seconds, everything should work fine.
Just unplug your router and follow exactly the procedure.
Let us know when you brought him back to life.

If everything fails, we provide you more hints.....just let us know

Hi Newbiefan
I try many ways but nothing happen better. The PC can't connect to the router at all. The Power light blinks all the time when I turn it on whatever I press and hold the reset button or not.

http://usbay.net/share/disconnect.jpg

Give me some more hints

Thank you!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by usp

Hi Newbiefan
I try many ways but nothing happen better. The PC can't connect to the router at all. The Power light blinks all the time when I turn it on whatever I press and hold the reset button or not.

http://usbay.net/share/disconnect.jpg

Give me some more hints

Thank you!

---

try ping 192.168.1.1

what's the result of your pc's windows-command: ipconfig /all ?