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

[Dr Qubit]

I had the same problem: the thing appeared bricked, not responding even to the reset button. The symptoms for me were that, when I turned it on, the four LAN LEDs and WAN LED were lit (but not the power LED).

I popped open the power adapter (I like the technique described here: http://www.wonderhowto.com/how-to-op...former-270527/), and the exploded 1200uF capacitor was staring me in the face.

If you're not quite sure whether the capacitor is bust or not, you should see a smaller capacitor of a similar type towards the middle of one side of the board. Compare the top of the 1200uF capacitor with the top of that smaller one. The tops should look similarly flat. If the top of the 1200uF capacitor looks slightly domed, it's almost certainly the culprit.

The original capacitor was a 1200uF electrolytic capacitor rated for 5V and 105 degrees C. I replaced it with a 1000uF rated for 16V and 105 degrees C. (Since this is a power supply, it seems sensible to match the temperature rating.) I made something of a pig's ear of the soldering (it's been a while...), but after putting the thing back together, everything worked perfectly!

One thing you need to be careful of when replacing the capacitor is to get the polarity right, otherwise the replacement is likely to explode as soon as you plug in the power supply. Electrolytic capacitors typically have a coloured bar down the side with minus signs along it, indicating the negative lead. If you're sensible (unlike me!), take note of which way around the original component is before you take it out, and put the replacement in the same way around. In case you forget, with the original capacitor removed you should be able to see a + near one side of the circle printed underneath the capacitor, and the negative side is indicated by the two lines across the circle (at least on my board).

So, instead of having to buy a new router, or even a new power supply, all it took was a £0.27 capacitor (less the 50 cents), and a bit of solder.

Thanks so much to this forum, and especially Basser's brilliant post and photos!

[wpte]

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

It's exactly the same in a WL-500W...
They just removed that plate in this picture, you can still see the frame of it
Just try to lift it up by using a screwdriver

[Jasman]

I have a WL-500gx, and I'm pretty sure my adapter's bad (unit suddenly keeps "resetting" - all four LAN lights flash about every 5-10 secs). My adapter is a DVE DSA-0101F-05 A, 5V 2A. I cracked it open and see what I think are two capacitors near the cord (one right where the cord is soldered to the board - 10V 680uF), and one above that, which I can't read) and one much larger one at the opposite corner - 400V 22uF. None look domed. I'm not an electronics guy, so don't even know what or how to test, but I can use a soldering iron. Is there one capacitor I should suspect, or maybe just replace all three? Thanks.

I had the same problem: the thing appeared bricked, not responding even to the reset button. The symptoms for me were that, when I turned it on, the four LAN LEDs and WAN LED were lit (but not the power LED).

I popped open the power adapter (I like the technique described here: http://www.wonderhowto.com/how-to-op...former-270527/), and the exploded 1200uF capacitor was staring me in the face.

If you're not quite sure whether the capacitor is bust or not, you should see a smaller capacitor of a similar type towards the middle of one side of the board. Compare the top of the 1200uF capacitor with the top of that smaller one. The tops should look similarly flat. If the top of the 1200uF capacitor looks slightly domed, it's almost certainly the culprit.

The original capacitor was a 1200uF electrolytic capacitor rated for 5V and 105 degrees C. I replaced it with a 1000uF rated for 16V and 105 degrees C. (Since this is a power supply, it seems sensible to match the temperature rating.) I made something of a pig's ear of the soldering (it's been a while...), but after putting the thing back together, everything worked perfectly!

One thing you need to be careful of when replacing the capacitor is to get the polarity right, otherwise the replacement is likely to explode as soon as you plug in the power supply. Electrolytic capacitors typically have a coloured bar down the side with minus signs along it, indicating the negative lead. If you're sensible (unlike me!), take note of which way around the original component is before you take it out, and put the replacement in the same way around. In case you forget, with the original capacitor removed you should be able to see a + near one side of the circle printed underneath the capacitor, and the negative side is indicated by the two lines across the circle (at least on my board).

So, instead of having to buy a new router, or even a new power supply, all it took was a £0.27 capacitor (less the 50 cents), and a bit of solder.

Thanks so much to this forum, and especially Basser's brilliant post and photos!

[avberk]

Also open your asus router and look for domed capacitors
if possible try another powersupply before you start soldering

[foncused]

hi all.
i have the same problem with 3 units, all down to inferior components used by asus in the manufacture of the power supply units.
if you want an easier fix than repairing the faulty power supply, you might want to try using a PSP power supply.
these units run at 5v and 2a and i can confirm that my faulty units are now running using them.
just a thought if you were having trouble locating replacement power supplies or don't want want to manually repair the dead one.
steve.

[velcrow]

hi all.
try using a PSP power supply.
steve.

Confirmed this works. Thanks Steve

[maurer]

I searched around quite a bit (at the ddwrt and openwrt forums).

The problem is that my ASUS WL-500gP (Premium) v1 has become inaccessible. I tried to upgrade firmware, DDWRT, and after reboot it never came back to life.

I've tried:
* Another power supply (third party — 5V/3A)
* Short PIN 9 to the outside of the power connector.
* Hard resets
* serial console - no output

It's impossible to get any ping backs from the router, or for that matter, any DHCP which was enabled before flash.

The LEDS for LAN 1-4 will light up if I hook up any device to them, the Air LED is lit but dim and…power LED never lights up during boot.

Any other recommendations?

please help

thank you in advance

[raas]

99.9% sure that you have a faulty power supply (it is supplying the voltage, but not enough current to boot up the router.)
(there are several topics on this board regarding this topic)

hookup some other powersupply 5v@2.5a
If you don't have one, your pc will be able to power it. open it up, use the red wire (and a black) from the molex connector (HDD/DVD) and you have 5v with more than enough amps.

[baset]

Dunno if it's right area, but there's lot of WL500W users here, so, maybe, somebody could help.

Like topic says - LAN and WAN leds are solid.

What i've done? Don't remember exactly, it was 'bout half year ago. Some screwed up flashing procedure, so my router died. After few tries, I've bought RT-N16 and forget about it. Since today, when my RT-N16 also died. In fact died again, but later about it

What i've tried? Everything mentioned above:

- shortening pin 9
- and pin 16 as well
- and replacing power supply (with 5V/3A from Intel switch)
- and even connecting to big power supply (30A approx, 3-30V)
- and I have disassembly original PSU, but capacitor looks fine
- but I've replaced capacitor anyway (btw. voltage can be higher, but not lower, capacity - higher = better filtration)
- and I even dance macarena with prays to god of bricked routers
- and none of that works.

Still, after connecting power supply only those five leds are "staring back at me, asking why" I've bricked it.

In my opinion, I've should find somebody that could program again flash chip.

Anyway, as you can see, PSU is not the only source of problems. I've checked randomly few parts near power socket, but nothing seems to be broken.

For first person that find the sollution - free beer*

By the way. Regarding RT-N16. It's very cool piece of hardware. But totally not resistant for even small amount of EM field generated (for example) by ham radio on 15m band. After pressing PTT, even with 5W HF power, it instantly goes to the neverland (nothing lights on, PSU is OK but router dies for good). Fortunately, it's on warranty period.

Kind regards.

Baset.

* Limited time offer valid in following countries: Poland, Czech Republic.

[lazlow]

Hi,

i just got from a friend this model of router. The single problem is that i connect a cable to wan port the router resets itself and goes on forever like this. I tried other firmwares ( at the moment i'm using oleg's firmware ) and that happens with any of them. I want to mention that i got the router with tomato firmware and seems ok but i wanted more options and flashed it with oleg's.

Other details :

i flashed again with tomato and i didn't get any trafic from lan ports, only wireless worked ok. i didn't tried wan at that time.

i put an external hdd and works well.

any ideas ?

[avberk]

defective powersupply perhaps.

try another one with at least the same specs if possible.

[wakatana]

Hi I have strange problem with WAN port.

My hardware: asus wl500g Premium v1 (identified it according to openwrt page) with original asus firmware version 1.9.7.7 (I know this forum did not support asus firmware but I will flash another if it can help - and I am not sure if this si an software or hardware problem - please read bellow)

SCENARIO:
I am connecting to wl500g from one PC with two interfaces:
PC-eth0 - LAN interface of PC is connected to wl500g WAN port
PC-eth1 - WIFI interface of PC is connected to wl500g LAN port
(note that in asus wl500g firmware is WIFI part of LAN and is in the same subnet range)


CONFIGURATION:
ASUS-LAN(WIFI) IP: 192.168.1.1/24
PC-LAN-eth1 IP: 192.168.1.100/24


ASUS-WAN IP: 192.168.0.1/24
PC-WAN-eth0 IP: 192.168.0.100/24

LAN to WAN, WAN to LAN filters are disabled, managing web interface from WAN is enabled
Router is in mode Router also tried Home gateway with the same result (Access point mode was not tried because here WAN did not works)
WAN LED flashes, also when I connect cable to WAN port in windows it seems to be connected.

Issuing arp -a on PC returns following:
? (192.168.0.1) at 00:1b:fc:6b:81:02 [ether] on eth0
my.router (192.168.1.1) at 00:1b:fc:6b:81:02 [ether] on eth1

So far everything seems that it perfectly works

PROBLEM:
I am unable to ping or manage throught www or doing anything throught WAN port.
Also tried set address to dynamic on wl500g WAN and obtain it from DHCP (another router which act as DHCP server was connected to wl500 WAN) but no address was assigned to WAN either.


Also tryied clone MAC on WAN, then the arp -a looks following:
Code:

? (192.168.0.1) at aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:ff [ether] on eth0
my.router (192.168.1.1) at 00:1b:fc:6b:81:02 [ether] on eth1


PS: I tried the same configuration on another WL500g and here it works as expected so it should be configured properly.


QUESTION:
That seems to me like software bug or something very weird because hardware layer seems works and problem is on the 3th laer of OSI.
Do you people thing that FLASHING olegs openwrt or another alternative firmware to this router should fix this problem ?
Is flashing to this hardware more dangerrous than flashing to hardware without this issue ?
Tried to ask also on ddwrt, openwrt forum but no answer please help.

MANY THANKS TO ALL

[avberk]

Lan Port 2 and 3 stopped working.
Tried another powersupply of the same specs
tried a reset

The leds of all lanports light up when switching on, but port 2 and 3 dont stay on when connected to a device.

Any suggestions?

[expert_vision]

Setup:
WL-500gP V2
Firmware:WL500gpv2-1.9.2.7-d-r3328

Behavior:
-when I power the router, LEDs shows activity, power LED goes steady on, wifi LED shows very little activity (usually showed more activity), LAN LEDs shows activity, no DHCP, no ping (with 192.168.1.x static IP on PC's NIC).
-when I power the router in diag mode (recovery mode) there is no ping ==> can't use Asus Firmware Restoration Tool, power LED is on, LAN LED shows activity

The router have been use before in Ethernet Bridge wireless mode. More exactly WL-500gP V2 was routing all wired connections through an AP connected wireless.
AP(192.168.1.1)<--wireless-->WL-500gP V2(192.168.1.123)<--ethernet-->PCs
Previously I moved the router out of the AP's range and I was experiencing similar behavior(no ping, dhcp, air LED stays on - no activity). To solve the problem I had to keep restore button pressed for 5 and then reconfigure the router.
Now I moved it out of range again, pressed restore button and here I am, unable to access it, though it shows some activity. The only wired behavior is that air LED that shows nearly no activity(except no ping, dhcp).It's not like when it searches for the specific SSID(LED is flashing), it stays solid on. I think is stuck in some wireless configuration and restore button doesn't seem to solve that.

Some suggested a power supply issue .. but I checked and it holds well the voltage (5.17-5.19 V) under load.

So how can I clear NVRAM if I can't access the router? Is there a safe "9 PIN short" method for WL-500gP V2 ?
In meantime I'll google more about that JTAG cable for my router and how it works.

[expert_vision]

Well, my router is not bricked at all. Just when I was ready to prepare for using a JTAG cable I stumbled across this link about serial connector. Gave it a try and noticed that router was working fine, even the IP was mentioned during boot (192.168.1.1). My motherboard have 2 RJ-45 connectors (2 LANs), and thinking that maybe is something wrong with PC, I tried the second LAN .. and it worked. Not sure if this is a hardware issue or a Windows problem, but router is just fine. To be clear .. on PC's LAN 1 - no ping, on PC's LAN 2 - TTL-64.Oh .. and brand is NVIDIA onboard.

Here is the serial pinout for WL-500gP V2, if needed ...