Hello all,

I am not sure how, but soon after installing openwrt I managed to brick my new 500gx. Searching the forums seems to suggest that this usually happens when some NVRAM setting gets changed to a value that the bootloader cannot deal with. Since I only used "nvram show," I can only presume that the NVRAM was changed by some other program, possibly the web interface (which I did use to change some settings such as IP address, hostname, etc.).

Anyways, here are my symptoms, and then I have some questions regarding my recovery options.

1) SSH, pings, etc no longer work (over wireless or wired)
2) The Air LED comes on and stays on a few seconds after power-up.
3) I am able to associate to the wireless connection, and the LAN ports are acting as a switch
4) Holding down the reset button during power-up (plugging power cable in) no longer activates firmware flashing mode (i.e the power LED does not blink, it just stays on)

My questions are:
1) Based on the behavior of the LEDs, is "pmon" functional at all? Any idea what state it might be in?
2) If I were to connect up a serial port as described here: http://wl500g.info/showthread.php?t=1993
should I be able to get a command prompt for pmon (assuming it were functional)?
3) If I were able to get a command prompt for pmon, are there any commands that would allow me to reset the NVRAM?

My other options seem to be grounding an address pin on the flash, which I am loathe to do since that would definitely prevent warranty service...(as a side note, any success stories on getting Asus to fix routers with non-Asus firmwares?)

Any other suggestions?

Thanks for your help and for all the good info already on the forum!