Forum Topic

Un-bricking of router thread

  • Hi guys! I would like to ask if anyone here know of somebody who does un-bricking or routers? or just someone who can do light soldering work? I have a bricked TP Link router and I have the instruction on how to un-brick this, however I am having difficulties looking for the cable and PINs to solder. I am also not that good in soldering.

    Here is the link to one of the guide I found: <click here for link>

    Thanks in advance for any reply.
  • What happened? Baka semi-brick lang at di kailangan buksan ang router.
  • ^walang recovery mode ang tplink afaik. kaya pag na brick, tigok. recovery lang is via TTL (assuming that bootloader is fine, sa TPlink firmware kasi, entire flash kasi yung nabubura kaya kahit bootloader nasasama sa upgrade, sa openwrt hindi kasama yung bootloader sa pag upgrade) or via SPI which requires a good (last known good) backup ng flash. But as far as my research take, that thing can be revived, matrabaho nga lang. Lets just hope na hindi damage yung uboot ng router na yan para ma recover pa sa TTL. else SPI na yan and install alternative bootloader para sa router na yan.

    -- edited by polka on Jan 12 2014, 01:42 PM
  • may simpler way para ma-unbrick kung tplink yan. had mine bricked before and successfully unbricked it without opening the router. eto ay gamit yung failsafe mode ng router.

    eto unang step <click here for link>

    Failsafe Mode
    Set your computer\'s IP to 192.168.1.2, subnet 255.255.255.0
    Connect the TL-MR3020 to your computer via ethernet
    Power on the TL-MR3020
    When the WPS Button starts to blink , push it until it blinks faster
    The device is now in Failsafe-Mode
    You may access it by using telnet 192.168.1.1



    eto sample installation using ftp. mas madali pag linux gamit para sa akin.<click here for link>

    hope this helps. sensya hirap ako mag-explain.^_^
  • ^as I said walang recovery method ang model na yan. If there was, sana na post na namin. Even the Router Wiki/OpenWRT wiki/DDWRT wiki and the official manual didnt mention anything about recovery method sa router na yan.

    and the posted instruction na provide mo is valid only for OpenWRT/DDWRT users since meron failsafe ang firmware nila, although even if @ts flashed a OpenWRT/DDWRT on his router, there is no recommendation na pwede mo ma access yung failsafe mode, since failsafe mode is designed only for routers who sucessfully flashed OpenWRT router and somehow messed up on their Router\'s NVRAM configuration while configuring their router or something on that line.
  • I think his router is a TL-WR1042ND which are not supported by DD-WRT or OpenWRT. We don\'t know the debricking procedures because this router is totally different from TL-WR1041ND and TL-WR1043ND Atheros based routers supported by the 3rd party firmware.

    Debricking could be easy or it could be hard. Wala akong nakitang procedure so far sa net by briefly googling.
  • ^unfortunately it will be measured between moderate to hard to debrick it.

    easy = using recovery method (eg without opening the router), this method is usually has their own recovery method like in asus, they have their own recovery program for that, linksys has its own http based recovery system.

    medium = using a ttl method to debrick it, usually broadcom is very easy to debrick using ttl. and chance of bricking the bootloader is close to impossible. AtherOS is different story since it relies is bootloader on the flash memory.

    hard = using SPI flasher that requires at least a valid bootloader or else there\'s nothing we can do for it. Not until the opensource community opened a way to debrick it.

    -- edited by polka on Jan 12 2014, 06:27 PM
  • ^unfortunately it will be measured between moderate to hard to debrick it.


    I am basing my estimation of easy and hard on the fact that this router uses a Realtek RTL8198 chipset. Realtek has very good firmware recovery procedures from my experience.

    Because this specific router lacks some documentation on firmware recovery, it can make it hard.
  • Hi guys! Thanks for the replies, actually I am selling this bricked router of mine, here is the link: <click here for link>, the reason it got bricked was I flashed it with an older version of the official TP-Link firmware after flashing it with the latest one. Now that you guys mentioned that the \"fail-safe\" is only available if it was flashed previously with OpenWRT/DD-WRT then it seems it is harder to un-brick this one. I really thought it was easy.

    Anyway thanks again guys, I might just buy a new one. :)
  • Sir meron po nakakalaam sa inyo kung pano ma-recover itong Tenda w361R na model?? Na-upgrade ko kasi ng wrong firmware.
  • Mga paps, may alam ba silang paraan o shop na kaya mag-ayos ng TP-Link Archer C7 v1 na ayaw na mag factory reset kahit pindutin ko yung WPS/Reset button ng 8 seconds or more? Ayaw din siya ma-ping sa 192.168.0.1. Salamat!