GSS116E: Unable to upgrade Bootloader

theccap10,

I'm in the same boat as you.  Today I spent about two (2) hours with a Netgear technician via Chat, doing what I could to get on to v1.6.1.7 without bricking my GSS116E.  Two (2) previous GSS116E switches got bricked from botched firmware upgrades, back in the 2019/2020 days.  The first bricking was done by me, but by no fault of my own.  RMA #1.  The second bricking, I had explicit handholding from a Netgear technician = same difference, BRICKED!  RMA #2.  So I am on my 3rd GSS116E, and don't want a 4th!  On my current 3rd GSS116E, back when I received it (received with non-current firmware...  sigh...), I got handholding a second time from a Netgear technician = through careful updating, to an intermediate firmware version first (or maybe it was two intermediate versions?  can't remember...), I got to a point where my GSS116E had firmware v1.6.1.3, but bootloader v1.0.0.2.  My GSS116E switch stayed in this state (v1.0.0.2 and v1.6.1.3) since then, until today...

Apparently, this "stuck at bootloader v1.0.0.2" isn't supposed to happen, and maybe isn't harmful??? - but there are at least two of us (me and you...) that are stuck in this GSS116E bootloader twilight zone.  So today, with the explicit guidance of the Netgear technician via Chat, after his researching and hhhhmmm-ing and haaaaa-ing, lots of me waiting, etc. - when there was nothing I could do to get to/force a bootloader update prompt/screen - I was told to update to v1.6.1.7 via the web interface (using Chrome).  The update worked = I now have v1.6.1.7 running, but my bootloader still shows v1.0.0.2.  When trying to go to http://x.x.x.x/loader_upg.htm while running v1.6.1.7, I see the wonderful ERR_EMPTY_RESPONSE stuff - which I also saw when I tried to get to http://x.x.x.x/loader_upg.htm when I was running v1.6.1.3.  So, this is where it stays for now, v1.0.0.2 and v1.6.1.7.

Maybe someday all of the bugs will be out of the GSS116E...

cheesemonkey