R7000 Softbricked - Unable to ping or connect

You shouldn't need to solder anything to attach a USB TTL device.

I find working out how to get the top off a router is usually more difficult than getting the serial connection working.

And then there's finding instructions on how to upload the firmware once you get a prompt, this is often different device to device, hopefully it's the same for all the Netgear devices.

See:

https://www.myopenrouter.com/article/how-set-serial-console-netgear-r7000-nighthawk-wi-fi-router

for some pictures of what is needed, of course you need to get a USB TTL cable or device and work out how to use it.

Assuming that the Netgear instructions are correct and the R7000 does provide tftp upload early in the boot process it can still be quite difficult to catch the brief time it listens for a connection.

You could try opening a two terminal windows, get the tftp command ready in one (or have the tftp application ready to click the start button) and in the other run an extended ping (assuming windows use some largish number, eg. -n 100) so it doesn't stop while your trying to work out when to initiate tftp of the firmware. Then remove the power from the router for a little while and plug in back in and as soon as the ping to 192.168.1.1 (pretty sure that will be the IP address) gets a valid reply initiate the tftp.

The problem might be that the oppertunity to initiate a tftp upload is already gone between the time you plugged in the power and the time you tried the tftp, it's only possible for a brief time before the router continues to try and boot up.

Ian