M4300-12X12F stuck in U-Boot (not first owner) - possible hints?
Hi
I got a used M4300 switch for personal labbing - meaning I'm not eligible for the lifetime warranty anyway. Unfortunately one heatsink came lose in transport which could be fixed by replacing the thermal adhesive. However the switch remains stuck in U-Boot and spits out testing patterns, never reaching the Netgear boot menu (the one that could be used to reset the password).
I unfortunately expect that either the switch had an issue before shipping, or that the lose heatsink may have damaged components or traces on the board (not revealed by visual inspection).
Hints what the issue might be, based on the attached output from the serial console?
It doesn't seem that variant of U-boot used by Netgear permits entering a menu by hitting escape as some flavours do. The version and build date indicate that the switch was likely running an older firmware since AFAIK current releases show a more recent build date the last time I checked.
Any pointer would be appreciated, maybe there is still a slim chance that the firmware could be re-transferred to the flash memory via i.e. XMODEM?
I think that the chances are rather slim at that point, but nonetheless any ideas would appreciated to salvage this switch.
