R7000 does nit start anymore. LEDs keep blinking

[charli3]

Since this morning I had problems with connecting to my WiFi so I rebooted the router. Unfortunately it doe not come up anymore and the LEDs (almost all) are blinking in a certain pattern.
Maybe firmware is corrupt? Does anybody have any idea how ro solve this? Thanks!

[charli3 · Accepted solution]

Thanks all for your help. I decided to throw my 2 year old router in the garbage can. Netgear will not help me, because it's too old and indeed no TFTP client will help because its stuck in a restart loop.

[charli3]

Extra information: The reset button did nothing. No changing in LED blinking. I also added an animated gif so you see the pattern.

[microchip8]

Your router was most likely set to auto update the firmware and in the process got bricked instead. You should turn that option off once you hopefully recover the router using TFTP

https://kb.netgear.com/000059633/How-to-upload-firmware-to-a-NETGEAR-router-using-TFTP-client

[charli3]

Thank you very much for your answer microchip8! Unfortunately the mac version of the TFTP client I need is outdated and does not work on my laptop with MAC OS 10.15.7 . Any other ideas how I can use TFTP to send the new firmware?

[charli3]

I'm trying to us pumpKIN and that works, but the connectoin to the router is up and down every 2 seconds, because it seems my router is stuck in restarting itself over and over. Because when the power LED is going off and on again my connection seems to drop and connect again. 

Any other idea how I can fix my router?

[microchip8]

It's very hard to recover a router whose stuck in a boot loop. Timing must be precise to the second. Unfortunately, I can't help much as I've never had to debrick a device in boot loop. If you're under warrenty, you may try an RMA

[charli3]

Thanks anyway. I will try Netgear support

[wcalifas]

I'm not familiar with tftp and apple computers. Do you know anyone that can let you borrow a windows computer and use it with tftp2.exe? I've unbricked routers before. Don't know if that one will work since its stuck on a loop.

[antinode]

> [...] Any other ideas how I can use TFTP to send the new firmware?

   Use the command-line TFTP client program which comes with macOS.  You
don't need any third-party TFTP client program.

      https://community.netgear.com/t5/x/x/m-p/1622096#M102004

   But no TFTP client program can solve the problem if the router won't
listen to it.

[charli3 · Accepted solution]

Thanks all for your help. I decided to throw my 2 year old router in the garbage can. Netgear will not help me, because it's too old and indeed no TFTP client will help because its stuck in a restart loop.

[microchip8]

If you want to go with NETGEAR again, I strongly recommend the R7800 which has the least amount of issues and is rock solid. Another brand to consider is the highly respected ASUS routers. The RT-AX58U is in the same price range as the R7800 and definitely has far better firmware