Assistance with R8300 boot loop recovery

[ArktiK]

Hello, all!

I have here next to me a non-functional R8300 which was taken out of the box for the first time about a week ago. Indeed it is well out of warranty at this point. But I digress...

Upon updating the firmware to the most recent release, it has stopped functioning entirely. Even going back to the original firmware has caused it to boot loop.

I've tried every possible solution I could find, such as:

• 30/30/30
• nvram erase && reboot
• nvram erase then tftpd (succeeds, however remains in a bootloop no matter the firmware version from oldest to newest)
• nmrpflash tool (same results as tftpd method)
• Instructions by @peter11742 located here

Notes:

1. nvram get board_id shows "U12H334T00_NETGEAR", though the actual PCB shows "U12H335T99" (have not tried burnboardid to correct it, should I?)
2. When halting the boot sequence with CTRL+C (CFE), then issuing the go command, I'm able to get into the BusyBox console (yay?)
3. Please see here for PuTTY output
4. ...will add more if I remember/come across any...

Needless to say, I've developed quite the headache during this journey.

If you require more information, please let me know. Thanks in advance!

[ArktiK]

Alright, not quite sure how I did it, but loading R8300 firmware version 1.0.2.128 via nmrpflash has allowed me to finally reach the configuration page (no more boot loop!)... But, truth-be-told, I'm scared to reboot and/or update to the latest firmware!