Bricked Netgear R8500 Solid Amber Light

[michaelkm8]

Hey All,

            Hoping to get some help here.  I have a bricked R8500 and I am trying to reinstall the firmware through the J45 motherboard terminal.  I have the following equipment:

Windows 10 Desktop

USB to TTL Serial Cable - Debug / Console Cable for Raspberry Pi

Netgear R8500 bricked, amber light constant on, reboots, won't factory reset, 30/30/30 doesn't work

I have installed PuTTY and successfully get it to read out the boot process of the R8500.  I did download the CP210x driver that installs and recognizes my Adafruit cable.  So my current issue is that I get the CFE promp after pressing ctrl c, type "nvram erase", then "tftpd", and then it says "Reading::" and doesn't do anything else.  However the amber light starts blinking indicating that it is ready to download firmaware.  I downloaded the TFTP2 program and run it when it gets in this state.  All goes well until half way through the download where the PuTTY console then says "Reading:: Failed: I/O Error", then it goes down a line and says "Reading::" again with the amber light still on.  It keeps doing this no matter how many times I try it.  Can anyone help?

[michaelkm8]

Another picture of the serial hookup.

I am having the same problem as this guy, except mine is getting half way there and saying failed i/o error.

https://community.netgear.com/t5/Nighthawk-WiFi-Routers/R8500-bricked/td-p/1183741/page/5

https://www.adafruit.com/product/954

[michaelkm8]

Here is the PuTTY settings and the LAN settings.

[michaelkm8]

So I stumbled onto the road to a fix.  Using windows cmd prompt I got the router to accept firmware download and I tried three of them.  One kind of worked...  This firmware version, R8500-V1.0.0.42_1.0.23.chk, when installed through the cmd prompt and them issuing the R8500 an "nvram clear" command will actually get the router to stqart up and show up in my network devices.  However I can't get it to connect to the interenet.  All the LED's are white, including the internet and power LED's.  Again though I cannot access the internet.  There are several failures and one line that states "OOPS", not joking, in the PuTTY window, so there are continueing issues.  Anyone have any ideas how to get it the rest of the way to fixed?

[michaelkm8]

So what I did to make the router work thus far is:

- Connect the USB to Serial cable to the router and my computer, green,white,black from left to right.

- Use PuTTY to connct to the router and hit "ctrl + c" to get to the CFE prompt.

- Then in PuTTY send command "tftpd".

- In Windows 10 command promt type "tftp -i 192.168.1.1 PUT R8500-V1.0.0.42_1.0.23.chk " (this is the only firmware that would work).

- Then when it finished downloading in PuTTY I again hit "ctrl + c" to get to the CFE prompt.

In PuTTY typed "nvram erase".

In PuTTY typed "go".

This reset the router and I am actual online with it right now.  However there are major problems.  First, the wireless does not turn on at all and I have no wireless networks that are detectable and the wireless shows off in the genie app.  Also when I turn the router off I have to repeat the "nvram erase" then "go" routine to get it to work again.  I tried to update the firmware in the genie app and it bricked the router again, so i redid all the steps and it worked again.  I have attached om of the text I get in PuTTY when I first installed and ran the router firmware.  There is a lot missing and I am hoping someone can maybe figure our if there is a way to restore it fully?

[michaelkm8]

Router PuTTY text after update.

[michaelkm8]

Left PuTTY open last night to see what the router was thinking and it wrote "Doing nvram commit by pid 19154 !" about 50 times when I checked this morning.  Still working though, but no wifi.  Also I have noticed it keeps saying "w1: w1 driver adapter not found" which I’m thinking is the wifi driver which is why it isn't working.  I've attached a video of the process turning it off and then on, then erasing the nvram to make it work again.  This is blowing my mind what the issue is since I have firmware successfully installed, internet works, but the wifi doesn't, and I can't turn it off.

[michaelkm8]

One other thing, the latest firmware that is on Netgear's site for the R8500 when I load it at the end before it reboots it says "Disabling IRQ #169" a few times which I am assuming means the ethernet port for some reason.  Driving me crazy why won't this work???

[michaelkm8]

OK one more thing I found out when I was reloading the firmware again and again.  If you can't connect to the internet after going to CFE, typing "nvram erase", and then typing "go", you can reboot the router, again, get to the CFE prompt, type "help", find the dump memeory option, I think it's "d", type that then redo the erasing of the nvram and go commands.

BTW I downloaded DD-wrt Kong and it didn't work at all even with these steps.

Does anyone know if I can get a full download of all the initial files that netgear puts in the router before they ship?

[samulel]

Do not use Tftp tool to flash the stock firmware won't work, use Windows or Mac tftp cmd to push the firmware.

[michaelkm8]

If you read the posts I already did that.  In fact I got it flashed and hooked up to the internret, but the wifi ins't working.  Read the last few posts for where I'm at as that advice is not helpful.

[samulel]

My bad,  when you say WiFi isn't working could you brief it?

[michaelkm8]

Thanks man.  Not sure what "brief" means.  Can you clarify for me?  With respect to the "wifi not working" I'll clarify as well.  No wifi networks show up on any devices I have at home, iphone, Galaxy S6, Fire TV, etc., when the router is on and wifi is enable.  All the LED's are on on the antennas and the "Wifi" button is lit as well.  The genie app as well as the router website page shows that the wifi is not on even though it is enabled and the check boxes for enabling them are checked.

[samulel]

Just to confirm is the WiFi status on the Genie Webiste is having red x, even though the "Enable router radio" is been check for all 3 bands?

[michaelkm8]

That is correct.  The wifi shows an "X" to show that it is not working in the genie app.  I went in and check the "enable radio" check box, or whatever it says, for all the bands.  I checked and double checked to make sure I wasn't fouling something up and from going thorugh all the wifi tabs and checking the settings everything is enabled.

[michaelkm8]

I mean in the genie app and the genie website.  I have them both on and check both to see if any discrepancies arise.

[FURRYe38]

Did you happend to load the very first available version of FW for this router from NG support site?

Also do a factory reset after the FW loads?

Is any device getting connected to the router on the wireless and internet access now that you have the router up and running?

[samulel]

Login to your router telnet console and type the cmds,

wl -i eth1 up

wl -i eth2 up

wl -i eth3 up

Check whether the radio's are "ON" ?

[michaelkm8]

I loaded the first FW as well as the latest and they both didn't work.  As you can see from the files I know what I'm doing far and above resets and crap.  I neeed some kind of install files that reinstall whatever has been deleted from the routers memory as it is not recognizing the antennas.  If you look at the PuTTY files I uploaded you can see there are various libraries and drivers that are are not found when booted up.  There are no wifi networkd to connect to.

[michaelkm8]

I will try that when I get back.  FYI when the router first boots up it says "w1: w1 driver adapter not found", so I know the radios aren't getting turned on because the drivers adapters aren't loaded and therefore the commands to turn the radio don't exist in the memory.  Do you know of any fresh install files that I can download to get all files that are apparently not there back?

[FURRYe38]

unless you can get the router working with suggested information. I presume the router is probably corrupted and bricked. NG doesn't give out initial FW files or production files.

Might ask them about a RMA if thats possible however being that you had used 3rd party FW, might not be an option.

[michaelkm8]

OK here's the PuTTY output and it's as I suspected.  The wifi driver adapter is missing.  I think it is in the .lib file that is missing.  Is there a direct command that turns on the radio?

[FURRYe38]

Does upgrading to more recent FW after the initial FW is loaded still work with the router?

Wow thats strange...

[michaelkm8]

I uploaded each firmware from the first (1.0.0.28 initial release) one to the last one (1.0.2.116 current release) in order, one after another, located here.  The only firmware that allows the router to connect to the internet is 1.0.0.28 and 1.0.0.42.  Again only wired as the wifi does not work at all.  When I load 1.0.0.42 and then use the genie app to upgrade to the latest firmware, 1.0.2.116, so skipping all the other ones in between, it bricks the router completely and I have to go back and put 1.0.0.42 back in.

[FURRYe38]

Ok. I wonder if one of the in between versions of FW will keep the router going. Would hate to have to load each one.