Nighthawk cannot factory reset after firmware update and reboot

[island_dave]

Hi everyone,

Having an issue - did a firmware update on Mar 11, 2018 to latest version. It loaded fine and rebooted the router - then router would only boot until power light flashes amber - and does this forever. No amount of reset button pressing (30/30/30 and every other combination with and without unplugging power, etc) seems to get you anywhere other than back to flashing amber. If you do hold the reset it can get to a point of continuously rebooting, flashing all lights a few times, then solid amber, then back to rebooting, etc. - and anytime you let go of reset it eventually goes back to flashing amber again. Seems there is no way out of this.

While it flashes amber, you can connect on LAN and ping 192.168.1.1 and get a reply. I have attempted to force firmware with TFTP2.exe program - but it endlessly retires - probably because with flashing amber light it is locked and won't take a firmware load.
Was working fine up until latest firmware flash - so this is entirely on Netgear - but warranty ran out in Nov 2017 - nice for such an expensive unit!

Any help on forcing a factory reset so I can break out of the flashing amber cycle long enough to force firmware?
Many thanks everyone!

Cheers,

Dave

[island_dave · Accepted solution]

Hi and thanks for the quick reply!

I have read so many threads and done so many things - only one worked just now so thought I would share the good news.

Solution was to connect via LAN with a Win10 laptop set at 192.168.1.10, subnet 255.255.255.0 and default gateway 192.168.1.1. 
From command line, set it to ping -t 192.168.1.1   - and reboot router. Make sure all is pinging fine and wait about 2-3 minutes. At this point, as with every other reboot - power light flashes amber as always.

Now, instead of using the TFTP2.exe software as per Netgear article (which did not ever work), I did the following:

In win10, control panel, add windows features - i added/installed TFTP (this is an OS component, not a third party program).
Once installed, I opened a Command Prompt with administrator rights.

I ran the following command: 

tftp -i 192.168.1.1 put R8000-V1.0.3.4_1.1.2.chk

(change the firmware file name to match the latest you downloaded and unzipped)

This then said transfer successful - and while it was doing it I noticed the power light stopped flashing and stayed solid amber (for the first time so knew something different happening). Router then rebooted a few times and I just left it until a few minutes later when all was up as normal, all lights regular color, and we were back to factory settings!!

Hope this helps!

Dave

[FURRYe38]

Try this process:

https://kb.netgear.com/22688/How-to-upload-firmware-to-a-NETGEAR-router-using-TFTP

I presume if this fails then I would contact @ChristineT and see if she can help you. There was one other that experience similar issue in recent FW udpate. 

I recommend using IE11 or FF browsers when upgrading FW as well. Seem chrome cause problems here and there. 

[island_dave · Accepted solution]

Hi and thanks for the quick reply!

I have read so many threads and done so many things - only one worked just now so thought I would share the good news.

Solution was to connect via LAN with a Win10 laptop set at 192.168.1.10, subnet 255.255.255.0 and default gateway 192.168.1.1. 
From command line, set it to ping -t 192.168.1.1   - and reboot router. Make sure all is pinging fine and wait about 2-3 minutes. At this point, as with every other reboot - power light flashes amber as always.

Now, instead of using the TFTP2.exe software as per Netgear article (which did not ever work), I did the following:

In win10, control panel, add windows features - i added/installed TFTP (this is an OS component, not a third party program).
Once installed, I opened a Command Prompt with administrator rights.

I ran the following command: 

tftp -i 192.168.1.1 put R8000-V1.0.3.4_1.1.2.chk

(change the firmware file name to match the latest you downloaded and unzipped)

This then said transfer successful - and while it was doing it I noticed the power light stopped flashing and stayed solid amber (for the first time so knew something different happening). Router then rebooted a few times and I just left it until a few minutes later when all was up as normal, all lights regular color, and we were back to factory settings!!

Hope this helps!

Dave

[FURRYe38]

Glad you got it working. 

Maybe that article could be updated to include Windows 10 information. 

Thanks for letting us know. Glad it's working again. 

Enjoy.