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R7000 Nighthawk Won't factory reset

xjjeep96
Tutor

R7000 Nighthawk Won't factory reset

Have hit reset several times...cycles through but comes right back up connected to the internet, and password/login hasn't been reset to default admin/password....any suggestions?

Message 1 of 12

Accepted Solutions
970222
Guide

Re: R7000 Nighthawk Won't factory reset

 
@michaelkenwa

I fixed the issue; please see the thread above (now, rejected. So, writting again below) Thanks for your quick response. The TFTP2 came from and KB by netgear: https://kb.netgear.com/22688/How-to-upload-firmware-to-a-NETGEAR-router-using-TFTP

 

 

Here is the the fix and details on  what happened: 

 

  1. After clicking on “A router firmware upgrade is available” and flushing with new firmware, my router didn’t work anymore. As I stated earlier, only ‘blinking white’ light were showing.
  2. I tried doing factory reset, and didn’t work.
  3. Then followed this instruction: https://kb.netgear.com/22688/How-to-upload-firmware-to-a-NETGEAR-router-using-TFTPto flush the firmware. It didn’t work.
  4. I called the customer service and spent about an hour, trying different things they suggested, and nothing worked. It was a mixed experience. While, the technical support representative were nice and tried what she could do to help me and my router was out of warranty, she didn’t offer anything that I couldn’t find in goggle. At then end, when she failed she said sorry and that was it. I know the router was out of warranty and they were not going to do anything about it. However, I think they should take more responsibility for failed update for a $200 router.
  5. So, after asking technical support representation told me that the $200 device is now a piece of brick and I already spent 2+ hours to fix it, I decided to give up and start driving to Costco/BestBuy to get an new router (obviously not a NetGear). Before, I give up, I sent this message as a last resort, and tried one final thing.
  6. I followed: https://community.netgear.com/t5/Nighthawk-WiFi-Routers/SOLVED-Steps-for-debrick-unresponsive-R7000-... with some Tweak,

 

            Note: the guide has a mistake and use windows tftp not as the KB suggested by NeatGear.

           

            & the correct command will be:

            tftp -i 192.168.1.1 put firmware.chk (-i was missing form the instruction)

 

This did the trick, and I was able to use the router again.  

I hope this is help someone else save 3 hours of different trial and error.

 

Thanks

View solution in original post

Message 11 of 12

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xjjeep96
Tutor

Re: R7000 Nighthawk Won't factory reset

already have...several times....idk what else to do...i've always used netgear, thinking i may have to switch to linksys, or belkin. never had so much trouble with a netgear, quality seems to be in question when something as small as a factory reset won't work. very frustrated right now. 😕

Message 2 of 12
rogier64
Luminary

Re: R7000 Nighthawk Won't factory reset

Power up your router and let it boot. Press and hold the reset button on the back of the router until the power led starts blinking orange. You should notice a click by pressing the reset button.

Message 3 of 12
xjjeep96
Tutor

Re: R7000 Nighthawk Won't factory reset

already have...several times to no avail. still won't reset back to original settings.

Message 4 of 12
antinode
Guru

Re: R7000 Nighthawk Won't factory reset

> [...] still won't reset back to original settings.

   Have you tried a full ("factory") reset with nothing connected to the
router (except its power adapter)?

   If nothing else works to reset it, then you may be left with the
last-ditch/emergency TFTP recovery scheme:

      https://kb.netgear.com/22688/

   I know nothing, but some reports here suggest that, on Windows, the
built-in command-line TFTP client works better than the "tftp2.exe"
program shown there.

Message 5 of 12

Re: R7000 Nighthawk Won't factory reset

Then there's this trick:

 

  • Press reset for 30 seconds
  • Keep pressing reset while removing power
  • Keep pressing reset for another 30 seconds while apply power

 

Message 6 of 12
970222
Guide

Re: R7000 Nighthawk Won't factory reset

I tried all these things (tftp2, 30,30,30 reset, etc) and I can't get to reset the router. The power light is "bliking white". Any other suggestion? or is this a $200 brick now? (out of warrenty)

Model: R7000|Nighthawk AC1900 Dual Band WiFi Router
Message 7 of 12

Re: R7000 Nighthawk Won't factory reset


@970222 wrote:

The power light is "bliking white".

 


A bli[n]king white power light can be a sign that you are in recovery mode.

 

tftp (where did the 2 come from?) is notoriously hard to get right.

 

How are you going about that?

 

As a newcomer to this discussion, and the forum (welcome to the funny farm), you might like to tell us a bit more about what you have done and what happened.

 

 

Message 8 of 12
IrvSp
Master

Re: R7000 Nighthawk Won't factory reset

Not clear on this one at all? Sounds like one initial problem, resetting router did NOT put the UID and P/W back to default values... and now has done a myriad of things and it really having a blinking white LED problem?

 

I know at 'one time' doing the reset DID erase the UID and P/W and put it back to default. This was some time ago on much older firmware. I also know that when I tried less than a year ago this did NOT happen. Entered UID and P/W remained.

 

Suspect this would have been a change in the firmware at some point?

Message 9 of 12
Blanca_O
NETGEAR Moderator

Re: R7000 Nighthawk Won't factory reset

Hi 970222, 

 

Contact support to better isolate the issue for possible hardware problem.

 

Regards, 
Blanca 
Community Team 

Message 10 of 12
970222
Guide

Re: R7000 Nighthawk Won't factory reset

 
@michaelkenwa

I fixed the issue; please see the thread above (now, rejected. So, writting again below) Thanks for your quick response. The TFTP2 came from and KB by netgear: https://kb.netgear.com/22688/How-to-upload-firmware-to-a-NETGEAR-router-using-TFTP

 

 

Here is the the fix and details on  what happened: 

 

  1. After clicking on “A router firmware upgrade is available” and flushing with new firmware, my router didn’t work anymore. As I stated earlier, only ‘blinking white’ light were showing.
  2. I tried doing factory reset, and didn’t work.
  3. Then followed this instruction: https://kb.netgear.com/22688/How-to-upload-firmware-to-a-NETGEAR-router-using-TFTPto flush the firmware. It didn’t work.
  4. I called the customer service and spent about an hour, trying different things they suggested, and nothing worked. It was a mixed experience. While, the technical support representative were nice and tried what she could do to help me and my router was out of warranty, she didn’t offer anything that I couldn’t find in goggle. At then end, when she failed she said sorry and that was it. I know the router was out of warranty and they were not going to do anything about it. However, I think they should take more responsibility for failed update for a $200 router.
  5. So, after asking technical support representation told me that the $200 device is now a piece of brick and I already spent 2+ hours to fix it, I decided to give up and start driving to Costco/BestBuy to get an new router (obviously not a NetGear). Before, I give up, I sent this message as a last resort, and tried one final thing.
  6. I followed: https://community.netgear.com/t5/Nighthawk-WiFi-Routers/SOLVED-Steps-for-debrick-unresponsive-R7000-... with some Tweak,

 

            Note: the guide has a mistake and use windows tftp not as the KB suggested by NeatGear.

           

            & the correct command will be:

            tftp -i 192.168.1.1 put firmware.chk (-i was missing form the instruction)

 

This did the trick, and I was able to use the router again.  

I hope this is help someone else save 3 hours of different trial and error.

 

Thanks

Message 11 of 12
Blanca_O
NETGEAR Moderator

Re: R7000 Nighthawk Won't factory reset

Hi 970222, 

 

Glad to hear that you got it working. 

 

Regards, 
Blanca 
Community Team
 

Message 12 of 12
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