RBR50 won't reset or boot

[SteveLivingston]

Hi - my 2yrs 2 month old rbr50 seems to have died (which feels early for what was meant to be a premium bit of kit when I bought it).

It was working fine with the only day 2 day issue being a Win10 laptop which used to get given invalid ip address relatively often. I blamed this on the quality of the work laptop...

Then I needed to enable portforwarding. When I tried to access 192.168.1.1 (or the website equivalent) it would ask for the login details... Then the screen would just remain blank. I then used the orbi mobile app to check if firmware needed updating (it did not). Then I used the orbi mobile app to tell it to reboot.

It never recovered from that reboot.
- The power led goes green.
- No WiFi network shows for any of my devices
- reset pin hole button does nothing (whether held down for 3/10/30 seconds before powering off/after powering off / before and after powering off etc) the power led just stays green throughout.

Any ideas of what else to try? Just seems fully bricked.

Is it possible to use a usb stick to force the reset?

[plemans]

You can try recoving it with tftp or nmrpflash.
are you on windows? if so, follow this guide
https://kb.netgear.com/000059634/How-to-upload-firmware-to-a-NETGEAR-router-using-Windows-TFTP
just make sure you enable tftp
https://www.thewindowsclub.com/enable-tftp-windows-10

and here's a video walk through using a tftp client. Use the built in one for windows 10 though. the video is more of an example of how its done.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9DLrLQrpaw

and if that doesn't work, you can try using nmrpflash
https://github.com/jclehner/nmrpflash

[SteveLivingston]

Thank you - that looks super helpful will try it tonight once the toddler is down to sleep.

[SteveLivingston]

Unfortunately I'm unable to implement any of these solutions - none of the solutions can connect via ethernet to the router. For example nmrpflash just states the ethernet port is unplugged, and windows never discovers a network either (have checked cable and power supply by switching with the satellite).

My best / last hope seems to be the forum response accessing via the serial port on the router motherboard...

https://community.netgear.com/t5/Orbi/Is-my-13-month-old-RBR50-bricked/m-p/2011067#M107505

It sounds like a failed auto update on the firmware could be responsible... Do netgear pick up any responsibility for that?

[plemans]

tough to prove a firmware update killed it based off your description. 

You're welcome to contact support about it but doubt you'll get anywhere. 

To get a hold of support. Click on "MyNetgear" at the top.
Register an account (or login) and then the device.
From there you can start the support process. Keep in mind that its only free for the first 90 days.

Another option is to watch ebay. You see used/renewed rbr50's on there all the time as users buy a kit just for the satellite and resell the router.