Force RBR50 to TFTP for un-brick?

[SLK-Purdue]

I purchased a cheap broken RBR50 on ebay to get some replacement plastic parts.   Got the parts I wanted and now I want to play a bit.  Orbi has pulsing white LEDs and solid green power LED.   No other obvious signs of life.   Feels like bricked firmware.   Is there a jumper that will force TFTP reload?   I have tried 30-30-30.   See pictures attached if you haven't taken you Orbi apart.   MONSTER heatsink have been removed.   Thanks

[SLK-Purdue]

Second side picture attached

[FURRYe38]

Does this work any? 

https://kb.netgear.com/000059633/How-to-upload-firmware-to-a-NETGEAR-router-using-TFTP-client

[SLK-Purdue]

That doesn't work.  I can't get an amber LED.   Tried even without amber and no joy.  Also tried 30-30-30.

Scott

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@FURRYe38 wrote:

Does this work any? 

https://kb.netgear.com/000059633/How-to-upload-firmware-to-a-NETGEAR-router-using-TFTP-client

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[SLK-Purdue]

There has to be a way to load this thing with a bootloader.  Most router have a JTAG or serial interface to get an initial image before any flash is formatted.   I have done this with other hardware so I have the tools.  The Orbi board doesn't have an markings that give a clue where that interface might be.  There is one header marked TP1/JP901that looks interesting.  NETGEAR - sure could use a clue here!!  Please!!

Scott

[CrimpOn]

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@SLK-Purdue wrote:

Orbi has pulsing white LEDs and solid green power LED.   No other obvious signs of life.   Feels like bricked firmware.   Is there a jumper that will force TFTP reload?   I have tried 30-30-30.

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I had to TFTP firmware recently because I bricked my spare Orbi and remember that it was not as easy as it should have been.  Did you try the TFTP without "seeing amber"?  There was a comment on the forum in the past 2-3 weeks claiming that the TFTP should start immediately, rather than waiting for 10 flashes like the directions say.

[pbarham]

Did you ever solve this?  I'm in the same state.  My firmware image is corrupt after a power outage - the RBR50 has an invalid hardware ID and, on the rare occasions it boots enough to bring up a wired LAN port, the web management interface is very badly broken (with lots of missing images/text - and shows me that it has disabled WIFI, a bogus SSID and doesn't know what kind of hardware it is!). 

I can just about struggle most of the way through selecting and uploading a firmare image (by clicking on 'invisible' buttons) and then I get a 404 when it tries to 'validate' the image.

If I could cause it to TFTP boot I could maybe rescue this situation, otherwise I have $500 of paperweights.

Also tried the nmrpflash utility too but it apparently won't do anything if the router isn't stuck in the bootloader.  (not sure if it even works with the RBR50!)

[SLK-Purdue]

Sorry. Never found a solution.  I know there has to be a way since Netgear has to be able to program new units. Just couldn't find it. 

[pbarham]

PS  I agree that those test points and jumpers look likely suspects, especially since there are also a bunch of silk sreen labesl for SPI NAND and MMC right next door which are all flash related. 

But I would hesitate to randomly play around without some pointers from a Netgear HW dev.  Since there are SO many bricked Orbi routers around (just look at eBay!) I'm amazed that this info isn't available.  (It's almost like there is some financial incentive not to make these things fixable by end users)

[pbarham]

Oh.... just came across this post which looks very interesting: https://community.netgear.com/t5/Orbi/Orbi-RBR50-seems-stuck-in-boot-loop/m-p/1948614/highlight/true...

Somethign to investigate tomorrow.

[SLK-Purdue]

If you can get into U-Boot, there are lots of options and you can almost certainly de-brick the router using the internal serial port.   I have attached info on that.   In my case, the U-Boot in flash got corrupted.   I want to reprogram flash in some way to clean up the corrupt U-Boot.

Scott