Out of warranty repair/replacement

[SLK-Purdue]

What the story these days on Netgear out-of-warranty repair/replacement on Obri gear.   I know there are cheap options on ebay but that is always buyer beware.  It would be nice if there were a flat fee option.   I have a very bricked Orbi.  Based on debug, the U-Boot image has a problem.  I could likely fix this if there was a Orbi JTAG but that info isn't to be found.   Netgeat must have a way to flash the initial factor image   I can get output from the Qualcomm bootloader so i know the CPU is good but it hangs trying to load U-Boot.  Boot from USB would be an ideal option and Qualcomm chip supports that but I can't find that info either.   

Any thoughts??

[CrimpOn]

---

@SLK-Purdue wrote:

What the story these days on Netgear out-of-warranty repair/replacement on Obri gear.   I know there are cheap options on ebay but that is always buyer beware.  It would be nice if there were a flat fee option.   I have a very bricked Orbi.  Based on debug, the U-Boot image has a problem.  I could likely fix this if there was a Orbi JTAG but that info isn't to be found.   Netgeat must have a way to flash the initial factor image   I can get output from the Qualcomm bootloader so i know the CPU is good but it hangs trying to load U-Boot.  Boot from USB would be an ideal option and Qualcomm chip supports that but I can't find that info either.   

---

I remember seeing a post in the last couple of weeks from someone who found a way to connect to ports on the logic board. I think he said "serial port" (which would imply RS232), but my searches are not finding the post.

[CrimpOn]

Did find this: 

[SLK-Purdue]

Yes, I have the serial port working but I only see output from the pre-Uboot boot loaded from Qualcomm. 

[CrimpOn]

---

@SLK-Purdue wrote:

What the story these days on Netgear out-of-warranty repair/replacement on Obri gear.   I know there are cheap options on ebay but that is always buyer beware.  It would be nice if there were a flat fee option. 

---

I "held my breath" until the used RBR50 arrived from eBay and booted up correctly.  Was a TON less expensive than a new one. (Actually, I am not certain that Netgear even sells the router by itself.)