RBR50 is not working after firmware upgrade on March 7, 2021

[vipulpatel]

Lost internet connectivity on March 7th.  The RBR50 light was blinking.  Waited close to an hour.  The light was still blinking.  Did some reading on NETGEAR Community about this issue, and as per some recommendations, follwed the steps to do Factory Reset.  On 1st and 2nd attempt, router came back up with same blinking white light.  On 3rd attempt, the router's light stopped blinking after about 5 minutes.  Internet came back up.  Both satelites (RBS50) came back up.  Same SSID and everything, so I am assuming the factory reset did not really reset the router to factory settings.  On the Orbi App, I checked if there was new firmware.  There was one.  But, I decided not to upgrade, as I did not want to take a chance on loosing internet again.  Exactly, 24 hours later the RBR50 is back into blinking white light condition.  It is not coming back online even after over a dozen resets.  Waited minutes and hours after power downs, but still no help.  Went and purchased new Orbi from Costo, with an intension to return it within few days after (hopefully) fixing my RBR50.  Between work from home, kids education online, and all of the entertainment online (streaming), cannot live w/o internet.  I did a lot more reading on NETGEAR Community.  May be I am not finding the right solution/topic.  Any ways, my RBR50 is still down.  I cannot connect to it, even keeping it offline.  Setup:  After multiple resets again today, I connected my laptop via ethernet cable to the ethernet port on RBR50 (not the Internet port, that is highlighted in yellow).  Disabled wireless radio on my laptop.  Powered on RBR50.  Waited 10 minutes.  Still blinking white light and power light solid green.  On a web browser, tried1) http://192.168.1.1, 2) http://orbilogin.com, 3) http://orbilogin.net, and 4) http://10.0.0.1.  It would not connect to the RBR50.  What am I doing wrong?  What can I do differently?  Is my router totally dead?

Also, I tried connecting to one the Satelites (RBS50) from my laptop, by using 1) http://192.168.1.250, and 2) orbilogin.com.  It would not connect.  NOTE:  I have not done factory reset on the Satelites (RBS50s).  Why am I not able to connect to RBS50? 

Any help will be much appreciated.

[FURRYe38]

What Firmware version is currently loaded?
What is the Mfr and model# of the Internet Service Providers modem/ONT the NG router is connected too?

Has a power off for 1 minute then back ON with the ISP modem and Orbi system been performed since last update?

Has a factory reset and setup from scratch been performed since last FW update? 

[vipulpatel]

Firmware:  Since, I cannot connect to RBR50 or RBS50, I am not sure on what exact Firmware version is running on it.  But, after 3rd reset on Sunday (March 7), when it came back up, I remember seeing Firmware version 2.5.something on the details page.  And when I checked, if update was available, it said update was available.  I did not make a note of that firmware version.  I wish I took a screenshot of it.  I did not click on upgrade.  Then I lost internet again, this time it was exactly 24 hours after my successful reset (I think) on March 7.  Since then I am not able to access RBR50 or RBS50s.  I must not be doing it correctly.

I have Verizon FiOS for my internet service.  I checked the Verizon's box, it says Verizon ONT I-211M-L.  I hope this is the Mfr & Model#.  My RBR50 Internet Port is connected to the ONT via ethernet cable.  I have this set up since I purchased Netgear Orbi in Sept 2019.

Has a power off for 1 minute then back ON with the ISP modem and Orbi system been performed since last update?  On the RBR50 my power down durations have been between 1 and 10 minutes, except for one power down, which was close to 3 hours long.

My initial Factory Resets were holding (press) the Reset button between 10 and 30 seconds.  Today, after some reading, here is how I performed the reset.

1) Power on RBR50,

2) Press the Reset button, and keep it pressed for 1 minute and 45 seconds,

3) During this 1 minute and 45 seconds, here is what I did

        a) around 35th second from the time I pressed the Reset button, I powered off the RBR50, by pressing the Power button

        b) around 70th second from the time I pressed the Reset button, I powered on the RBR50, by pressing the Power button

        c) around 105th second from the time I pressed the Reset button, I released the Reset button

Here is what I observed on the power light, during this 105 seconds, and beyond:  During the first 35 seconds (3-a scenario), the power light remained solid green.  During the next 35 seconds (3-b scenario), no power light.  During the last 35 seconds, the RBR50 came up with solid green power light and within 2-3 seconds it turned to solid red power light and about 2-3 seconds from that time, it started blinking and remained red blinking during this period and even after I released the Reset button.  Then I waited few minutes, while it was kept on blinking red.  Then I owered it off, waited for about 2 minutes and powered it back on.  The power light came up solid green and router kept on blinking white light forever.  I connected my laptop to ethernet port.  So, the RBR50 had only two connections.  One power and second laptop.  No connection to Internet and the other two LAN ports.  I have downloaded the Firmware version V2.7.2.104 img file on my laptop that I was manually planning/hoping to upgrade my RBR50 to, if I can connect to it.  But, I cannot connect to the router, through web browser.  😞

Sorry, for too much details.

[FURRYe38]

Ok lets try this, disconnect the RBR from the ONT and disconnect ALL other wired devices from the RBR accept for 1 wired PC or laptop. 
Press the reset button for 15 seconds in back then release. 

The top ring should start blinking WHITE then slowly pulsate WHITE. 

Use IE11 or Edge or Firefox browser to connect to 192.168.1.1 after the top ring is pulsating WHITE. If you can get here, you should be met with a page that says setup using the Orbi app. HOWEVER scroll own to the bottom of this page and select Setup using a web browser if the app is not being used. Which we won't be using. 

This wil start the web page setup wizard. The wizard will say it can't detect a internet connection, do you want the wizard to continue to help with this or you can continue to manually set up the RBR. Select manually setup. Walk thru the wizard and complete it. I supposed you can add the RBS here if you like. Might was well. IF they can be added, then we can check ther FW versions. You don't have to add them now if you don't want to. 

IF you can complete the setup wizard, you should be able to log in to the RBRs web page again at 192.168.1.1 with your new admin password. 

Check the FW version thats loaded. 

IF you can get the RBS updated as well, you can log into there web pages by using the IP address given to them by the RBR seen on the Basic tab/Connected devices page on the RBR. 

Let us know where in this list you got to

[vipulpatel]

First of all @FURRYe38 , I really appreciate your help and prompt responses. 

Like you suggested, I connected my laptop to RBR50, on one of the three LAN ports.  Turned of Wireless radio on my laptop.  Connected power to RBR50, with Power Switch in off position.  I pressed the Power button, to power on the RBR50.  Solid green power light and no light on top ring, solid, blinking or pulsating.  I pressed the Reset button with a pin for good 15-17 seconds and then released it.  No changes in any lights.  Power light remained solid green, and bothing on top ring.

Then I powered off the RBR50 by pressing the Power button.  Left power cable connected to wall and ethernet cable to laptop,  Now, I pressed the Reset button with a pin and then pressed the Power button on RBR50.  Power light started with solid green, turned to solid red within couple seconds and then turned to blinking red couple more seconds later and remained blinking red.  I released the Reset button about 30 seconds from the power light was blinking red.  The power light remained blinking red.  Waiting about two minutes and pressed the power button and pulled the power from wall.  Waited another two minutes and plugged power to wall and then pressed Power button on RBR50.  Power light came up solid green and blinking white light on the top ring.  It is close to 30 minutes now, and the white light is still in blinking state (not pulsating yet).  Laptop does not have IP, when I check by "ipconfig" command on cmd window.  Still tried 192.168.1.1 on Edge.  Not connecting to RBR50, as I thought.

Thanks again!!!

[vipulpatel]

Additional comments ...   This time on RBS50.

After posting previous comments about RBR50, I decided to try RBS50.  I connected RBS50 to laptop via ethernet cable and powered on RBS50.  I have not pressed reset button on any of my RBS50s as of yet.  The RBS50 came up with blinking white light, and then changed to pulsating white light on top ring.  I tried ipconfig, no IP.  Also, tried orbilogin.com, orbilogin.net and 192.168.1.250 on Edge on my PC.  No connection.  And the light on RBS50 top ring changed to solig magenta, about 5 minutes later.

[vipulpatel]

One more update on RBS50.  The top ring light turned to solid magenta, when I was typing the previous message.  After posting the message, and before disconnecting the RBS50, I thought of running "ipconfig" command.  I saw 192.168.1.250 as Default Gateway.  I entered that IP on Edge and connected to my RBS50.  The firmware on it was 2.5.1.16.  I am upgrading to 2.7.2.104.

2 minutes later update completed.

Few minutes later the light turned solid magenta.  But, still no Default Gateway on ipconfig output.

Waited a few minutes before I click on "POST" this time.  Now, I have Default Gateway on ipconfig and I am able to connect to RBS50.  And I see the Firmware is successfully upgraded to 2.7.2.104.  

I will work on 2nd RBS50 now.

I wish I have same luck with RBR50.

[FURRYe38]

Ok, wondering if your RBR is in a bad state, you should be getting a top ring blinking WHITE and pulsating WHITE. IF your not getting a gateway IP address of 192.168.1.1 then the RBR is in a bad state and hopefully you can do this to see if it will recover:

https://kb.netgear.com/000059634/How-to-upload-firmware-to-a-NETGEAR-router-using-Windows-TFTP
Need to press the reset button for 30 seconds then release, then it send to PUT the command and upload the FW. 
I had a problem on a Windows 10 PC where this didn't work to use TFTP, so I switched to a WIndows 7 PC and the TFTP worked.

Others have had luck with this app when tftp didn't work
https://github.com/jclehner/nmrpflash

[vipulpatel]

Thanks!  Let me try that tonight and post the results. 

With regards to the 2nd RBS50, strangly it was already upgraded to 2.7.2.104.  So, before things went south with my system, one of the RBS50s was successfully upgraded, and the other was not.  And I have no clue what FW is on RBR50.  Like you said, it is in some bad state. 

Thanks again for all your help!!!

[vipulpatel]

I followed the instructions step-by-step.  The output of the tftp on my PC says "Transfer Successful:  45353089 bytes in 31 second(s), 1463002 bytes/s"

After I pressed "Enter" for the tftp command, there was no power light on RBR50, for about a few seconds.  A few seconds later solid green light came up.  Then a minute or two later the light blinked red for may be a second or so and turned back solid green.  The top ring is just blinking white.  It is close to 30 minutes now and still it is blinking white and not turning to pulsating or to any other color.  I do not know how long I shall wait on this, before thinking of any other step.

BTW, I executed the tftp from my Windows 10 PC.  Since it said that the transfer was successful, there may not be a need for me to try Windows 7 PC.  Right? 

[FURRYe38]

Ya, I believe the RBR should have rebooted. I guess you can try to power OFF the RBR for 15 seconds then back ON. See what happes with the top ring status...

[vipulpatel]

No luck!  The light on the ring remains in blinking state only. 

Here is what I observed.  And I did the boot (Power OFF and ON twice) and noticed same thing.  I waited for over 15 minutes before doing the 2nd Power OFF and ON event.

Here is what I observed both times.  The power-light came up solid green, as soon as I press the Power button to ON position.  About 30 seconds after Power ON, the power-light flashed red 5 times and went back to solid green.  Is there any meaning of this 5 red flashes?

I read on another post where you mentioned about different TFTP Client and people may have gotten different results.  Is there a link to the TFTP client that you can share with me?  I am not sure, if it is worth trying.  Thanks!

[FURRYe38]

https://github.com/jclehner/nmrpflash

[vipulpatel]

Thanks a bunch!  You have been extremely helpful.  I will try this tomorrow, and post the results.

If I may ask a separate quesiton.  How may I disable Auto Firmware Update on Orbi, if you know by any chance?  Thanks again!

[FURRYe38]

Cant be officially.

Can try these:

https://community.netgear.com/t5/Orbi/Orbi-Router-Auto-Firmware-Update-Switch/m-p/1745889/highlight/...
https://community.netgear.com/t5/Orbi/Orbi-Router-Auto-Firmware-Update-Switch/m-p/1743269#M60404
https://community.netgear.com/t5/Orbi/New-Orbi-RBR50-RBS50-Firmware-Version-2-3-1-48/m-p/1739568/hig...
https://community.netgear.com/t5/Orbi/ORBI-RBK50-RBS50-Tips-Tricks-Hidden-Secrets-etc/m-p/1811834/hi...

https://community.netgear.com/t5/Orbi/FIX-Orbi-Firmware-2-2-1-210-Performance-Issues/m-p/1695500/hig...