FVX538 - Broken ... anyone know where to get replacement motherboard?
Not sure of Hardware version. Bought two of these FVX538 routers a 10 years ago ... was told they were Version 2. Label on bottom of case says Version 2.
But, neither worked reliably with most recent firmware images ... only with version 3.05 - 28.4 (highest version recommended for Hardware Version 1) AND ... I just opened up the case of the router that failed and found the motherboard is a Version A1.
But, if there is a replacement motherboard with the most recent hardware version available I would like to find the selling price & total cost to have it shipped to me.
Does anyone know if there are parts availalbe for older Netgear products?
Re: FVX538 - Broken ... anyone know where to get replacement motherboard?
Hello BPR,
Welcome to the community!
As far as I know we do not sell parts unless they are considered as accessories (SFP modules, antennas, etc.). We do not sell these internals parts and we do not recommend opening the unit since it will void the lifetime warranty of the unit. If ever there are parts being sold, they are from refurbished or used units.
Re: FVX538 - Broken ... anyone know where to get replacement motherboard?
Thank you JohnRo!
Warranty ... ah, well these are refurbished units with a 30 day warranty ... bought sometime around 2006.
One still works, but the second one stopped working a year or two ago. I opened it up to see if there was anything that I might be able to do to fix it. Looks like only two easily replaceable parts ... the Power supply (still good) and the PC board ... which I probably can't get now. But, maybe someone else has one with a broken Power supply?
I'll wait to see if anything can be done to fix it ... and throw it out if it looks like it can't be fixed ... in a few more weeks. 🙂
Re: FVX538 - Broken ... anyone know where to get replacement motherboard?
Hi BPR,
You're welcome! I see what you mean. 🙂 Hopefully, someone still has them, we don't manufacture this model anymore. It's a good router with a few extra ports for WAN and LAN and a console too. I saw a few units still being sold on Ebay, but I'd just recommend to get a new one with a full warranty.
If ever you decide to replace the old FVX538 and check on the NETGEAR ProSAFE VPN Firewall Routers available in the market today, let me just share you the data sheet here. It shows the specifications and comparison of the FVS318Gv2, FVS336Gv3, SRX5308 and FVS318N.
Re: FVX538 - Broken ... anyone know where to get replacement motherboard?
I will wait for a few months to see if I can find a replacement motherboard.
I don't need anymore routers now ... have several hundred sitting on the shelf.
I already have a few dozen FVS318's ... mostly model 1's ... a few model 2's and two Model 3's ... I don't think any of these will be able to cope with the WAN<>NAT data rate requirements that I'm seeing now.
I also have a few dozen FVS124G's but they seem to restrict the WAN<>NAT throughput to less than 15Mb and aren't really usable on most Highspeed ISP connections anymore.
But, I do like the simplicity of the FVX538 and would like to see if I can recover it. It does seem to be able to process WAN<>NAT traffic faster than a 40Mb ISP connection ... not sure how fast it can go yet though.
Re: FVX538 - Broken ... anyone know where to get replacement motherboard?
I never got more than 12Mb out of our 124G, so you're doing good with 15 if you can get that much. I think your best bet is to search online to see if someone has a 538 for sale. It won't be expensive considering how old it is. It's amazing how much some of the older units can do--we were pushing over 40Mbps through a FVS114 without a problem for years!
